July 16th 2022
Three days ago I left Arkit.
I got there on July 9th. I spent July 10th, my birthday, resting, eating, drinking, meeting people and enjoying my time. On July 11th I took a zero day (Thru Hiking term for days you don’t gain distance), and on July 12th I got sick 🙁
I stayed at Babira’s guest house who took really good care of me. I met some tourists, I met some locals and finally I left on the 13th.
Back on trail and heading up to the south shore of Sary-Chelek, a super popular destination for foreigners but even more so for locals. Kyrgyz people who generally don’t like to go far can drive and park right on the lake. I saw more people at a cookout by the lake than I saw in the entire previous two weeks. People spotted my ukulele peeking from my backpack and after playing a couple of songs, a group of old women forced me to join them for lunch. After lunch I jumped into the lake, got stung by a couple of bees and started climbing.
The hike around Sary-chelek is incredible. It’s full of lakes and surrounded by mountains. Back on my feet and feeling nature’s simple beauty coming through with every step I felt grateful. I’m enjoying being out here. I’m enjoying every step. I’m really happy to be where I am.
I climbed up to the pass and down to the next valley near Kara-Kamish lake where I found a yurt camp and spent the night.
The paths in this region are unfamiliar. They’re not on any of the maps and I had to collect information by talking to locals in my broken Russian and the few Kyrgyz words I know. The only way to proceed is by stopping and asking every person you see and moving one step at a time. It goes something like this:
Local: Go up the river until you get to the pass… Don’t go down the other side but keep climbing up to the ridge line and follow the…
Me: okay, okay what’s next?
Local: You get to a pass then you see your camp in the valley below… but you keep walking… you get to another pass and then you will see the lake. Go down to the lake and follow the river all the way to Toktogul…
So I walked up the river and I climbed up to the ridge. I spent the night sleeping on top of the ridge at 3,300m surrounded by sheer beauty and a very steep fall on both sides. While eating my dinner I was surprised by some horse herders and their horses. Trying to follow the local custom I invited them into the tent to share in my dinner. They each had a taste and I’m not sure if they were nice and didn’t want to eat my food, or just didn’t like it, but they let me finish my meal alone. They were really excited to meet me. People, especially in the remote mountains, get really excited to see a foreigner, and as soon as I take out my ukulele and play a song or two they get even more excited. It’s a really amazing way to connect to people, music is a universal language of its own.
After they insisted, I got on one of their horses so they could take some pictures of me. They said good night and I went to sleep just to wake up the next morning on top of the world.
I spent half of the next day walking on the ridge with the most incredible 360° view. There’s nothing like walking the ridgeline!
I met a couple of families camping on the ridge with their flocks grazing down in the valleys or hillsides and saw the tiny village of Minbugu in the valley below. Luckily I met a local who climbed up from the village and followed him to a pass above the huge lake with no name, which was my next destination. The local came to the pass just to find cell phone reception and directed me to where he said I could find a path down the mountain. The lake was maybe 1,500 meters below, and no matter how much I searched, there was no trail. The hillside was steep, overgrown and it was incredibly difficult to find any kind of a way down.
At some point I just told myself “let’s do it”. Way down, I saw some sheep and I figured if I can make my way down there I’ll be okay, and started the descent, bushwhacking through the side of the hill. It wasn’t that bad until I lost my footing and bent my ankle. I had to get the rest of the way down limping and dealing with the pain. About an hour later I got to the sheep. I was so excited and knew that from now on the trail will be easy, or at least existing.
But I was sadly wrong. I looked to my left, I looked to my right, looking for the trail and it was nowhere. Not only that, the terrain became worse, the hills steeper and the brush was taller than me. I had no way to know where I’m going and had to rely on my hiking poles to feel my way forward and down. I went down this hillside for maybe five or six hours with no trai, trying to find the best route. Bushwacking, falling and bent on both my hiking poles, while trying to be as careful as possible and all on a swollen ankle. I did stay safe, making sure not to put myself into any serious danger, but struggling like hell to get through and eventually I reached the lake.
I looked back up the way I came, the steep impenetrable mountainside, I do not recommend taking this way, I mean, the lake is beautiful and might be worth visiting, isolated from the world surrounded by just gorgeous mountains, and yet, this was not the way to go!
In Kyrgyzstan you have to understand that the paths change. You can’t trust what’s on the map or even what the locals say…whatever path you took last year or last season may not be here next time. Avalanches, floods, rivers, snow, shepherds and their herds can all affect and change the environment around. You have to trust your hiking poles. You have to trust your feet. You have to trust yourself a lot. You have to know how to read a map, and navigate. You have to understand the topography, understand the vegetation around you and understand the loose rocks and snow. Don’t take any risks you can’t reverse…
With enough will and self belief you can do almost anything. You can get almost anywhere. You can go through roads that don’t exist and get to the most incredible places. You can watch the sun go down behind the ridge and the moon rise above it. You can live your life free. Trust yourself and be willing to work hard. But also be willing to turn around when the road gets too hard, be willing to change your mind and show nature the respect it deserves and know that at the end of the day you are very small and the mountains are very big.
July 18th 2022
Once I reached the lake things became simple. Long dirt roads following large rivers. At lower elevations the vegetation starts flourishing with fruit trees along the rivers and small scale farming around the few homes. Tiny permanent villages start appearing and colorful beehives making great Kyrgyz honey, and marijuana plants which people treat like uninteresting weeds that get in your way. I made my way down, down down, walking between small settlements and low hills, from Ak-bulak, to Kyrkkazyk, and down to Dzanyaryk on the shore of the huge Toktogul Reservoir, where I met Aichuruk and her granddaughter Medina, who fed me, helped me fix my shoes and accompanied me for a few kilometers of walking.
I swam in Toktogul and continued south, first to Kamgaterek, and then a long and frustrating way through the pathless overgrown mountains to the village of Tokmobek where I found a boat to take me across the reservoir to the town of Kara-Kul. Toktogul is at around 800m and walking around in the Kyrgyz summer at this elevation is so hot! Looking any water source to drench myself, just so I can keep going. Finally I arrived at Kara-Kul and found a room with a working AC. It’s time for a break.
