K2S Trek - 1 April 2016

Trek Activity: Katraj 2 Sinhgad Trek

Start Date: 1 April 2016

End Date: 2 April 2016

Participants: Mahesh M, Amit T, Vinit J, Vikram K, Santosh B, Nitin A, Pradip P, Pradeep, Sachin K, Brahma R, Santosh M, Yogesh S, Yogesh P, Rahul C, Bharat J

Katraj to Sinhgad, commonly known as K2S, is a famous trek for the Puneites. This is very treacherous and enduring trek and typically done at night time. Full moon light is preferred for this trek, and one can observe lot of people on the trek route during summer nights. I planned this trek was planned right after our Rajmachi trek on 11 March and date was finalized as Friday 1 April night, which had a 40% moon that too from 5 AM onwards. So most of the trek would have been in dark, and hence everybody was supposed to bring the torch.

We had ample time, and hence I was expecting large number of participants this time. I was the trek lead for this trek. After few drop outs, finally, we were 15 in total who were ready to go for this night trek. Everybody assembled at my home, from where I booked a bus which dropped us at Katraj tunnel. Initially, the plan was to start at 8 PM from my home, however it was 9 PM when everybody gathered. So we started bit late. Earlier we used to start this trek from Katraj old tunnel, but now we do this trek from Katraj new tunnel.

Out of 15, only 4 including me had done this trek before. So it was necessary to brief others about the trek details like path, breaks etc. At the assembly point of Katraj Khind Dhaba, I briefed everybody along with the do’s and don’ts for this trek. Fortunately, ours was the only group that night for the trekking. I asked Vikram and Pradeep to be in the front for this trek and Amit, Yogesh and I decided to be at the backside. Others were suggested to stay in the middle. We started the trek at 9:20 PM. We hiked the initial patch till hillock by 10:10 PM, which was quite a good speed considering the newcomers!! I brought parathas for everyone for dinner along with red spicy chutney and pickle. But the gang was in full speed and decided to break after some time. After crossing almost 20% of the distance and 3 hillocks, team finally stopped for food. We all enjoyed the parathas along with few fruits. We did a lot of fun during dinner. We all were together till this point of the trek. After 30 minutes of break, we continued our trek.

Distance between the front guys and back guys started increasing. At mid of the trek, the distance was almost 30 minutes. There is no water available on the trek route, hence everyone was advised to bring 3-4 liters of water with them. Yogesh brought 3 liters of water and had consumed it all till mid-way. It was then challenging to support him till the end. He started pulling his muscles on the way and we had to stop frequently to give him stretches!! Finally we reached the junction point, where trek route meets the tar road, and time was 5:10 AM. We (6) were almost 1 hour late than the plan and others had already on their way to Sinhgad, which is 3 kms away, on tar road. Luckily, we got 1 jeep at this junction, and Yogesh decided to go with it. We, then started walking towards Sinhgad fort and successfully reached there before 6 AM. After few stretches and cup of tea, everyone witnessed the wonderful sunrise from the fort.

Bharat, Vinit, Amit and I decided to walk down the fort, whereas others planned to go down by jeep. We had a group photograph here before separating. It was an awesome trek with no injuries! Last time, I had a shoulder muscle pull. It took more than 4 months for recovery. After enjoying the superb delicacy available at the fort - curd in the matka and limbu-pani, we started for return. On the way back, I threw seeds of different fruits and other trees in the valley. Hopefully, few seeds may survive and in future, we can have trees there!

We took 45 minutes for descent. Total time was 9 hours and distance travelled was 23 kms. After enjoying the misal-pav at the base, we caught the bus to return to the home.

How to get There: This trek starts from Katraj tunnel (Old as we as new). Catch a bus or auto from the city to reach there. From here, the trek starts and one has to cross 13-14 hillocks to reach the Sinhgad fort. Carry enough water as water is not available on the route.