Its important that you start your cycling trip early. The first rays of the morning light make up for just the perfect timing. But we started a little late that day. Suraj was burning the midnight oil last friday doing god knows what!So we met at Balaju Bye-Pass at around 7:45 and off we rode. It was first day for Aswish, who I believed to pull us back a little, but little did I know - I would live to envy his stamina!
Reaching Mudku was no fancy no more. It was like reaching the bus-stop before you start off your journey. We sat for a cup of tea, some boiled eggs and marinated grams... and off we went inside the Nagarjun doors and up the hill. The hill was pretty steep on the beginning and had us demotivated already. Just up two corners and I jumped off my bike and started pushing it instead. The incline was pretty steep - trust me. But not for long.
Just as the 5 minute incline was over, the trip introduced us to some fantastic wodden trails with mystic sounds whistling through the tree leaves while the fresh air felt better than... well... anything!
It was not too steep, it was n
ot too hard. Nothing 'technical' really, and extremely good trail if you have a fling for the beatific nature-curves. Not to mention the occasional natural water springs that you would come across every once in a while and want to linger around for some cool pictures. The trail got better till we left the woods and did some serious down-hill riding while the seat post hurt my butt and the suspension was not good enough to cushion my wrist from the stony bumps.
As we came close to Lama Gaun (where we sat for
some food again, at around 10:30 AM), the massive uphill got the best of us and had poor Amit tired off the most. These are the times where it hurts the most to be on the heavier side...
What I would like to mention here is that the curving road had a shortcut but we miss
ed to see it as we were too busy climbing the track huffing and puffing. Had we taken the shortcut, it would have saved us some good 20 minutes climbing up. We should be more careful looking for uphill shortcuts in the future. Specially if we ain't riding and just climbing.
One more point to remember. DO NOT START OFF AFTER EATING. TA
KE SOME GOOD REST AFTER YOU EAT, BEFORE YOU START AGAIN. Boy, have I been hurt in previous occasions for starting t
o ride just a few minutes after food. From next time on, we're taking some nutri bars instead of having noodles and eggs.
The rest of the way till Dhading - Bhanjyang Pokhari was uphill. Painful, dusty and dominating uphill route. Amit was left behind big time, and had us panic as well, as the cell phone didn't work in that region, and the woods blocked our views to see if was close by or not. or if he was in trouble. Plan for next trip - we'll stray in a closed loop where the first and the last one will be conscious to keep all else within a loop. trouble in long routes could turn up to be a serious one if we get reckless.
All the while though, the route was off track, off the city chaos, and it never felt for once during the ride that we were not much far off the Kathmandu Metropolitan. The air was fresh and the ground was peaceful. All in all a perfe
ct route for a hike or a cycling trip of aprox. 5 hours (for us at least!
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