Kumara Parvatha

Intro:

KumarParvatha trek was alwayz on my mind since I started trekking. It is often referred as one of the most challenging, adventures and beautiful trek... In all "A Trekker's Paradise". Kumara Parvatha is a mountain located in Subramanya (village) of Sullia taluka, Karnataka. The village is known for the Hindu Kukke Subramanya Temple.

Preparation:

When Girish (Organizer with Naveen & Prabhakar) called me on 7th Aug, I said "YES" without any hesitation. Soon, the mails where exchanged and a total of 11 Member gang was finalized to go the paradise. It was raining so we needed "Poncho". I thank Prabhakar who personally went to bring 5 Poncho for the team members including me. In addition, since we had to put up @Top we needed Tent. Naveen took the responsibility and rented only two tents for 8People at Rs150/- per day since organizers had their own tent. Prabhakar brought the "walkie talkie" for the communication within the team.

Day - 0:

I had been a member of BASC and my other best friends where going for Green Route trek with them. I started with them and reached Majectic by 2100hrs. Chatted with other known BASC members like Abhi, Shiva etc and soon by 2145hrs received a call from Prabhakar that he has reached. Soon, others reached and we boarded the bus by 2300hrs to reach...

Team: Girish, Naveen, Prabhakar, Sandeep, Navneet, Kanta, Tanoy, Rohan, Lokesh, Shivpraksah and Pratap

Day - 1:

We reached the Somvarapete by 0500hrs in the morning. Our next task was to board the bus @0720hrs to reach 3km from Pushpagiri forest office. We used the time available to fresh up and have breakfast. The bus took about 0100hrs to reach the point mentioned before. Here, a mini trek through road starts... and goes on for 3Km. Not an easy one with some down and lots of UPs!!.

This the place where bus dropped us and hence, starting point of the trek to reach the forest office.

On the way to Forest Guest House..
Girish & Prabhakar in front with their Tent... Rohan and Pratap with other Tent.

Butterfly captured on the way

Thts me stretching my arms..

At the entry of Trek from Somvarapete

Anywayz, we took the permission from the forest authorities and started for the trek by 0930hrs. The first step was to cross a slippery bridge due to heavy rains. We were warned that more than one person cannot go.. In addition, heavy weights should avoid. Who cares!!

We crossed it smoothly except Rohan whose right leg got struck on the side-fences.

Here, the trek starts.. 

The road to dense forest starts...

The dense jungle, leeches waiting for sweet bloods and un-known animals roaming around. The plan was to reach the top by 4.00pm max.

We started well with leeches plunging onto our shoes/legs.. There are sign board after every 1-1.25km about the more distance to be traveled. Navneet & Naveen were leading and Myself, Prabhakar and Girish (Sweeper) were at the end. After crossing few streams, the ascend started. Soon, it was come to known that Pratap has hurt himself via cramp. He was moving slowly... We were moving smoothly when suddenly rain started and leeches became more. The poncho activity started  here. We also had Glucose and other stuffs here.

Girish crossing one of the Stream..

At around 1300hrs we stopped for our lunch near one of the stream. It was still raining. Here, we had query on going ahead as we saw a large monolith in front of us from which water was flowing down vigorously. We were not able to see any other path. Also, due to passing cloud the visibility was at minimum. Anywayz, we started climbing from left side of the BIG ROCK by holding the small trees nearby, struggling to get in place our feet.. And somehow, everyone with few challenges was able to reach the top of the rock.

We started again with Naveen, Prabhakar in front, (as I can recall). In order to go fast Prabhakar slipped and hurt himself in his leg. But, as TIGER he roared again and started with same pace. From here the actual ascend to the peak starts. After a half-n-hour, again a big monolith arrives with lots of water flowing down making it slippery and challenging.

One more monolith followed, but we were there to accomplish the task with gr8 excitement. After finishing the 3rd BIG Rock, we can see the a notice stating "Pushpagiri" is a kilometer away. But, we were amused to the fact that we are still trekking upwards and there are no grasslands. We rested for half-n-hr just 500mts away from the peak, working on leeches and eating the stuffs. After charged up, we started again and reached the peak by 1545hrs therby achieving by time bound. It felt awesome to be at top of one of the tallest peak in western ghats. We were able to view NOTHING!!! Thts because we were in the Heaven. The cloud were kissing our body and removing the tiredness literary speaking.

Then, we started assembling our tents.

Myself, Navneet and Kantha organizing the Tent

We are at top of KP!!!!

Soon, we went into our tents after washing ourselves from greedy leeches. Soon, we had our dinner and went for sleep. There were 3 Tents.
Tent 1:-  Girish, Prabhakar, Naveen - Discussing about future plans and to go back successfully to Bangalore

Tent 2:-  Myself, Naveent and Kanta - Myself & Naveent were buzy in listening to songs whereas Kanta was in Tent 3 discussing.

Tent 3:-  Rest people - They shared crazy stories before going for sleep.

Day 2:

I woke up around 0500hrs just to realize its still dark outside and visibility down to 10mts literally. I woke up again by 0630Hrs to find improved visibility. Soon, others joined and we packed to move to Base i.e. Kukke Subramanya. Well, here was the challenge.. we didn't knew where to head!! Prahakar as usual spotted the route by seeing the arrow markings on the rock. We had to go back in the same route for about 500mts before taking the diversion for reaching Kukke Subramanya base.

Now, while going down we were at the top of the waterfall and with cloud/mist we didn’t knew how to proceed. We were even un-certain about the route. We were at the top of cliff and a wrong step would have send anyone of us directly to Heaven. I thought of taking that route but restricted myself as others may envy of me for reaching the Heaven so early. Anywayz, there was a point when Sandeep, Lokesh shouting while standing on edge to go back the Day 1 trek route while taking conformation from Girish & others. But... then all of sudden Navneet shouted "I got the route, we have the route here..." But where... he was Invisible to us. He came back and took us to that path. In the mean time, Prabhakar was wandering for search of route. We soon proceeded with the route and found a dustbin, proofing ourselves that we are in right path.:) I felt so happy.

We were @Top of this BIG ROCK and our view was covered with Clouds. We are in Cloud Nine but a wrong step anyone of us would had been Heaven/Hell. This pic was taken exactly after 1week by other trekkers.

This is the Base of that BIG ROCK when we trekked. You can see the path forward is covered with fog.  It was worse at top

The next few Kms were through thick forest and then through open grassland. The view from the top of other mountains was majectic to say the least. Though, the cloud was blocking the view again & again.. we could get the glimpse of the beauty of KP.

  The Three Muskerters of KP; Girish, Pratap and Myself

Check the Fog and Greenary...

While going down we met few members of other group who were ascending. We shove them away by stating the TRUTH that the there is simply no view from the Top of KP. They went upwards for few Kms before coming back again and meeting us while we were having our breakfast. Girish was telling "The First Aid never comes to use". Well, soon it came .. but not for our team. One of the person from the other team had a cut on his back due to a loose knife coming out from his bag and scrapping his back. It was dreadful. Anywayz, He got well soon and he started our descend.

Team having Breakfast.. Myself missing :)

In the meanwhile, during breakfast one of our member (Name Hidden to Protect Identity) had went for doing "shit" in the leech infected zone. Well, the result he had leech bites near his private parts. He was in real pain when we saw him in next pit-stop, which is at the view point.

The view from the breakfast point... The bridge is @Kukke Subramanya Temple

At view point, we met some local person who was in search of a missing person. It was a team of two people with one of them missing. The searching person went to  forest checkpost where we took the permission (on day 1) and sent a message to the other forest check post near Bhatra Mane. We didn't heard further on this issue. We hope the person was traced in good health.

Navneet @Viewpoint

Anywayz, after shots at this place we packed ourselves. And here the Indra god opened his arm and it rained cats & dogs for next 20min. We waited at the same place like statue!! Then, we decided to start by measuring at the probability of rain stopping very soon. I thought it would be tough.. but literally speaking it was a smooth ride. We next reach forest guest house where we act fresh guava before starting again. After 1Km, we could see "Bhattara Mane". We moved on...

As we started to descend into the forest, pace slowed down. Few peoples without the tents went ahead. In between while coming down Sandeep lost his cool for only the person to carry the tent for his team. With Rohan down and myself also in carrying the tent & walking. it left with last bunch of peoples. I here thank Kanta & Navneet who carried the tent whole way. I carried only for few kms only.

Nothing special here after for me.. Just kept moving and I & Kanta reached the Base by 4.00pm to find other members. Soon, others including Girish reached by 4.30pm. Later we visited "Kukke Subramanya" temple, had our dinner and boarded the bus to reach home.

Here is the view which we missed, captured by one of the BASC team members.:

Leech Bite counts:

Myself : 28

Girish : 35

Naveen : 3

Katha  : 10

Sandeep : 15

All I can say.. its truly a TREKKERS PARADISE.... 
Love to visit you again.

Pic Gallery:

Girish: KP Conquered
Tanoy: KP Tour
Naveen: Pushpagiri Trek
Rohan: KumarParvatha Trek


Summary:

- Bangalore to Somvarapete via KSRTC. 

- Camping at the Top

- Get Down to Kukke Subramanya

- Kukke Subramanya to Bangalore via KSRTC. 

Jenkal Gudda / Deepadhkallu / Missed OG

The trek mail started with a say "What’s special for this valentine day? Here is the chance to touch “4” girl friends Ms. Ehina Buja, Ms. Ombattu Gudda, Ms. Jenkal Gudda and Ms. Deepadhkallu in 2 days. (Feb 12th & 13th)" Hmm.. Tht got me excited and I registered for the trek. Further, it was informed due to restriction from forest dept for trekking in Ethina Buja (EB) range it will be skipped.

Anyway, we started on 11th Feb night after being delayed by an hour due to Bangalore Traffic. Everyone, reached their pick points well in advance but had to wait. Satish the team leader/organizer joined at the last stop. So, a team of 14 members (All Boys) started to meet their girl friend(s) on the eve of Valentine's day.  

Team: Satish (Organizer), Prabhakar (Tiger), Allwyn, Dipankar, Sowrish, Kumar MP, Harish, Girish, Bharath, Naveen, Tanoy, Gurva Reddy, Debashish and Dr. Ravi Shankar.

We reached Hanbal in Sakaleshpur by 4.00 am and waited for Tiffin center to get open. We parceled our breakfast/lunch and got started. We halted nearby small stream to freshen up…

Figure 1: Day 1 Morning Refresh

We tried to find "Lakshmi Estate" by vehicle for the driver and we got Lost!!!.. But, we were able to find it within an Hr and hence, we got delayed by 3hrs from our proposed schedule.

Proposed Plan

------------------

Day 1: To cover Jenkal Gudda and Deepadhkallu. If things go well & could cover good distance, then will reach lakmshi estate at the end of the day or will be camping in the grass land.

Day 2: Move to Estate & OG.

Execution:

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Day - 1

The trek started from Betta Bhairaveshwara Temple @ 3470 ft altitude (With BASC one can alwayz have God blessings before/during the trek) and we can see a path already exist (Satish initially thought of making a path from here itself, I guess so). The path was through thick forest and after few decisions; we were able to reach a good distance near the Deepadhkallu peak. We decided to leave our baggage near the tree shade and carry only the essentials for the peak. It was up-climb of about 60deg with NO SHADE. All of us reached the Deepadhkallu peak by 1.30pm. From, here we can see the Ehina Buja and very reason we were not allowed to trek over there. There was thick forest fire, which we can see all throughout our trek.

Figure 2: Bettada Byraveshwara Temple

Figure 3: Deepanakallu from base

From, the Deepadhkallu we can see "Jenkal gudda". The shape of 'Jenkal gudda' is interesting as its round and as said by Satish it requires equal amount of stamina from any direction you try to climb it... The round shape was indeed the difficult one to trek in Hot Sun @ 2-2.15pm. Harish & Naveen decided to skip the climb.

Figure 4: Forest Fire in EG Range

Figure 5: View of Jenkal gudda from Deepadhkallu

We reached the JenkalGudda peak by 2.40pm. The ascend had steep climb with no shade… infact there are no shade from Deepadhkallu peak to Jenkal Gudda peak which was difficult as we were climbing in mid afternoon beneath the HOT sun. Jenkal Gudda has ascend of 70^odeg with no place to hold up to. It was roughly 700m up climb from the base, which we reached from Deepadhkallu. Well, the view wasn't too magnificent as I expected due to approaching summer (it was more dry than my expectation). Here, we found a Deepak and wondered how the Deepak of Deepadhkallu came to this peak :?....

Figure 6: At Jenkal Gudda peak

Figure 7: View from the Peak of Jenkal Gudda

After group pics we started our decend down (a tough one)... While going back from Jenkal Gudda to Deepadhkallu, I had dizziness and needed the rest immediately. With encouraging quotes from Satish, I finally reached the shade near the Deepadhkallu. The descend to base where we left our bags took me quite a time and all reached by 4.30pm. After 5 min break (Considering me coming @end, others had quite a good break) we started for next destination…. But where ???? Estate or BASC peak (where BASC team got lost during OG2, hence referred as BASC peak by lost members)

Well, the idea was to reach the Estate that is visible from the point we started. It seemed to be just next to one of the peak, 2Km away and hence we can make it. So, started the journey to that peak and soon when we were just about to descend into virgin forest we Halted!!!. Reason: Don't know how deep is the forest and hence how much time it will take for the team (Yup Team, since many people are traveling like Cheetah and few Lions :) were still behind). Therefore, we decided to Trek Up, reach the Top and have camping there.

Figure 8: Lakshmi Estate.. Too Near Too Far

Hmm.. this is where I went down. While, going Up..Up Up… because of dizziness, lack of rest & no food, I fall down!! Hee.. only literally just causally at the same place. Here, Reddy and Allwyn carried by baggage up (Thanks a Ton guys) and with more encouraging quotes from Mr. Satish/Allwyn/Reddy/Sowrish I finally made it to Top.. Yupeee!!!! Later, I realized there were other casualties also…..  Sowrish and Harish. We saw the Sunset and it was quite stunning view since the trek we started.

Figure 9: Sunset @ OG Range

Then, barring few members (5 of them) others went for Water hunt and found it. Then, as routine we camped at near mid-peak so as to be more close to water. We had our Dinner, BASC Intro round and then sleeping. Prabhakar and other tried keeping the fire ON till 3am before going for sleep. We wake up @ 4.30 am with strong breeze blowing and everybody started becoming SUPERMAN!!! All were good and no injuries!!

DAY 2:

Hmmm.. The Day 2 started with our breakfast and starting for unknown trail. We had Map, GPS, Water and an adventure was waiting for us. Satish and path finders decided to reach the BASC peak initially and then find the Jeep Track. So, the journey filled with adventure started. Satish, Dipankar, Prabhakar led the team. We traveled from one peak to another (descend peak) and started finally into the dense forest. When we were just about to enter the forest, the path finder found that due to big rock ahead we cannot go down the proposed way. Hence, we climbed a bit and then again started to get down after roughly 400m. And here the difficult part started as we didn't knew how deep the forest.. well it was infact quite a deep 1.5km as per my estimation. At one place during forest descend there was nothing to hold up to.. The ones in front of me (Dr. and Harish) managed to get away but I lost it. I lost the branch which was to hold and suddenly started sliding!!!!!! .. I, then somehow managed to hold onto a rock which was also about to break. So I left it and slided further and hold onto one tree root. Harish got panicked and so am I & others (Sowrish, Deb & Kumar) following me!!!

Harish shouted and soon we had our rescue. Mr. Girish..... He saved my fall and made me to right path.  Then, Reddy came from nowhere (He was behind Me & others).... and with Girish he saved the fall of others. And finally we reached the down.. Yupee!!! Into the Virgin forest and with water source. So, whts NEXT!!!

Figure 10: Into Virgin Forest and stream (Still Chking the Maps!!)

Satish told that we are going to follow the up-stream as he was sure down-stream will lead us to OG our 3rd lady though our current target was to reach the estate. I asked Ravi... So how far is it?? He said "We are lost and just hoping this stream to lead us some place".

Well... we started upstream and after about 400m he halted again as stream was on right side and as per our GPS we are supposed to go left side. Dipankar went further to find whether it is taking some left turn.. but signs were negative. So, we started up-climb into the dense forest. Leading the way was Satish & Tiger. After few decisions on the up-climb based on GPS position finally we were about to find an abandoned Jeep Track. Everyone was thrilled to found it. However, this one Satish was no expecting but it was reliving. Then, with all of energy we started to reach estate ASAP.. But hang ON!!! We are again got into two dilemma.

Figure 11: Which Path to Take ?

Satish & Tiger went right And Reddy & Bharat went Left.....

No on came up with satisfying result. But, since we had to go left as I said earlier we headed left and soon able to find the coffee plantation.... and after 10min walk we were near the estate.  We freheshup near the waterfall and then went back to Estate. We had our lunch and since, no one expect Satish and Reddy was interested to trek OG we cancelled the same and started to Bangalore.

Path Finders: Satish, Prabhakar, Dipankar

Sweepers: Reddy and Girish

Casualties: Tanoy, Harish and Sowrish (Day 1, Mind IT)

GPS Man: Dipankar

Kalhatti Falls / Hebbe Falls / Mullayanagiri

My last trek was a difficult trek and hence wanted a leisure trek. Well… there were three leisure treks planned on same day by BASC and hence, which one to opt for was a difficult proposition.

I had contact with Priyanka… She opted for Mullayanagiri trek.. and hence I also registered for the same. The BASC organizer this time didn't reveal the names and hence, no idea who all the coming. On 25th March, I reached the Majestic bus stand by 10.00pm found Priyanka roaming :). After few chat, Ambareesh(BASC Organizer aka AK) asked us to come @meeting place and we reached by @10.30pm. Well.. I found quite a old trek mates thr.. Rajesh, Sourish, Tiger, Girish & Saurabh Thapar. Saurabh boarded the wrong BASC bus (1^st time Lost!!!). Rajesh called him to join us. Soon, he arrived and we started @11.10pm.

DAY 1:

After refreshing and breakfast @ Chikmagalur Bus Station, we headed for Mullayanagiri. Due to Ures Celebration, there were police restrictions. Rajesh & AK went for seeking permission. Initially they agreed on to allow us to walk/trek to the top with parked TT @entrance. However, they opposed the same later. It can be described like initially, **star policewala “granted” permission. But, later *** & **** star Policewala(s) rejected the offer.. :(. We satisfied ourself by clicking pics of Mullayanagiri from the entrance.

        Pic1: Mullayanagiri frm the entrance

Hmm.. running shot of what to do..AK decided we head for Kalhatti Falls. Still with low spirit we headed for the falls. The route of falls was through Coffee Estate Jeep Route + easy level of trek. We reached small stream @12.pm coming from Kalhatti falls... 

 Pic2: Small Stream on the way to Kalhatti Falls

Pic3: Coffee Estate Route

Pic4: Small waterfall.. Meet with other BASC team

While, we were having lunch & looking for next stop… Other BASC trek team organized by J² reached the place. They, told further up is the Kalhatti falls and is must watch... Well, with new regained energy we started for the falls. It is a cascading waterfall, flowing through the grass, crashing on the rocks and falling with tranquilness on the rocks...

Pic5: Kalhatti Falls

Most of us energized ourselves at the falls and then decided to move further Up… to reach the base of WaterFall and then trek to reach Kemmannugundi (KMundi). Well.. tht means we need to find a way to reach up.. Abhi with his torn sandal (Well Done!!!) lead the group through the ascend of 70deg and finally reaching the top. 

We njoyed reaching the top, took beautiful snaps… but our final destination of the Day to reach KMundi was halted by forest watchers who said we are in "Bhadra Tiger Reserve" and hence we have to move out. He guided us into the village.  We halted @Village, had cup(s) of tea before heading to KMudi by our TT.

 Pic6: View from Top of Bhadra Tiger Reserve

Pic7: View from Top of Bhadra Tiger Reserve

We reached KMudi RajBhavan by 6.15pm. We did missed the sun-set view but the color of the sky due to the sunset was left us amazed. As usual, members with DSLR started there pic session (even me with my Point-N-Shoot camera).

Pic8: Senset @Kemmannugundi  Raj Bhavan

Next -> Camp site ?

J² (Other BASC Team) had occupied the rooms in the Raj Bhavan. They said they have occupied 3 rooms and thr is big verandah outside there house. We went to saw that and was rejected within seconds as thr was no ventilation & was bit smelly. In the mean time we ordered for the food in the canteen & decided to have combined intro of two BASC team…(It didn’t happened).

Rajesh & AK headed for night halt spot search on the way to Z-Point & came back successfully. We had our dinner and proceeded to @Rock Garden for night halt.

Day 2:

Everyone woke up by 6.00am (again missing sun-rise frm Z-Point)… Someone, said an abandoned Tiger came @night to Rock Garden but the ROAR of so many sleeping animals scared him (Must have thought, what will happen if they woke up :P) & hence he/she left us unharmed. Well Done Team…

 Pic9: On the way to Z-Point

Pic10: On the way to Z-Point

Then, we headed for Z-Point to capture the Sun-Rise. Rajesh, Abhiram & Saurabh reached 1^st to capture the moment. They are bit disappointed as thr was no Sun..LOL. But, its rays through the clouds was captured. Soon; myself, Karthik, Priyanka & Sourish joined them. We also captured the sun-rays moment..

Pic11: View from Top of Z-Point

Pic12: @Top of Z-Point.. Analyzing next Trek Opportunity. 

While analyzing the sceneries around Karthik / Rajesh / Abhiram pointed out a L-Shaped school which was also visible when we were @Bhadra Tiger Reserve Top. Hence, we were on the right path may be two peak behind… Rajesh thought of exploring but since AK was not thr and considering this as leisure trek he dropped his plan. While we were returning, other members (Mahesh, Guru, Apoorva, Arun & Isabel) were going to Z-Point.

Next -> Breakfast and Hebbe Falls.

Hebbe Falls:

It was inside the coffee estate can be accessed by Jeep Route.. It was 8Km trek. There is shortcut just after the place where 1^st glimpse of the fall can be seen while going by Jeep route. Everyone trekked with thr own pace to reach the fall. Rajesh reached at brisk pace to astonish the Jeep Driver who started after 5min of we started for the trek. Well… Saurabh was missing after last set of people (which includes me) arrived at the falls. The falls was mesmerizing, gushing down from a height of 551 ft. There was a kinda swimming pool where the water falls… Everyone had refreshing dip in this herb-infused water. 

Pic13: Hebbe Falls

Soon, J² BASC team reached & Saurabh was still missing… We started our trek back and shouting “Saurabh , Saurabh ”.. But no +ve response (We did received fake response). We hoped to see him @base.. we were again disappointed. At this moment we were literally thinking of all possible thgs tht might have happened to him (He was having head-ache the day before & also didn't halted with us in the forest). We were just not able to figure out where he might have taken wrong turn... since it was completely through the Jeep Track. We were abt to go for search via Jeep and then halted for while.. Well, tht was good decision as after few minutes we saw Saurabh climbing back fast…..

Missing Link -> Well, just before the fall someone guided him to follow the straight path rather than taking the left towards the fall. The path led him into dense forest. He saw fresh Elephant dung and soon realized he is in deep shit. He prayed by sitting on a rock in the middle of the stream. Soon, his prayed was answered and Estate GM reached the spot with his Jeep, dropped him nearby. To reach fast he decided to take Jeep instead of trekking.. Well, his luck was not with him. The jeep had tire burst and he came back running. We left him un-hurt (Lucky Guy)

Then, head for Lunch @ Kemmangundi and then started for Bangalore… In the meantime, we also received permission to visit Mullayanagiri. The hill road to the Mullayanagiri was scary at times… We reached on time not to miss the sunset from the top of Karnataka’s Highest peak... :) There was small temple and also people living there. 

Pic14: Sunset @ Mullayanagiri Peak

 Pic15: Sunset @ Mullayanagiri Peak

Pic16: Sunset @ Mullayanagiri Peak

There was a small cave few notches below. It was my 1^st visit in any cave. While taking one of the pic, a bat came in front & was splendidly captured in the pic. (personal pic won’t be shared). Had dinner at Chikmagalur @Mayur hotel and reached 28^th morning by 4.30am.

Summary:

Day 1: Kalhatti Falls / Trek to Tiger Reserve / Kemmannugundi Raj Bhavan.

Day 2: Hebbe Falls / Mullayanagiri
Team: Ambareesh, Priyanka, Rajesh, Karthik, Abhiram, Mahesh, Guru, Apoorva, Arun & Isabel, Saurabh, Sourish and Myself :)