Trek to Bhimashankar via Siddhagad ( Umbara ghat )
25/12/2025,
Umbara ghat via siddhagad is a very old route which was used by villagers to cross over to siddhagad from kondval area before gaydara ghat became most preferred route. (kindly note, this route does NOT begin from bhai Kotwal Smarak). this route had got fully abandoned and very least known by trekkers and even villagers lately, so we decided to go and have some adventure. as it was a long weekend, me and 4 others well experienced trekkers got ready for this expedition. we clubbed this trek with reverse of Lo-Bhi,, i.e. bhimashankar to lonavala, as it was an weekends, we diverted towards rajmachi and got off towards kondhane.. now to the trek part..
We started the gathered at kalyan station are 6 am in the morning, to move towards uchale which is base of siddhagad.. later found out that all ST busses going towards malshej have been moved to vitthalwadi ST stand, we then took a train to V.wadi to get a bus to murbad,, we reached murbad around 8,, had breakfast and took bus of 8:50 to khopivli and got off at daheri. our approx 90 kms long trek begins from here.
We then reached uchale and took left turn towards dhapad pada and then to siddhagad machi and took a break at the temple. after a brief halt, we took the route just behind the temple towards the col of siddhagad and damdama.. the route descends towards the back side of siddhagad and takes a right turn for around 5 mins walk,, and then sharp left. where there is a small temple, jakhmata temple. and descends into a small plateau with forest cover later after crossing the temple.. here onwards the route becomes fully invisible,, we full relied on gps of the route hence forth from a app called mapy.com. kindly use that app for gps,,its fully accurate till the end.. just keep on the route mentioned in the app even if u have to cut through the forest.. it took use several hours to reach a junction point where route from bhai kotwal smarak meets this route on a small rocky plateau with sparse trees.. we have opened the route fairly by cutting our way through it.. roughly 5-6 kms of patch u will find it quite difficult to keep on the route.. there are no rock patches for climbing till the junction from the siddhgad side.. kindly use the mapy.com app.. after the junction starts a difficult level rock patch which we did in a pitch dark light as sun had already set by the time we reached the rocky patch area,, around 250-300 meter rock climb patch would need to be climbed.
Around 50 meters before we reach the deccan plateau, there is a big alcove were 10 ppl can easily sleep, we rested the night in that cove as we were excessively tired and it was very dark. that alcove was best bet for night halt in entire route.. next day early morning we climbed rest of the patch and reached the top.. route goes from the roof of the alcove itself and takes right turn,,, keep as much on middle and right till u see a man made wall of rocks,, route is right behind that broken man made wall of rocks.. it will lead u to deccan plateau., later on its just a simple walk for several kms to reach kondaval and then bhima shankar.. it will take atleast 4 hrs from once u reach the top from umbrakhind till bhimashankar temple..
