A Day Trek to Uttari Betta

Preparation and the Night Before

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Unlike the usual weekends of planning to do ‘productive things’, wanted to shift that a bit and also start New Year with a fresh breeze. Booked the slot on Friday morning to Uttari Betta with Bangalore Mountaineering Club. Don’t expect more details about the trek. You’ll get it in the above link 🙂

After a late night binging on comedy movies and putting 3-5 alarms on different device; woke up at 5 am; showers and formalities, had the usual [oats+whey+banana] meal and made a peanut butter sandwich. I was getting late and didn’t want other to wait for me and in the hurry, I wore my road-running shoes instead of a more trek suitable one. Realized only after reaching the pickup point. Hoped they would withstand the torture. Pickup was at around 7:05 am and I got the last but one seat.

Bus Journey and Breakfast

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Having forgotten my pen, made unsuccessful attempts at getting a quick nap till the breakfast point around 8:15 am. Have good conversation with Mr. Patil, Prasthuthi and Abdul while having Idli and a coffee. Post breakfast, asked Supriya-our trek leader for a pen. (I promise I’ll return this back in the next trek we meet) And till the remainder of the bus journey, kept uncluttering my monkey mind and got so many thoughts. Really felt rejuvenated already!

Also, the bus journey was kind of a warmup to the trek with the jumps and bumps at every pothole! 😀

Start of Trek till the Peak

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Reached the trek spot around 10:30 and after climbing up a bit we all had our introductions 🙂 and a brief about the trek from our other trek leader Praveen. Then continued trekking up and started conversing with Aditya and reached pitstop 1 at a temple after 30 minutes.
Aditya knows rule #54 of trekking. Add value first by asking to click a picture and only then ask a picture of yourself 😀 Good number of pictures and loitering around.

We then made our way to the peak through dry grasslands and reached the peak. The trek leaders split us into two groups where the first stopped to have lunch and the second went to a nearby cave and that’s when I realized I had dropped my jacket somewhere and rushed to find it. finally found it at the start of the dry grassland trail.

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Started having lunch of Khichdi and Raiti provided by the team while conversing on Covid spreading, rock formations and trek food ideas 😀

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Once the first group were back, the rest of us went to climb inside the cave and what an experience it was. Twisting ankles, waist, neck while unsuccessfully trying to brush away the thought of 127 Hours happening. Upon reaching the peak, heard Aniket mentioned the same movie 😀 After feeling the cool breeze for a while, we cheered on as Mrs. Prakash and Mr&Mrs. Patil made their way up. Inspiring! The way back down was easier. Phew!

Descent and Bus Journey

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Short conversation with Kanchan while the leaders had their lunch and we then had the group pictures and made our way down to the base. Probably most of us were tired, the trek down and the bus journey back was a bit dampened. After a quick nap and chai stop where Supriya(also an architect) and Praveen shared their trek stories but in tiny bits (please start writing it guys!! :D), Andy and I conversed about Devil’s circuit, Spartan Race, Ironman, Instagram Influencers, etc. Some songs and conversations about city and IT with Aditya and we reached our drop point. Good bye’s!

Humans of the Trek

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To-Do’s/Thought Experiments

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1. Thought I had good conversations with some, I definitely missed out on conversing with others.
   So, acquaint early, remember names and bios during introductions, learn conversation starters. Do Ice-Breakers.
2. Picture and a story with every fellow trekker?
3. Have a template in mind and make use of the go-pro duh!

What Next?

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1. Immediately buy gear
   => Shoes, sleeves, cap, trousers, binoculars(?), glasses, backpack, gels
2. Kumar Parvat trek on Jan 28th?