A trek of eternal ecstasy to Kumaraparvatha

A trek to kumaraparvatha was a perfect feel of seemingly endless yet a touch of blissfulness, a feel of trekking in heaven. This makes me call it as a "A TREK OF ETERNAL ECSTASY" . Trust me this is the best and the toughest trek I have ever had in my life till date.

Brief about the peak and the trek :
Kumaraparvatha is located about 5700 feet above sea level, it is well situated in the western Ghat mountains range and is very close to the famous pilgrimage center Shri Kukke Subrahmanya Kshetra in South Canara District of Karnataka.
To ascent the kumaraparvatha peak there are 2 well known routes one from somvarpet which is in coorg and an other root is from kukke subramanya. I would be giving information on the trek to the peak from kukke subramanya. The kumaraparvatha is located toward the east of the temple. The peak is made of 6 peaks and the 7th peak is the Kumaraparvatha. Among which 3 are prominent peaks and the rest 4 are not small once. The 3 prominent peaks I am talking about are 'Shesha Parvatha','Siddha Parvatha' and 'Kumara Parvatha'. We will have to cross the Shesha Parvatha, before we can reach the Kumara Parvatha. The Shesha Parvatha faces to the south and it is said to look like a serpent with seven hoods. Its pretty much impossible to identify the look of serpent with seven hoods. The southern part of this mountain is very steep with about 2000 feet drop and looks very terrible. The Siddha Parvatha, another part of the mountain is inaccessible. There are few milestones which would be helpful for you to trace yourself to the peak.

The trek to this peak is a blend of trekking in rocky terrain, thick green forest trekking and trekking in bright green grasslands as well as a blend of trekking in rain, sunshine and mist, mind you this would be true only if u trek in monsoon or post monsoon.

Importance of this place :
This peak on the top is suppose to be the place were subramanya also known as murugan , karthikeya meditated for a long time and then descent down to the kukke subramanya and gave the darshan to his devotees. The foot prints of the divine lord can be spotted on the peak.
Apart from which there are 2 small temples of shiva linga on the top of the peak. Just behind one of these temples you can find the foot prints.

There is an other story were in the nagadeva comes seeking Subramanya help as refuge when he was being chased by garuda, hence this place is also suppose to be one of the natural habitat for cobra.

Few more facts about the peak, on the top of kumaraparvatha is a plateau about an acre. In the place where Shri Kumara Swamy was anointed, two footprints have been engraved on stones. The pilgrims worship these footprints and make offerings. They say that during the coronation ceremony the water flowed in two different directions, and these streamlets were called 'Ubhaya - Kumaradhara".

The two rivers flow separately upto eight miles from Subrahmanya where their confluence takes place and they flow together as one. The Subrahmanya Kshetra lies in between the 'Ubhaya - Kumaradhara' river. Even now, if we pour some water on these footprints the water will flow separately in two directions.

White stones called 'Kumaralinga' are found on the top of this mountain. Strangely enough these stones are all in the form of hexahedrons. We can in no way explain the process of the production of these stones unless by attributing it either to the greatness of God or to the mystery of nature. The size of the stones ranges from that of pulse to about half in inch. Strangest of all is the fact that all these stones are of uniform shape. Devotees collect these stones and worship them as they do to the 'Saligrama' and 'Shivalinga'.

Disclaimer : This is a collective information from lots of sites which have provided the information about kumaraparvatha

Duration : 2 days

Best time to trek :
Monsoon or post monsoon ( Late September to early January) . Can find thick green vegetation, very good scenic.

Things to watch out during this season
> Leeches if at all they scare you
> Cold winds which prick you hard
> Some times the mist may mask the scenic

One can even trek in summer but the whole scenic looks pale and trekking in the sultry will drain you out faster. You would be in need of more water and you find very less streams in this season.

Things specifically necessary for this trek :
> Carry tents along, other wise the cold winds will never let u sleep peacefully
> Carry every thing in covers, so that they wont get wet. Please get back those covers, dont litter !
> Carry all leech repellents you can find
> Although we havn't come across any snakes, I would suggest you to carry antivenin as this place is a natural habitat for cobras. Getting quick help in this trek is tuff
> Good shoe and backpack (please dont make the mistake of carry heavy back pack)

How to reach :
Its about 6 to 7 hrs of journey from bangalore to kukke. There is couple of KSRTC rajahamsa which leave at night after 10.00pm and the same for the return journey too. Apart from this there is one CPC travels bus which goes to kukke at around 10.15 from Anand rao circle, please try your best to avoid this bus. This bus is the worst bus one can ever travel in.

Now lemme start of how our trek was

We were about 7 guys who planned for the KP trek, but only 6 of us ended up booking tickets to kukke on tuesday 4th october 2005 in CPC travels (now u understand why I said, dont get tickets from this travels ! I am a victim). The 6 of us were
Karthik (none other then me)
Sumanth
Vivekananda
Ajitpal
Sudhir
Saravan
Among 6, 4 of us got nto the bus at southend at about 9.20pm and he took us to anand rao circle at around 10.15pm, the other 2 got in here. We met another 6 guys who were going on the same trek. Initially we werent so keen to get along with another group. As you read this log you will understand we were 6 good friends when we went and we were 12 good friends when we came back. The bus started of at around 10.35pm and it took us on a free,bangalore night site seeing, he went through almost every area in the city to fill in the bus to the maximum possible and it took about 2 hrs to do that. He finally decided to leave bangalore at around 12.15am. The seats were bad, I could see almost every one in the bus struggling for sitting on their seats. Above every thing a paradox statement what I saw in a bold emprint on a sticker which was stuck above me read as " we make your journey a pleasure ". I couldn't stop laughing after I read that. I was sitting in the front seat and couldnt stretch my legs. Anyway after a tiring journey we reached kukke at about 6.50am in the morning.

8th October 2005 , Saturday - Day 1 of trekking

After we reached kukke, we 6 of us got freshed up as fast as possible, as we knew we had a hard day to face. We had our breakfast and started trekking at about 8.00am in the morning. We took a small galli and we reached a place were there was a board which was directing us left and it indicated 10kms - kumaraparvatha. I swear after you trek you really dont agree that the trek is about 10kms on one way. Some say its 13kms one way, but not sure of this distance.

I knew this was the toughest trek in karnataka and I am gonna start that in another few seconds. I was busy mentally preparing myself come one dude.. "I gotto finish this trek at ne cost" and the inner invoice in me was coming up saying dude.. "you havn't exercised nor been to ne trek from past 1 year .. you fatso you think you can do it...na..why strain yourself retire here itself". It was hard for me to dominate on my inner voice, but still did that for another 2 days.

We 6 of us started of the trek. Initially till about 3km we could still hear to lots of noise from one of the loudspeaker (I guess some local function would be going on). We trekked for about 10mins without a break, I could hear almost every one breathing out hard. Once we spotted few leeched around, we decided time to get ready to fight against leeches. We put in tobacco leaves in our socks, we put snuff to our shoes. For my surprise I saw sudhir putting deoderant to this shoe, I really couldnt stop laughing hard at that. The deos helps us to make the leech release at once when these leeches are feeding on your blood, but it doesnt stop one to get closer to you. We started moving forward towards the peak, I started realising the weight of my backpack as the trek route got steeper and steeper. I could also see sumanth and ajith breathing out hard from mouth, realised these two guys are a tired.
I too was tired, but was pushing myself hard out there. After about 20 to 25 mins Ajit breaks down, says he is too old for this. He said he cant make it and he is gonna go back to kukke, trust me at that very moment his cynasium really took over his willpower to trek ahead. Vivek took over the situation and handled it perfectly, after about 10mins Ajit said "no matter, what happens ? I will trek". For another 20mins with few small breaks to catch up with your breath (I call them breathers as this break which is about a minute or less will help you catch up with ur breath). After which I got tired like hell, sweating all over. When I was resting and trying to catch up my breath. I could get my ears on to the music of the forest, I claim it as a music because when you try to concentrate on the sounds these bugs, crickets, insects, birds and animals make, they sound rythmic. Apart from this I could smell of the greenary, what a relief ! no more bloody polluted air around, it was thin pure filtered air in these forest. I could realise all these when I closed my eye, as I opened them I could witness the thick forest preventing the sun rays to fall on us. We took frequent breaks here and there, now and then we used to have a debate on some useless topics. I didnt have to patience to talk, over which sudhir used to crack some disguesting PJs. Now and then most of us were curious to know the distance we would have covered, hope we had a GPS out there. Among us Sumanth was the only person who knew the route, as it was his second time trek to KP. We were searching for the first milestone its the huge rock which is a very comfortable place to have a good break. Once we reached out there, all of us litterly threw our backpacs and relaxed for about 10mins. It would take about 2 hrs to reach this place for a normal trekker. Saravan - it was his first trek ever, most of the time was always busy taking off leeches from his shoe, I used to enjoy when ever he starts cribbing over leeches trying to bite him. As we moved ahead from there , I could see Ajit was feeling better and had picked up his pace, he was leading the trek for some time. At that point I was really impressed at his will power which made a good come back. Umh I assume lots of things before I start of the log. Ok Ajit, myself and sumanth are fatso ! that doesnt mean we are too fat, a couple of kgs over weight. Ajith was the heaviest among us, so now you could understand why Ajit was struggling out there.
Our second milestone was the start of grassland, we could witnessed the gradual transformation of the vegetation around us as we trekked, the tall thick trees reduced as we approached the grassland and we could spot bright grass around. After about 20mins we started trekking in zigzag trails in these grasslands. There are faint trails which cut short the zigzag trails, but these trails are steep and risky. Remember its a natural habitat of snakes, why take risk ? It took us about 2 1/2hrs to reach the grasslands. We got few snaps along this trails. Our next milestone thats the third milestone was the bhatta's house.
We were tired but all of us still pushed our selves hard to reach bhatta's house, as we were approaching towards bhatta's house the oppression of heat made us get tired faster and our water bottles were getting empty, all these was basically because of the reason that there was not much shelter in these grass lands as in the forest. We were expecting the bhatta's house to be near by, all of us were eagarly waiting to see bhatta's house. We took few breathers now and then, took few snaps, ate few dates, candies and lots more junk on the way. I had sort of regained my strength in this stretch, especially after having a break were we had lots of dates. Ajit pace had again slowed down, he was pretty much tired. Vivek too was tired, only then I could realise that the culprit was my backpack, poor guy he carried almost half way to bhatta's house.
At some point we spotted an antenna, uffffff a sense of relief in every one's mind, we are near to Bhatta's house. There was a neatly arranged pavement as we approached Bhatta's house, as we were near to his house we could hear to few dogs barking. As soon as we reached there, we just dumped our backpacks and plonked into one of the sleep mats ! . Removed our shoes to check for the forest preditors, I luckily couldnt find any leeches. We greeted bhatta there and he told us he needs about 2hrs to prepare the food. Apart from that he gave us the shock of the trek. He told us that the forest department was not letting anyone to trek ahead to the peak. We were baffled for a second, then myself and sumanth we spoke to a person who was inside bhatta's house and he was one among the two persons incharge of the forest checkpost out there.

The whole reason for not allowing us, there is as small story I got to narrate now. The forest department people told us this ---
Some looser insane phd student from IISC had been on a solo trek to KP. To get rid of his frustration in life as his thesis submission didnt go on well, he some how managed to get lost in the forest of kumaraparvatha. He is supposed to have fought his death in that forest without food for about 9 days. It took about 5 days for the forest department officials and local police to find this guy. It seems this guy was in a pretty bad state when found and was almost near to death. When this fellow was interrogated for the reason of getting lost in the forest, he has informed the department that the dense mist and heavy rainfall were the main convicts for him to take the wrong trail.

After hearing to this story, we tried convincing him which didnt help in any way. He later on took us to one of his senior for negotiations. Myself, sumanth and vivek had tuff time convincing these people to let us go. The whole drama went on for about 1 1/2hr and finally he said, on one condition he will let us go " Just make a move before the next group arrives in there". We rushed back to bhatta's house to skip the lunch at his house and make a move. When we reached there, for our misfortune the other group had arrived. It was our bad luck again and we had no choice, so we made up our mind to leave next day morning to the peak. We spoke a lot with the other group, gradually got to know them better. But the other group was pretty much confident on convincing the forest department to leave both our groups to the peak. After about an hour, these people told we are leaving to the peak after finishing the lunch. The whole drama went on for about 3hrs. We had a very good lunch at bhatta's house and both the groups started moving towards the peak. Now we were 12 of us and we left bhatta's house at about 3.15pm.
The new 6 into the group were
Anil (trekking for the 8th time)
Raghu (trekking for the 3rd time)
Ranjith(trekking for 4th time)
Naveen (trekking for the 3rd time)
Janardhan (trekking for the 6th time)
Hari(first time to KP)
The trek pace from here changed a lot, trust me these guys knew how to trek, there trekking pace was too good. These people pushed us hard, without them we wouldnt have finished the trek. We got to know each other well as we trekked along to the peak. The climate changed a lot, it got cloudly, cold and it was time for us to put on the jackets. Ajit had a tuff time trekking from here, he was constantly pushed hard from vivek and ranjith, sumanth too was accompanying ajit as he too was tired trekking in this stretch. We hardly took any breaks from here on. Anil led the whole group, he was a trekking as if he was walking on a flat road ! gosh this guy was fully filled with energy. In about an hour or so we were walking in clouds, this experience was too good. It was chill and when ever a cloud passes by us, it used to leave out droplets on our hairs, face, all over. This thing appears as if some one has sprayed water on you. It was a wonderful experience to trek in such a weather out there. Later after about 1hr 40mins we reached our next milestone the fourth milestone the mantapa, a very small mantapa.

The history behind this mantapa it is actually called 'Girimutt'. Its was suppose to have been construsted about 500yrs back. It is said that a 'Jangama Mutt' (Lingayat) existed in this place in the past. This Mantapa is built of stone which is about sixteen feet in length and eight feet in breadth. This is supported in four corners by four pillars with engravings and is roofed with slabs of stone. The original roof of the mantapa was down few years back, now there is a replacement for this roof. From this place onwards the trekking path becomes very steep and rises almost like a vertical wall (exaggerating a bit). When we rested near mantapa, we could hardly see anything which was 8feet away from us. It was at this spot it started raining heavily. Our group was in a dilemma to continue the trek or to abandon our trek for the day, we were pretty much tired and were more worried about Ajit's condition who had a sprained ankle. But we didnt have any place to pitch the tent, we were forced to trek for few more distance in the rain. We pushed ourselved hard and trekked in the rain. We trekked about 1 1/2 hr in rain with out any breaks. The rain was a sort of catalyst for our trek, it reduced our sweat, thirst, pains. This was the toughest stretch and we trekked like mad in this stretch. After we got drenched in rain, my backpack was weighing as if it was about 15kgs approximately, this added on to the complexity of the trek. At about 6.00pm we reached a place , were you get to see a very good scenic of the peaks around. It was the best view of the KP. It was time to cross a small stretch of forest, this stretch is suppose to be the link between two forest on either side of the peak and one can encounter wild bisons in this stretch. This start of forest is the fifth milestone. It was getting darker and it was time for us to put snuff /salt on to our boots to fight against the tiger leeches (these leeches are a varient among the leeches, which are of bigger size) and cross the forest range. It takes about 20mins to cross this range. At the last part of the forest trek, it had got dark and we had to trek with the help of torches. As the forest range ends, the rocky mountains shows up. It pretty steep, slippery and one has to watch every step he takes in here. We did a hour of adventerous night trek and it was a amazing experience, it was my first night trek. We reached the peak at about 7.30pm and couldnt see anything on the peak. We had to use torches all the time to reach the peak. We had no clue how the peak looks as it was pitch dark. We pitched our tents, had our dinner and went to sleep at around 10.00pm. My tent was a new tent and it took me time to pitch that. Ajith, sumanth, saravan and vivek slept in one big tent. Myself and sudhir slept in my tent. The other group had bought a big tent and all of them fitted into it. It was getting cold as the night went on . Almost all of us were freezing out there, vivek and few more slept with wet clothes, poor guys didnt have any dry clothing.

9th October 2005 , Sunday - Day 2 of trekking

At around 3.30am I woke up and couldnt sleep after that, the cold out there didnt let me sleep peacefully. In between that I could hear to lots of noises around the tents, didnt have patience to see what it was ? but one thing that was prominently heard to every one around was the snoaring of ajit and sumanth, it was a like a snoaring competation between them. At around 5.30am, I was getting restless in my tent and just stepped out of the tent. I could see a bit of light in the sky, I just sat outside witnessing the dark running away gradually. It was a very good moment of the trek, where in everything around was silent and I had a moment to think, trying to get a look at how the peak looks as the sun came up slowly.

At around 6.30am few guy were out and we lit up a small campfire as couldnt resist the cold. This was very much necessary for us at that moment. At around 7.30am almost every one was awake. We took some interesting snaps , this snaps are really going to be memerable once.
The scenic from the peak was simply mind blowing. I was cursing myself very badly for not having a camera of my own to capture the moments of my life. At around 8.00am we did pooja to the shiva linga which was there on the top of the hill. We saw the foot prints of the divine lord Muruga. After the pooja all 12 of us sat down and had our breakfast. The sun was totally up and it was getting hotter.

It was time to trek down, the whole experience of trekking down was different. I had gradually developed neck pain looking down the whole trek on the second day. As it had rained the previous day, the whole trail had got more slippery than we expected. As we started of the trek for the day, we could see the whole scary rocky terrain on the top of the peak that we had trekked at night.
As we trekked down it was getting sunny and we had a better look of the scenic. Almost every one on the trek would have fell down atleast a couple of times. I had the best fall among every one, I toppled down about 6 to 7 feet down with 1 summersault and 2 rollovers. As it was on a grassland, it didnt hurt me much, but I still enjoyed the fall. As we reached manatapa, there is a small stream out there were we relaxed for some time and made a move again towards bhatta's house.

We reached bhatta's house at around 1.30pm. After having our lunch we rested for about 15mins and made a move. Just as we started trekking again to the kukke subramanya, it started raining heavily. As I said before trekking in rain is painless, we trekked to the bottom with only one small break on the big rock. We had lots of fun getting down, I was talking to naveen almost for about an hour or so and for my surprise, he asked me and sudhir whether we are interested in getting married. If it was yes he had a bride ready for us, I was totally taken aback when he told me this. This stretch of trek was not so slippery and we took about 2hrs 45mins to get down. The first set of junta reached the base camp at around 4.10pm and I reached the base camp along with sudhir at around 4.15pm and the last set of junta reached at around 4.35pm. There was a huge applause from every one, once Ajitpal finished his trek. All of us had a final session of leech removal from our shoes. I had a flawless victory over the leeches, I had zero leech bits, isn't that great. That was the end of KP, the toughest trek I have had till date. Uffffff a memorable trek of my life. Thanks to Anil and his junta, without them it would have merely been impossible for us to trek to the peak on the same day.

Later we made a move to the tea shop, it was a bit relaxing out there. We purchased few dry clothing and had a clean bath at the kumaradhare. After which we went to the temple for darshan at around 7.00pm. We had dinner and lazed out for some time waiting to catch up our bus to bangalore at 10.30pm. The other group ops lemme say the Anil and his junta of our group had to catch up a bus at 10.15pm. It was a peaceful journey back to bangalore in the rajahamsa. I really pity the people who sat in front of us in the bus, struggling to breath the air with a blend of my stinking shoes. We all reached bangalore at around 5.50am and i plonked onto the bed at around 6.30am. It was feeling great to come back and relax after a great mission. I got up at around 11.00am that day, was back to office.

On a whole it was a very good experience trekking at kumaraparvatha, I would suggest all the trek lovers not to miss this trek . Atleast do it once in your life time.


More to come ! :)