The HX4 trip log
Some of my best memories so far have been on my bike. The HX4 was a valuable addition to that list. A six day ride into the interiors of Himachal, pristine surroundings, breathtaking views, un-crowded places, no traffic on the roads...well, could we ask for more? More so, we had our bikes to travel to these places.
The HX-4 is the fourth in series of rides called the Himachal Explorers (HX for short). When I had joined xbhp towards the end of last year, the HX-3 had just finished and the review was one of the first articles I read on the site. I was just hoping and praying that there would be another trip in the not too distant future. I didn't have to wait for long... the announcement came towards the beginning of December, and I jumped on to it for all it was worth. I think I was the first guy who was 100% sure of riding along.
The trip was initially planned out for 20 people, with the condition that if the nominations exceeded 20, then certain criteria would be applied to select the 20 riders. I was watching that poll every day, just hoping that the number would not be more than 20. It almost did - it stopped with 17 riders saying they were coming along for sure.
The pre-ride happened in December and the routes and approximate costs were posted on a new thread. The question was posed - Will you be in for sure given these conditions? 12 people responded – I did too... and that's when I knew that I got confirmed on the trip. We finally ended up with a total of 9 people who would be riding for sure. Things moved into high gear now... I got my (well deserved...he he...) leaves confirmed and then started to actually look forward to the trip.
“Are you mad??” – That was the first thing I heard from many people when I told them about the trip. I hadn’t mentioned anything about this till I got confirmed. I didn’t bother myself to convince people…having seen the pics from the HX-3 and the pre-ride, I knew that this was going to be a trip of a lifetime – I had no idea if I could get an opportunity to something like this again.
One of the big unknowns of this trip was the question of getting my bike to Delhi and back on the train. Many inquires were made and the details started trickling in slowly; things were becoming clearer and clearer by the day. I got my tickets booked two weeks before the actual trip started – as luck would have it, I got confirmed tickets both ways. This was the first good sign that the trip was going to be something amazing. The remaining days at work was then ablaze with activity, setting things up, making sure work was take care of etc – I wrapped up pretty late that Friday night….but hey, that didn’t bother me…how many times can you say – “I’m leaving for a vacation on a Monday morning!”. I got a reply for that one – “try to come back alive…!”
The weekend was again very hectic. I hadn’t packed anything, so I had to figure out what to shop for before actually heading out. Spent the whole of Saturday evening shopping and ended it up with a nice dinner at terrace bay! Sunday was not less hectic – took the bike to the station and got it packed and booked on to the train. The next day was going to start really early – at around 4:30 in the morning.
Jan 22nd, 2007
I had to go to the Nampally station because that was the starting point of the train. That meant an extra 20 min to drive in the morning. The plan was to get to the station at around 5:30 in the morning, and make sure that my bike was loaded on to the train. When I got there, the train was already on the platform and my bike was nowhere visible. With a slight frown, I started to walk towards the luggage van, at the end of the train. When I reached there, to my surprise, I saw the bike was sitting inside. I had heard a lot about getting this part done – about how I needed to run around them, bribing people a bit. My second good sign that the trip would be pretty good.
The company in the train was very boring. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any books along with me so I was just sitting around and watching the Monday morning come to Hyderabad. I wondered about the millions who would be waking up with the thought of getting to work and here I was, on my vacation at last! After breakfast, I had my iPod for company and it was a good time to dive deep into my music collection. I just didn’t have sufficient time to listen to my collection at all.
At around 11 in the morning, I messaged Arun and found out that he had arrived safely at Delhi along with the bike. So, the first of the non-locals was already there. He was pretty exhausted from his almost two day train journey from Chennai. I also confirmed that the guys would be receiving me at the station the next day. Lunch arrived; I gulped it down and went off to sleep.
When I woke up, I found out that one of the ear buds was not working…Delhi was still around 16 hours away and I had lost the use of my iPod. Oh man…! It would be really boring from here on…!
Jan 23rd, 2007
I never sleep well on trains. I woke up really early and went and stood at the door. The air was ice cold and refreshing - a definite sign of how the next week would be like. Delhi arrived a few hours after the sunlight arrived and that’s when money started flowing out of my purse…!
Getting the bike out of the station was one of the sore parts of the trip. People had to be bribed left, right and center to get my bike out. Going through this, I knew that this part of the trip would be much more difficult on the way back. Bunny and Arun arrived at the station and we got my bike out. My bike started on the third or the fourth kick…a short test ride confirmed that everything was in the green. My bike was raring to go…!
It was at that precise moment Arun told that his bike was in no mood to go for the ride. As he explained, it was very evident that he was running a very serious issue. The bike would run properly at high speeds, but once he got it down to lower gears, the engine would turn off abruptly. Within the city, this was inconsequential – one could pull over to the side, start the bike up and just go on. But when you are climbing up a steep incline, the engine shutting off when you were climbing was a sure-fire way of crashing out. We decided that we would not start till the problem was fixed. The bike was deposited at the service station and we went towards karol bagh looking for bungee cords to tie our luggage with. We stopped for a quick brunch – makki ki roti and sarson ka saag and then went back to the hotel to catch up on some rest. We had to head back to the service station at around 5:30 in the evening. When we got there, we were in for a surprise…!
Yeah… we were sure surprised. Arun went for a test ride and declared that the problem was still there. It was around 6:30 in the evening, the ride was starting in less than 12 hours and the shop was closing in another 10 min. We then talked to the manager of the station who then put the best mechanic present to work. What was initially suspected to be a problem with the carburetor was ruled out and isolated to the bike’s electrical system. This was our worst nightmare, for locating the problem required hours of troubleshooting. A decision had to be taken then – the start of the ride was moved from 7 in the morning to 10. We requested the manager and he agreed to get someone in early in the morning to fix the bike. We went back to the hotel, parked my bike and went to explore Delhi by night. First thing, we rode the Delhi metro…and we were awe struck as we would constantly be for the next few days.
The Delhi metro is run by a private company, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). When we entered, the stations were spotlessly clean – for a change. The trains were punctual – not to the minute, but to the very second. If the train was expected at 8:04 PM, the train would pull in and stop at the exact moment the clock ticked 8:04. Although our ride lasted for only a few minutes, we were in awe of it. It definitely surpasses or at least equals most of the mass transit systems anywhere in the world. We strolled around Connaught place for some time and then got back to the hotel after we got some dinner. The next day would be quite interesting…we had a lot to watch out for!
Jan 24, 2007 – Day1 of the HX-4
We reached the service station early in the morning and got in with the mechanic. Since we were running short of time, we decided to go with the quick solution – replace all the parts involved. So, in went a new CDI unit, a starter plate and a complete wiring harness. With all that done, we were ready…at last, we were ready to leave – six hours behind schedule.
We all met at the Karnal bypass at around noon. That is where the five of us met for the first time. We were -
For the records the first day was planned to be Delhi – Ambala – Chintpurni. The moment we met on the bypass, all plans went up in smoke. It was something I’d experienced a year before. We planned to reach Chandigarh for lunch. Off we rode on the NH-1, on really fantastic tarmac. We stopped at a small dhaba for lunch. These small roadside dhabas have their own charm. The food is simply delicious and we ate like wolves. After that fabulous lunch, it was…well, it was time to hit the maps again. When we started from Delhi, we thought we would go towards Chandigarh, but there was no time to do that. We decided to head to Shimla directly. We started up and headed up towards NH-22 and Kalka. That would be our first encounter with the Himalayas. That is where the climb toward Shimla would start.
We reached Kalka at around 5:45 in the evening. Time to stop and have a quick break – and we found just the place for it. A small shack overlooking the first valley we climbed. The view was awesome and we were just enjoying the breathtaking views there. Everyone was forgetting something – time was running out, it was getting dark. I distinctively remember Bunny saying – “It’s easy climbing the hills at night – you can see the light from the headlamps of the oncoming vehicles and hence you always knew well in advance that someone was around the hairpin”. We discovered it was really like that – in fact, it was a little more than we expected.
We started the climb as the sun dipped below the hills. It was dark, and for a first time rider like me, it was pretty scary. Before I left on the trip, I had done some research online to find out the correct technique for taking corners. According to my research, the correct technique was to look ahead into the corner, downshift to a proper gear that could carry you through out the corner, lean into the corner and accelerate – yes…accelerate away. It looked pretty simple to do on paper. Now, imagine doing that on a two lane road, at night with the oncoming lights blinding you and…one side of the road was a steep valley that was getting deeper and deeper with every instant and the other side of the road was a rocky mountain wall. It was terrifying for the first few corners.
Things settled down after a few corners and I found my rhythm in the corners… we were progressing well on the hills. I looked up once and saw the Kalka – Shimla toy train chugging up the slopes. If people in the train had looked down, they would have seen another train making its ascent into Shimla. A train of five headlights on the road…
Riding in the Himalayas is dangerous. You have to give respect and she treats you well. The moment you show a bit of overconfidence, you get to see something that puts you back to your paces. We turned around into a corner and saw a few vehicles lined up. It was our first landslide in the hills. Only half a lane was open and all the vehicles were stuck there. Thank god we were on bikes! We managed to squeeze into the oncoming traffic and got out on the other side. But when we got there, we were just 4 – the alien was missing. We were in the vicinity of a small shack, and decided to have a break there. Nitin and I went back to see what happened, while Bunny and Arun got into some photography. The sight of Solan Valley by night was simply breath taking. It was as if someone tossed down a bunch lights down a slope. The ridge was covered with lights shimmering in the night.
Nitin and I rode for 10 min and figured out what happened. Gourab’s bag was not tied with bungee cord, but with Nylon rope. The problem with Nylon rope is that it slips easily. When we were meandering on the hill slopes, his bag took the liberty of unseating itself from the rear seat and on to the silencer. The back side of the bag had a gaping hole, a rain coat and a change of clothes were half burnt and the silencer got a new coat of color. Thankfully, there was no fire and both of the bag straps were intact. As a tactical solution, we asked him to wear his bag front side – the idea was to reach Shimla and get a new bag for him. As he would discover, he would have to get used to this for quite some time on the ride.
After the break and quite a few pictures later, we proceeded on an uneventful ride to Shimla. The first views of the place were breathtaking. At 10 in the night, the valley was our beacon light – we rode hard in the darkness and arrived finally. We checked into the hotel and went out exploring Shimla at night – 10 in the night.
We walked down mall road and found out that everything was closed. Luckily, we found a small shop that was serving food at that time in the night. We went in and ate a simple dinner, thankful that we didn’t have to go hungry at that time in the night. We walked back to the hotel and crashed. That was the end of a really tiresome day – approximately 330 km covered, around 100 km of that on the hilly roads. As we would discover, this was more or less how we would be spending the next five days.
Jan 25, 2007 – Day2 of the HX-4
A beautiful sunrise dawned on Shimla. We decided to hit the road before breakfast – a choice we would not regret that much. We tanked up at a petrol bunk just outside Shimla and headed off towards our first adventure…finding breakfast. That was when we had our first encounter with the dreaded black ice. The trick to drive on black ice is to just keep going…no sudden acceleration, no breaking. Well…easier said than done…again! There’s no feeling like entirely losing traction on the rear wheel when you hit the ice. Arun went in first and I closely followed, with Nitin trailing. The (in)experience showed clearly – Arun hit the patch first, his read skidded, kissed my front suspension…I slammed on the breaks and the bike lost traction completely – it went straight into Nitin’s path and hit his front. He took the first fall of the trip. Nothing serious happened, no parts broken – either on the body or the bike. As we would see, this would be one of the most minor falls on the whole trip.
We stopped near by a frozen gutter, clicked a few pictures and headed off...our stomachs were rumbling – we had to find breakfast, and find it quick. It came in the form of a small roadside dhaba again…!! Breakfast today was fresh Dal and rice…totally delicious to us hungry riders. That’s where we met our first four legged friend…a cute doggie whose nap we totally disturbed when we got there. We shared some of our breakfast in return for that. We took a few pics again and got moving.
In little over 10 min, we were met with our first fantastic sight – a frozen waterfall a little off the road. We had a full opportunity to exhibit our off roading skills. Off we went to the base of the waterfall for another photo session. We then got back on to the road and headed off to the first destination of the day - Hatu peak.
Hatu peak is at around 10,500 ft. above sea level. We were heading towards the approach road and happened to look right and that was when we got our first views of the snow capped mountains at a distance – right in front was a small frozen pond. Perfect place for another photo opportunity, so off we went, parking our bikes in the correct angles and getting the elements on film (err… the memory card). Hatu peak was right ahead – a steep 6 km ascent on a road that was just wide enough to accommodate a car. We started climbing the narrow, winding road sometimes surprised by a jeep or a car coming down. Considering the traffic, we were pretty sure things would make it to the top. We had heard that the view from the top was awesome and we were really anxious to get to the top.
The road stopped dead two km short. There was no road – it was only ice. We decided we would park our bikes there and hike ahead towards the top. Bunny went ahead – he had been stopped here before by the ice and he had no intention of stopping here again. Off he went with complete faith on his Michelins while we started the arduous trek up the hill. All of us stopped 1 km short of the peak and we decided to call it off – we were breathing heavily and every step was becoming a pain in the rarified atmosphere. We stopped there, played in the snow for a while and headed back down again.
Getting down was a lot more difficult than we thought…the ice was super slippery and we had a couple of spills getting back to our bikes. It was even worse for Bunny – getting his bike to motorable conditions was a far more difficult exercise. The bike started to slip uncontrollably for a minute and started to head towards the valley, before we pulled it back in time.
It was close to 3 in the evening by the time we got down. The climb had us exhausted and we went around looking for lunch. The riding conditions were perfect…smooth roads, excellent visibility and no oncoming traffic. We stopped at a small hotel for lunch and were discussing the plans for the evening and the routes to take. The initial plan was to head through Rampur and end up at either Sangla valley or at Kalpa for the night. There was around 150 km of riding left out with around two hours of daylight left. It looked like we were in for another ride in the darkness of the night.
Things went downhill from there… literally. We were descending at a rapid pace to ride along the banks of the Sutlej River. Bunny and Arun were tearing down the roads with Nitin on their heels. I took my own sweet time, enjoying the ride and the alien was doing the same, quite a few km behind me. I saw the three of them on a ridge far ahead and the titles scene from the movie ‘torque’ played in my mind - the three of them winding down the twisties. Later on, when we were eating dinner, it turned out that all of them had felt the same way too. I guess we all had gotten carried off.
As I turned down a sharp curve, I saw Arun on the shoulder, lying down, dazed and blood in the mouth. A little distance away, his bike was on the road, with quite some damage. What had just happened was a blatant display of over confidence – and he paid the price for it. The guy really had some guts taking a sharp corner at 90 kph, with almost bald rear tires. He simply went down at that speed – thankfully into the mountain wall and not the canyon on the other side. All of us met up and then decided on the course of action. Bunny and Gourab took him to a nearby village for first aid, while Nitin and I stayed back at the crash site taking care of everything else there. Needless to say, we were shaken by the incident and together decided to voice out very strongly favoring controlled driving.
When the three of them returned after first aid, we took a long break – first to calm down everyone’s nerves and secondly to decide on the future course of action. At close to 6 PM, we decided we would halt at Rampur for the night. The town was big enough; there was a definite chance that we could repair the bike to a decent extent. A quick test ride of the damaged bike confirmed it was road worthy for the next 40 km – that was how far we had to go!
What followed was the perfect display of sensible riding. Bunny was leading, with Arun following, Nitin next lighting up the path for Arun, me next and Gourab bringing up the rear lighting up the road for me with his powerful headlights. We drove at a good 50 kph alongside the river. It was a fantastic experience with the river gushing by and the five of us riding along its rocky shores.
We found a good place to stay that night. Once we got our room setup, it was time to take the wonder boy to a proper doctor. It was close to 8 in the night and in a small town like Rampur, the chance of finding a doctor was remote. We made a few inquiries and found there was a hospital around 3 km away. We went there and got him a tetanus shot and a proper dressing for his lip. We finished that bit off with a few spectacular stoppies by Bunny. A relieving thing we saw on our way to the hospital was a workshop which would have all the parts needed and the ability to fix the bike properly. The next day being republic day, we didn’t have too many hopes of the place being open.
Back at the hotel, we started talking about the next day’s plan. The first choice was given to Arun – did he want to go back to Delhi or would he wait a day at Rampur and get his bike fixed? He chose the latter. We then went on to decide the next day’s route for us – we had a choice to go to Peo & Kalpa or to Sangla & Chitkul. We were not able to decide on the destination and we wrapped agreeing that the decision would be taken at Karcham – the place at which the road splits up.
It was a long day, pretty exciting and scary – sleep came very easily to us.
Jan 26, 2007 – Day3 of the HX-4
Republic day! The morning started quite late. We decided that it was easier to have breakfast at the hotel itself rather than searching out for a place. We had breakfast and headed out to see if, by a wild chance, the workshop was open. It looked like things were falling into place just for us – not only was the place open, but he had all the spares we needed. There was also a tire shop nearby – common sense prevailed and we got the bike a new rear tire. We would have one less thing to worry about now.
We asked the guy about the duration of the repair – he said it would finish it by noon. A quick discussion happened and then we decided we would continue with the ride. Both the places were less than 75 km and it would be an easy ride to do alone. The plan of action was we would go ahead with the ride at a leisurely pace, taking pictures and having lots of breaks. Arun would join us starting late and arriving at our destination. That meant none of us would lose a day of the ride.
We set off into what was probably the best ride we did in the day. Narrow roads and sharp curves kept us on our toes – it was really getting difficult to ride. The views were breathtaking – at one stage when I lifted my head up, all I could see was the mountain wall rising high up – the sky was no where visible. We stopped at numerous places on the way. It was probably the day we took the most number of photos.
We reached the Karcham Bridge and had our next meeting. A quick discussion ensued and we decided we would head out to Peo & Kalpa. It was already 3 – we would have only 3 more hours of light. We called up Arun and told him where we were heading. We also found out that the repair was not complete and it would still take a couple of hours to do. This meant that the kid would do the ride alone and in the night. Good thing we left an iPod with him.
The roads went from bad to non-existent, but the views were spectacular. There was this spot where we had the snow covered mountains ahead of us, we were riding upriver and the road was just besides the river. It was a mesmerizing scene – I was just going to honk over to Nitin to pull over for pics. But he beat me to it…he pulled over before I had a chance to hit the horn. Grinning ear to ear looking at those unbelievable views, we indulged ourselves with a few spectacular photos.
We found Bunny waiting for us at a very significant place – it was the place where the road split. The road we were not going to take that day was the one going to Kaza and Ladakh. So near and yet so far! We decide we would stay the night at Kalpa, a very small town which was a steep 10 km climb above a comparatively bigger town – Peo. The climb was steep and the bikes were being pushed really hard. We made it to the top and the views were breathtaking. We were not aware of a surprise awaiting us there!
We checked at two hotels and none of them were ready to give us rooms - the reason was simple. It was so cold that the water in the pipes was frozen. We knew there was no avail trying there and got back down to Peo. We found a small hotel for the night and checked in there. We then tried calling up the kid, but he wasn’t responding – which hopefully meant he was riding on through the night. We went and had a sumptuous dinner and as we were walking out, he pulled into town. We were totally relieved that he made it in one piece. Later on, he recounted it as a lesson taught by the Himalayas – he would ride with respect there on.
With all of us finishing dinner, we went back to the hotel and tried taking a few pics of the mountains in the night. We were at the half way point of the trip and we had to do something special about that.
We rounded off the night with a screening of “The world’s fastest Indian” – a must see biker movie!
...another view...!!
Edit: Here's the song if you want to listen to it...Thx Han! :)
it was that feeling that drove me to this place...checkout the pics below. Although I saw it in the middle of the day, it was just as I pictured it in my mind. Viewing it in the night would have been an out of the world experience...!
Day 1, 24th Jan: Delhi - Ambala - Phagwara - Chintpurni : 423kms
6:30am: Assemble at Bypass.
HX - IV tees will be distributed along with the map of the ride.
Tea and biscuits will be served.
7:30am: Depart for Karnal
9:30am: Breakfast just before the Karnal toll-tax barrier
Breakfast will consist of hot paranthas and tea
10:30am: Continue the ride
11:30am: Cross Ambala and continue on the NH-1
Lunch enroute (vegetarian affair)
3pm: Take a right from Phagwara to Hoshiarpur
4pm: Hoshiarpur
4:45pm:Check into HPTDC's The Yatri Niwas, Chintpurni (3283 feet above sea level). Rooms on twin and triplet sharing basis.
Dinner consisting of vegetarian meals will be in hotel
Day 2:Chintpurni - Mcleodganj : 100kms
7am: Wake up call
8:30am:Leave for Mcleodganj
Breakfast enroute
2pm: Reach Mcleodganj and check into Hotel Meghavan, Bhagsunag (5900 feet above seal level) Room on twin sharing basis
After lunch, options to go out to the lake/church/waterfalls
5pm:Back in hotel. Bonfire
Dinner wil be in hotel (vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals)
Day 3:Mcleodganj - Chindi : 237kms
6am:Wake up call
7:30am:Time to leave
Packed Breakfast en route with hot tea
Lunch at Mandi
6pm:Reach Chindi and check into HPTDC's Hotel Mamleshwar(6022feet). Rooms on twin sharing basis
Dinner in hotel (vegetarian meals)
Day 4: Chindi - Sunni - Kingel - Narkanda : 154kms
7am:Wake up call
8:30am:Leave for Narkanda
Packed Breakfast enroute
3:30pm: Late lunch @ Kumarsain
4:30pm: Continue for Narkanda
5pm: Reach Narkanda and check into HPTDC's Hotel Hatu(9000feet). Rooms on twin and triplet sharing basis
Dinner in hotel (vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals)
Day 5: In and around Narkanda
8am:Wake up call
9:30am: Leave for Hatu Peak(10350feet). Ride bikes in snow and play in snow.
Packed breakfast en route
1pm:Back in hotel. After lunch, go to ski-slopes
Dinner in hotel (vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals)
Day 6:Narkanda - Shimla - Delhi : 420kms
6:30am: Wake up call
8am:Leave for Delhi
Packed breakfast en route
11:30: Cross Shimla
1:30pm: Lunch @ Dharampur. (Vegetarian meals)
2:30pm: Continue for Delhi
4:15pm: Cross Ambala
5:15pm: Cross Karnal
Dinner enroute (Vegetarian meals)
8:30pm: Reach bypass
