Days 11 & 12: “A Long But Easy Day” (and parting thoughts)

We woke up in complete darkness to give ourselves time to pack up camp and get on the trail by six. When we are camping away from a village, water quickly becomes a priority - we are all drinking between 2-3 liters while on the move, which is just a little less than our water carrying capacity and certainly more than our water stores can handle over two days. The trail has a variety of marked water sources, ranging from streams to Roman-age cisterns - however, the vast majority that we had passed the day before were dried up. In this morning’s case, it required hiking back up the trail to a pipe of moving, fresh water coming from the mountain.

Water stores refreshed, we headed out for Çukurbağ. The guidebook described this segment as “a long but easy day” - as is the case with much of the guide, this was half correct - it was a long day, but not an easy one. We started with a 500m ascent out of the valley, and then began a rambling wander through the thorns and brush - in some cases, the shepherded animals had cleared the way for an easy path, in other cases we were the ones clearing the path. We have been following the GPS of two prior thru-hikers and - while mostly reliable - in this case, it led us down the wrong path and into a gnarly forest. We were completely lost (in some cases on an ancient Roman road, no surprise) and surrounded by the ever growing noise of bees for a tense 15 minutes before finding the trail again.

We then passed through Phellos - a ruin at the very top of the ridges overseeing the sea. We were trying to beat the heat and quickly passed through the ruins, walking around sarcophagi and blocks that were blocking our path. The fact that these ruins - that would be tourist attractions in their own right anywhere else - are both not excavated and quickly passed by walkers seems like a testament to how spoiled we are by the richness that we are surrounded by on this hike.

After a long descent into Çukurbağ, we revived ourselves with a life-changing homemade frozen lemonade in a hipster BnB inexplicably in a village that is otherwise completely void of commercial activity. We then got a ride the final few kms to Kaş, a large seaside town that is hosting a jazz festival this weekend.

This is where I leave the trail, as my in-between-jobs break has come to an end. I wanted to leave some parting thoughts, as a first-time section hiker and grateful participant on this adventure:

1- This is an overused phrase, but this hike requires that one truly takes each day one at a time - when you wake up in the morning, your goal is to make to the end of that segment intact (and preferably with a little bit of dignity). You hike, you go up a lot of hills, you soak yourself in sweat, you encounter (mostly delightful) things that that could not have anticipated, you make it to the end and try to recover for the next day. And then you repeat the next day.

2- Triangulate your sources! This hike would not be possible without the literal trailblazers from a few decades ago (and their guidebook), but also the contributions of other hikers to who make their GPS available or write more technical reviews. Out of the three or four sources we consult daily, none are entirely reflective of our eventual experience or numbers - but enough triangulation can give you some sense of where you are and what you’re doing for the day.

3- As a first time backpacker, I made a lot of small mistakes that I was glad to be doing in front of family - I didn’t fully understand the functionalities of my pack, I slightly overpacked, and I definitely didn’t drink enough water. It was nice to join friendly faces that knew the trail (and the language), had more experience backpacking, and only laughed a little when I embarrassed myself.

It’s been lovely!