120 mile upgrade from the Transcaucasian Trail (TCT)
Having never been to Armenia, Jetpack and I wanted to spend a few days exploring the capital city before hitting the road. After our 3 days, I must say that I was pleasantly impressed by the city. We had a lovely hotel with great breakfasts included for little money. The city is very walkable and has many excellent museums and art facilities. Many indoor and outdoor markets with shopping of all kinds. The food we had was excellent and affordable. We did a wine tasting, since this region is the birthplace of wine (Armenia has been making it since 4100 BC). The people were friendly and talkative.
The many attractions of Yerevan (some photos from Jetpack)
While I was in town, I got my hair cut and we did a last minute resupply. Yes, mainly buying junk food and local snacks for our long bus ride south. They have great dried fruit and nut selections, plus all the fruit leather flavors. Ice cream bars are cheap and plentiful, so I make it a point to try them all!
To get to the southern terminal we scheduled a seat on the daily 7:30 minibus to Meghri. Almost all public transportation here is done by Sprinter vans. We arrived at 7:10 and started wandering around. A guy quickly came over to “help” us, but then tried to sell us a private van ride there for much more. No, thanks. Others pointed us in the right direction. We found our bus even though the number on the front was wrong. No one spoke English but they nodded to «Meghri», so what could go wrong? The Sprinter had capacity for 21 people, but there was no space for luggage. We later learned that when everyone sat down, the island was filled with stacked luggage. We stopped twice on the 8 hour trip and realized that the two of us were the only non-smokers. The road crossed the TCT several times so we got to see a little of what awaited us.
Upon reaching Meghri, we walked a kilometer to our guest house. Marietta, our host, was wonderful and offered to cook us a local dinner in her garden for $12 each. It was beyond excellent and much more than we could eat. Breakfast was equally wonderful. We then met the only other guest, a very friendly and chatty Iranian. We chatted for a good while. It was a great reminder that people are just people and we can all get along. As a result of the morning, we started the trail with laziness 9a.
Wonderful dinner at Meghri *Photo by Jetpack
The trail begins at the border between Armenia and Iran. It is arid and mountainous at an elevation of approximately 2,100 feet. We started with a 10 mile climb to 8,000 feet. Soon we were in beautiful forests and green meadows. We were looking at bear scat and it felt totally different at first. The trail was marked but began to become more overgrown. Despite almost stepping on a snake, we reached the highest point without much drama. From there the drama began. First, I realized that I had left my extra pair of socks drying on the guesthouse clothesline. After a little more time, the trail just stopped and we were walking to follow the GPS line. It took us hours to complete the next 4 miles. To be fair, the TCT just officially opened the Armenia section in 2022 and we were warned that some sections are not well maintained. So we were warned, but we didn’t realize the extent of it. Sometimes this was grass over our heads. Steep slopes and a poisonous plant called giant hogweed should be avoided. Then a storm came… We camped in the shortest grass we could find and hunkered down in a bit of shock. These were no longer perfectly maintained American or European trails.
That night our tent was blown down 3 times due to strong winds. We finally braved the storms and looked for rocks to complement our tent stakes. There seemed to be rocks everywhere except the open meadow where we were camped. We found some rocks and that solved the problem and we tried to sleep. Then Jetpack blew a small hole in his neoair mattress and had to re-inflate it every few hours… Let’s just say it was a rough first 24 hours on the road.
A dry start to the road with the Iranian border behind us.
The beginning of Bushwhacking *Photo Jetpack
We woke up to a beautiful day. The second day was much better. All day the route was clear even when it was overgrown. The giant hogweed was more prominent and we had to avoid it and walk through it more often than I would like (we are walking in pants for this reason). We were very happy to take a gravel road for the long 3,500 foot climb up Mount Khustup (10,531). It was getting late and it looked like there was going to be a storm, so we skipped the last 500 feet to the top. The trail down was perfect and we saw a herd of bezoar goats.
Second night camp
That night we camped in the trailhead parking lot and a group of guys who were enjoying the trail gave us some magic. They recognized excellent English and said that we had already seen more Armenian nature than most Armenians do in their entire lives. They fixed our air mattress and, despite a small storm, we slept well. Despite camping right above the city, it was 30km of trail to get there. That stretch of trail was excellent. Well maintained and very well flamed. We both needed it. The big downside of day 3 was the accumulation of ticks. Each grassy section left us pulling 5 to 10 ticks out of our pants. Instead of camping, we decided to drive the 7km to the good-sized town of Kapan and get a hotel. Two brothers, Arthur and Roman, took us. Roman turns around after a minute of driving and says, «Do you like to go fast?» And without response he accelerates the engine. The next thing we know, we are going 120 km/h in a zone of 40 cars passing despite the incoming traffic. We arrived at the town shaken but fine. We found a decent hotel room and worked to dry things off. Somehow, in just 3 days our store was already stinking. I won’t tell you how bad my only pair of socks smelled. I went on a sock hunting mission and discovered my options were cotton or cotton… We got resupplies on food we didn’t need but wanted and had a wonderful dinner.
Some of the places of interest. Churches, hermitages and ancient bridges from the 6th and 8th centuries.
The next 3 days on the trail have improved significantly with great blazes and a much higher percentage of obvious trails. We have been seeing monasteries and old fortresses. Eat good food and generally not see anyone on the trails. On day 5 we saw our first hikers with 2 Armenian hikers, then 2 nice hikers from the Swiss section. There are still quite a few overgrown trail sections with lots of ticks, but I think that’s to be expected in these remote areas. This trail needs a lot more regular hiking traffic to complete. Everyone we meet is friendly and tries to talk to us despite the language barrier. Yesterday, a man chased us just to ask our names, where we were from and just to say hello. He seemed so excited to have people from America visit his small town. That type of interaction has been a common experience. Many are now familiar with the trail and seem surprised that people are coming to hike it all over the country.
We love trails like this and look forward to more!
Today is day 7 for us and we are going to get zero in a pension in Sisian. It is another 160 kilometers to the next largest city, Yegheghadzor, with a few small towns in between. We hope for good trails and to be able to pick up the pace and arrive in 4 days. But we will still resupply as if it were the fifth day…
We were looking for an adventure and this is definitely an adventure!
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