Pristine Uttarakhand Cycling Tour

Dhanachuli is a pristine hamlet located close to the better-known town of Mukteshwar. On this day you will be picked up from Pant Nagar airport and driven to Dhanachuli, some 80kms due north and high up in the Himalayas. At 2100m above sea level, Dhanachuli is home to apple orchards, lush green forests, and some great vistas of the western Himalayas. In case you arrive early, we recommend taking a stroll around the village to take in the crisp mountain air and clear blue skies. In the evening we meet over dinner for a briefing and to perform a bike fit.

This is the first day of cycling. Today, we ride to the town of Mukteshwar some 15km from Dhanachuli. Mukteshwar is a small town immortalized by the British conservator and hunter Jim Corbett in his famous account of tiger hunting in Kumaon, the Man-eaters of Kumaon. Corbett called Mukteshwar one of the most beautiful spots in Kumaon, and it is a description that still holds true a hundred years later. We cycle up to a 350-year old Shiva temple that is perched atop the highest spot in Mukteshwar and offers great views of the surrounding valleys. We loop back to Dhanachuli through some beautiful scenery comprising of sylvan forests of pine, fir, and cypress.

Today's ride offers panoramic views of the Himalayas including the majestic Nanda Devi as we cycle to Itmenaan Estate, a fairytale resort in a peaceful rural setting near Binsar in the Kumaon Himalayas. The 100-year-old traditional Kumaoni style stone house in the resort has been painstakingly restored.

We ride north towards the hamlet of Binsar, famous for its wildlife sanctuary and its forests of the Himalayan broadleaf oak, a tree that once covered large parts of the western Himalayas but is now under threat. At 2400m above sea level, Binsar is the highest elevation we stay at during our trip. You can expect a few challenging uphills on today’s ride as we gain altitude. However, the effort comes with its just rewards. From its commanding height, Binsar offers views of Nanda Devi, the second-highest mountain in India, and one of the highest peaks in the world.

We give our bikes a rest to go hiking through the Binsar wildlife sanctuary. The sanctuary was built to preserve endangered Himalayan flora such as the Himalayan broad-leaf oak and the rhododendron. It is home to some 25 varieties of trees, 200 bird species, and wild animals such as leopards, the Himalayan goral, the red giant flying squirrel, and the pine marten. The hike through the sanctuary takes up to 4 hours. After the safari, we return to our hotel to enjoy a quiet evening.

You are in the august company here, for the hamlet of Kasar Devi in which our hotel is located was once an important node in the 1960s counterculture movement, having played home to singers Bob Dylan and George Harrison, the psychologist Timothy Leary, the poet Allen Ginsberg, and the writer D.H. Lawrence who spent two summers here. We highly recommend that you sit back and enjoy the vistas that inspired the creativity and inflamed the passions of some of the greatest artists, thinkers, and scientists of the twentieth century.

Get back on our bikes and head south-east towards Ranikhet, a small cantonment town nestled within sylvan forests of oak, pine, deodar, and rhododendron. Ranikhet is located at 1869m above sea level so we drop a little altitude on this day.

After breakfast, we ride due west to the world famous Jim Corbett national park. Named after the legendary British conservationist and hunter, it is the oldest national park in India and home to the endangered Bengal Tiger. Jim Corbett is located at an average altitude of 800m above the sea level so today’s ride has quite a few spectacular down hills that we are sure you will enjoy zipping through.

The Jim Corbett national park needs no introduction. Synonymous on the one hand with tales of splendor of the Raj and royalty, and on the other hand with the spectacular diversity of wildlife that India has to offer, the park is in many ways, the highlight of this mesmerizing trip. Spread over 520 sq kms of forests, rivers, swamps, and hills, Corbett is home to 50 species of mammals including the Bengal tiger, the wild Indian elephant, the Himalayan Black Bear, and leopards. We take a Jeep Safari into the national park on this day and enjoy our tryst with wildlife. In the evening we meet to celebrate the culmination of a fantastic adventure.

Late morning, we will make arrangements for a drop to the Pantnagar airport.