The road from Erzurum followed the Coruh River Valley past Seljuk and Byzantine Forts and an Armenian Church at Ishan. This area is bordered by the Black Sea to the north, Georgia to the east and Armenia to the southeast. The lower slopes resemble Nepal with its terraces while the higher mountains look like Switzerland or Austria. There are pine forests, more than 100 alpine lakes scattered throughout the range and even wolf and bear in more remote ridges. There is a reason why this is Turkey’s most popular trekking area. If you are a white water devotee, the Coruh River has world class rafting in this area and is Turkey’s last remaining wild river.

This side of Erzurum still has pockets of Georgian-speaking Muslims while communities or rural Armenian Christians are found near Yaylalar. The trek would begin in Yaylalar (Hevek), end in Ayder and pass through semi-nomadic hamlets throughout. In addition to Jack and Cemil who both spoke fluent Turkish, a trail crew would join us in Barhal. Horsemen (although the poor little mules would actually carry everything) who would cook, make and break camp and do whatever they could to make the trek easier for us.

trekking map of Kackar area in Turkey
The 5-hour drive…View image… passed through wonderful scenery. We ate lunch in a local’s house on the way (Dick and I were eating again), walked through small towns…View image…filled with cases of Coca Colas on the street…View image… and stopped to see the ruins of a church somewhere (wish I could remember), before meeting up with our camp crew in Yaylalar (Hevek).

church ruins in Eastern Turkey 

lunch on the floor, Turkish style
Little mules loaded, we hiked a short distance and spent the first night camping along the rushing clear waters of the Barhal Suyu River. The crew set up the individual two-person tents, a toilet tent (this should answer the question, “But where do you go?”) and prepared dinner while Jack and Cemil told us a little about the hike tomorrow. The setting was Alpine, river noises soothing, and the food poisoning had “passed” through my system. All was right in the world…

support crew for the Kackar trek, Turkey 

the usual TTT (trek toilet tent)
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