A journey from 0 to Fitness infinity!: June 2014

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Family treks to Sinhagad

The previous post was a prelude to the Sinhagad trek we did in June. Next goal was Sinhagad with family ... A couple of years back we had done Sinhagad hike with the kids, but back then we had driven to the top and hiked 1/2 to 3/4 way down and then climbed up. It was time they did the full thing now. I had done a couple of Sinhagad hikes myself with friends and had managed a personal best of 45 minutes for the climb ... the slowest of us had done it in 1:30 hours. So I had figured my wife and kids would be able to do it for sure ... so we decided to do it together with the kids.

Both Tosha and Aryaa had a lot of fun doing the trek. They were bored and extremely tired in the initial half patch where the trail is simply a road with a steady climb. The halfway mark was not coming too fast for their comfort. Had to keep on motivating them a lot. Their fitness level was good but mental motivation was the issue.

After a couple of gatorades and raw mangoes/cucumbers later at the halfway patch changed things for the better. Energy level went up. Beyond the halfway mark the trail also provides a lot of potential of doing rock climbing if you take short cuts. We took all the short cuts from there on to keep it exciting for the kids. They so look forward to taking those short cuts. Reminded me of my young days when I used to look forward to those short cuts while doing these hike with dad as well. :-) Towards the end the sagging fatigue and motivation levels again went up as we started hearing the chatter as we neared the top! Finally we made it to the top in 1:45 hours.

A barrier crossed.

Sinhagad scaled!!
Jai Bhavani Jai Shivaji!!!
Har har mahadeo!!
'Gad aala ani Sinha/Sinhin pun aali'!!

Had a few glasses of buttermilk and dahi. ukadlelya shenga .. raw mangoes ... avale ... the works! :) Spent an hour or so at the top ...
Climbing down was a different story though. It now quite sunny ... was around 11 am or so. They had to literally drag their feet to get down. Aryaa especially was very tired. Made it to the bottom in another hour and half. Nice Jhunka bhakari in a dhaba there .. and off we were back to home.

Girls resting at halfway point. Gatorade is the savior!


Aryaa rock climbing @ a shortcuts		Made it!

Overall a great experience ... Didnt have to push them too hard either. So the door to go again is wide wide open! :-)

A month later we went again .. this time with the Pingles. Tosha Aryaa and Sonali were now experts. Monsoons plus increased fitness level plus competition between kids helped up go to the top in less time than last time. With higher energy as well. This is becoming a regular family thing now! Happy :-)

Beautiful Sahyadris

You can see Khadakwasla dam in the background

At Halfway mark

The first shortcut

Much needed refreshment break at halfway mark

Rock climbing that makes the climb more exciting

Made it to the top!!

The family also gets on the fitness bandwagon ... Fort Visapur trek

While my running and cycling adventures were ongoing, I always wanted to do it with my family as well. Sonali was always in favor of doing these outdoor fitness activities and use them as a family bonding time. Now the task was to convince the kids and get them to do it and have fun while doing it.

Daughters had loved hiking in the past, so decided to use that as a way to get them started. Dedicating this post to a slight throwback on the previous treking trip we had while we are at it ... Last one we had done was to Fort Visapur. Its near Lonavala ... you can see the 2 adjoining forts Lohagad and Visapur from the expressway on your left going from Pune to Mumbai near Malavali. Had done Visapur as about 20 years back in monsoon with the SP gang - Ashish, Tushar, Sagar, Nitin. Great fun ... and carried good memories of the climb.

Went this time with Bhartiyas and family. Initially we werent sure we could attempt Visapur, so parked near Lohagad and thought we would attempt Lohagad and go for Visapur next time. But as Lohagad was only a half an hour climb, thought we might just as well go to Visapur which would be a 2-3 hours trek at least. Kids were upto it ... so here we go.

Its a nice climb of about an hour and half with family. Climb is about 250-300 meters ... distance to top is about 3 km from the Lohagad parking lot. There are 2 ways to get there. One way is from Bhaje caves from the front. And another way climbs from the back from a road that comes from Fort Lohagad. We decided to do the back route as it was through a water channel with a lot of rock climbing involved. Knew kids would love it.

Great experience and overall everyone had fun. It is in fact easier than Sinhagad overall. No commercialization enroute and its in pristine condition at the top. Quite dry as well on the top, and very few trees on the plateau at the top. So be prepared to protect against the sun. Also no food or water at the top ... so need to carry your own. There are a few remnants remaining of the old fort at the top. A 'jaata' and remnants of a dhanya kothar. The fort border (tatbandi) is reasonably intact. In monsoons this is quite a green fort. In Feb it is quite dry though at the top.

We came back down after exploring the fort at the top for an hour or so.