Kumaraparvatha (Pushpagiri) Trek

I am writing this blog bit late, but still this trek is fresh in my memory. At a height of 1712mfs (second highest after Mullayanagiri), this is considered as one of the toughest trek in Karnataka.
(click on images to enlarge)
On the way to mallallai falls

Nine of us set to trek the Kumaraparvatha on mid of november, 2007. We planned to climb it from Somwarpet(North Coorg) and descent towards Kukke-Subramanya.

The Team KP
After around 7 hours journey from Bangalore, we reached the Somwarpet bus-stand. We took the only bus to Biddhalli(point from where trekking starts) at 7.30AM along with an young energetic team from Bangalore. People on this side call this Pushpagiri(pushpa-flower,giri-peak). With in 20mins into journey we started see the wonders of nature. We got down 2km before biddhalli in order to see Mallilli (ಮಳ್ಳಳ್ಳಿ) falls, its around 30 mins walk from here. After an heated argument about to see it or not with harisha and convincing him, we started walking towards the falls, where we met our first enemy the LEECH!. Srikanth was the first to notice or being bit by it. Its one of the beautiful falls i have ever come across.

We reach the falls, it was full. We thought of crossing the top of this falls rather than walking back 3km. After crossing the river, we had our breakfast on the bank. We spent some time here to figure-out the route. After some struggle through itching leaves, we got the path which took us to the road. By around 2pm we reached the check point, after convincing the forest security(since official time to trek is within 11.30am and they are not supposed to allow people after this time)and paying them Rs.115 per head as entry fee we started. Around 100mtrs from there was river, we thought of having our lunch here. But it rained badly, delaying our trek by an hour or so. So we started trekking at 4pm, but the forest guards had a different dialogs this time. So we started with a brisk pace.
While walking through jungle


We reached the view point, that was great view but leeches were there too....

Around 6pm, it started to became dark since sunsets on other side of the mountain.
Seventeen of us somehow managed with 6 torches. Most of us had an opinion of why we came here. The walk was too long, in darkness along with leeches, believe me none of us wanted to be in this situation again. Still in darkness we walked for 2 more torturing hours to find a place where we can have our tent set. We faced four slippery steep rocks, when we were near third rock prasad and others insisted to stay on that till morning, since it was too dark and we didn't get any place to tent. One of had bsnl phone(which is the only way to contact security office), they guided us which was of great help. But it was too cold, so Chinmay(who was still energetic, along with one more guy) went to find some place for tent. They came back after few
mins saying there's a place.
The place where we had our tents set

It was hardly 20X20 feet but was enough. Few of us were busy with setting up tents, others tried setting up fire which failed.
Night was not that smooth, wind was blowing creating a wide variety of noise also it rained. Unfortunately our tent didn't had top cover so my blanket was wet. I didn't sleep, somehow most pathetic night got over leading to a great sunrise.
The sunrise

BG told me, he heard some wild bores roaming around our tents. We saw peak, it was hardly few meters away from our tent. There's a small temple of lord Shiva. After having breakfast, We informed bhatru that we will be there for lunch. He told us some shortcut, but i didn't work, since chinmay(was good trekker among us) slipped in that path, so we took the same path were climbed in the dark.
On the peak


I still don't know how we did it in that night. We saw many fallen trees may be because of nights wind. Just within an hour we reached the mountains covered with lush green grass. Only one guy had a twisted ankle but was not that serious.
Everything here looked great, we could see bhatru's house. Took some snaps near mantapa. Just before bhatru's place there is a forest check-post(show ur entrance ticket here). After finishing the lunch, we started walking and reached forest after an hour or so. On this side, its too steep but kind of easy since forest is not as dark as on the other side.
Mantapa:

Reached Kukke-subramanya, took few hours of rest plastering the wounds caused by leeches. Took the Mysore bus, saying bye to the most wonderful and really colorful mountain chains of western ghats. I think we walked 36-38kms in two days. But don't believe in localities distance, they says it near-by and you may walk for hours to reach that place.
These are few snaps while getting down:



View point while getting down:

A photo dedicated to leeches:


Flora and Fauna:
We didn't see much of animals, but as the name Pushpagiri indicates there were few colorful flowers. Also there were few different insects, snails, scorpions and snakes(all of them were rat snakes).
Our plan to trek from Somwarpet and descending towards Kukke paid us and may be the best path. We never had much problem with water since it was still raining, we could find stream on most of the places.


We walked on almost all mountains in around that place and thats how the route is. Even though it tested us, we saw its beauty...... Hoping to trek again in years to come....

Our team:
Naveen(benne), Prashanth, Pavan Rao M.R., Harish K.L., Manju B.G., Manjunath H.M, Srikanth, Prasad and me.
Reference:
Wikipedia, many blogs and few friends from Somwarpet(which is my birth place)who guided us. Also thank to Harisha, Benne(Naveen),Pavan, Srikanth, Prashanth and bangalore boys for the wonderful photos they took.

For Trekkers:
Best season- November to Feb mid.
Distance:
Bangalore to Somwarpet- 260Kms
Bangalore to Kukke-Subramanya- 386Kms
Bhatru phone no- 9448647947
Beware of- Leeches and snakes. Detol, salt or snuff are the few things to avoid leeches.
Complexity- Medium to hard. Hardness depends on rain, darkness also on loosing the track. Whatever happens follow the main path there may be few confusing paths(made by localities for wood and others). A team of 5 or more is always safe.

Open for Comments,

Super Man(junath)