A bicycle ride at Hesaraghatta lake, Bengaluru has enough trails to keep us entertained on the bike and off the saddle.
The trail ride at Hesaraghatta lake was fixed roughly a week prior to it on the forum online. Got the gear, bike and myself ready the night before, so as to not rush in the morning. Woke up by 4am and having had very little sleep but was all charged up, rode to Silk board junction by 5am where I met up with Srinivethan and Karun as scheduled. We rode at a good steady pace knowing that we had to cover roughly 26 km in 2 hours. Rode upto Sankey tank and from then followed the route map on Srinivethan's phone to get to MS Palya for none of us knew the route. After having ridden 25 kms, we got to MS Palya circle were we met Saugath and Jonathan. On trying to figure the exact meeting point, we ended up riding in a loop back to the MS Palya circle where we met Karthik, Sumukh and Shankar - the trail guide.
It was a little past 7am and after a little chit-chat, we started to ride towards Hesaraghatta with Shankar leading the way and we trying to catch up with him. After about a few kilometres was this stretch of clean tar road, the early morning sunlight and clear air to breathe in with no motor vehicles on the road blaring their blasted horns ...was simply serene and soothing to the senses. Somewhere along the way, stopped by a small stall to have tea and biscuits...that made up for breakfast. Took and few snaps and we continued to ride till after about 13 kms from MS Palya, reached the spot close to the lake where there were four more guys who had got there in their cars.
After casual introductions, we headed down the slope to ride under the bridge and further riding alongside the lake. Shankar having gone much ahead stopped, turned and take snaps while we caught upto him and soon realized there were 3 flats. While they fixed the flats, we got carried away in taking snaps. When all flats were patched and ready, we rode on further to an area with eucalyptus trees. The area was shady and good to ride through and we all rode around the place for fun. We then decided to ride on further and were soon astray from the route around the lake doing some crazy off-roading till we could go no further and decided to head back till we reached a tarmac road by which time I had my first puncture having ridden about 2700 km in one year. Fixed it and we rode further and soon Jon's bike had a flat and then my front tire. While we stopped to fix them, half the bunch of riders had gone ahead. By the time we were done and rode ahead, we realized that those riders lead by Shankar had gone off road into another trail. Unable to figure which way they went, we turned around and rode back to the start point by the lake. As we got close to the start point near the lake, we spotted a guy selling tender coconuts by the side of the gate. We had tender coconut water and it was sweet and refreshing.
Rang up Srinivethan, and got to know that they were riding in the lake-bed. Got directions and headed there, rode over the bridge and along the path by the lake to the end where we met Srinivethan who was walking back with his bike for he was having pain in the knees. We stopped to take pictures there and then rode on to the end of the pathway to get into the lake. Meanwhile Saugath had a flat this time again and so Jon and he stopped to fix it. Inside the lake bed, despite the heat of the sun overhead, there was cool breeze here. Cows and goats were grazing on the green pastures. Rode up to the small hillock were the first set of riders were already there relaxing. Got to the top and relaxed under the shade of the two small trees there. Ate whatever some had got along for the ride and relaxed for a while taking snaps. Realized three bikes had flats again including mine. We fixed them and just then unexpectedly Rahul had this freakish accident where he bumped his head to the branch of the tree and a thorn had poked resulting in blood flowing out. After bleeding stopped and having rested a while, we decided to head back for it was kinda late, hungry and the dry heat was playing the spoilsport.
Was about 2pm when we got to the point where the four guys had got their bikes in cars. They parted ways, and we started to ride back towards MS Palya. At the Tirumalapura junction, we stopped to have soft drinks at a bakery, while Shankar decided to head back with Rahul in his car. Saugath and Jon turned up having taken another route. Now we were just the seven of us - Saugath, Jon, Karthik, Sumukh, Karun, Srinivethan and myself. It was past 2pm and we started to ride back...hungry...looking out for some place to get good lunch. At about 3pm and after riding about 8km, we came about this resort by the road and we got in. Karun had a flat which was patched up twice but they had failed. Deciding to fix it after we eat, locked up the bikes and got in to freshen up. At the kitchen, and we were able to get few plates of fried rice, onion pakoda for the veggies while chicken kabab and beer for the non-veggies. Relished the food with chilled beer over some casual talk on various topics.
We then worked on the two bikes that needed some fixing and soon after started from there. On reaching MS Palya, Sumukh and Karthik parted ways with us and the five of us rode on past Jalahalli East and towards the Outer Ring Road by which time Saugath and Jon went their ways. Karun, Srinivethan and myself rode a steady pace back till we reached Forum Mall at Koramangala where Karun took his way and further on at Silk Board, Srinivethan and I parted ways. Reached home by about 8pm, eyes paining and had turned red after having ridden back through town in evening peak hour traffic on saturday.
Riding trails off-road and through villages is so much fun and refreshing than traveling through town...so how have we humans progressed with motor vehicles emitting smoke, loud exhaust notes and blaring horns, I wonder?
