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| Kolirayana Betta Trek |
- Place: Kolirayana Betta Trek (Maddur)
- Difficulty: Easy
- Distance: 85 km x 2 = 170 km.
- Directions: Bangalore > Bidadi > Ramanagara > Channapatna > Maddur > Kolirayana Betta
- Krew: Datta (Dattu), Karthik (Sp).
- Bikes: Pulsar.
- Previous Visit: Periyamalai Fort Trek.
- Budget: Rs 276/head (Petrol = 352/2; Breakfast = 200/2)
IN LESS THAN 50 WORDS:
Alright, Kolirayana Betta is an off-beat, beautiful place in Maddur. The trek offers a peaceful climb and a great training ground for grass and mud-type hillocks. There is no official trail, so yeah, it's a free-style climb all the way :)
And this marked 37 weeks, 38 treks, 8.5 months, non-stop, since Oct 12th, 2025. This was our 26th trek in 25 weeks for 2026, with 23 first ascents. :)
INTRO & PLAN:
Having done 3 treks in 6 days (Kurbooru Fort Trek, Kabbaladurga Trek, Periyamalai Fort Trek) the soul ached for more. And doing Kabbaladurga and Periyamalai with a one-day gap had made my calves slightly sore.
I wasn't sure I could pull off another. When I asked Dattu if he was on board and his adductors were fine, he asked for an hour, as he had a badminton match and if all went well he would let me know. Told him I have a needle and thread in case his adductors tore haha :)
After an hour, a message came in, "All good, LET'S GO!" Treated my calves with some IR and by evening it was all set. Crashed by 19:30.
TIME: 19:30 (12 June, 2026)
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| A wild happy Sippy appears in the wild :) |
ASSEMBLE & LEAVE:
Yeah, I was up by 02:30, fresh and ready. But it had poured all night. So, Kolirayana betta made sense as it had terrain similar to Skandagiri, Ambajidurga, Kunti Betta. These hillocks can be done if it continues to rain as well. Got ready, and wiped my bike gently, asked her if she was ready for the day.
Took off from home by 5am, put on some slow doom metal, head bobbing all the way, rode very slow through the city to Mahalakshmi Layout to pick up Dattu. Dattu was beaming with a smile early in the morning and seemed ready. To throw him off track, I said, "Dattu, looks like it might rain; shall we go to the bar straight away for an early morning beer?" A strong tap on the helmet followed; hahaha!
TIME: 05:30
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| Another morning walk for this endurance monster. |
RIDE 1: (Bangalore > Ramanagara > Maddur > Kolirayana betta)
This was a 10 km ride back to Mysore Road and then a 85km ride to the hillock. With a strict NO GMAPS rule, we rode non-stop in the dark, chatting all the way about Chess, K-dramas, Thai TV shows that we were watching and then pulled over at Bidadi at our regular hotel for some piping hot tatte idlis. When we told him we had taken some butter off the fridge, he said: "Think of this place as your own home, take what you want". It had truly become one of our go-to stops on Mysore Road :)
TIME: 06:15
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| Shivasagar Bidadi Tatte Idli |
After a good breakfast, we cruised past Ramanagar and as we were about to reach Channapatna, an aunty walking on the service road started waving at us to take the city route and go via the old road. When we enquired, she said it had been closed and asked us to rejoin via the old road.
We took the deviation via some beautiful slush green fields; as we were riding, I told Dattu I suspected some kind of underground dark operation going on, and the aunty was on the lookout, driving all traffic away from the base of operation. Again, a strong knock on the helmet came from Dattu's hand haha :)
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| The greenery awaits :) |
Reaching the base of the hillock, we enquired with the locals about the start point. One kind farmer pointed us to the muddy trail and asked to follow it, as it would lead to the base. Parking the bike on the muddy trail, we awoke the "Ibex's spirit" this time and not the lizard, as the terrain required an Ibex call and we were all set for the climb.
TIME: 08:10
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| The Kolirayana trek begins |
KOLIRAYANA BETTA FORT TREK
ASCENT:
Well, the trek was a small one, and it took us about 15-20 minutes to dash to the top. Well, please do not go by our timings. If you are a novice, keep a 45- 60-minute window. As it is a free-style climb, one must be aware of the natural routes and cracks of the mountain and that comes only from experience. But the climb is fun without any concrete trails, so a simple rule would be "keep climbing up until only the sky is above you". As always, I have divided the trek into the following phases, so yeah, LET's GO!
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| Initial trails at Kolirayana betta trek |
Phase 1: The Initial Trail
Well, you can ride a bike here as well. But we wanted the "whole experience", so we parked our bikes way back and started the walk on a muddy trail just beside the hillock. Follow this trail until it leads to a sheer drop-off. So, applying some common sense here, down is not the way, but up is. You start climbing :)
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| The freestyling climb is the major chunk. |
Phase 2: The Freestyling climb
Now, this is the major chunk of the climb. Here the climb got interesting and beautiful at the same time. Even though it was pre-monsoon, the terrain was covered with tall grass and shrubs. It was really beautiful. But to summit, we had to wade through them. One nice rule here is to follow the water flow path upwards. There are two reasons for this: water flows in the least resistance, and also it carves out a natural mud path where you can see the trail (huge psychological factor), and you get some nice footholds.
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| Shall we dash this way? |
We dashed around reading the faint trails like a shark smelling blood. As we ascended further and further, the trail reading became second nature. Soon, we could see the summit, and we could see a lot of boulders.
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| Two layers of fortification guard the top. |
Phase 3: The Rock Face and the Final Fort Walls.
The boulder terrain got us excited, and we were jumping around with joy. Then a straight rock at a mild incline stood before us. And at the end of the rock face, we could see the fort wall. We started climbing up. Here, we climbed using only the front part of the foot. This is a great way to climb steep rock faces, as it offers a lot of springiness in the climb, but yeah, the downside is the toll it takes on the calves. Climbing past the fort walls, we could see the stone mantap which marked the top.
TIME: 08:30
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| At the summit :) |
TOP:
Well, as we summited, we saw two locals at the top. It was strange and awkward as we seldom find people at the hillocks we go to. To break the "ice", I yelled, waving my hands, "Pavan, hi". They got confused. Dattu was looking at me (no helmet to give the 3rd knock, haha); then I apologised for having mistaken them for my friend. It was just perfect ;)
Then, when they introduced themselves, we had a very heartfelt conversation. They were heading back down; we offered them water, exchanged a few places around and then wished them luck on the journey back :)
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| Getting used to claustrophobic spaces :) |
After they left, we began exploring the place. The skies were blue, the winds were pleasant and the view - just gorgeous. We could spot some of the mighty hillocks afar - Kabbaladurga & Chaluvanarayana Swamy Betta. After a neat exploration through boulders, etc, we decided to crash at the stone mantap and rehydrate and rest. As we sat down, we began discussing about K-dramas, Judas Priest's best songs, etc. As we were discussing, a mighty hillock appeared afar; there was no hillock surrounding it. It just stood there, almost calling us. We stared at it in silence; we knew our next destination :)
TIME: 09:30
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| Dattu trying OHP with the Stone Mantap :) |
DESCENT:
The descent was 30 minutes. Now to start things off, we were confused about the way we came up, as the top is pretty flat and we goofed around a lot. A golden rule we follow on such a free-style climb is, "while climbing up, attach dirty thoughts to all objects you find on the way (with pure intent of course) so that it helps in re-tracing your steps down"
So, having spotted the pointy rock (1st image), do not ask us what thoughts we had attached to this one; we could re-trace the path. Dattu took the lead, and boy did he walk. Dattu is the endurance monster of our club, and every trek seems like a morning walk to him. Warning me about the loose gravel, mud, shaky boulders, he dashed ahead. And I tried my best to keep up with him. We were down in a jiffy :)
TIME: 10:00
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| The endurance monster breaks past the fort walls |
RIDE 2: (Kolirayana betta > Maddur > Ramanagara > Bangalore)
As we reached the bikes, we looked back at the hillock, thanked her for the experience and more importantly, "LETTING US GO BACK". The ride back was a smooth one, we reached Maddur and I contemplated whether we should ride back and hit the aunty's base of operation from the other side. TAP came the third strike on the helmet haha!
As we rode back, we took a conscious decision to travel via the town of Channapatna and Ramanagara on the old Mysore Road. And oh boy, did this hit different. Felt so good cruising along the old Mysore Road. The bike was responding so well as we had learnt to ride on these roads. Waving a big HI to Achalu betta, we dashed past Channapatna and Ramanagara to reach Bidadi. We pulled over for a short break and then rode non-stop to reach back Bangalore.
As we entered Bangalore, a beautiful drizzle showered from the skies and we pulled over for some ice-cold beers. Post the beers, we belted some nice Ragi Mudhe at our regular hotel near college and finally rode in the drizzle to drop Dattu off and rode back listening to some Judas Priest to reach back home as well :)
TIME: 14:30
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| Thank you, Kolirayana betta :) |
CONCLUSION:
Well, this was a beautiful trek with no trails. So a complete freestyle climb. It was a very refreshing trek. Seeing such lush greenery truly calmed our eyes and poured some fresh grams into our souls.
Past 37 weeks, we have pulled off 38 treks, ~7670 kms in total, 8.5 months, non-stop. The Flame lives on \m/
KREW:
Dattu: Which hill is not a morning walk for this endurance monster? I have to ask. Recovering from a torn adductor, pulled this one off flawlessly. If it is a freestyle climb, he is the go-to guy.
Sippy: Very happy with the week, 8days, 4 treks and the three taps on the helmet haha.
Until next time, Ta-da Cia \m/
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| Wish us luck - on 52/52. |
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