a wee warm-up ride

Tired of hanging around Bishkek waiting for our Tajikistan visas to get sorted out, we loaded up our bikes and headed out on a short warm-up/test drive to the nearby Ala-Archa canyon. Only 40km from the city, it was the quickest way to get out of the smog and into the mountains and would give us a chance to make sure that our bikes were in good working order and that we had all of the camping gear that we needed.

It ended up being a pretty ambitious venture. People often ask us what we do to get ready for a trip like this. Do we bike all the time at home? How to we train? The truth: we don't... I mean really, what better way to train for cycling for 8-10 hours a day and riding over high mountain passes on rough roads than doing just that? So this trip was sort of meant to be 'training'.

And if "No pain, no gain" is really true, then we gained a LOT on that little adventure. In the 40km from Bishkek to the park, we gained over a kilometer of elevation, and then another 600m on our hike the following day! If that isn't training, I don't know what is!

Still, the long slog to the park was well rewarded with wonderful mountain scenery in the steep valley, fall colors, ibex sightings and incredibly clear starry skies at night!

Now, we're even more excited to really hit the road and see the rest of this country...