Trek to Gorakhgad

After completing the Peb/Vikatgad fort trek in late summer season we kept our plans on hold till the weather gets gelid by showers of rain.  With Monsoon gathering pace, Mumbai started its journey of rain in the first week of June, so did we with our trekking season.On 23rd June 2016 we decided to start the first trek of monsoon season with destination as Gorakhgad fort.

The fort lies in Dehri village of Thane district which is 50kms from Kalyan thus well connected via road by Mumbai as well as Pune thus making it possible to wind it up in a day. Destination is not renowed among trekking groups and thus  the frequency of trek events conducted here by treks groups are low.

Ketan,Me,Mehatab,Vishal &Abhilash(Left to Right)

The day commenced at 4:10 in morning with packing trekking stuff followed by a mini-breakfast, left home at 5:10 am to board 5:36 am local train towards Churchgate. We been group of 5 dwelled across different locations within Mumbai and thus decided to meet at Kalyan Station by hopping into a common train departing from CST at 6:27 am for Badlapur and reaching Kalyan at 7:40 am.

Reaching Kalyan St Depot and boarding the immediate available bus towards Murbad was the next plan of action. Kalyan St depot is located within radius of 100 metre from Kalyan Station. After enquiring we found a bus halted at stop No.2 with Kurla as originating point and destination as Ghodegaon passing with a halt at Murbad St Depot.

This bus originated from Kurla St depot at 7:45 am.

We hopped into it and found only last seat empty thus geared up ourselves for a bumpy ride ahead but luckily 90 percent of the bus route passed through NH 666/21 with good road condition thus allowing us to be in one piece after getting down. Bus reached Murbad at 9:00 am with a ticket cost of Rs. 30 per person. Next Bus to Dehri from Murbad was at 10:00 am. 

Halting so much time was not a good idea so we opted for alternative mode of transport and reached Dehri via Jeep with Rs. 35 per person on a sharing bases. Fill as much as you can rule was applied by driver so 14 people hopped in and we were ready to go with some members of our group losing their window seat.

View from local road while reaching Dehri

The jeep travelled along the NH 222/NH 61 and took a left turn that leads to Shivale College. Marvelously mountain stood clear and bright on both sides of this local road with clouds enclosing them and the fresh weather along with mild morning breezes provided a fantastic view of nature.

The vegetation here is thick, dry trees with fallen leaves represented the scorching heat that this region would have received during summer season. The villagers were busy chopping the branches of these dried trees for collecting woods that gets used mostly in cook stoves.

View from Drop-off point in Dehri Village

Ducks near Dehri Bus stop

The jeep dropped us at Dehri Bus stop just near the gigantic and parallelly aligned  mountains named Gorakhgad  and Machhindragad.

View from drop-off point

They were exactly in our eye frontal view at a distance of around 500 metre from drop-off point so we were sure that it would be a route with high gradient and tough climbing patches because we were standing just beneath them.

Millipede

There were many millipedes spotted on our entire trek route.

Nearby Dehri bus stop there were few fruits shop selling apples, bananas, coconut etc. followed by some local shops selling snacks items.

A person named Amit Patel sits aside a forecourt of a house near bus stop/drop-off point and maintains a record of people visiting the fort. He also arranges facilities for breakfast/ lunch/ dinner and asked us to inform about our needs a hour earlier on his phone. Amit Patel Contact No.: 9822234225

Well on the left side of path that leads to gorakshnath temple

Turn to first left after spotting the well above.The trek trail starts from the Gorakshnath temple situated on first left at the road-head going from Dehri to Murbad. Gorakshnath temple is within 250 metre from Dehri bus stop.

Route that leads to temple

Gorakshnath temple

Google Co-ordinates for locations:

Jeep Drop-off point/Bus stop: 19.204186, 73.532722

Gorakshnath temple: 19.202231, 73.531585

Gorakhad peak point: 19.1920325,73.5402086

Courtyard at backside of temple

Trail at the right side of temple to reach Gorakhgad

On reaching near temple turn towards your right and follow the trail that passes from backyard of temple, it will lead you to gorakhgad fort. Route comprises of multiple divertions with many of them converging back into main route, So very little chances of getting out of way beside that there are stones painted with marked directions pointing to gorakhgad helping you to be on the way.

Direction markings on a stone

Route

There is no warm-up period for beginners as path is very steep at the beginning and would be difficult to endure for beginners. It’s like starting your trek with a gradient of 140 degree steep climbs.

Route with muddy terrain

View from route [Macchindragad & Gorakhgad(left to right)]

It’s advisable to walk slowly on routes passing through muddy terrains as the muddy patches get loosed during rainy seasons. Going at slow pace also prevents tiring up while walking on those steep climbs just at the beginning of trek. We took around 5 minutes break for 3 times in the first hour itself which was followed by a half hour photo session at a riveting spot.

                       Left side view from route

You will spot the above view on the left side of your route while ascending to Gorakhgad.

Flowers blooming after early showers of monsoon

There is a shiv temple at the mid-path of trek with informative boards  put up by authorities here. The route ahead now comprises of rocky patches and steep climbs and no more muddy terrains ahead.

Shiv-temple

On the route alongside the temple there are informative boards displayed.

Informative Board 1

Informative Board 2

Follow the trail passing through these informative boards.

First cave

This was the first cave spotted by us, the route to reach near it is slippery with small cuts in rocks.  I predicted the carved surface area of rock around 500sq ft. My eagerness to look into it landed me there, but was disappointed to see only a small surface area carved in it.

Cave ends with just a small surface carved in it

We spotted few more caves with Cave 3 been the biggest of all in Gorakhgad.

Cave 2

Cave 3

Campfire in cave 3

There was also a campfire burnt by some trekker group inside the caves with wood ash scattered nearby.

Inner view of caves

Views from cave

A few rocky steps and patches are required to be climbed to reach Shiv-temple that lies in mid-way. They provide you good warm-up time needed before ascending the steps of final pinnacle.

Gorakhgad Pinnacle spotted after Shiv temple

Ascending this pinnacle will give you a chance to test your rock climbing skills.

    

Views of steps on the pinnacle

The steps and rocky patches on this pinnacle are difficult to ascend and descend. You get a clear view of steps while ascending with backpack on your backside whereas in descending your view gets restricted as steps have small holds and it gets difficult to pull away yourself from rocky walls to get a more clear view, moreover backpacks weight hanging away from your body makes balancing yourself intricated. It is just tricky not at all tough but doing it wrong way will trouble you a lot.

View while climbing the steps

Rings drilled inside rocks

We spotted around 3 to 5 such rock climbing rings at a distance of around 400 metre apart which can be used for tying trekking ropes. Just be sure to check their weight bearing strength before using them, it’s a good idea to tie multiple ropes on separate rings to add more safety.

View from route

There is little space to adjust your foots on the carved steps, it’s like adjusting two foots in landspace of one foot. At such time balancing your body-weight is challenging thus avoiding baggage in such times helps a lot. Trench are carved in some steps to provide grip but these trench get filled with wet sand during rainy seasons thus reducing the grip you would get during summer seasons.

Shiv temple at peak point

With multiple breaks amounting to duration of 45 minutes to 1 hour we reached peak point at 12:30pm. Localites need only 1 hour to cover this distance we spotted a few villagers with pace equivalent to a marathon runner making 20 minutes more than sufficient for them to descend.

Some snaps clicked from peak point.

Machhindragad from peak point of Gorakhgad

Mountains lying in Ahupe region

Mountains lying in Ahupe region

We then had our mini-lunch over the peak followed by some photo sessions. The scenic beauty from here is mesmerizing with a lot of greenery as the fort is situated in Bhimashankar wildlife reserve some of the early rain showers made the natural flora and fauna alive. It would be fun to visit at the end of September with nature blooming and presenting its most vivid shades of green.

A detailed geographical map can be gauged from peak point with  Gorakhgad holding the center position and been surrounded by other mountains lying in Bhimashankar and Kalsubai-Harishandragad wildlife sanctuary.  These clear view reminded me that why this fort was chosen as a watchtower for route passing from Ahupe to Junnar.

Mountains in Ahupe region were completely covered by clouds indicating about upcoming stormy rains but neither rainstorm nor the clouds approached Gorakhad due to changing wind currents.

Water cistern at mid-way of route

Muddy trails to the left side of temple entrance on peak point leads to water cistern. Water in this cistern is clean as compared to all other cisterns maybe due to its distant and out-of-the-way location.

Resting spot under the shades of tree

Our next lunch break and a rest session started at 3:00 pm which continued for a hour. At 5:00 pm we reached Gorakshnath temple.

There is a bus from Dehri to Murbad at 5:00 pm which was out of schedule and thus left at 5:30 pm dropping us at Murbad St depot at 6:30 pm. Bus route was lengthy filled with many potholes  and different from the Jeep route which dropped us at base village in morning.
  

On reaching Murbad ST depot the next bus to Kalyan was at 7:30 pm so we opted for sharing jeep with Rs.35 per person which reached Kalyan at 7:45 pm thus making it possible for us to board 8:03 pm local to  Dadar and thus ending our first monsoon trek with valuable memories and experiences of rock climbing .

Location	Gorakhgad
Base Village	Dehri in Thane district(50 Kms from Kalyan station)
Reaching there	1)ST buses from Kalyan-Murbad@Rs.33 then change Murbad-Dehri@Rs. 26 2)Sharing jeeps from Kalyan-Murbad@Rs.35 then Murbad-Dehri@Rs.30
Jeep driver(Dropped us to Dehri from Murbad) Contact on:	9130198222
Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner facilities by Amit Patel Contact On:	98222234225
Required time	2 hours from dehri as base village
Resting spots	Cave No. 3 and a temple in midway(see pics above)
Facilities	1)Fruits and local shops available at base village. 2)Courtyard for rest at Gorakshnath temple.