कात्रज ते सिंहगड (२०१८ - २०२०)

।। श्री आशापुरी देव्यै नमः ।।

कात्रज - सिंहगड aka K2S..

tops the list of favourites

By then, never really had thought through of getting acquainted with mountains ⛰️ other than Sinhgad.. simple reason being, it takes not more than 3 hours for a Sinhgad roundtrip (home-Sinhgad-home).. and unlike what used to be a whole day plan for whatever इक्का-दुक्का adhoc adventures we had during college 🏫 days, it was / is pretty satisfying to virtually not lose any part of weekend / holiday and at the same time, sleep 😴 sounder, feel fresher with Sinhgad(s)..

३० मार्च २०१८

It was also a Good Friday and we had optional holiday (today is another one, as a holiday 🙂).. with not many people in office 💻, discussions started on planning evening K2S trek.. Manjit, Brijesh to name a few, we started towards Katraj (⚠️) by local transport 🚙.. yes, that warning sign indicates, we were not supposed to.. after some argument-cum-agreement, another fellow 🧔 dropped us not very close to the new tunnel 🚇.. so, for first half-n-hour, we were only trying to find a way that may possibly connect to K2S trail.. failing to do so, we again came down and back to the highway 🛣️.. restarting this time, did the trick and without any second thoughts, it became memorable enough, 'Idli and me'..

we had no time to waste and the adventure was well paced as per expected return time 🕦.. meanwhile, far away, somebody was descending one of the earlier mountains with impressive speed 🏃‍♂️.. who other than Aniruddha, as we realised when he caught-up.. midway, during dinner time, learned about 🍞 cheese slices 🧀 - easy option for such occassions..

plan was to skip last mountain, traverse it from the right, join tar road and descend it till he finds us.. not sure about last bus timings, had asked Jitendra for the favour of picking us up 🚗.. Thanks buddy! 🤝

२४ नोव्हेंबर २०१८

Then it had slightly rained 🌦️ (and stopped) for few days and with Shivkumar also sharing his experience from last week, this time was to get past the slightest of disappointments of not had done it completely during first / previous instance..

with full moon 🌕 around and having Harshad, Nilendra, Ashish agreed, this time, we started from memorable enough 'Idli and me'.. Uber is the most convenient option to reach here.. for Ola, that's outstation 😏..

then followed 👍 best of K2S so far.. it was not dusty with a slight dampness and it was perfect cool 🍃 as winter was about to..

after the last mountain, it is yet another 3 kms घाट रस्ता gradual ascend till the fort 🏰.. we were exhausted.. while waiting for the sunrise, tea ☕ did its part.. when enquired about return fare by jeep, with attitude he responded, we immediately opted to descend Sinhgad at Atkarwadi..

as we reached the steps and were about to start the descend, we met Mandar (planned, but unsure 😉) - our return ride.. 🙂

२२ मार्च २०१९

After discussing over other options, we settled for K2S night trek.. it was time now to better know members of SarPass (Himalayan) group 🏔️, planned for the month of May..

having different opinions, we started in 2 groups, old and new tunnel वाले, and decided to meet after the first mountain.. Having missed the left turn once getting on top of the tunnel, we had to carve out our way through the grown-up plants 🎋 till the actual trail..

we resumed after waiting a while, realising the other group was not close enough.. so the groups never met, except Adhikar and Shraddha who joined our group, Sunil and few others joining the other..

तिथीप्रमाणे शिवजयंती 🚩 असल्यामुळे घाट रस्त्यावर मशाली घेऊन धावणाऱ्यांचा देखावा बघण्यासारखा होता..

this time, it was non-stop activity till घाट रस्ता.. on the way, we also met Brijesh n wife (practicing for EBC), Rajesh and Shivkumar who had started in the evening..

sensing the lead, we (Vijay, Adhikar and me) also had addional wind pleasure from 'potato point' 🥔.. by the time we returned, Sujeet, Mahesh, Yojana and Shraddha joined us for the last leg, till the sunrise point by trekking / traversing the mountain seen from the Sinhgad parking in the east direction..

this K2S has a postscript - मिसळ पाव 🍲 at गुरुदत्त..

०५ एप्रिल २०१९

Shivkumar convinced me and Nilendra for evening K2S.. not sure if he wanted to make up for the slowness 🚶 from couple of weeks ago (stated above)..

with already Sinhgad-Vinzar planned for Saturday night, I agreed, sensing it won't spoil the Friday night part.. This time we did well to not miss the left turn ⬅️ but something different is meant to happen each time.. विधीलिखित असतं..

as far as I remember, this is the only trekking instance till date, where I must have (slightly) wounded myself, falling because of getting one of the 👟 shoes stuck in an outgrown root.. Fortunately, the magnitude was not bad enough to consider cancellation..

everything else went well as we joined घाट रस्ता, skipping last mountain (same as first time).. today tonight Mandar favoured us the pick-up 🚗.. Thanks buddy! 🤝

१४ डिसेंबर २०१९

'Idli and me' was now replaced by 'मराठी बाणा'.. realising after first few mountains that it will take forever to complete the trek because of having few first timers K2S and couple of first timers joining any trek; Rahul, known for his fitness 🏃, along with Neesha 🏃‍♀️, left us stranded and relished a good 2 hrs sleep 💤 under shed, immediately after last mountain descend..

when we reached, it was still 45 mins till sunrise.. few of us expressed desire of खेकडा भजी 🦂 (कांद्याचीच असते) and 3 of us (Harshad, Rahul and me) started walking / ascending the concrete road.. just in time of redrise 🌄, we reached sunrise point.. others had already made it, by artificial means 🚐.. and the same pattern followed the descending part..

the waiting time for bus at Atkarwadi was frustrating 😥.. डेक्कन ची bus धायरी फाट्याला जात नाही.. learned a thing, having to wait more 😢.. 

०७ फेब्रुवारी २०२०

K2S was part of recent discussions in Jitendra's team.. it got cancelled few months ago but this time everybody was mentally geared-up..

Nilendra and me had other plans 🤨, so were way ahead of others at a point in time.. but realising the situation and knowing by experience "there is always a next time", 🙂 happily rolled-it-back..

by now, Sakshi was fed-up of descending part - yes, K2S is of that kind.. in hopes of finding commutation till Donje, we decided to continue (and continued) till घाट रस्ता and dropped the idea of sunrise..

soon, we saw a jeep वाला to our rescue who dropped us till Donje, followed by another 40 mins wait till 06:00 a.m. bus 🚌..

all those were some specifics about the appearances so far.. and sure, there will be many more to come..

Why?

K2S is one of its perfect kind of range trek.. just enough composition of everything.. be it feet distance, total elevation gain or number of small / big mountains.. be it time required to complete it, risky-n-slippery descend or having to waste least of times in travelling.. be the steep ascend, rocks, grass or plants.. be it city visuals, cool breeze or the sunrise..

all this (indeed) makes it suitably top ☝️ the list of favourites..