the rantings of a slow trekker

I was just browsing through some TED vidoes, and saw this one on "In praise of slowness".

(Edit:: Everything I write down here is my personal opinion, not intended to offend anyone else. You need not agree with me.)

 I could connect instantly with the idea. My weekend activity mainly comprises of Trekking and cycling. I have been trekking for just over an year. We go in groups of 5-15 people. Sometimes they are my college friends and sometime i go out with new people, whom I meet for the first time on these treks.

Our treks comprise of hiking in the forests of Western Ghats, up and down over mountain ranges. From my first trekking expeditions, I have been one of the last trekker in the group. Mostly my fellow trekkers would be waiting for me and resting at some place. Well i confess,  I am slow, because my stamina is lower, I get exhausted quickly. But I dont get the point, what's the hurry.

Most of the cases we have a plan, we have to reach a certain destination before it gets dark. So there's a tight schedule, we dont have much time to waste. What happens as a result is that, we keep running. When you have a beautiful sight, some interesting plant, a flower, some bird, a snake, a waterfall, or anything that catches your attention, something that you want to observe, you want to enjoy, you dont have the time to enjoy it. Because 10 other people in your group are waiting for you, you are slowing down everyone else. Because you are wasting time, you are jeopardizing the plan. So you ignore it all and keep running.

Now my question is why do we trek. Just to run around, reach some destination, camp there, and again run back out of the forests. If you are in such a hurry to get out of the forests, why go there in the first place?

I have trekked in groups of 5, 10 and even 16. I find it comfortable to trek in groups of bigger size, because bigger groups move slower, and its easier to remain at the back of a bigger group.

From my first days of trekking, I have enjoyed walking slowly, mostly acting as the sweeper. The guy who's the last in the group and ensures no one's really behind him. This gives me an opportunity to be relaxed. To enjoy the experience, to observe the surroundings, to be slightly alone even in a big group. I am specially fascinated by forests. The infinite varieties of trees, the strangest birds chirping,  even stranger insect sounds, some distant gushing of streams. I have no idea how can I enjoy them, if I am running to reach my destination. When you are slow, you experience the quietness, the stillness and the calmness of nature. I have strange adrenaline rush whenever I am the last person in a dense forest, and I look back to realize there is no human being for at least 5-10kms behind me.

I am sure everyone has their own objective of trekking. Every avid trekker gets attracted to the mountain ranges and forests by some invisible force which is unique for him/her. But my 1 year's experience has one observation, everyone is racing to reach the destination. Any "slow" trekker is looked down upon. Guys slowing down are scolded and advised to speed up and hurry up. They are most likely to be left out during the next adventure trip, because they slow down the group.

Of-course we are bound by time. Every trek has a plan. We have to reach a camping spot, or get out of the forests, or reach a mountain peak before its dark, before sunset. We have to set up our camp, using tents or tarpaulin sheets. Fetch water, collect firewood, setup fire, start cooking. All these have to be done before its too dark. So obviously you cant be slow, and remain stuck inside a forest after dark. And in exploration treks, the risks are higher, you are not sure of the destination, you have to search the route, get lost, you dont know how far you have to hike and find a suitable camping spot. So its always a race against time.

Also every trekker wants to push their own limits. We continue trekking even when our legs hurt, the knee aches, the shoulders are paining by the heavy backpack. We are not afraid of getting hurt, getting exhausted or suffering pain. No one really can answer the question, that why do we trek? inspite of all the hardships, why do we trek? Why not just sit back on your couch and watch discovery or a Jackie Chan flick for all the adrenaline rush. Trekkers walk 15-20kms carrying 10-15kgs of backpacks under scorching sun, during heavy rains, with creatures like leeches trying to suck blood from all the exposed parts of the body.

I am sure everyone has their objective. But I fail to understand one thing, what's with the race to reach the destination. More so, whats the hurry to get out of the forest on the last day of the trek.

The trails we follow are not smooth paved roads. Sometime they are full of boulders, sometime waterlogged muddy trails, sometime slippery grasses or thorny bushes or even huge dead branches. Well whatever the kind of trail, you can almost never walk blind folded on these trails. You are sure to stumble and fall down if you are not looking down at where you are stepping. The point I am getting at is while hiking we are almost always looking down at our trail. We are not able to look at the beautiful nature around us, the forests, the grasslands, the strange flowers, the rare birds, the peak hiding behind the clouds. Whats the purpose of coming into the wilderness if we cant enjoy all these things. If I dont have time to look around myself, why am I here?

Then again, everyone is reluctant of going off the trail and exploring someplace not leading to the destination. I find it difficult to convince people to come with me and climb up and down a nearby small peak, or go up a small waterfall, or just down a stream, just for the fun of it. Rarely anyone's interested in going off the route just for the sake of exploring. Maybe because they think its a waste of energy and time, which they can use to reach the destination faster. Maybe they are already tired. Well I dont know the answer, but this is what I have experienced a couple of times.

One of my best experiences of trekking was when we were lost in Kabinale forest, and we gave up our quest for OG. As a result we were not bound by time, we were not looking at reaching at anywhere particular. So we were relaxed, walking slowly enjoying the river gushing in the middle of the dense forest. I realized we were more so enjoying the current moment, instead of worrying about reaching somewhere else.


Having said that, we should not be lazy, and hide behind the excuse of "enjoying the surroundings" , and give up the quest for pushing our limits and exploring the unknown. Its another extreme, when we are so relaxed and "slow" that we never try hard to reach our destination, we give up whenever we are tired. This extreme is when we are afraid of pain and exhaustion.
We have to be strong enough to reach unexplored wilderness, to cross great gushing rivers and streams, climb highest peaks and overcome all the obstacles. The journey of reaching our destination, usually lasts longer than the destination itself. So the experience during our journey should be cherished more than anything else.

the Night Trek to Makalidurga

For a long time we wanted to spend a full moon night camping on some hill.
At last our opportunity was there. Mails from BASC made us realized coming weekend was a full moon. So myself and Afzal quickly planned a night trek to Makalidurga. Makalidurga was chosen since we had been to that place earlier. And It is best not to explore new places in the dark. And also the easiest transport to Makalidurga was the train.

So it was all planned up, 5 of  us were confirmed to going to the night trek. Afzal bought chicken kabab, grilled chicken and tandoori. Ready for a complete feast.
I reached early and booked our tickets, afzal and myself went to the station and boarded the train. Others arrived just in time to catch the train.

But we were in for a big dissapointment, there was some sort of cyclone hitting chennai, and as a result we would have a clouded sky. our entire plan for a clear full moon sky was dangling. Stil we kept our hopes up, and expected it to be  a clear sky at makalidurga. But we were ot be dissapointed. We reached makalidurga, and sadly it was drizzling there.
The station master was surprised that we chose a dark, raining night for the night trek. After having a part dinner, we started walking on the rail track.
Well I have done quite a few treks on rail tracks in the western ghats, but this was different. in western ghats the frequency of trains is much less, so there is practically very less danger. One train we were able to spot, but the second time, the train came, so silently we could just jump off hte track in time. Everyone realised how lucky we were.
Other than this small thrilling moment, waking on rail track was dry. I was meanwhile tracking our trail on android. After walking for 2kms on rail track there is a crossing where we have to go off the track and take the left. You cannot miss this crossing since it is the only chance you will get to get off the track since the station.
This is a proper off road, which is even marked on google maps. just a few minutes ahead we find a temple to our left. After the temple we walk for almost 3-4 kms just to reach the proper trail. And the worst part is we loose altitude. The rail track is at approx at 800 mts altitude and while going round the hill we climbed down to 700metres.

We were already tired even before the ascne began, we took a couple of breaks. Everyone was getting impatient, we had covered approx 5-6kms and stll we were not even climbing the hill. At last it looked like we have reache dthe proper trail, and i checked my gps, yes at last we start climbing.

We have to mention, our aim was to do the trek in moonlight, but it was exactly the opposite, completely clouded, we could not see the moon for even a second. I have no idea if is darker  during new moon.
Anyway this trek is impossible without torches. Soon the teperature started dropping, but still since we were climbing with heavy backpacks, our body was warm. we were taking rest while climbing up. as we entered the forests, it started becomnnig dark..
and soon we were trekking amongst clouds. the effect of torch light is amazing here.
you can actually see the exact cone of the torch in this dark.
specially because of the mist. anyway the gps came handy in finding the route in the dark. and also the trail was clearly visible in most part of the trek.

After climbing for about 6-8kms we finally reched the peak. WE were all completely exhausted, even though we were taking lots of rests, it was a tiring hike. the experience of climbing in the dark is really amazing.

We thought of exploring the peak, but it was really difficult to do so in the complete darkness. so we camped near the temple. we finished our packed dinner, and it was a feast. ...............

anil, ankit and deb sleeped inside the tent, and myself and afzal settled inside the temple. we slept inside our sleeping bags alongside some creepy creatures crawling inside the temple.

We woke up late at 7am and missed our train and even the sunruse,...

to be continued.