Wind River Range 2013 - Green River Lakes to Elkhart Park

Backpacking in the Wind River Range

2013 - Green River Lakes - Titcomb Basin - Elkhart Park

Way back in about 2002 or so, we did a beginner backpacking trip in the Wind River Range.  Heavy packs, no bear storage for our food, and general ignorance of backpacking.  It was great.  We have wanted to return every since.  We finally made a plan to go back to the Winds in the summer of 2013.
And then again in 2014.  It was awesome!

2013
We started at the Green River Lakes trailhead and hiked the Highline trail to Island Lake where we detoured to the must-see Titcomb Basin.  We also did a side trip up to Indian Pass.  We shuttled a car for that trip and ended at Elkhart Park.  5 nights, 6 days and something like 65 miles?

2014
We wanted to finish the north to south route through the Wind River Range basically along the Continental Divide Trail.  So we started at Elkhart park and joined the Fremont Trail and exited at Big Sandy Trailhead.  4 nights and 5 days and also about 65 miles? - Blog Post to follow. Stay tuned.

Here is our 2013 Trip:

Peek-a-boo View of the Northern Wind River Range from Photographer's point, Pole Creek Trail

This photo is the exit to Elkhart Park from Island Lake basically along the Seneca Lake Trail.  It's also the entry back to the Pole Creek Trail.

View of the Southern Wind River Range from the road to Big Sandy TH

The Green River Lakes Trailhead is quite a long drive from anywhere. The nearest town is Pinedale, Wyoming which has any supplies you might need as well as a few hotels and restaurants and makes a great starting/ending location.  Don't miss the local brewery, Wind River Brewing.
The trailhead is something like 45 miles from Pinedale.  At least 15 miles is dirt road and can be pretty greasy after a storm.  We drive a 2000 Honda Insight - 2-wheel, front-wheel drive with a 1.0 liter 3 cylinder engine and low clearance and we had no problems with the road.  Local inquiry is suggested before driving the road though!
Before we started we shuttled a car to the Elkhart Park Trailhead (paved the entire way, good road). 

Green River Lakes and Squaretop Mountain from Highline Trail 

We did not get an early start from the trailhead but no matter.  The Highline trail immediately presented us with great views of the Green River Lakes as well as the impressive Squaretop Mountain.

Beaver Park Campsite

Our first night we camped in Beaver Park, essentially having the place to ourselves despite the numerous cars in the trailhead parking lot.  The hiking was generally flat and the trails in the Wind River range are very well maintained.  All of the river crossings were bridged.  And despite a decent rainstorm the previous evening, we had great weather.

**Robin adds: I decided to pre-emptively wear a knee brace to prevent my IT band pain, and it turns out you aren't supposed to wear a tight knee brace for eight hours while doing intense activity in the heat of summer...because all of a sudden I had incredible burning pain on my leg and saw that I had an incredible heat rash. Woops.  Sooo bad I almost turned back, but seeing as we were ten miles in, had to camp either way.  Great start to the trip!  Oh, and Grant's camera was dead, so yeah, comedy of errors for first day, as usual :)  The next day, my rash wasn't as bad, so we kept going...

The next morning was also great weather and though the climb up to Summit lake was a long slog, the views were outstanding.  The trailhead is approximately 8100' and the first 11.5 miles only gains about 350' elevation - nice and flat!  From the Three Forks park up to Summit Lake the trail grinds up about 2000' in 4.8 miles.  Summit lake sits at approximately 10,300'.  The trail up to the lake is well graded with adequate switchbacks.  There are plenty of opportunities for water all along the trail.
Once up on the plateau the trail becomes somewhat exposed however.  If there is any threatening weather, Summit lake would not be a great location.
It was early when we reached Summit lake but very windy.  We had a short snack and kept moving along the Highline trail until we found a great campsite at Pass Lake.

Approaching Summit Lake on the Highline Trail

We found a great campsite near Pass lake - flat spot for the tent and good cooking area.  Also, we arrived early enough for a nice sunset swim in Pass Lake. 

Campsite near Pass Lake

Pass Lake Supper Views

Beautiful Pass Lake Morning

We awoke to a beautiful morning at Pass Lake.  Unfortunately there was already threatening weather on the horizon.  Generally if the morning is nice, you can count on a nice day with possible evening thunderstorms.  But if the weather starts raining early, you could be in for a day of the wet stuff.  We had the opposite!  Beautiful early morning, mid morning thundershowers, and beautiful afternoon!  The mid morning was a little wet but not too bad.  Of course, there was that moment when Grant panicked like a wet cat and tried to hide under the smallest pine tree in the Range.  Thankfully, that rain didn't last too long.

A little morning rain shower near Elbow Lake

Highline Trail Near Elbow Lake

Highline Trail Near Elbow Lake

Pass between Elbow Lake and Lake 10935 on the Highline Trail

Upper Jean Lake?  (might be lake 10935)

I'll just hold this rock up so you can safely pass by

Lower Jean Lake, and now the weather is awesome!

By the time we made it to Lower Jean Lake, the sky was blue, the sun was out and we were in shorts and t-shirts enjoying the awesome weather.  Who knew?

Looking SE Toward Mount Lester from Lower Jean Lake area

Viewing SE on the Highline Trail above Fremont Crossing

Looking down at Island Lake with Fremont Peak in the background

Our primary destination on our 2013 trip was the Titcomb Basin.  We had heard and read great reviews of this mountain gem.  Because it is wilderness and we didn't need a permit, we played it by ear to decide when and where to camp.  We decided to base-camp at Island Lake.  This is a very nice place to stop and is within striking distance of three main items: a) Titcomb Basin is just a short day hike away, 2) Indian Pass is also within a day hike and -7) Elkhart Park trailhead is a mere day hike away.
This also means it is a very popular camping area and we managed to be there on the weekend.  Despite all the popularity, we found a decently secluded campsite although from the rest of the trail we were a little shell-shocked due to all the people.

Island Lake, Fremont Peak, Jackson Peak, Indian Pass

Boy are we glad we are here!  I mean, we could be at work pfffffftt...

Island Lake Base-camp

Island Lake Breakfast

Fremont Peak and Jackson Peak from Island Lake campsite

Peaking into Titcomb Basin

We had a wonderful trek into Titcomb Basin the next day.  Surprisingly, despite all the campers at Island Lake, we only saw two other groups on the hike into and out of the Titcomb Basin!  Even in the popular spots of the Wind River Range there is still lots of empty space.

Viewing SE in the Titcomb area

I think in hindsight, we should have pushed a little further on the day we arrived at Island lake so that we could camp closer to the Titcomb/Indian Pass junction.  It would have been more private and more enjoyable to be away from Island Lake and there were plenty of great spots to be had. The Llama camp we passed had a pretty sweet spot.

Titcomb Basin above upper Titcomb lake

And if we had planned better, we could have just kept going from the upper Titcomb basin - so much to explore!

You see Captain, the reason I don't like work is because I'd rather be here.  Why is that so hard to explain to you people?

Sometimes it's hard to explain to our co-workers why we don't like to ship out much.  Let's see?  Trapped on a steel box 700'x70' with 20 other prisoners or wandering around in the wilderness anywhere we please?  Let me get back to you on that......

Classic Titcomb Basin

Morning storm blowing across Fremont Peak

We had an exciting night back at our Island Lake camp.  Lots and lots of thunder and lightning - a good ol' mountain thunderstorm.  The lightning storm kept us awake for a while but the rain and wind weren't too bad - snug and dry in our cozy little tent. 
We woke up to questionable weather and so we snoozed a little to see what would develop.  The mantra in the mountains is 'go early, go fast, go high' - getting a later start might mean turning around early due to afternoon thunderstorms.  Instead of getting out of the tent and making progress, we thought we'd try to catch up on some of the sleep we missed for the lighting and thunder the night before.  And who wants to get out of a nice warm sleeping bag when it's gray and cloudy outside? 

Questionable weather moving through Indian Basin

We finally had some breakfast and headed up toward Indian Pass with threatening weather the entire time.  It's always a little distracting hiking up to a high saddle and looking over your shoulder to see if the weather is getting worse or better?  And wondering how wet and exposed you might be.

Indian Basin morning

Questionable?  I meant nasty weather!  Lets hide under this rock for lunch!

It's a known fact that Grant melts in the rain so at the first sign of water, he decided to look for a shelter and have lunch to 'wait it out'.  Nice try buddy!  We did find a nice little rock to have lunch under though.  The wind was blowing and the rain was coming down but our little rock sanctuary wasn't too shabby!  We couldn't stay there all day though so Grant finally got enough courage to keep on hiking.  (Was that the courage wine we brought with us?)

Ok, it's gonna rain.  Let's keep going?

Indian Pass - not snowing though!

We finally made it the top of Indian Pass!  What an awesome place!  We were a little bit apprehensive of lightning but then more nervous of the snow.  We were very glad we persevered and made it to the top.

Looking back down toward Indian Basin from Indian Pass

Walking back down the pass we were walking directly into the windy rain - our hiking pants were totally soaked with water and it was kind of cold and unpleasant walking down.  We knew we had warm dry clothes in the tent and a nice warm sleeping back to crawl into though.

Hey look!  The weather's clearing...Woohoo!

Before we made it to Island Lake though, the weather blew through and the sun came out - the warmer wind and the sunshine completely dried our clothes and by the time we got back to the tent we were mostly dry and mostly warm too!  Mountain weather can be so fickle!

Earliest Departure yet!  Guess who's thirsty?

Pole Creek Trail near Photographer's Point (2013)

We had three nights at Island Lake and got to see both Titcomb Basin and Indian Pass.  From Island Lake we decided it was time for cold beer and pizza!  So we cruised down the trail to our shuttle car at Elkhart Park.  

We had a great trip on our 2013 hike.  Most of our trip was above Ten Thousand feet and the Highline trail was stunning.  The scenery is just awesome and we couldn't wait to get back for another taste.

PCT prepping

Back in Sept I shipped out for four months. I hadn't sailed in ten months, which was all part of the plan. This gave me  a better chance of getting a ship on the pineapple run (domestic service to Hawaii) so I could avoid Alaska in the winter, have less stress, and potentially get more workouts in and even hike every two weeks. I got the job, and I did accomplish a lot of this, however weather, lethargy, and stress were all worse than expected, and I did not get as much planned as I hoped while at sea, and my fitness was not the best. I did get a few good hikes in though!

Having gotten home a full 10 weeks before my supposed start date, full panic mode is on!

I started training by trying to run and do stairs every day, but I was really slackin, so I decided to sign up for a month long all women's boot camp. I've done this program before, and I know it will amp up my fitness level. A week into the program I realize I am stronger and faster  than I gave myself credit for (or my beer belly shows) but I am still pushing hard. One hour of a killer workout 4 days per week will definitely help, but won't get me 2660 miles through the mountains on its own, so I am going to strive to get some weight on my back and keep pushing.

I've also started cooking and dehydrating meals non-stop. I bought a new excaliber food dehydrator and have been cooking large batches of meals (basically different versions of beans and rice) non stop. I don't dehydrate individual ingredients, but rather already composed meals. I am vegetarian and I love spice, so though this is likely unnecessary added stress as I know I can find food along the trail, hopefully it will make me happy months from now.

Of course, grant and I are spending money like drunken sailors on new gear. Why? Sometimes I have no f'ing idea as we have been backpacking a million times. It's all about getting your base weight down though (base weight equals everything in your bag including the bag itself, but excludes consumables, food, water, fuel). I have been getting lighter and lighter every year, but its now it's a pseudo competition between myself and the interwebs. I am down to about 15.5 lbs, so square in the lightweight status, but not even close to ultra light weight. Still, 2 lbs less than last year when I did a small section of the PCT. We are not even close to being done picking gear, and likely will never be done as things always change once you are off the couch, offline, and on trail. For now, it is a lot of anxiety and agony every day trying to decide which goddamned shirt to wear!

Besides all this, we still had to start getting our life put away. We want to get a renter for our house, which means we had to build a fence, and will have to pack up our personal possesions. I have to get my taxes done, plus take care of myself with doctor appointments, dentist, etc.. All crap I couldn't do on the high seas. All this stuff seems to snowball and I feel like it will never end!

At some point I am going to have to make a resupply plan, but I can't seem to get there. Bought a Costco supply of Vitamin I (ibuprofen) Aqua Mira, my main method of water purification, and other stuff, but no PLAN! We do have our permits, but we have to throw a hail mary that Canada will forgive our youthful indiscretions and grant us a permit to cross the border northbound. We shall see.

The last bit of stress and wrapping up of life is visiting friends and family, as its already been at keast 4 months since i saw them, and unforgiveably, longer for others.This involves a lot of driving and flying, all of which is both deeply satisfying, but directly takes away from our ability to get ready, train, or even breathe. I have been learning through this that many of our loved ones either didn't realize we would be hiking the whole thing, or that it would take us 5-6 months, or that we were even doing it "so soon". Its frustrating as I feel like I've been a broken record for years talking about the PCT, but it is so hard for people to understand, especially the why. (spoiler alert: I don't know why. I just need to.) We're getting there though, and I have received a lot of support and encouragement from a few wonderful people in my life including my mother, who is even calling it the Pacific CREST Trail now instead of Pacific Coast Trail, like so many people :) Love you mom!!!

OK, well tons more to do. In the end, whatever we don't finish, will just be unfinished, as I am hiking come hell or high water!

YAY PCT!!!

**unfortunately I can't seem to get this blogger app to let me add photos to posts, so none for now. I'm working out the bugs, but in the end may have to do as Carrot Quinn does, and post a link to Instagram. We shall see. BTW if you want to read a real writer who has hiked the PCT twice, go to  Carrot Quinn's blog

Practicing blogging on my phone

I might try keeping up with this blog while on the PCT...so I'm practicing.  I'm going nuts trying to plan...signed up for a boot camp to get my ass into to shape..bought a new Excalibur food dehydrator and have been making tons of food.  Been home a week after 4 months at sea. Yikes. It will happen...I've hiked before...I will start. I will finish somewhere.

We are going to Hike The Pacific Crest Trail!

Hi everybody, boy we suck at blogging, but apparently we're still here.

Wind River Range, September 2014

Our next adventure, should we actually update this blog, will be thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, 2660 miles from the border with Mexico, to Canada.  It is not on the Coast, it is in the desert and Mountains.  We will start in April. Google the Pacific Crest Trail, and you will learn something awesome.

Grant might throw some pictures up of us hiking in the Winds this summer, but who knows.

Ok, that is all.

Cheers!!!

Summer Adventures 2013

Summer 2013 - I think we did some hiking, big surprise :)  

In Jackson Hole, I've sort of run out of hikes in my original Falcon guidebooks, i.e. "Hiking Grand Teton National Park", best easy dayhikes, etc... so I got out of "the Hole" and started doing some hiking over the Pass, and through the canyon using Rebecca Woods and Susan Marsh's denser book "Targhee Trails".  I also have Rebecca's "Jackson Hole Hikes".  She has so many more hikes in these books than the Falcon Guides, but they are not as nicely organized with cross-referenced tables summarizing the details of the hikes.  No matter, because I now know the area better than before, have stronger legs, am nearly fearless, and am excited about new views with fewer people.

I don't think this is in Wyoming....Washington somewhere, but I can't remember the hike!


North Fork Darby Canyon Overlook Hike. Approx. 8.6 miles RT, 2720' elevation gain
"An Unofficial but clear trail up North Fork Darby Canyon leads to a saddle between The Wedge - a distinctive 10,360 foot peak that soars above Teton Canyon shelf to the east - and 10681-ft  Mount Meek." Opening line from Targhee Trails guidebook...Now then, buy the book and go hiking.
(I think all the pics below are from this one hike, but...Grant picked them out and he's at sea.  No matter, go hiking near the Tetons, and you will not be disappointed)

Jackson Lake - A beautiful place to drink beer and go waterskiing, or in my case, drink beer.

Tetons from the bow of the boat.

TETONS!!!

MOOOSE!!!  I love moose.  They are so cute.

Olympic Backpacking 2013

Backpacking the Olympic Peninsula in May

After a disappointing trek in Turkey in March, we were super excited to do some more backpacking.  We were itching to compare our luxurious, well groomed, wonderful hiking trails in the U.S. National Park to the confusing, rocky, scrubby, "Grade 1" goat paths we had been suffering on the Lycian Way.  Oh, we knew how spoiled we were with the U.S. Parks, Forest, and Wilderness.  But boy oh boy how sweet it is to be so spoiled!

Friendly forest creatures;  What do you mean there aren't any goats?

We're not the best planners on our drop-of-the-hat-let's-leave-right-now lifestyle.  But we are open to options so it usually works out for us.  For instance, on this trip we thought we were going to go to Olympic Hot Springs.  Turns out, they drained the lake and were tearing down the damn and we couldn't get to there from here.  Oh well.  How about we hike along the Elwha river instead?  Great!

Home Sweet Home

We left late and didn't make it very far the first night, but no matter.  The trail was brilliant.  There was no one else around.  The deer were fun to watch despite not being goats. And we had a great little campsite overlooking the river.  And it didn't even rain that much. And we didn't have to follow red and white graffiti to know where to go, 'cause there is a TRAIL!

I'd like to say we're model wilderness citizens. We do our best.  We carry a bear canister for our food, pack out all our trash, as well as other's trash we find along the way. We leave our campsites cleaner than we found them. But our box of wine just didn't fit into our bear barrel, and so some critter finished our half-box of wine for us. Sad. Poor little drunk racoons...We are so embarassed to admit this.  On top of that, upon packing up our camp, we found bear wires just past our campsite. We could have easily hung our wine and kept the forest creatures a little more sober...

Lush Olympic Hiking

So we decided to hike back to the car and resupply (more wine) and go out to the coast for our next hike.

Beach Wilderness

We headed out towards La Push, hit the Second Beach Trailhead and hiked down to Toleak Point to camp.

The changing beach hike

We were rewarded with proper Washington Coast weather - lots of clouds, moments of no rain along with moments of pissing rain.

Beach wilderness can be challenging

The beach trail is really wild.  Some beach walking followed by some bluff climbing and forest walking then back down the bluff to the beach.

Lots of ups and downs

The bluff sections are a little bit challenging but they have rope and step aids when needed.
Nevertheless, when negotiating the beach sections you must be wary of the tides.  When we were crossing a beach section, we had to wait for the waves so we could scramble along the beach and keep our feet dry.  At one point,  while rushing to time the waves, Robin slipped climbing over a wet log, almost hitting her head on a beach boulder. As I rushed back to help her up and encourage her to stand due to the incoming sea water it was clear she was a bit stunned.  In trying to catch herself, she wrenched her shoulder in what later turned out to be a rotator cuff injury.

Home Sweet Home again - not TOO wet despite all the rain

We bypassed the perfect camp spot in search of water. By the time we found the water we were caught in a great rain squall that just about made Grant cry like the little baby he is. After getting soaked, more, we then put on our rain ponchos and considered our options.  We collected some water and headed back to the good camp spot rather than hiking further down the beach.  While crossing back over the creek, Grant slipped on the wet log and almost fell into the creek himself, landing roughly on the driftwood logs. A little stunned and a bit irritable, we retreated to set up camp. The wilderness can be intimidating.

OK, not TOO wet as long as you carry some wine!

We set up camp and it's amazing what dry clothes, warm food and a little bit of sobriety wine can do for the spirits.

Washington Coast sea stacks

You just can't beat a great beach view from your tent after a long day on the trail.

Perfectly fun obstacles; but boy does it hurt when you slip and fall

Tide Pool Life

Did I mention the ups and downs?

At least they left us aids for the cliff-climbing

We love Hiking!!! And when you do it in the pissing rain and cold, you might have the whole world to yourself :)

No More Lycian Way Trail, Turkey, Day 20, 28 March 2013

We left the trail behind and decided to enjoy the rest of Turkey as tourists on vacation.

Yes, of course we tried the Raki!

We escaped from Finike so we wouldn't be tempted to try restarting the hike.  Initially we thought we'd go chill at the beach at Cirali next to Olympos.  Maybe we'd get a third wind and try the trail again from there?  Well, a funny thing happened when we got off the bus at the turnoff to Cirali.  As it was still early in the season, the dolmus buses weren't running down the steep, long road to Cirali regularly.  We waited at the bus stop at the highway pathetically trying to hitchhike for probably an hour. Nothing.  Just as we had a promising prospect of a ride, two other backpackers stepped off the highway bus, casually waived their hand at the car we were trying to get, and poached our ride, just like that!  They sort of noticed us as they were getting in the car, and halfheartedly offered to get out of the car, but we were over it. We were in the backcountry hiking mindset and not in the traveler "backpacking" mindset yet. (After spending so much time in the actual wilderness, I hate using the term "backpacking" to describe touristing around catching busses, as in "backpacking through Europe") Dismayed, we decided to cut our losses and head for Antalya for a few days to get back on our traveling feet.

Antalya is Beautiful

Antalya was a wonderful city to visit and a good place to decompress from the trail.  Lots of amenities like cheap pansiyons and good food and plenty of things to see.  The Antalya Museum is not to be missed, and after such a historical trek, the exhibits really coalesced the essence of the sights we had just walked through day after day for a couple of weeks....Huge marble statues of gods, emperors, and other great stuff, or whatever was left after the British Government poached most of the artifacts for the British Museum in London....Check it out. They didn't get it all...

The beach between Olympos and Cirali

After a few days in Antalya, we decided we really wanted that Mediterranean beach vacation before we headed to inland Turkey.  So we jumped on the bus and headed back to Cirali to give it another look. And boy are we glad we did!

We met an English couple on the bus who were determined to continue their trek along the Lycian Way. They had been doing the trek in sections every year, rather than thru-hiking in one season as we had attempted. We commiserated with them on the bus ride. It was great to see how enthusiastic they were about getting back on the trail, especially since we didn't share their enthusiasm and so were not tempted to restart our hike. Good for them for the perseverance though.

We got off the bus and soon after caught a ride with a guy who ran a restaurant and pansiyon in Cirali.  Of course we had a great lunch at his place.

The mysterious Chimaera

We managed to rent bicycles and ride over to the Chimaera just in time for the evening twilight.  It was a great time to see this wonder. 

Tree house dining in Cirali

After our evening with the Chimaera, we had a late supper at one of the treehouse restaurants in Cirali - great food and a great spot to enjoy the evening.

We're finally on vacation in Cirali!

We even finally got a sunny day at the beach!  It was the day we were going to leave Cirali to somewhere else. But because the sun was bright and the sand felt good between our toes, we decided not to be fools on April Fools Day, and stayed for another beer and extra day relaxing at the beach!

Konya, Turkey - Mevlana Museum, Lodge of Whirling Dervishes

We finally left Cirali and caught a bus back to Antalya. We wanted to see Cappadocia.  Turns out a bus to Konya, a hotel room there, followed by a bus onward to Cappadocia was our route. We managed to catch a bus that same afternoon, so avoided another night in Antalya. Sometimes you just gotta get while the gettin's good. We weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into with Konya but it was easy to get around the town and find lodging.

Konya is famous for having the lodge of the Whirling Dervishes at the Mevlana Mosque/museum. We made sure to go have a look since we were in town.

Konya and the Mevlana mosque (with it's own box containing some beard hair of Mohammed!) was really the only place in Turkey where we felt out of place as non-religious westerners. This place is a huge Muslim pilgrimage site, so full of tourists of a more sober, shall we say, persuasion. It was more difficult to find a beer (we had to scout down some of the back alleys to find the Efes sign). Clearly the pilgrims to Mevlana were somewhat dismayed that we were there. Robin tried covering her head, but then she saw that the security guard, a woman, wasn't covering her hair, so she didn't, but then it seemed people were angry, so we had to go. It was really uncomfortable...

Yet, our lodging hosts were perfectly friendly and outgoing and not once did we feel threatened.
Incidentally we had to spend some time in the Konya bus station trying to figure out our next bus.  We ended up walking back and forth among the station agents.  We gave up on schlepping our backpacks everywhere and eventually just set them on the bench in the middle of the station.  We didn't babysit them.  We didn't tag-team wandering around while the other watched the bags.  We just set them there and left them while we wandered around figuring things out. We always felt so safe and secure in Turkey that we just didn't worry about locking our stuff in our arms at every moment, and of course nobody cared about our stuff.  Perfectly safe.  Naive?  I don't know. As long as you have your passport and cash card with you, it's all replaceable anyway. Turkey was one of the safest feeling places we had ever been.

Hiking around Cappadocia

After some more bus riding, we made it to Cappadocia, surely one of the highlights of Turkey.  We wanted to see the sights, do some more hiking and see what it was all about. The weather was cool, overcast and blustery, but the hiking was great and the scenery awesome. What we didn't know was that all of the people there were waiting for the weather to improve so they could go ballooning. 

More Cappadocia Hiking sights

Lots of caves and old churches in the rocks around Cappadocia.

Coincidence?  Blasphemy? Does Robin have something important to say?

Yay! A camel (poor beast)

Touristing is serious business

We even signed up for the "Green Tour" offered by so many companies in Goreme.  It was a very interesting tour including the underground city and a very nice walk along the river.  And of course we met some great people also on the tour. 

No caption necessary

We weren't quite prepared for the open-air museum though.  A horde of tourist buses and too many people. It was like a slap in the face after our weeks of hiking with goats. We wandered off into the solitude of the surrounding hiking trails instead. We can't say we can even recommend the open air museum because of the masses, but to each their own I guess. We were part of the crowd ourselves!

Ballooning Cappadocia

The morning we were leaving Cappadocia, the weather finally cleared and it was balloon mania!  What a sight to wake up to so many balloons above. The ballooning seemed a bit expensive to us though, and we weren't tempted.

Lots of balloons!

Inside the Blue Mosque

Seeing as we hadn't decided what to do next, we opted for Istanbul, as you can get anywhere from there, plus it has weeks worth of sites itself. What a city!  So much to see and do. We found a great little hotel in the Sultanahmet area for our late'ish arrival, then had an amazing meal just around the corner. Things were looking pretty great, if much more expensive :)

Sadly, when we awoke the next morning we learned that a dear family member had passed away and we needed to fly back to the States right away. 

Outside the Blue Mosque

It's never easy to deal with grief, and trying to make last minute travel arrangements on a Sunday in a foreign country does not make it easier.  We did our best to enjoy our day in Istanbul under the circumstances.

We walked through the Blue Mosque and around the grounds of the Palace.  We went over to Taksim Square.  We were overwhelmed by the Sunday crowds.  The Grand Bazaar was closed.  We were worn out.  We went back to the hotel and worried about the unexpected flight home.

Not sure Chunk has a photo of bricks with a Mosque?

We didn't get to see Istanbul properly - but seeing as it's been there for thousands of years, it surely will be there for us to visit another time.  It's always great to dream about our next adventure!

Turkey was great.  Can't wait to go back. Go there.  It is amazing. The people are amazing.

One more word of advice: Absolutely DO NOT attempt to thru-hike the Lycian Way. The hiking sucks. It really does, a lot of the time. What makes it great are the people, sites, and goats. If you do some of the hike, you do NOT need a tent, as the only place that required camping was not scenic enough to justify the gear, so just skip that part.  Instead, do section day hikes, from Pansiyon to Pansiyon skipping the ridiculous parts of the trail. Meet the wonderful people of Turkey, enjoy the food and goat companions, look at the tombs littering the landscape, and you can't go wrong.