Trek de Skandagiri

Posted by Prashanth on Mar 12, 2007 Bike Trip, Karnataka, One day outing, Travel, Trek, Weekend Getaway

Here comes the detailed log after the teaser.

Couple of weeks back, my friend Usha had sent me a set of photos of Skandagiri (She got them via mail forwards), which were amazing (selected two of them are here & here). We had no other information than the name & the photos. Google gave a bit of information about the place, directions & distance. Plan was cooking up for the short trek, and at the same time Kamlesh came up with a plan. So we made it a ride-n-trek day.

Skandagiri or Kalavaarahalli betta is 75 Kms from Bangalore, near Chikkaballapur, a little known place along the Nandi Hills range. The hill is a small one but a steep climb. It took us one and half hours to climb and 45 minutes to come down.

Route: Bangalore – Devanahalli – Chikaballapur – Skandagiri. Take a left turn inside the city, follow the narrow road to reach Papagni Matt which is at the foot of Skandagiri.

10 bikers on 10 bikes started off at 6 in the morning. Though it was beginning of summer, it was chilling out there. Stopped just before Chikkaballapur for breakfast & coffee. From there Santosh took lead as he had already been there. Reached foothill by 9. None of those 8 lazy bums were ready for the trek, just two of us (Srik & I) took off. It was a tiring climb. Reached summit after lot of stop-overs on the way. View from top was amazing, with 360 degrees of clear sky. Spent a good one hour top and came down, which took us 45 minutes.

We were hungry and stopped at a dhabha near Devanahalli. After a quick lunch, Srik & I left early as we had to reach Bangalore early.

Distance (from Bangalore): 75 KMs one way.
Food & Water: Get it at the nearby town Chikkaballapur. Not a drop of drinking water available at the peak.
Camping: Can be done. Plenty of flat ground. (Thats what I’m planning to do next ;)

Will be there again to catch those lovely clouds :)

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  • abhinav

    Hi Prashanth,

    Im planning to go to skandagiri this weekend and would like a few details from you . Could you please give me a call / send over your phone number so that i can touch base with you and get a few points clarified ?
    We are going for a night trek to that place and hope to catch the clouds in time early morning :)

    my contact details are :
    abhinavrm [at] gmail.com
    9901990121

  • Prashanth M

    Thanks Cuckoo

    Prabul mia, to capture those clouds one need to be there early in the morning. We reached top only by 11.

    Vani, sure. Take the initiative at MB please :)

  • Prashanth M

    Thanks Srik.

    Kam, lazy bum nahin to phir kya ho tum?! ;)

    Bachodi, nice idea. lets work on it together. Myself & Srik have got a plan still in initial stage. Still refining about it :)

    Yes Mridula, one day outings are nice break form daily routine. that too when you don’t get leaves for quite a long days.

  • Vani

    Nice post, Prashanth. Waiting to visit this place.

  • Prabul

    the orginal pics looks better…more clouds. your pics looks bery bery dry baaah ;)

  • Cuckoo

    This looks very interesting. Beautiful inviting pictures and was it you standing on the pillar?

    I envy you guys, the biker group. :P

    Looking forward to your camping.

  • Mridula

    One day trips is what I should also try to specialise in the coming few months. Loved the pictures and I am sure you will enjoy camping there.

  • bachodi

    thanks for the info.
    people like you should make south Indian map more visible over the net. like http://www.travbuddy.com/ or 43places etc.

  • Kam

    Nice pix and nice blog.

    Bilaady facker! Dare u call ’8 lazy bums’! We trekked till we found some good place to relax :D. I’m not gonna leave u when we meet :P two kicks for sure!

  • Srik

    Good and crisp update :)

    Water is the only requirement, if u have enough break fast from Chikballapur :)

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