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Solan – Chanshal Pass – Solan: 410 kms: A Saturday: 19hours
The FZ16 goes mountaineering
One fine Friday evening, around three weeks ago, I planned to go ride up to Solan to visit my best friend Vikram. It had been ages since we’d met. After those unforgettable college days, time seemed a scarcity. It was Vikram, with whom I had started touring way back in 2003. I still remember our first ride to mussuorie when we borrowed a friend’s bike and zoomed off in pitch darkness! The vivid memories of the first lean, the first fall, are omnipresent!
With all that and lots on the back of my brain, I set off for Solan. An hour and half later, I was there. I had planned this to be a laid back Saturday spent in exploring Solan. What I had completely forgotten is that Vikram was as crazy about the mountains as I was. No wonder he’s spending his life as a lecturer amidst the hills, completely contended. Well, he brought up the idea of chansal, and I didn’t take long to get convinced.
I normally don’t prefer riding someone else’s bike, especially on mountains. I have a fairly good sync up with mine and am happy with her deliverance, which quite frankly is sufficient for me. But as I walked out of the porch next morning with all my riding gear in place, I spotter Vikram’s FZ in a distance, and it looked pretty inviting. Hence I decided to check out its capabilities! Plus Vikram was apprehensive riding alone. So we started off, two guys one bike.
We took the Solan – Rajgarh - Chaila road which is more of a rocky path than a road. I was surprised by the FZ’s handling on this track. The bike took the potholes and scattered rocks in its stride. After around 2.5 hours of foot-peg-standing fun over the wonderfully horrible road we reached chaila. Chaila is around 20 kms from theog towards rohru. Quite frankly, I am bored of the NH-22 and try to avoid it as much as possible. Exploring inner himachal roads is my idea of fun. Where if you are a notch too fast, you’d end up face first over mother earth after the next khadda or you’d be punished for braking hard by skidding off the sandy surface, leave aside leaning
Anyhow, two aalo-paranthas and some curd later, I handed the keys over to vikram for the chaila – Rohru stretch which turned out to be quite decent (wasn’t so last year). At Kharapatthar, called Yogesh and Shamik to confirm route and total hours it’d take.
The irony of my life is I am always short of time! Went to Leh with 11 days planned and came back in 8
.Sunday, i had office so at any cost had to back in Chandigarh by morning that means back in Solan by nightfall.
Well, Shamik said three hours and I was like “Ok,.. good,.. doable,.. let’s move on”.
We were in rohru and it was 1 pm. Asked a few locals about chanshal and they pointed at completely snowed out mountain top at some distance, which brought a grin to my face
… Headed towards chirgaon from rohru and then to larote. From there chanshal is around 20 kms.Horrible and treacherous is an understatement to kind of surface I found after Larote. Comparable to the sach pass – killad stretch if not worse. The road was very steep and bad. The FZ was sputtering and struggling to move on.
A kilometer up the line, we hid black gold!
There was snow on the sides and black ice scattered everywhere!! This is where our troubles began. The bike would get stuck in the mud now and then & one of us used to get off to push. At times, it would skid off the surface and I had to use my long legs to balance. Slush, mud, ice…what not!
Heavy throttle and lots of pushes later, we inched another 10 kilometers. It was 2 when I reached Larote. I looked at the watch now, it showed 4! 10 kms in 2 hours!
Over there, we spotted a log cutter. He told us that that chanshal was another 12 kms. And the roads were going to be worse. But still we moved on. I was getting tired of the getting-off and pushing thing. It looked like a snowed out muddy paradise. Mud everywhere, some in my mouth as well! Two kilometers further, the bike started showing signs of wear . It had barely done 2K and I had brought it up here. I was missing my extreme honestly. Furthermore I was losing daylight and I wanted to reach larote before it got dark. Hence with a heavy heart, we turned back. I was disappointed, but not much coz I knew that there would come another weekend when the bug would bite again, and I would run up chanshal
“But perhaps not today”, I thought…
Back in larote by 6:30 and at chirgaon at 7. Had lunch here, scrumptious momos and moved on. It had gone semi-dark by now.
“There is a very thin line between adventure and stupidity” … That was a wise decision I took coz when I looked back at the mountain, clouds had gathered over, and I was pretty sure it was snowing up there.
Reached Rohru, and then asked directions for Narkanda. I didn’t want to go back via the same route. There was another route that linked Rohru with Narkanda through Baggi. Narkanda was 70 kms from rohru. We moved after consulting a bus-driver. The road was again bad. Potholed and graveled but rideable.
Pitch darkness. Little visibility. Vikram was a bit uncomfortable riding in the dark. Slightly frightened as well and I could sense that. If you are not used to riding in mountains at night, it gets pretty scary and eerie at times. Hence I told him not to worry, took over the reins from him and asked him to plug in the earphones and listen to some good music.
We were in Narkanda by 11. This stretch took us 3 hours, owing to the road condition. Had dinner at a dhaba there. Then the same old boring NH. Crossed shimla by 12:30 and were at solan by 1 am.
Tired and dirty, but satisfied..
Route taken: Solan – Rajgarh – Chaila – Kharapatthar – Rohru – Chirgaon – Larote – 12 kms ahead - Back to Larote – Rohru – Baggi – Narkanda – Shimla – Solan
I currently unable to post pics due to restrictions in office, but would post them as soon as I get connected someplace else. Kindly bear with me!
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