Sorry I was a bit remiss in posting. Two weekends ago I went hiking in the Shamsi Gorge. My Kyrgyz friend Salavat asked if I would like to go and helped me to get organized. We went with the Trekking Union, which I highly recommend! (Here is their contact: http://students.sras.org/trekking-union-of-kyrgyzstan/) This organization runs day trips and some longer trips to go hiking from Bishkek. You just have to call or go by the office by Thursday to reserve a spot for the following Sunday's trip. They have a mailing list that sends out weekly updates with what is available for the following weekend. It's heavily used by foreign tourists and thus there does tend to be some English explanations! Bright and too early Sunday morning I walked the 2km to the office on Kiev street to be there by 7:45am. There was a mix of languages being spoken when I arrived and paid my 450 som (about $8). Salavat showed up and introduced me to another American who is here studying abroad and the three of us piled into one of the two sprinter vans and we were off! The morning was hazy near Bishkek, but as we drove east and neared the foothills it cleared into a spectacularly sunny day.
Nearing the river we began to see the gorge and it was also a perfect display of terraces. For the non-geologists, one of the best records of the mountains very recent uplift are the "stranded" river terraces. These were once the broad flat lying areas near the river channel, but as the mountains uplifted the river cut downwards through them and began to form new flat areas to meander across. The Russian nomenclature for the terraces labels them "Q" followed by 1 or 2 numbers. A Q1 terrace is the oldest, and therefore also now the highest. Because they have been subjected to erosion for longer they are also harder to find. Broad Q2 terraces were the most apparent at the mouth of the Shamsi Gorge.
After crossing the river we drove by a very small village. Everything had snow on it and every branch was encased in a thin layer of ice making them sparkle in the sun light. I unfortunately was sitting in the middle and couldn't take pictures of the man on horseback herding a large herd of horses as he broke out of the trees. It was incredible imagery all backlit by the sun. The road went up and up into the mountains over a fairly treacherous track. Eventually even out skilled drivers were sliding on the ice so the stopped and there the hike began! Our party set off and the guide kept up quite a stiff pace.
We soon entered a beautiful Tien Shan spruce forest while the river wove along side us. Every boulder in the river was encased with a skirt of ice, and overhanging trees had bobbing icicles where the touched or were splashed by the water.
As we climbed higher, one side of the gorge had spruce forests while the other was much more open with gorse and junipers. The beautifully dipping layers of the Shamsi Formation also became apparent.
Most of the exposed rocks were a very fine grain mudstone or siltstone. I eagerly looked for fossils, but only found some traces like roots and borrows (still cool).
After crossing the river on a small rickety bridge we climbed up the juniper side of the gorge and into a flatter plateau area. The mountains absolutely soared above us!
The going became tougher as water had flowed across the two track road we followed and frozen into massive sheets of ice. We ventured up a small side canyon and ate out lunch on granite boulders.
Walking back down the trail it was surprising how much of the ice had melted, which didn't really improve our ability to walk on it. The drivers had moved the vans farther down as a result of the melting roads creating mud and I will admit to feeling the 16km hike at that point!
On the ride out the vans skittered in the mud, but we made it to pavement just fine. I was glad to have a window seat as most of the other passengers dozed on the ride home. We arrived back at the office at about 6:30pm making for a great, but rather long day!