A good traveler has no fixed plans and is never intent on arriving.
A tourist sees what he has come to see, but a traveler sees and enjoys whatever is on the display.
Expect more, Prepare for the worst, Until you are not on the summit, You are not there.
Date: 28/May/2011
Trekkers: Me, Harsha, Jyothi, Hemanth
Route: Bangalore -- Hassan -- Mudigere -- Kottigehara -- Kalasa -- Samse -- BaLgal (325kms) by bus, BaLgal -- Mullodi (6km) by Jeep.
Trek distance: 10km one way.
Difficulty level: Easy to Moderate, Tougher in Rainy Season.
Permission required: Yes, from RFO, Kudremukh, If Satish's organizing the event, he'll take care of Permission.
Not allowed to camp or stay inside the forest in the night, so trek should be completed in one day and should be back to satish's house for the night.
This was my 1st trek to Kudremukh peak and was 2nd for Harsha. We boarded Sugama bus from Vidyapeeta circle, Bangalore on 26th may at 8:30. it was already 6 when we reached Kalasa, got into another bus to Balgal, and got down at kalasa at 7. our organizer Mr. Satish has hired a jeep for us and jeep picked us from Balgal and dropped us to Satish's house at mullodi at 8:30.
Satish served us hot, yummy Rice rottis and filled our stomach and we all were set for the trek :) He packed upma for our lunch and Shivu was our guide for the trek and he carried our lunch bag.
40% of the journey is through flat land, we cross many streams and forests on the way to the peak. Some of the main landmarks to look on the way are, a tree right after 1km from Satish's house, Lobo house, the lone tree and an old ruined church.
.View of peak on the way to Lobo's house.
The path is clearly marked by stones throughout the way.. There is a marking stone every kilometer,.
.
we started our trek at 9:30 in the morning (elevation: 1069 mts ASL), initial path was just a simple ascent and took 20mins to reach the first landmark (Tree, elevation: 1163 mts ASL). took some rest and clicked some snaps. Our next Landmark was Lobo's house, (5km to the peak, ele
vation 1213 mts ASL), we reached lobo's house around 11:30 in the morning, we got awesome views of kudremukh peak from here.
View from Lobo's house
There are few Mango and Guava trees near Lobo's house and i've never eaten Guavas sweeter than those. And thing to be mentioned is there are 3 lobo houses, all are abandoned and nobody stays there.
path till Lobo's house was flat, most path is through forests with numerous streams. the real climb starts from here as we hike 200 mts every 1km. we reached Onti mara
(Lone tree, elevation: 1404 mts ASL, 4km to peak) by 12. we didnt stop there. our main aim was to reach peak by 2:30, so we continued our ascent and the climb was getting tougher and tougher. we stopped at a stream which is the last forest patch we encounter on our ascent, had cucumber, biscuits and chkkis ,and left the place around 1:00.
By this time Jyothi's leg was getting cramped and was tough for her to walk as the sun was beating us down and we were getting dehydrated. We reached the cross section where the zig-zag path starts to the peak (2kms to peak, elevation 1628 mts ASL).
we reached old ruined chruch at 2:30 (1km to peak, el
evation 1765 mts ASL) and had lunch consisted upma, pickles and banana chpis. took some rest and proceeded towards the peak. reached peak at 3:30 (elevation 1870 mts ASL)
View from the peak
the feeling of being on top of Kudremukh peak was awesome and we stayed there for 15mins and started our descent back. Satish had warned us that we need to start descent atleast at 4 if we have to reach home before sunset.
The descent was not quick as Jyo was struggling to walk
because of cramps in her leg. we reached Onti mara by 6, and lobo's house by 7. it was already dark and it was very scary to trek back in forest with 5 more kms to walk.
the way back from Kudremukh peak
we walked with the help of torches looking carefully around of snakes, animals and slippery stones, it was already 9 when we reached tree (1km from Satish's house) and took rest and Jyo did some muscle pull-ups to loosen up them, by the time we started again satish came searching for us in the scare we were lost in forest, he was happy that we were not last in forest. we finally reached Satish's place at 9:30 in the night.
It was the lengthiest of all treks i've done in a single day and difficult of all, but i must say, THIS WAS MY BEST TREK EVER.
we took bath in Somavathi waterfalls near his house next day and Samse tea estate and headed back to Kalasa-Bangalore Sugama bus at 10:00 PM.
Contact details: Satish 08263 249595 / 9481074530
RFO ,Kudremukh : 08263 255998
Costs: Forest entry fee 200/head, trek fee 75/head.
Satish charges 350/head for stay and food.
Guide provided by satish comes at a cost of 500/-
Jeep from baLgal to Mullodi charges 500/- one way.
