It's been eight months since that trip and I was dying to go out to the trails to check out what the rains had done to the trail. Also, given how hard the ride is, I could check whether I've improved or not.
A friend and I set out to ride out to Manchanbele via T G Halli. That implies the use of Magadi Road which till the Nice Ring Road is pure hell. Once out of that stretch, however, Magadi's an extremely interesting road, to say the least. Even though a Manchanbele trip is around 97km, even shorter than Nandi, it is always harder. Magadi is an undulating road, with lots of ups and downs, but unlike Mysore Road, it tends to be fairly balanced about the lengths of the ups and the downs. It's also surrounded by greenery and has few, if any, settlements around it. We rode the 41km to our breakfast point in about an hour and a half.
Once we had breakfast, it was trail time! We "discovered" this trail on our last trip, and I really wanted to see what the rains would've done. Indeed, I was afraid I would be too late, and in some ways, I was. There was no water near the rocks, but the trail follows the path of a river that is dammed by the Chamaraja Sagar Dam, and there was water! For all its lakes, Bangalore seriously lacks visible rivers, and I was excited to see the rivulet. After some fun fording some shallow parts, we continued onto Manchanbele. After resting a while, we began our climb back to the Institute.
Instead of taking the Mysore Road like last time, we decided to take a route discovered and suggested by other members of the bicycling club. Although half of the length of this route was a mud road, I must admit, compared to riding on Mysore Road, this was heaven. Riding through a field of wild jasmines cemented this feeling. A few scattered villages, but ultimately we got back to Magadi Road without any of the stress I had experienced last time. We were back in the Institute by 4.30PM.
Compared to the older ride, which was my second ride, I must say this ride was far easier on my body. Clearly, some improvement in riding strength!
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