It was just over 6am as the bus wound towards the sleepy little town of Nagara. Kodachadri is located in Shivamogga district which is also known as the Gateway to Malnad. I had decided to Trek the mighty peak after a long gap of 7 years. We were only 2 of us and it was a 1-day plan.

There are 3 ways of reaching Kodachadri peak:

1) Trek from Karakatte gate,
2) Trek from Nittur via Hidlumane Falls,
3) Take a Jeep from Sampakatte.

We opted for the second option. This was also a budget themed trek with my friend more than willing to play along. The walk from Nittur to Hidlumane falls was an uneventful one yet a very scenic one as we crossed lush green paddy fields, winding streams and few talkative villagers.

The Hidlumane falls is a series of cascading waterfalls. In the monsoon, the falls transform into a roaring spectacle. The route to Kodachadri is on the right side of the Post monsoon also the flow was good and also conducive for getting down into the falls. Due to the canopy overhead the forest floor was moist and the leeches were thriving. Leeches are the soul of any trek in the Western Ghats.

We started from Hidlumane falls at around 10am. My friend quickly scampered up the ascent. I took my time as usual parallely making sure that leaches do not latch on. The climb is not the easiest one for the beginners.

We finally made it to the clearing where the waiting sun played hide and seek among the clouds. After the forest clearing, it is a full grassland trek until we hit the Jeep route.

We sat under a tree to enjoy the view that was in front of us. Post monsoon is the best season for trekking in the Western Ghats as we get the greenery as well as pleasant weather.

Among all the natural elements, the clouds are the most under-appreciated ones. Although we were not quite at the top, we could see the beautiful view spread across in front of us. The not so distant Sharavathi backwaters were visible in the form of hundreds of little water bodies. The clouds had formed a magnificent pattern and acted as a perfect framing tool for the picturesque landscape. We just had no mood to get up, but keeping in mind the even better views at the top pushed on.

Since we were only two of us, the pace was easily made up even with us regularly recording the beautiful scenes. As we hiked through, we couldn’t help but stop and gaze at the beautiful fluorescent greenery around us. Kodachadri is an immensely popular trekking route, with Jeep rides even more so. As we were about to hit the jeep track, we counted as many as 6-7 jeeps blazing through the dirt road one behind the other. We hit a steady pace on the dirt road since we had started early in the morning the other groups were long behind us.

We reached the Jeep endpoint at 12.30pm. A familiar sight greeted us with many jeeps parked by. From here we have to trek a couple of kilometers more to reach the top. The trek route was pretty crowded with people across all ages hitting the trail. At the peak, there is a Sarvagna Peetha where it is believed that Adi Shankaracharya meditated here.

We spent a little more than 2 hours on the peak and the views were nothing short of extraordinary.

The Chakra dam backwaters were visible. The distant mountains and water bodies were getting covered repeatedly by the clouds that were lazing around. The weather was picture perfect with the mountains shrouded by the dense foliage and also by the dense patches of clouds.

At 3pm, we thought that it would be best to make our way down as we had to walk all the way to the Main Road. We decided to descend through the Karakatte gate side thus exploring both the routes. The route was a roller coaster of sorts as we slipped at multiple places due to the moist soil. We reached the ground level at 4.30pm and I figured would reach the main road by 5pm at the most. But I was horribly wrong. We took the road which was closed by a gate, being told by people that it’s shorter than the vehicle route by at least 1 km. We stepped up the pace as we walked through the trail with not a soul in sight. At one place, the trees had fallen blocking our path. Then we ran, with adrenaline coursing through our veins. Still, we could not find any sight of the main road. Our pace was breathtakingly beautiful with my friend even being a couple of steps ahead of me. Finally, at 5.45pm we tumbled onto the main road with a huge sense of relief.

As we walked towards Nittur with a sense of accomplishment, I could hardly wait until I had my favorite drink – Kashaya. It’s a heavenly mix of healthy ingredients that recently I had fallen in love with. My friend shouted down my plan of continuing for the next day. Hence we boarded the 7pm bus back to Bangalore finishing a memorable 1-day trek well under 1000 bucks.