Re: Ride to Prashar Lake

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Oye you bloody lazy IITian. You have the energy to cycle in the hills, but can't post your pictures on the forum and write a bit about how, where, why, whom you went with.

Start posting now

Re: Ride to Prashar Lake

Post Pics please, Picasa and Google photos is banned at my work place .

Re: Ride to Prashar Lake


We are preparing the article, will post soon

Alladin is a whatsapp group of a few bicyclists that was created after our last Leh ride^th). Rarely sleeping, we reached Mandi bus stop around 5 AM the next day. We stopped at this nice road side dhaba (). The road till now had been a continuous uphill. And suddenly there laid in front of us a stretch of the winding road downhill. After the long ride uphill, we were really happy to see this stretch (). The sheer joy of downhilling lasted around four kilometres as we landed onto an almost level stretch going into a wooden bridge (). As we rode over the gushing waters of Kamand and past the bridge, we saw three small idols carved out of stone atop a stone pillar by the end of the bridge. Local beliefs had washed the idols red in sindoor, as they stood still atop the pillar (). Our destination felt closer. We had a few omelettes hoping to have lunch at Bagi and finishing the ride by evening. We continued on our ride uphill. The air had started getting heavy. It was afternoon (). And on mountains with rains like that, salty potato chips get really tasty. We were halting from time to time now, eating, laughing ().


We reached Bagi around five in the evening. Rain had ceased for some time. We saw a few locals gathering around a fire they had made by the side of the road. Pulled in by the comfort of fire, we went and joined them (). As we started talking, they told us how the streams on the way get violent during this time, how the snow gets heavy and slippery, and why rides like this up to Parashar should be avoided this season. We had come far and we were in no intention of going back now. We gave our luggage to the local people and they showed us an abandoned bus stop where we could tent in for the night (). Tucked in the comfort inside the tent, we talked for hours, eating our pakodas. Drawn by the warmth of the tent, three dogs had come and settled down at three corners. Sometimes it amazes me how you meet strangers on journeys and you end up owning them. The dogs guarded us through the night as they would bark telling us whenever something happened in the dark silent night, outside (). We gave a share of our pakodas to our new found friends and went off to sleep.


To be continued

Re: Ride to Prashar Lake

Waiting for this write-up for a very long time.....awesome pics..its really nice.

Re: Ride to Prashar Lake

Nicely put. Bring on the rest!

Re: Ride to Prashar Lake

One of the best threads on this section. Definitely inspired me to head out with my cycle this weekend.

Cheers,

Karthik


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: Ride to Prashar Lake

Oh my god..! What a ride you guys have had, marvelous.

Re: Ride to Prashar Lake

Day 3:

We woke up early morning to get back onto our ride. It was still drizzling. Standing outside the small bus stop that had sheltered us last night, I stared at the two roads that diverged from here. Both led to Parashar. One of them went into a beautiful pine forest and vanished into a thin trail (). If you are hiking up to Parashar on feet, this is the trail you take, through the majestic forest. The other road led to a broken stone bridge that was flung across by the torrential stream last season (). The stream now knee deep, flowed over the broken trail, still rushing in front of me. This was the cycling track. We had a good breakfast at a shop nearby, tried to capture the morning in a few photos, and left Bagi. We had found a way to go around the broken bridge without walking through the stream (). Back on the road again, we started riding uphill with revived spirits ( ). A few hours on the road, the rain was getting heavier, and the streams that broke the trail from time to time, bigger, relentless. As the winding road took us higher and higher, the mist that kept blowing in and running away was getting heavier. Another hair pin turn, I looked at the horizon, and it took my breath away (). We were now riding as high as the peaks of the mountains, above the clouds that rolled fast in the distance. Sometimes a little wandering cloud would pass by stroking my skin, soaking me in. Pine trees grew animatedly straight from the ground through plains and slopes that were now cliffs. Trees flowed down like waterfalls (). We tried push ups, and almost anything that could warm us up. We needed fire. Trying to warm up, I started exploring around the dhaba. As I walked behind, I could see an abandoned cowshed a little away. Hoping to find firewood, we went inside. Broke a plank, found some hay, and we had a little fire made (). Cold and all washed out outside, the warmth of fire inside this dark broken shed, tucked far away in a distant mountain felt like heaven. The warmth, the delicious cakes, and friends, had carried us away to our old memories of mountains and treks, and we realized, it was three thirty in the afternoon already. We had been basking in the comfort for two hours now. The fire had revived our spirits; enthusiasm beat in our hearts again, as we decided to get back into our ride. We came out of the shed, and saw it for the first time - It was snowing. The washed out mountains had softened into the romance of misty green-white sceneries ( ). Flakes of snow were falling softly, floating, blanketing the mountains slowly in soft shades of snow white. The road was now covered in patches of thick snow and slushy ice (). Adrenaline rushed through my body. Our grins could hardly contain our enthusiasm - We were thrilled. We started riding slowly over the slushy, slippery ice. Cutting through the thick patches of ice was almost impossible. As we rose uphill through steeper tracks, the pine trees around us were getting denser (). Loaded heavily in white snow, the trees made way for a pine forest we were riding through now. Everything around looked animated, calmed by the softness of snow.



The place was cast into an ethereal landscape of shades of gray as the trees shaded and snow spread drawing dreamy forms all around. Sporadically, a big chunk of snow would fall from the trees beside me, slushing onto the ground, here and then. We were riding through a dreamy meditative world of our own, halting almost frequently, trying to seize these moments in cameras (). It had been around two hours now. We now reached the point in the trail where there was no trail anymore, just thick white snow blanketing everything we could see (). We started pushing through the snow, cutting our way through, making our trail ( ). It was five thirty in the evening, it was getting dark. We had eaten up everything we had. The cold was biting as our gloves were all wet. And I saw the vast expanse of white snow covering everything that now laid in front of me- without any trail or life ( [IMG]http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/attachment.php?attachmentid=179379&stc=1[/IMG]). We could see the rest house where this man lived- our saviour. He quickly took our bags and asked us to follow him into the rest house. As I started moving up towards the rest house, something strange happened- Clouds started rolling away, the mist cleared, and laid before me the grand mountains, white and green, blurring into the horizon (). Some hours later, we went to sleep in one of the big cosy wooden rooms of the rest house (). Big chunks of ice and snow kept falling from the roof outside, sometimes making sounds that would scare us - sounds like an avalanche rolling down. We woke up early the next morning. It was sunny. We had to trek one kilometre to the Parashar lake. Watching the first footprints in the immaculate, pure, white snow, as we walked was reviving that old spirit, to go find new places, that we all had when we were kids (). As we reached the place, it was ethereal. Snow had covered everything, other than the lake. Basking in the morning sun, everything laid still, soft and white (). The temple was almost dug under the snow. Revealing the roofs of a few other huts, snow had carved out a dreamy landscape (). The clear waters of the lake reflected the Parrish blue sky- I had fallen in love with the place. We came back after playing in the snow excitedly for a few hours. Roop Singh had made a nice breakfast for us. We had breakfast, bid bye to our saviour, and left Parashar (

Re: Ride to Prashar Lake

This is the closest you can get to nature! Thumb up!

Re: Ride to Prashar Lake

OMG..! You guys are insane, super genius article, loved every pic and every bit of log.

Re: Ride to Prashar Lake

OMG, you guys are really insane. Amazing shots and kudos to your efforts

More pics please

Re: Ride to Prashar Lake

Nice write and amazing pic's dhanush bro ,
Do post a pic of your bike .

Re: Ride to Prashar Lake

Riding , hiking , trekking , camping ..!! OMG all in one.. By just cycling.

One cant imagine the spirit of such a MAD peoples. What will be the next madness...?