LOST EIGHT (Asherigad Trek & Kohoj Trek).

After almost three weeks of hectic days & keeping my desperation to wander in wild under control I was finally gifted with some free time. Selected two locations “Asherigad & Kohoj”. And built a team of eight,Kohoj was added later keeping Swapnil’s keenness in mind.

Kohoj was a place I had been before & when I conquered it last time I called it “KHOJ” only due to the difficulty in tracing the route; also can’t forget Mr. Dumbledore here ( A Human Shaped Pinnacle) whom I had kissed after my achievement last time. I named it so coz it resembles that character in Harry Potter’s Tales.

Plan: Book a Qualis; Leave Mumbai by 03:00 AM & reach Khodkona (Base Village of Asherigad) by 05:30 AM, Trek Asherigad & Drive to Vaghote (Base Village of Kohoj),Trek Kohoj & Drive back home.


Team: Jay, Swapnil, Ram, Pradeep, Abhishek, Jagdish, Chandrasekhar & Hiren.

Asherigad Details:
Type: Hill Fort
Fort Range: Palghar
District: Thane
Height above sea level: 1680 ft.
Difficulty rating: Medium
Base village: Khodkona
Appx. Time to reach the top: 3 hrs from the base village.

Kohoj Details:
Type: Hill Fort
Fort Range: Palghar
District: Thane
Height above sea level: 3200 ft.
Difficulty rating: Medium
Base village: Vaghote
Appx. Time to reach the top: 2 hrs from the base village.

Asherigad Trek : Starting at 03:10 from Kandivli, we drove 112 KM (i.e. 10 KM from Mastan Naka) on the Mumbai – Ahmedabad highway and took a left turn for a bullock-cart road & parked our vehicle at the end of this road. By now it was 05:30; we decided to take a small break and then started the trail through a small bridge which leads to a wooden gate; crossing the same we passed by a temple. Way ahead through few fields and you are into the Khodkona Village. Moving out of the village & you start seeing arrow-marked route to Asherigad. Slowly the route climbs up steep and zigag, within an hour’s time we were at the col, rested for few minutes to take a breather after a tough steep climb. Moving right takes you to the rock patch which has hyped this trek as hard, but frankly it’s quite easy with the iron ladder on it. Walking further right for some distance & you are on the top of hill. There are no great remnants here; only few water tanks, one Monsoon Lake, and on the right of the path one can see few remnants of settlements. And also few foundations with gutters cut in them. These could be to collect the rainwater during the rainy season or to lead away the overflow. The cave on the top is of medium size, it is currently being dwelled by locals and they have almost made it look like a hut. There are few hibiscus bushes outside the cave entrance. We spotted two historic carvings, one was a crown /sheild figure on a stone slab at the rock patch end and a Ganesh Idol carving before the rock patch. After refreshing ourselves with Amul buttermilk & some snacks at the lake we decided to descend (Time: 08:50) & thus reached the base village by 10:30.














Kohoj Trek: Waving Asherigad goodbye we got into our vehicle and drove back to the W.E Highway, halted at a restaurant for munching breakfast. With our silent stomach we moved to Vaghote, which is on the Wada road to the left of W.E Highway towards Mumbai. Moving along a heart shaped lake then through fields and then taking a left turn at another lake called Paazhar. Slowly we found ourselves in a forest; with no signs of any arrow marks and full of crisscrossed paths with knee height grass growth all around. I started looking for the sign to start the climb, but Swapnil had some other plans. He repeated the same mistake which I did last time “Choosing to climb the massif vertically”. Except Pradeep & Me, all followed him. Both of us were still looking for the right route. And our effort didn’t go in vain & we started climbing from there. But my mind was still wandering to know the whereabouts of other members; it was quite hot and I knew it would make it much tougher for them to move from that route. Finally we reached the col and waited for them; they made it too of course after a lot of struggle and they elaborated the experience as “Having Sex with Death”. Refreshing ourselves we reached the top. Sitting next to Mr. Dumbledore we witnessed the beautiful scenic views all around us. Keeping the darkness and the dense forest in mind we descended soon, once we were in the dense area darkness followed and we couldn’t trace down the route. Soon we understood that we were in need of some assistance, we called our driver and informed him to ask for help from the locals; within 30 min we were rescued by the villagers and finally we heaved a sigh of relief. We were informed by the villagers that there is no wildlife on this mountain, so we even had an option to wait there till morning. I hope the team understood now the reason for me in pushing them to move faster, if they would have heard me we we would have made it quite easily.Even after my second trek to this place I would still call it “KHOJ”and NOT KOHOJ.

We all will remember this achievement of trekking 4820ft in the October heat i.e. 1620ft (Asherigad) + 3200ft (Kohoj). Atleast for me the halt at the jungle and cry for help will stay long in my mind, since it’s the first time such a thing has happened in my entire trekking life.