Monday was a holiday in Kyrgyzstan, called Men's Day. While it's a celebration of all men, Kanat explained to me that it is primarily for soldiers or those who could protect the country. As a result, many of my new friends here didn't have work, and Nadia decided to organize a trip to Ala Archa National Park. Two other Fulbrighters, Kyle and Cooper, were also able to attend, and I met two other Americans studying abroad here, but most the group was Kyrgyz/Russian/Korean. As I'm still not that great at public transportation here, Maryann agreed to meet me, as she also lives in the south east corner of Bishkek where I am. After getting harassed by drunk men (unfortunately sexism is pretty socially acceptable here) I finally met up with her and we took the Marshrutka which are these giant vans that are run like busses. From talking to Cooper I learned these are organized by the government, but are usually privately owned, an interesting system. They are very inexpensive (our trip was 25 som, or 45 cents or so) but somewhat slow and crowded. We met up with the group and hoped on another bus which we had payed for for the day. With the large group of us it cost about 250 som per person. We drove up into the mountains, passing villages and agricultural land. Ala Archa National Park is pretty much due south of Bishkek in the Kyrgyz Ala-Too range. It's a huge glacially carved valley with the Ala Archa river draining out of it. While this may be some of the northern most Tien Shan, they are still hardly a joke. The range stretches for about 400km east to west and has peaks just shy of 5,000m. The tallest peak, Semyonov Tyan-Shansky is right to the east of the Ala Archa canyon and is 4,895m. The park itself has just over 30 glaciers, although many are in serious decline.
We parked at the entrance where there is a small hotel/resort and a little town. Ala Archa was designated a National Park in 1976, although the level of protection is still very minimal. Unfortunately like many other places in Kyrgyzstan, littering is a big problem.
This time of year there was still quite a bit of snow in the part. We set off through the Tien Shan spruce trees up a gentle slope on the trail. Most people stay near the entrance and it's a popular destination for picnickers. While the morning was cloudy it was quite warm and we saw several other groups of visitors. Most groups were young men, but we also saw a few families with children. While men and women seem to do many of the same activities, they tend to be gender segregated.
Once we walked about the main area with the spruce trees the canyon narrowed some and we were next to the river. We paused and snacked and then several groups continued up farther on the trail. Once we were past the main area, the trail was not well traveled and it was easy to get into knee deep snow. It was quite nice though, and the vista is just beautiful. The river is entirely glacial fed, so at this time of year there isn't a ton of melt water yet.
Eventually as the canyon narrowed more there was no trail and the snow was getting thigh deep. We turned back to the rest of the group and had a snow picnic.
I wandered off and found a boulder that was climbable. Slightly hard in my wet snow boots, but still fun. Most all of the rock was granite or various metamorphics.
I met one Kyrgyz woman in the group who was very interested in hiking and geology and is hoping to do a US masters in environmental sciences and glaciology. We talked about the local geology and she pointed out a barely visible high glacier to me while I told her more than she likely wanted to know about minerals and rocks. I had hoped to see more animals, but there wasn't a ton. I saw some aural thrushes and magpies and high up there were many birds of prey circling on thermals, but they were too high to identify.
The juniper forests were very beautiful. The Kyrgyz name for that kind of juniper is Archa, which is what the name of the valley comes from. In the late afternoon we piled back into the bus and drove back to Bishkek. Enjoyed a group coffee at Sierra Coffee, which is a very American destination I hadn't yet checked out. I will have to remember as they had good food and even some english language literature.
