Monsoon ride in Uttrakhand

Awadh Spirited Riders

June 2013 Ride

Riders :
Ashish Malviya with Pillion (Abhishek) on Thunderbird 350 Twin Spark
Vivek Singor with Pillion( Saraeng) on Classic 350
Aariz Javed Ansari with Pillion (Prassana) on Classic 350
Manmohan Singh Bashera on Thunderbird 350


Riding Date: 14 June - 19 June 2013

DAY 1 [14th June ] : We started our ride from the RE Brand Showroom, Lucknow at 6:20 AM. Took our first tea break in Sidhauli at 7:28 AM. We took the Sitapur > Lakhimpur > Gola Gorakhnath > Pilibhit > Khatima route to reach Lohaghat which was our 1^st destination for night halt. In between Gola Gorakhnath and Khatima, we crossed the Pilibhit Tiger reserve forest route which was totally off road riding as the road was damaged badly. Along the jungle a canal flows which is named as Sharda. It was flooded with muddy rain water. We safely reached the Lohaghat KVMN Guest House at 6:00 PM.

 DAY 2 [15th June ] : Woke up early at 5:30 AM and did a morning walk with Shareng Singore, one of the youngest member of our group. Instead of walking on the road, we took kachhi pugdandi on the hills. Enjoyed special morning pahadi chai in a local tea shop. After the heavy breakfast, we all geared up for our next destination of Munsyari at 8:30 AM. But soon we found that one of our rider Vivek Singore's bike was puncture. It took more then an hour of our time to sort out the issue. And soon the climate changed from a pleasant weather to the rainy one. But after waiting for 1 hour, we finally decided to start our ride in the rain after covering ourselves and our baggage. But before reaching Pithoragarh, I did an experiment by riding the slope on neutral, which cost me heavily. In one blind turn I faced an upcoming truck in the midway and applied my disc brake. My TB skidded, but luckily I was wearing the protective gear, which saved my knee & elbow. My Thuderbird(TB) left footrest was broken along with the headlight & speedometer casing. Anyway we again started the ride towards Pithoragarh, where there was a RE service centre. Somehow I did manage to ride by TB without footrest. We reached the service centre by noon. They fixed my TB and checked the other bikes also. Upon discussing our further ride route with the service centre manager, we found out that due to heavy rains the Jauljivi route was not safe. We finally decided to change our route from Pithoragarh > Jauljivi > Munsyari to Pithoragarh > Thal > Nachini > Birthi > Munsyari. We crossed Nachini at 6:26 PM and took a short break at dorebend for tea as all the riders were heavily drenched in rain and was feeling cold. As it was already past 7:30 PM and we were far behind our schedule to reach Munsyari which was 40 Km far. We called the Munsyari KVMN Guest house and shifted our night stay to Birthi which was only 6 km from our current location. But as we started towards the Birthi my TB rear tyre gave up. We left the Tb at dorebend at reached the Birthi KVMN guest house at 8:00 PM.

DAY 3 [16th June ] : After taking a good nap we all forget the previous day tough ride and explored the Birthi water fall in the rain. The fall was huge due to the heavy rainfall of the previous day. As it was still raining and we found out that during previous night there was a heavy landslide in the Munsyari route, so we had to cancel the Munsyari halt. We decide to make our next night halt in Thal KVMN guest house. We reached there at 6:00 PM fully drenched and cold. In between we have to take a break in Nachni to repair my TB rear tyre whose bearing was damaged.



DAY 4 [17th June ] : Next day when we started our ride, we found that a patch of mud road form the entrance of the guest house to the main road was all muddy and slippery. We tried to make towards the main road but the mud was too slippery to ride. We even pushed the bike from behind but the tyre was stuck in the mud. To overcome the problem we decided that we have to pull the bike from the front and we acquired a thick rope from the near by construction site. Two of the rider pulled the bike and one rider rode the bike in 1^st gear. Eventually one by one we crossed that mud road and continued our journey towards the Binsar in Almora region.

We reached the Binsar checkpoint at 5:30 PM in heavy rain and did the paper formalities to enter the Binsar Wild Sanctury. As the night came early and we were stuck 8 km before the Binsar KVMN guest house as one of the concrete passage between a rain water passage was submerged in knee deep water. But in the midst of the jungle some Nepalese Kids helped us to pass that obstacle. We unloaded our baggage and send it along with the pillion riders in the Guest House Gypsey which was on the other side. One by one we slowly & steadily crossed the water in 1^st gear and those kids pushed our bike from behind. Finally we ride solo on our bike for 8 Km in dark and rainy night. The road was literally washed out and we have to ride very cautiously. We finally reached the guest house at 8:00 PM.

DAY 5 [18th June ] : The early morning view of snow peaks of Himalayan mountains was astonishing & mesmerizing. The view took all our pains and hard labour and left us in a trance. I have been in this place already once with other riders but I promised myself that I will come again and again. After having a heavy breakfast in the guest house we started our return journey towards our home. We reached River Kausi Bridge at 1:00 PM and found that the Almora Bhowali short route was closed due to landslide. We have to take a long route via Bageshwar-Ranikhet-Bhowali Route which addes another 80 Km in our day ride. As this 80 Km extra ride changed our route plan, so we have to extend our ride for one more day and we took night halt at Bhimtal KVMN guest house.


DAY 6 [19th June ] : This was our last ride day as we were heading towards our home. The day was sunny and humid. We finally reached our home with lots and lots of pleasant memories.