Today was one of our big hikes for the trip - Chaukhi Pass where we hiked from Jut'a to Roshka and then Korsha through a mountain pass that used to be a hotly contested pass because of its strategic location. We hit the trail at 6:45am with all of our stuff for the trip on our backs. Seeing the valley in the morning light was awesome!
The mountain stream crossing was quite the wake-up. The cold is so bone chilling that it hurts.
Breakfast was at a mountain pond. Our guest house packed up a bunch of stuff for us including mini pancakes, a jar of jam, and even whole cucumbers and tomatoes. Neither one of us had ever backpacked with such heavy things.
As we continued on up to the pass, we had many more stream crossings, some bouldering on glacial erratics, and a bonus view of Mt Kazbeg.
We found out about this hike from a trekking website and downloaded the routes. I was checking to make sure we were on the right route in the beginning. We could see switchbacks heading up a shale section of the ridge, so we just headed for that. This turned out to be a poor decision. It was a trail on our map, but a very poor trail. As we crested the ridge, we discovered that there were very steep drops on either side of us. And we needed to hike along the ridge of crumbly rock to reach the other trail. This was pretty sketchy - Fallon nearly couldn't do it. It kind of felt like the children's book where "we can't go over it, can't go under it, we'll have to go through it." The actual pass (had we followed the real route would have been much easier). It was a knife's edge like I have never experienced before. A missed step would NOT end up well.
So we inched our way across the ridge and enjoyed an extra dreamy lunch because we had lived! I even took a "family photo." From the top, you could see the 3 different lakes (white, blue, and green) on the other side - super cool. the blue lake was especially striking. And we carefully made our way down a steep ridge towards them.
After enjoying the beauty of the lakes, we continued to hike down the valley towards Roshka when the skies opened up! Lightning, thunder, pouring rain, and then hail. The hail looked like dippin' dots everywhere but wasn't so sweet as it was pelting our heads. So, our pace sped up quite a bit as we ran the final 4ish miles down the valley through a "river of poop" 💩. After dodging lightening and cows, we finally made it to Roshka where a rainbow 🌈 greeted us. However, we still needed to get to Korsha (13 km away), so we were able to pay someone to drive us down the tricky (and partially washed out) mountain road.
We finally made it to the guest house - drenched and cold, but very happy. It was a quirky artsy place with birds living inside, a cool dog, and lots of Georgian artifacts. We quickly covered every inch of our room with wet stuff. Next we had a short cooking lesson in how to make kinkhali, chowed down dinner, and hit the hay. It sure was a full day!
You really capture the essence of your experience! Difficult hike, food and animals!
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