"WHY are you going to TURKEY!? - i.e. the planning phase of Lycian Way

DISCLAIMER - MUCH of this is a crappy gear-head post.  It sucks, because it's geared towards gear-heads, except I have not found time to get all the details in here, which is what gear-heads like...The following posts will be waaaaaayyyyy more fun.  GEAR HEADS - I may actually weigh everything and update this post...

TURKEY - LYCIAN WAY - PLANNING

“Why are you going to Turkey?”

Well, I used the modern version of throwing a dart at my world map, and googled something along the lines of  “Where the hell should I travel to in February?” and some trek I had never heard of popped up: The Lycian Way. A 500km (300’ish mile) slog along the Mediterranean Coast of Turkey. Sold.

Map from PlanetWare.com

Grant was informed, and he did not fight me.

Yellow box is Ancient Lycia, and where our "Lycian Way" hike was

 Now then, I’ve been hiking, backpacking, and traveling to strange lands, but never at the same time, so this took me to a whole new level of preparation I was unaccustomed to. We could only wing it so much.

One of the main problems I tried to overcome was getting our packweight down to almost ultralight status while also not looking like a shit-bum hippie (nothing against hippies, just the shit-bum ones. And you know, it’s Europe, a Muslim country, and I’m not 19 anymore)

One of the biggest debates was whether to bring a tent or not. The vast majority of hikers hike from pansiyon to pansiyon (small family hostel type place) and don’t carry camping gear. But there were several sections that didn’t have accommodation, and we were planning on covering more ground than the sections of the book described (Kate Clow, mastermind of this trek, and most trekking in Turkey).  So in the end, we opted for a tent and all accompanying gear.

Well, that tent and all accompanying gear was examined, contemplated, and compared to the newest products and philosophies of lightweight backpacking.

The first thing was to get a new tent. Our old tent weighed in at a staggering seven pounds! I bought a new one on REI.com that brought that weight down to 4 pounds.

Next I learned about a simple alcohol stove, fondly referred to as a “Fancy Feast Stove”. http://andrewskurka.com/2011/how-to-make-a-fancy-feast-alcohol-stove/

This simple, cheap, homemade product further reduced our weight by 2 pounds.

One of the next philosophies I considered was the weight of the pack itself. Sounds obvious when I say it now, but you can reduce several pounds just by getting a smaller, lighter pack, and considering you are going to be carrying less stuff, you don’t need a huge pack anyway! Grant already had a spiffy Osprey Talon 44 pack that he used as a slightly oversized daypack, so I just got myself one, as I already loved the Ospreys.This cut a few more pounds.

The final big ticket item was a new sleeping bag. We already had new lightweight sleeping bags, but truth be told, it sucks sleeping in your own bag next to your significant other, and with us looking at a month of sleeping in our tent, I opted to have Feathered Friends build us an awesome double sleeping bag, the underside of which was not down, but just a nice fleece sheet like material that had sleeves for our sleeping pads. This reduced our weight another pound, and provided for a cozy sleeping arrangement. BIG PLUS - MADE IN THE USA, and LOCALLY IN SEATTLE!!!  GO FEATHERED FRIENDS!

Let’s just say, I actually got really sick of REI, but found a great excuse to update my gear.  Considering I had all my old gear for over 10 years, I think this fancy feast stove etc… will last me at least another decade :)

Total weight lost with other gear swaps, and do-withouts: Approximately 10 pounds total.  I’m telling you, as any backpacker will tell you, five pounds per person is nothing to sneeze at! Sorry I don’t have my exact skin-out weight, but I can try to calculate that another time.

Unfortunately, we also had to come up with a new wardrobe.  I don’t dress up...ever. I was convinced we had to look nice while also having practical clothing for hiking.  I hate to be such a yuppie, but I ended up in Ex-officio. I tell you what, we dove in and took the underwear challenge, and those two pairs of Ex-officio underwear we each brought held up and did their job admirably. I will never travel with more than two pair of underwear again!

On top of getting gear and a couple of guidebooks, I also set out to learn some courtesy Turkish. Spoiler alert: it was much appreciated. We were some of the only tourists who spoke any Turkish at all, let alone more than Merhaba (hello). I am proud of myself for what I learned, yet was still ashamed I didn’t learn more. It was really nice to be able to say please and thank-you, excuse me, I’m sorry, hello and goodbye a few different ways; and to top it off and to much delight and roaring laughter “I speak a little Turkish’. I recommend everybody learn at least this much. It was also fun to finally know more of the local language than Grant. Usually I lean heavily on him to do the communicating, and this time I got to put my best foot forward and do the mis-communicating!

Of course, as you will see in upcoming posts, there was much we could have done differently.  For example, I would never recommend people bring camping gear if they do this trip…But that’s for later.

Ok kids. I don’t care how miserable I’ve made you getting ready and I don’t care how miserable you’re going to be once we’re there….so just load up ‘cause WE’RE GOING TO TURKEY!!!

FITS AND STARTS - Hikıng the Lycian Way...Part 1 Fethiye to Kaş

NOTE: I will not edit this posting. After a year, we updated out whole trip, and it follows.  Will leave these pic's though :)

FITS AND STARTS ıs the name of the game here.  We are hıkıng the Lycıan Way ın Turkey. I am bangıng my head agaınst the wall tryıng to use thıs Turkısh keyboard, so you wıll have to settle for some pıctures all out of order untıl we edıt thıs postıng.  Just a small note, the traıl ıs hıt or mıss.  There are several mıles of stunnıng traıl, then hour after hour, day after day of frustratıng route fındıng through skın-shreddıng shrubbery straıght up and down hılls wıth lıttle to no scenıc or cultural rewards. Turkey ıs ıncredıble.  The people make ıt worth ıt for sure.  Please stay tuned for an updated versıon of thıs wıth explanatıons of our travels and these photos!

We Are Going To Turkey!!! Tomorrow!

We are hiking the Lycian Way starting in a few days. We leave tomorrow.  We will be gone 44 days, approximately 30 of which will be on the trail. I don't have time to say much more, except packing to go backpacking/camping while also doing traditional travel is a BEAR!  And by bear, I mean a B*&%!

Ok, so 300+ miles along the Mediterranean Coast of Turkey, then who knows what.  Probably Cappodocia region and Istanbul, of course.  Wish us luck, and stay tuned...

Sorry no pics. Sorry no information, but it is what it is.

Trying to Climb Middle Teton, GTNP

We made an attempt to summit the Middle Teton (12,804' or 3902m) via the Southwest Couloir in August 2011.  Due to the winter of heavy snow and the long cold spring, we were thwarted by the lingering snow pack high in the mountains.  We had a great adventure nonetheless!

How do I look?

Garnet Canyon Boulders

Garnet Canyon Meadows Camping

Garnet Canyon Meadows early Alpenglow

I wonder why they call that Shadow Mountain? Oh, wait...

The night of thunder and lightning kept us awake all night and slowed our attempt at what should have been an early start.  That was our first failure - not leaving early enough. 

A little early for the gear?

There was a lot of snow still lingering in the high mountains for this time of year.  While the snow fields are easily negotiated by those with snow experience, the snow fields can also prove deadly to those who make mistakes.  Lots of search and rescue missions deal with people who have slipped on snow slopes and slid to a rocky accident.  Due to our minimal snow experience/confidence, we chose an abundance of caution which also slowed us down.  Still it was the wise choice in avoiding an accident. 

Did I tell you I don't like snow?

Victory!  What do you mean it was the long way?

Snow again? Really?

Slightly (ok, waaayyy) off-course in South Garnet Canyon

We had a little trouble with routefinding on our ascent.  There's never much more than a climbers trail through the rocks near the saddle between Middle and South Teton.  We lost the faint trail under the snow a few times and tended to wander off course a little bit.  We stuck with the indispensable advice from "A Climber's Guide To The Teton Range" (Ortenburger/Jackson) and just kept going up and West until Icefloe Lake was clearly visible before turning North towards the Southwest Couloir so we weren't really in danger of being lost.  We did end up wandering through some large boulders where our progress was slowed and our patience tested.  Incidentally, on our descent we finally noticed the numerous route cairns left by previous parties. 

Looking East-SouthEast from high in South Garnet Canyon

Icefloe Lake from the Middle/South Teton saddle

Climbing the Middle Teton via the Southwest Couloir is one of the more popular routes in the Tetons.  We saw evidence of other parties from earlier in the week but we encountered no other climbers on our summit day.  From our high point we did hear some triumphant climbers that sounded like they had summited the South Teton.  So despite popularity and accessibility it's still easy to have a peaceful day of relative solitude climbing in the Tetons.

Why is it so steep and so snowy?

Our high point (approx 11,800') with the Middle Teton Southwest Couloir in the background

The (safe) descent of defeat 

We decided to abandon our attempt for the summit and descend after reaching approximately 11,800'.  Many factors were considered but primarily these:

Fatigue - we had not slept well due to the lightning storm the night before.  This delayed our start as well.  By the time we turned around we had been scrambling steadily for about 7 hours but our progress was slow.  We still needed many hours to backtrack to our campsite.  We were starting to fatigue rapidly.

Weather - when we turned around there were some threatening clouds building in the sky.  Mountain weather can change rapidly and we did not want to be caught at high elevation in worsening conditions.   We were still a little skittish about lightning from the previous night's storm.

High Altitude - despite spending time at 6000' and hiking to 8000' a few times, we struggled with the high elevations.  Altitude can have detrimental affects for anyone.  Some are fine at altitude and some really struggle with the change - a physiological trait.  We definitely felt the effects of the altitude.

Time - not only did we spend too much time just to get where we were, we also had to descend back to our campsite safely.  The effort it takes to get back off the mountain is often overlooked.  We knew we had a long way back down to safety. To keep going up and attempt the summit would have further complicated our descent.  The snow fields become harder and more difficult to cross as the temperature drops after the sun sets.  We did not want to be out on the snow fields after dark.  We also would have been even more fatigued, anxious to be done, and unable to give the descent the clear and concentrated attention it required.

Could we have summited?  Yes, I think so.  But the risk was not worth the reward.  We were exceptionally cautious.  Many others could easily have made the trip with no problems in much faster time, but we recognized our limitations and despite our disappointment were able to turn around and go home safely.

lots of snow to cross

You just can't beat a beautiful day in the Tetons.  Sure, we didn't summit the Middle Teton.  But we had a wonderful day in the mountains with the outstanding scenery,  and we went home safe and unhurt. 

There's where we didn't go