Premium Community
Open Community
I run an Open & Free WhatsApp Community for outdoorsy folks in Bangalore. Anyone & everyone can join that. More on that on a separate page.
Lifetime Membership to Premium Community
I also run a Premium Community for outdoorsy folks in Bangalore.
And people often ask me what extra do premium members get?
- You access to my guide to off-beat hikes around Bangalore. The number of trails listed are at 24 right now. But I have at least 13 more in the works. Ask me for it directly via email for info on those.
- Free access to the classic hikes I lead
- Free access to exploratory hikes for moderately experienced hikers
- Special Experiences at a highly discounted price (30-80% off)
- 30% for events where I bring in a expert (e.g. the prehistoric excursion to an ancient burial ground we do with a historian)
- 50-80% for cookouts, SUP in a lake, camping in the wild and such
- More details on the special experiences below
Experiences
You might wonder, why do I call them experiences & not just hikes. Because most of my hikes have more than just a hike.
- We sometimes, swim in water bodies on the trail.
- At other times we taste wild fruits.
- We climb into or out of caves. Meditate in them.
- Sometimes we cycle down to a trailhead.
- We try our hands at bouldering or rock climbing.
As a premium member you mostly get free access to these experiences.
The cases when these experiences are paid too these are heavily discounted (50-80%) for you as a premium member.
- These involve significant planning, effort, skill or equipment on my end.
- When we go swimming after a hike & need buoyancy vest or life jackets.
- Or you ride a SUP board in a lake.
- We go on exploratory hikes to new spots
For instance, my upcoming hike + SUP ride will cost about ₹3000 for non-members, but only ₹1000 to premium members.
Off-beat Trail Guide
Premium members get access to detailed information about off-beat hiking trails around Bangalore.
Why do you even need these when there are so many popular trails, you ask?
- On Official Karnataka Eco-Tourism Treks:
- you won't be able to spend as much time as you like*
- can't take your pets*
- can't get into water bodies*
- can't camp*
- they will randomly shut down trails without explaining anything* in public
- Popular trails are often crowded on weekends & public holidays. On the ones I have listed as off-beat, you will hardly find any one else on the trails, maybe a few locals at best. (Be friendly & respectful to the locals)
- They're also often full of trash.
- I clean up the off-beat trails I frequent.
- And since these are lesser-known trails it's relatively easy to clean them.
- And our community helps a lot with clean ups. (We don't have to hikes specially for clean-ups, only a few minutes of work on every time takes care of most of the trash)
- Moreover, once we clean up the place in 2-3 visits. We might not need to clean up for months or years.
- Once you've bought the guide, you can either plan a hike among your friends, find folks to hike with within the community or even ask me to organise one.
Notes
- Spending unlimited time on a hike: beware of night stuff, wild animals. you can spend as much time as you like if you account for certain safety concerns.
- Pets: have them on a leash
- Swimming in open water in very different from an artificial pool. There are several factors such as water quality, rocks, plants & local customs that you should take into account before getting in.
- Cleanup: We have been cleaning plastic trash from the trails, but haven't yet figured a reliable way to deal with glass bottles, esepcially broken ones. Because carrying them back is a safety hazard. So the currently we collect them all in one spot, so that they're easier to dispose later.
- Trails being closed without any intimation. Tweet