The trek to Kudremukh Peak; how do I describe it? One word that comes to my mind immediately is FANTABULOUS! It is a must do if you are a fan of treks or beautiful natural landscapes. Most of us are fans of beautiful landscapes. So hopefully this has caught your attention 😀 .

Let me wind things back first. For those who have not heard of Kudremukh Peak, first some information on the place. The peak is located in the Kudremukh National Park which is located in the Chikkamagaluru district in the state of Karnataka, India. The local name for it is Kudremukha, which literally translates to “horse-face”. Well, it is difficult to imagine why the name when you look at the peak though 🙂 . The highest point of the peak is at a elevation of 1892 m MSL. It is considered to be the second highest peak in Karnataka.

The Kudremukh National Park is part of the Western Ghats, one of the 34 hotspots identified for bio-diversity in the world. So you can imagine the richness that is one to expect. And trust me, it will not disappoint. In fact as you walk through, you will get to see the pretty unique landscape formed by lush shola grasslands interspersed with evergreen forests having water streams running through. I tell you a paradise. Well, words can only do so much. I hope the pictures that you will see later in this post will convince you, in case you are still not 😉 .

Our decision to do the trek was very sudden. I was slated to go on a bird survey on the weekend of 6th Feb 2021. During a community event in the residential complex that we stay in, Sangeeta and Manjunath spoke to us a couple of weeks before 6th Feb, of their plan to join a trekking group that were doing a trek to Kudremukh Peak. My wife being herself, she was immediately excited about. I was not going to be around during that weekend. So she went ahead and expressed her interest in wanting to join them. Well, as things went, the bird survey that I was supposed to join, got cancelled. Therefore I also decided to join the trek. It was eventually decided to not go with the trekking group. Instead Sangeeta was able to make arrangements directly with a homestay owner at Mullodi, the starting point of the trek. We were all set!

What all trekking companies who organise the trek from Bangalore do is to ferry their guests overnight to Mullodi, reach by early morning hours, have the guests freshen up at one of the homestays and then have them go for the trek. We decided not to do the same itinerary. We would instead start around 2:30PM the day before. The plan was to reach around 10PM at the homestay. This would allow us to get some sleep before the trek. And that is what we did.

At the homestay, we were all up early the next morning, eager to get going. The trek would start only post breakfast. So I spend some time enjoying the morning bird songs and calls coming from all around. Being away from any noise pollution, the sounds of nature was really amplified and refreshing. By 8AM breakfast was done and we headed off with our trek guide to the starting point.

This is manned by the forest department. They check everybody’s bags for any plastic. We had already got to know of restriction of taking plastic into the park and hence had avoided getting any, including wrappers. A great initiative. We could see the effects of it as we went through the park. There were no signs of plastic anywhere. A refreshing aspect compared most other places which are visited by humans. The forest gate is where you pay the fees including those for any camera that you may be carrying. Here are the charges that were effective at our time of visit:

And we were off. From what we experienced the trek is in not monotonous in any way, both in the terrain that you will going through as well as the level of difficulty. As part of the trek you will go through grasslands, forests with streams and also go over hills. And these keep interchanging as you go along to the peak. So you exposed to the sun in the grassland sections, then you have forests where it with shade. So a really good mix. Here are a set of photos below arranged in the sequence in which they appeared. This will give you an idea of what I mean:

Then you have the hill sections. They are pretty steep. Of course, they will be 🙂 . I mean we have to reach the peak eventually, right ?

Trust me all the effort is worth it. You get some fantastic views! Here are some photos I took of a few of them:

We eventually reached the peak by 12:45pm. The approach to it also picturesque :

Here is us at the peak:

We spent around 45 minutes at the peak. During this period we of course enjoyed the excellent views and the rest, but also had the packed lunch we had been given from our homestay. We had to reach back at the starting point latest by 6PM. So it was soon time to start heading back.

The return journey was definitely harder. The knees take a beating in the sections where you have to climb down. But we did it as a reasonable pace that was OK for us. But I must confess, much of the walk back was driven by mental determination. Also the fact that we did not want to be left in the park after sunset I think kind of helped 😀 .

When you know the walk back is arduous, you obviously need signs to let you know that you are making progress and will soon get there 🙂 . In this matter, there were two “important” trees that one can look forward to act as markers. They are single large trees. So you will not miss it. One marks the half way mark and the other is around 1km from the starting point.

We eventually made it back at the starting point by 5:30pm. Sangeeta and Manjunath had reached by around 4:30pm.

The next morning we did a visit to the waterfall very close to our homestay. It was just a 5 mins walk.

The homestay we stayed at was called Mullodi Homestay. It was very close to the starting point of the trek. So we found it very convenient. The contact details are given below in case you are interested.

We headed back to Bangalore post a quick breakfast. I also recommend stopping over at the below cafe that is enroute, much before you hit Hassan. The place offers great coffee and an excellent view overlooking a valley from the back of the store.

Video

Here is a short video that I put together of our trek to the Kudremukh Peak. It should give you a reasonable gist.

Recommendations

Now that the nice and fuzzy part of the trek is done, here are some recommendations that I want to share from our experience:

  • The total trek is around 22 kms. Now this part is confusing with many blog posts or signages and advertisements saying it is 18kms. My smart watch reading came back as 22.4kms. And I did not stray from the main path when trekking. So I am going with that. Whether it is 18kms or 22kms, it is not a short distance. You will also be going uphill and downhill on the same day. So the knees take a good beating. Given the distance and the different terrain you will go through, do not think that this is an easy trek. Even if you are a regular trekker, I think it would atleast be a moderate trek. But for people like me who do not trek often, this should be considered as a difficult trek. Given the almost impromptu decision we took to join the trek, my wife and I had not got any time to train for it. So I could attribute some pain owing to this. So it is better to train for it for a reasonable period
  • Make sure you wear good trekking footwear. I cannot emphasis more on this. There are several sections, especially the hill slopes, where you have to go over loose soil. Having good footwear will definitely aid you in these sections. During our trek, we saw several people wearing regular shoes or sandals slipping at several places
  • Taking along a walking pole is highly recommended. It helped us a lot, especially in the climb down the hills. My knee was paining quite a bit. So the pole helped me take some load of it in these sections. It also acts as an added limb providing additional support points in tricky spots, of which there are many 🙂
  • I have read many posts and seen video logs recommending people to do the trek during monsoon season. During monsoon, the grasslands would be lush green and the streams in the forests would be in full glory. But it also means that some sections can be a bit slushy and slippery, especially the hill slopes. And if you wear glasses, definitely not a great experience having to walk with rain drops hitting your glasses if it rains. There will also be LEECHES 🙂 . So take these aspects into consideration when deciding. If you are upto it, then by all means, go for it. However we personally feel that Jan/ Feb is the most optimum period to do the trek. The grass is still reasonably green and there are no leeches. There is also a cool breeze blowing thus making it pleasant all through, even with the blazing sun. At the top of the peak, there is also very little chance of clouds playing spoil sport
  • Wear a hat. I recommend a broad round one
  • Take not more than 1 litre of water per person. There are several streams enroute that you will be able to refill. The water from these streams are sweet and cool!
  • Take some munchies for the trek. Fruits, snack bars, trail mix etc. are great options
  • Don’t forget to leave all the plastic, especially the wrapping of snacks, in your rooms before you start heading to the starting point
  • Be super mindful of what you are taking along with your in the trek. Remember every gram will count or rather weigh in, especially when you are walking back 😀 . I had gained experience of this aspect from our hike to the Double Decker Living Root Bridge in Meghalaya. So I had deliberately chose not to take the DSLR camera in this trek just to avoid added weight. I of course could not leave my binoculars given I am a birder 🙂
  • Make sure you have fully charged your mobile phones before you start your trek. You can be pretty sure that you will be taking a lot of photos and videos during the trek
  • Mobile network coverage is not great in and around the park. The only ones which seemed to have coverage were BSNL and Jio. So if you are of any other operator, then expect no signal for the duration of your stay and trek. This could be a good thing given that no one will be able to “disturb” you 😀
  • The path which goes away from the main road to the starting point of the trek, is several kilometers. Based on the condition of this road, atleast when we had gone, it is best done using a 4×4 vehicle. Add to this that you may not have mobile network coverage. So be mindful of your decision on how and when you plan to go through. We ended up driving up at around 10pm. Not a pleasant experience when you are going through it the first time not knowing how much longer and worse the path is going to get. Add to this that we did not have mobile network signal 🙂 . If you are booked at one of the homestays on that route, they can arrange for a 4×4 vehicle pickup from the main road. They have space at the main road where you can leave your vehicle
  • All organised treks essentially start with the guests reaching one of the nearby homestays early in the morning and then going for the trek. I would recommend reaching there the previous night like we did. That way you will get a chance to get some sleep. You can book one of the homestays directly. They will organise for the guide and other logistics also
  • Go with your partner or friends. It is always good to have someone to encourage and share the pleasure and pain 😀
  • Even if you are a hardcore trekker, do it at a reasonable pace. The views and scenery are glorious and must be enjoyed

Lastly, if you are unsure if you will be able to do the trek given the potential difficulty, I would still suggest to go for it. I mean, we were able to do so without any training at all. And we are middle aged. Train for it and go. It is worth it.

Have you done this trek before? Or does it remind you of another one that you have done. Comment and let me know below

Interested in another beautiful trek near Bangalore? Check out Bidarakatte Trek. You will not regret it.