Date: July 4th, 2016
Distance: 112 kilometers
Song of the Day: Just Watch the Fireworks - Jimmy Eat World

Leaving Kochkor, things were cool and cloudy. There wasn't a whole lot of wind, though. I was pretty thankful for that. There was one route that would have taken me more directly to Bishkek, but I was hoping to see Issyk-Kul. It's the largest lake in Kyrgyzstan. I really don't know when I'm going to be back in this part of the world, and it would be shame to miss it. The road out there was pretty flat. I was riding through more dry, rocky valleys. For me, they were more evidence why the herds are moved up into the mountains during the summer. There wasn't much grass here, just tough bushes and brambles. This isn't an area that would support herds of large animals.

The winds began to pick up as I entered the town of Bilikchi. I knew what that meant. I headed into a little cafe to have some food, and sure enough a huge storm blew through. I was quite happy to be inside for that. Afterwards, I headed down to the lake shore. It took a while to find, but when I arrived it was well worth seeing. The surface was reflecting the color of the clouds above. The water and sky seemed to mix with hardly a line in between them.

Heading out of town I had a bit more trouble. The rain had gone, but it had left a strong wind behind and I was heading right into it. I was still making good time, since even with the wind I could do more than 15 kilometers an hour. It wasn't fun, though. Riding in a stiff wind is like pedaling in syrup. It takes so much energy out of you. The highway I was on wasn't that appealing either. It was a two lane divided highway with a good shoulder. So it was pretty safe, just not fun. Big trucks and cars were roaring by. On the rough roads I have gotten used to cars lumbering by slowly. Here, everyone is zooming around. There isn't any peace and quiet. It actually reminds me of the highway leading out from Istanbul.

The area around me was at least something to look at. The giant mountains are fading away, but there are still a few cliffs and large hills to enjoy. The valley also began to get tighter and tighter. Soon I was riding through a wonderful little canyon. I even found a great little place to camp. It was down a steep slope from the highway and right next to the Chu River. I could hear the big trucks sometimes, but for the most part it was just me and the river.



-Dravis

Date: July 3rd, 2016
Distance: 108 kilometers
Song of the Day: Song 2 - Blur

Okay, well that was one hell of a night. Everything was going well as I went to bed, but that didn't last. As the sun went down the winds began to pick up, and they brought with them heavy rain. The two forces combined to try and collapse my little tent. I would spend a half hour holding the roof up so the poles didn't snap and other than that, I could do nothing but wait and listen to the thunder peal off the mountains around me. After a while the wind would die down and the rain would become a slow patter. I would finally start to fall asleep and then another storm would roll through and start the process over again. In spite of going to bed early, I didn't get much sleep. I was actually a bit glad when morning finally arrived.

The last few hours of darkness had actually been decently calm. Leaving my tent, the sky was a mixture of blue and white. I had been told to spend a few days up here, but I think I am done. I have no desire to have another night like the previous one. I will say it is a pretty place, but very harsh.

The road out of Song Kol was much longer than I expected. I thought I'd camped very near to the last pass out, but I was wrong. It was another 20 kilometers to where the climb out from the basin begins. The climb itself was nothing special, just long and steady. After all the other mountains I had been going over it seemed quite easy actually.

The route down from the pass was another adventure of dirt, streams, and switchbacks. The road was quite rough in places, but I didn't feel much pressure to go as fast as possible. I was able to just relax and enjoy the ride. I have no complaints. This valley is another amazing part of Kyrgyzstan. I was almost a bit sad that this is probably going to be the last big pass for a while. I'm finally leaving the mountainous area of Central Asia. It has been tough, but also quite beautiful. The roads ahead should be much more flat and boring. I think I'm going to miss being all alone in these remote mountain valleys. I doubt I will enjoy the vast empty steppes as much.

Once the road finished with the switchbacks it continued to drop steadily. It made for some fairly easy riding in all but a few places. I was hitting more stretches of corduroy roads. It seems like the flatter the road is, the more likely it is to have washboards in it. I spent a lot of time trying to find the smoothest line to ride.

Along the way I met up with an Irish couple on a tandem bicycle. My hat is off to anyone who wants to cycle around the world with another person on the same bike. They were very sweet and we exchanged a lot of good information. I told them about the roads in and out of Song Kol. They told me the good paved road was not far off. I was very excited about that prospect.

In the next village I stopped for a bit of lunch. There wasn't a restaurant, again, but they did have a little shop. I could get a cold Coke and eat my bread'n'spread. As I was eating, though, I watched the wind pick up and dark clouds move in again. I packed up quickly and made my way out of town. The wind was at my back, but it was also pushing the storm towards me. I did my best to race up the next ridge out of town with the storm nipping at my heels. It never really hit me. I had a few drops before I hit the top of the ridge, but I was able to ride down faster than the storm could chase me. Woo!

Just as I was feeling great to have outpaced another thunderstorm, I hit the main highway again. The one with a smooth paved surface. After five or six days of riding on some really terrible roads, it felt so amazing. Even better, the wind was at my back and the road was heading down hill. I was flying. I turned the music up and just cruised. I can't tell you how good it felt. I was on cloud nine.



-Dravis

Date: July 2nd, 2016
Distance: 55 kilometers
Song of the Day: Voodoo Child - Jimi Hendrix

What a wonderful morning. The sun was shining, the creek I had camped along was gurgling. I was having a great time. I was also being pretty slow. It's hard to really want to move fast when it is just so nice about. I also knew that the start of the day was going to be tough, it was a big climb up to Song Kol. This isn't a town, it's a large lake trapped up in an alpine basin. Getting up there was going to be a bit of a challenge. Well to be honest, by this point on the trip I don't think large ascents like this feel like a challenge so much. They do, however, take a lot of time. It was going to be a slow day.

The road out of my campsite lead very quickly into a narrow valley. The sides of the valley were steep and rocky hills. On occasion, they did turn into pretty sheer cliffs. The road soon became much steeper and started to get worse. Not just dirt and gravel, but now with streams running through it. I couldn't be too worried about that, though. The place is amazing. It really was just a gorgeous place to ride through. It reminded me a little bit of being back in the Pacific Northwest. There were mountains all around, beautiful rocky outcrops, and all of it blanketed in conifers. None of this had me moving very fast, since I was just enjoying the day.

Soon enough the valley widened out a bit. I thought it would continue to open up into a long straight pass up to the lake, but I was wrong. Instead, the road started a series of switchbacks that slowly climbed up and out of the valley. Again, with bad dirt roads that were cut through with streams. In some ways it was tedious exercise, but it also had some fantastic views. Any time I felt a little tired I could just stop for a minute and enjoy the view. The crazy part was that it just kept going. The road would disappear around a corner and it seemed like that would be the top of the pass. It never was. The road would continue up another few hundred meters before turning again.

I finally reached the top of the pass. Sadly, the view from the top was less amazing than the views from the road up. I was still a little impressed that it was a 3,300 meter pass, though.

I didn't spend much time at the top. There were large black clouds looming in the valley I had just climbed up and I wanted to get a little bit of shelter before the storm hit. I was quite glad that the road from the top didn't descend down as steeply as what I had just come up, it was a nice grade down into the valley. The center of the storm actually passed me off to the left, but that was also the way my road headed. I decided to stop and wait out the rain. The first shelter I found was a road grader that was parked by the road. The people there said I could lean my bike against it and hang out underneath it out of the rain. That worked well for a bit. They even brought me some kumiz, which is fermented horse milk. The neighbors thought that wasn't good enough and invited me into their tent for food and tea. I didn't want to be rude, so I couldn't refuse. They were really sweet people and gave me way too much to eat. They also insisted that I couldn't leave without more food to take with me. I feel bad about taking food from someone else, but it was very much appreciated.

Once the storm had passed, I kept heading toward the lake. When Song Kol came into view it was a spot of turquoise blue in a sea of green. As the sun came out I could see why so many people had talked about how beautiful the area was. It's all grassland. There wasn't a tree for miles in any direction. The entire landscape was green, only occasionally dotted with white yurts or cut with a narrow ribbon of stream. I also started to realize what people were doing up here. The local herdsmen drive their livestock up to the lake during the summer months because the lower valleys must be dry and hot at this time of year. Up at 3,000 meters it's cool and there is more than enough green grass and water for all the animals. And there were a lot of animals. In fact, the whole basin was like a tribute to large animal domestication. There were cows, sheep, goats, donkeys, and of course horses. I have no idea how they keep the animals straight. Ruminants roamed the area without a care or a shepherd to be seen. Small packs of foals chased each other through the hills. It really was a lovely scene.

I stopped early to really enjoy the area. I pitched my tent near a small pond. Kyrgyzstan has so many wonderful places to camp. This is just another one of those amazing locations. A nice, relaxing place to be. I took my time cooking dinner and enjoying the views.



-Dravis

Date: July 1st, 2016
Distance: 74 kilometers
Song of the Day: Dirty - Ellen Says No

Well, when I camped last night I thought I had come to the top of the pass. I was wrong. Quite wrong. Instead, I still had quite a bit of climbing to do. Several hundred meters of it. It wasn't that bad, though. I was well rested and the morning was nice and cool. As I neared the top of the pass, however, (for sure this time) I realized things were about to get much colder. There was a large storm blowing in. The large black clouds coming up the valley looked like they were going to drench the whole area. I was not excited about the prospect of riding down a giant mountain in the rain and over mud. I did what I could to hurry up, but the storm caught me just on the other side of the pass.

Rain that started as just a few drops soon began to pour out of the clouds. Shortly after that, the precipitation turned to hail. The wind had also picked up as the dark clouds moved over me. Had it been a long and flat road I imagine it would have been a good tail wind. As it was, the wind just pushed the bike around as I wound down the mountain. On a few occasions it threatened to push me over the cliffs along the edge of the road. The wind also was whipping the hail stones at me. They weren't large, but having pellets of ice shot into your face isn't fun. I thought of finding a place to hide out the storm, but I didn't see anything. The summit was fairly devoid of trees or even rocks. There were some yurts up near the top, but I wasn't sure about just wandering into one. Instead, I gritted my teeth and made the best of it.

Soon enough, the storm front had passed. The day hadn't cleared, though, and I was sure the rain wasn't done with me. Usually with storms like this there is a front followed by a little window of calm. That means you have about half an hour before the main body of the storm hits. I did my best to race down the mountain and find some shelter before that hit me. It wasn't easy. The road was still bad, and now it was wet and muddy. There were also dozens of hairpin turns to manage, and most of those had been torn up by the passing trucks. They weren't something that was easy to navigate at high speed. At least the wind and the rain had kept my brakes from heating up too much.

As I hit the straight road at the bottom of the pass, the wind and the rain came back. I was plowing into a severe headwind and getting rain in the face to boot. Just a miserable time to be riding. Eventually, I found an old bus shelter to wait under. It was next door to an "ashkana" which is like a local kind of restaurant. It was closed when I got there, unfortunately. I was a little bit disappointed by that, since it would have been nice to have a bit of hot food while waiting for the rain to stop. While i was lamenting the closure, the lady who ran the place drove up and invited me in. Soon enough I had some hot tea and something warm to eat. Awesome. By the time lunch was over the rain had stopped and the sun was out. I wouldn't say my timing was perfect, but it was still pretty good.

Back on the road, I passed through a small village and the road suddenly improved. It was a three kilometer section of beautiful new tarmac. As soon as I hit the outside of the town, the road went back to crap. I wonder if the federal government here is responsible for the highway, but the towns are responsible for the portions of highway within their borders? Whatever the reason, enjoy the good roads when you are lucky enough to be on them.

The next section of the road was finally flat and along the Naryn River, which is the river the road has deftly avoided for the past two days. I have no idea why. This part of it is a wide valley with plenty of room for a road. I don't get it at all. Of course, now that the road is flat again it's back to being as awful as the first section out of Kazarman. The road bed is back to alternating bands of bumpy washboards or loose round gravel. I found riding along the desert to the right of the road to actually be faster. Well, it was faster until it turned into a bit of a swamp. Then I was back on the main road.

I'm glad I went back on the road, because I saw an old mud-brick tomb off to the left. I wanted to get a closer look, but that was certainly not easy. The area on the left side of the road was even more swampy than the right. It took some time to find an old road that went in almost the right direction. Once that road died, I was back to whacking a trail through the brambles. I don't know why I bothered to bring my bike with me, it just got stuck in the weeds and branches. When I finally got to the place, it was simple and falling apart. The main dome had collapsed. The outside was cracked and broken. It was a beautiful place for a tomb, though. The spot was on a little hill surrounded by swamp. It was very peaceful and beautiful.

After wasting a bit of time, it was time to head back to the main road. The highway continued to suck, but I met a couple of cyclists on the way. The first was Italian, the second Canadian. It was good to get a little information about the road ahead. They told me there was one more large pass up to Song Kol, which I had figured there would be. I also warned them about the big pass coming up and the lack of water there. We cyclists have to look out for each other.

It wasn't too long before I reached the town of Ak-Tal. This was the last place to get supplies. I tried to find a place to eat, but the town wasn't even big enough for that. Instead I had some bread'n'spread, and I found a good shop where I could buy food to last me the next three or four days.

Outside of town, I stopped to take a picture of another group of tombs near Ak-Tal. There were a few guys there already who wanted to talk. It turns out they are architects doing a restoration on the tomb of two local princes. I was also told the president of Kyrgyzstan is coming in a few weeks and they want it to look nice for him. The tombs are called "Kymboz" here. The architects told me they were going to say a prayer, as was custom when visiting a mausoleum like this. I sat down, bowed my head, and listened to one of the guys give a beautiful chant from the Koran.

I would have stayed longer to chat, but I really needed to put in at least a few more miles. The road meandered up a broad valley which wasn't that steep, but the incline did slow me down a bit. Again, the road surface was so bad I did a bunch of riding on horse trails just next to the highway. All in all, though, I was feeling really good. I was fully stocked to camp anywhere, the day was still sunny, the area was bright and beautiful. It was nothing too exciting, but just a nice ride.

I thought I would do 80 kilometers today, but I found such a good place to camp I couldn't resist ending the day early. The spot was a grassy field behind a few trees away from the road. A clear stream ran right along the area. I had all the fresh water I needed, plus a place to wash up. I took a quick bath in the creek. The cold water was bracing more than refreshing, so I was in and out pretty fast. I was able to watch the sun set while cooking my dinner.



-Dravis

Date: June 30th, 2016
Distance: 80 kilometers
Song of the Day: Roam - The B-52s

One more crazy day here in Kyrgyzstan, with more rough roads and steep hills.

Today's list of grievances: the first part of the day, leaving Kazarman, was actually pretty flat. It was also one of the worst roads I have been on in a while. Even on bad roads I can usually find some kind of path. Probably not anything great, but at least passable. Usually this involves riding all over to find a place where the road is smooth and well packed down. It wasn't possible here, though, this road was horrid. Alternating bands of washboards and piles of loose, round gravel. Neither one made for a good option. Not much I could do, though, just keep pushing forward. It couldn't last forever, right?

It didn't last, but what came next was hardly an improvement. After 16 kilometers of bad flat road, I got to a section of bad steep road. The highway left the river valley it had been following and headed right into the hills. Thankfully, the roads were a little bit better here. I could generally find a path with hard packed dirt. The steep grade and the sections of loose gravel didn't make this a fast morning, though. For all my complaints, it is a really spectacular place to be. The poor road condition just made things hard to enjoy. Most of the time I was looking down, trying to pick out a path that wouldn't rattle the teeth out of my head. When I did stop it was hard to relax enough to really appreciate my surroundings. I hate to say it but all I could see were the giant hills I would have to climb over.

Once I had arrived at the top there was a short winding descent into the valley below, then another climb up into the hills on the other side. I still loathe the engineer who designed this road. The highway here has been astutely avoiding any flat ground, if at all possible. The road could have been put down in the river valley I was riding parallel to, but no. Instead they seemed to have decided to run the road up and over every hill in sight. Another super frustrating day.

In the afternoon I saw two other cyclists going the other way. Actually, they were resting under a tree and hiding out from the hot afternoon sun. It was nice to see other cyclists out here. They also warned me about another huge pass coming up. I was told the top was at 2,800 meters. What a mean trick to pull on a fella after a long day of riding. I pushed on because I had a few more hours of daylight and I wanted to make the most of it.

The pass was everything I was told it would be, a long winding ascent up a narrow canyon. I lost count of the number of switchbacks. Every time I thought I had come to the summit there would be a couple more switchbacks carved into the hills above me. I did have two things going for me. First: the sun was going down. The day was cooling off and the steep canyon walls provided a lot of shade. Second, the wind was at my back. This is a rare gift. It didn't help propel me along that well, since the ground was too steep and the road was too rough, but it did help a little. Plus, it was nice to have a breeze to cool me off even further. Just before the top of the pass I saw a great place to stop and camp. It has been a rough day and I deserve a good place to stop.



-Dravis

Date: June 29th, 2016
Distance: 81 kilometers
Song of the Day: Blue Beard - Band of Horses

Well, another short, tough day. It didn't help that the whole morning was spent climbing up and over a steep pass. I thought I was done with mountain passes, but I guess Kyrgyzstan has a few more left for me. This one climbed 1,200 meters in 17 kilometers, so do the math on that and it comes out to about a 7% grade the whole time. The road wrapped around the shoulder of a mountain as it snaked its way to the top. Looking at the map, the road appears like a crazy squiggle. It wasn't bad, it was just slow. It gave me a lot of time to enjoy the view. It was a stunning view, looking back on the tiny curve of road down below. At the top, there were even eagles playing in the air currents. These are big birds. It was fun to watch them soar overhead.

I shouldn't, but I really want to complain about the down slope. It would have been fun if it were paved. Instead, it was a grueling descent. The road was steep and badly maintained. I had to watch out for loose gravel, pot holes, mud pits, and sharp curves, so I was riding my brakes most of the way down. That is what really annoys me. I spend all this energy to get to the top of the pass and then literally burn it off heating up my brakes. What a waste. Plus, I spend so much time watching the road I don't get to enjoy everything else around me. It isn't like this side of the pass is any less beautiful. My only chance to enjoy the view was when I would stop to let my brakes cool. But I couldn't even fully appreciate it then because I was thinking about the fact that I'm stopping every few minutes when all I want to do is make up as many kilometers as I can. It was a frustrating way to loose 1,200 meters of elevation I had just worked so hard for.

At the bottom of the mountain, the road crossed over a river and climbed a short bluff on the other side. This lead to another broad valley, which was just open grassland filled with wildflowers. A few spots were covered in some kind of bright blue flower, and from a distance they looked like bright blue lakes. I think these must be cultivated, as it doesn't seem a natural phenomenon. Plus, each one had some bee hives adjacent to it. Other than that, and a few guys herding horses, there wasn't much out here. Just green hills dotted with bright flowers.

From there the road climbed a little rise and then made a bigger drop down to the river. I think this was the river I had just passed. This happened a second and then a third time. It made me want to strangle the engineer who designed this road. I was tired of climbing hills only to come down to the same river I had just been next to. Grumble, grumble, grumble. Adding to my list of grievances, the road after the town of Aral became miserable. Up until this point it had been okay for a dirt road. Not great for descending on, but at least it was mostly well packed dirt and easy enough to cruise along. After Aral it was all washboards and loose gravel. Yuck.

By the time I got to Kazarman I was done. I still had two hours of light to make up some miles, but I didn't want to get back to that road. I will save it for tomorrow.



-Dravis

Date: June 28th, 2016
Distance: 76 kilometers
Song of the Day: Slow Ride - Foghat

Today just goes to show what bad roads up a mountain can do to your daily average. The ride was both short and tough. The first part of the day was actually not very difficult, a slight grade up the valley on fairly good roads, it was just a bit tedious.

After passing Taran Bazar, though, the good road disappeared and began to climb quite steeply. I will say, the scenery was a bit improved by the elevation. Instead of just grass on either side of the road there were mountains and great valleys to look at. The slow ride through the area gave me lots of time to appreciate it. That's pretty much how my day went, climbing up and up into the mountains and enjoying the view.

A little before sunset I met up with a Dutch couple who were cycling the same route I was. We had actually met earlier for a bit, up in the Pamirs and again in Osh. They had already set up camp in a nice little spot and invited me to join them. I had considered pushing on, but this seemed like as good a place as any. (I'm glad I stopped. The road after the camp becomes very steep and narrow, and there aren't very many good places to pitch a tent.) I had a good time chatting with them while making dinner. Nobody made it a late night, though. We were all in our sleeping bags not long after the sun set.



-Dravis

Date: June 27th, 2016
Distance: 108 kilometers
Song of the Day: King of the Rodeo - Kings of Leon

Well, I finally left Osh today. I don't know what it is about that city, there really isn't that much to the place and it isn't all that exciting. After being in the Pamirs, though, it's so comfortable. It's so easy to be lazy and hang around too long like I did. It took me until 2:00 pm to actually leave town, when I thought I was going to be gone bright and early. So much for that idea. I was glad I didn't rush out, though. I really didn't have any clue where I was going. It took me an hour or two to finally decide on a route to take, but once I had that done I could pack up and be off quickly.

I was going to head out of town with Edmund, and he wanted to grab lunch first. This turned out well for me, but not for him. I got some good fuel for the day, while Edmund got the return of the stomach bug. After lunch he went back to the hotel to rest another day while I wheeled myself out of town. It's been fun riding with Edmund, I hope to see him down the road sometime.

The road out of the city wasn't anything to write home about, just rolling farm fields. I'm struck by how modern Kyrgyzstan is. I had gotten used to the rustic and lonely life in Tajikistan. Here, there is a village every few kilometers. I was never that far from a market, or a restauraunt, or a hotel the whole day. Some places also reminded me of rural highways back home. I can't really complain about this, but it isn't something I can get excited about. I like experiencing things that are new and unusual. This felt more like spending a day riding around eastern Washington. At least I was making good time, in spite of the late start. I was able to do 100 kilometers. What a difference being healthy and on good roads makes.

I stopped in Jalalabad and checked into the cheapest hotel I could find. The lady running the place said I could find women next door and bring them back to the hotel. Ah, it is one of those kinds of hotels. Thanks, but no thanks. I think I'll be fine on my own.



-Dravis

Date: June 26th, 2016
Distance: Rest day

And yet I don't go. This morning I found a couple things to fix on my bike. Again. Nothing major, but things that needed tuning. As morning dragged into afternoon I thought I would burn one more day here in Osh.

Once I got my stuff done I still had a couple hours in the afternoon to kill. I walked over the the big rock in the middle of Osh called Sulayman Too, or Solomon's Rock. Another World Heritage Site! Local legend says that King Solomon (yes, that guy from the Bible) was buried here. I am curious how an ancient king from Levant ended up in Central Asia... Its mythological history aside, the place is very interesting. It has been a sacred religious site for millennia. There are also a number of caves to visit, and the site has lots of great views of the city below.



-Dravis

Date: June 25th, 2016
Distance: Rest day

I was thinking I might be able to leave today, but that never happened. I had too many things left to do. Sometimes I lament the fact that my life on the road is so filled with logistics. A lot of it is little things, like laundry or changing money. These things take time though. It's also hard to build up the desire to leave a place like Osh. I can't say there is much excitement going on, but it's quite comfortable. I find it far too easy to take one more relaxing day here. I even had had time in the afternoon to go swimming; haven't done that in a while. I miss swimming with friends in the lakes and rivers back home. I guess a pool here in Osh will have to do. At least I should be able to leave tomorrow.



-Dravis