Kanoor Kote (Part III) – Trek Notes
Kanoor Kote (Fort) / August 2003
On the day 2 of our hike – We had to cross a small dam. During heavy rains this is flooded and crossing over is not possible. A bit of jungle trail and few more fields, we reached the road and continued walking towards Kanoor. Man! Everything was wet and amazingly green. The road went up and down while the rain never gave us a break, so we ended up taking our breakfast in the rain itself. It was quite something else to eat with the rain pouring on us and the food.
We did meet some people on the way (the women folk looking really colorful with their custom made rain gear) and we reached Kanoor after walking around 7 km. The trail we took leading into the forest, the weather, temperature, humidity, mist & exhaustion all conspired to excite me. It was a fantastic sight. I can never forget the uphill trail, it was like a different planet altogether. As we took a break for 5 minutes, we noticed some frogs in and about, converting the time into a larger photo break. The locals who passed by stared at us with weird expressions & probably thought we were crazy. One lady did ask us as to what we were up to and chuckled when we said we were taking photographs of frogs that were hopping about 
After devoting some precious time to the frogs we continued on with the hike, which went on till 1800hrs when our eyes came upon a house down in the valley (the old lady we met on day 1 had mentioned this). All the men had gone to the fields and only women were at home. We had not reached the fort yet and it was getting late, so we made a request to camp nearby. They couldn’t decide without discussing it with their men and instead informed us about a Doctor/Dr V Thomas’s house 2 km away where we might camp. We were guided by one of the children halfway, beyond which the trail was quite clear. We ended up camping at Doctor’s house for the night.
The good doctor is very philosophical and says welcome with a smile to all visitors. Mostly the people who hike to Kanoor Kote stay at his house for the night. We found out from him that around 1.5 km before Kanoor (on the road we took), there was a route going into the forest which would have got us to his house directly (from the other direction) in 4-5 hrs.
He told us that on reaching the fort we had to hike around 15 km to reach Gerusoppa, our destination & exit point. After some more talking, a few photos and excellent black coffee prepared by the doctor’s wife, we retired for the night.
On the day 3 of our hike – We woke up early and went up the hill in front of Doctor’s house. The doctor showed us a viewpoint up the hill which was fabulous. We also found out there was a shack on this hill owned by a well known club called Adventurers (a group that organized hikes to this place). We left by 1000 hrs and reached the fort easily, all thanks to the doctor’s good directions.
The fort was in ruins and there were leeches everywhere. Upon exploring the area we were definitely glad that we ended up taking a detour to Doctor’s house instead of coming here for the night. There was a good enough site for camp though, but then with the rain pouring 24hrs and leeches at every step it would have been a challenging dark/cold night out in hostile surroundings. It might be ok in summer.
We explored the fort and it was just awesome at every step. We found a big hole in the ground, like a passageway leading down and we took it (obviously:). It lead into a landing, with steps leading further down which was actually a staircase connecting the ground floor to the top floor (top floor being the top of the hill itself while the ground floor was the ruins slightly lower down in the hill, near to where we got in). It was musty, humid, dark and definitely a cool experience. Once we were done with our exploring we backtracked a little distance up to a junction in the trail. We were told by the doctor to take the one going to the left and downhill and so we did.
From here it was to be a 15 km hike to Gerusoppa. It was rocky terrain and wet. We hiked across a few streams and through a few which had swallowed the trail. We reached another junction around 1430hrs. There were 3 paths and we couldn’t decide which to take. So, Vivek ditched his bag & hikes down the one going to the right which had a few houses in sight (1 – 2 km). He did not find anybody at the first house, so he went to the neighbors and nobody was home there too. Meanwhile, I tired of the pain from my left foot and waiting, and so I went in the direction that was to the extreme left. I spotted the stream which had gained volume and a house around 3 or 4 km away. I headed back to the junction of trails by which time Vivek was also hiking back and it was decision time again. We shared the information gathered from our scouting. Though he had not met anyone, he was pretty sure that it was the route since he had seen houses further up. So the decision was made, we took the trail to the right.
Finally we found someone home at one of the houses further up. The irritating thing was that the houses were separated by their fields; its a kilometer or two between neighboring houses. This guy told us we were on the wrong trail, and the one heading to the extreme left was the route we wanted. He was kind enough to accompany us for some distance. So, we climbed the hill again and went in the other direction. He took us through fields and across fences. We crossed two log bridges and one hanging bridge that was made of a single plank 1.5 feet wide (adventurous n scary at the same time). The local boy seemed to have a ball looking at the two of us struggle. He guided us upto the point where the trail seemed non-existent to a traveler. We continued from there and hit a surprise near the end of our hike.
Hike Ends – Up until then nobody had informed us that we had to cross the Sharavathi river to reach Gerusoppa. Gerusoppa was clearly visible from where we stood, with the massive Sharavathi river full and in heat (due to monsoons) right in front of us.
We had to cross the river on a canoe ferried by a local. Thankfully, we reached in time (around 1730 hrs) and the canoe was on its last trip of the day. We got onto this shaky canoe with the rest of the locals, one behind the other in a single file. And then it started raining heavily, wonders never cease
Finally, we reached the Gerusoppa bus stand where we ate pakodas and had some tea. We took a local ride to a stop called the ‘colony stop’, ate Masala Dosa at the hotel, and had more tea. Just as we got out of the hotel we find a Bangalore-bound KSRTC luxury bus heading towards us and so it was … back on a bus at 1835 hrs.
The funny thing was that we couldn’t go home to rest, rather on getting back to Bangalore we had to catch a bus back to our College ( SDUMC ), Kolar and head to work at the KNTB Hospital. And we made it without a hitch. This part worked out exactly as we had planned . “All is well that ends well“.
