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1 Feb 2016
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And I guess if you are going to go that way, and can take an extra 90 km worth of fuel again, then the 45 km detour to Lake Petrov at the end of the Petrov Glacier right next to the Kumtor mine, might be worth doing:
Here's the track (actually a dirt road) for that:
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1 Feb 2016
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Did anybody hassle you after the big "DO NOT GO PAST HERE" sign for the mine at the turnoff to the South for the back road to Kara-Sai? (N41 52 22.7 E78 06 07.5)
I found another good source for KG maps: Üch-Koshkon Map - Kyrgyzstan - Mapcarta
Mapcarta shows all kinds of tracks that I have not found anywhere else. You need to be zoomed in quit a bit but then they show up.
KP
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2 Feb 2016
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Hi, the discussed track Inylchek-Karasay I travelled in august 2013. As Chri8 wrote, there is no drivable road/track, only fragments! In my opinion it's impossible with motorbikes. Some critical points:
1. crossing Terekty river
Not the big river, but with strong current. A russian bike group before us were not able to cross it, so we avoid it and used the road south of Inylchek and crossed Sary-Djaz river on a rope-cage (behind the hot springs).
2. crossing Uch-Kol river
Big river with strong current. Passable only during dry weather (low water level). We had a long rainfall two days before and were not able to cross this river without a boat. We used an Alpacka Raft.
3. last section blocked by landslides. It's the most difficult part, because only footpathes (animal/horse tracks) pass over. At the end we saw an alternative track on the other side of Uch-Kol river, but to reach it, it's necessary to cross Uch-Kol two times additional. See below, I attached some photos and one map of this section.
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2 Feb 2016
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That is great feed back from somebody who actually has been there. It sure looks like you had your share of a true adventure.
I am not surprised by the section you show as virtually impassable. The only thing visible on sat photo's is a river bed and possibly mandatory crossing of the river. (or go, as you seem to have done, up on the hills and find cow tracks)
What is shown across the river are the maintenance roads for the power line. Besides having to cross the river twice the power line "road" also looks very problematic in places. It also seems that track dead ends where the power line eventually crosses the river again.
Again, thanks for your post.
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2 Feb 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by colebatch
And I guess if you are going to go that way, and can take an extra 90 km worth of fuel again, then the 45 km detour to Lake Petrov at the end of the Petrov Glacier right next to the Kumtor mine, might be worth doing:
Here's the track (actually a dirt road) for that:
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thanks for the info, looks like it's worth a deture
Quote:
Originally Posted by khpostma
I found another good source for KG maps: Üch-Koshkon Map - Kyrgyzstan - Mapcarta
Mapcarta shows all kinds of tracks that I have not found anywhere else. You need to be zoomed in quit a bit but then they show up.
KP |
i think they just use the normal google maps files, am i wrong?
Quote:
Originally Posted by bikevagabond
Hi, the discussed track Inylchek-Karasay I travelled in august 2013. As Chri8 wrote, there is no drivable road/track, only fragments! In my opinion it's impossible with motorbikes. Some critical points:
1. crossing Terekty river
Not the big river, but with strong current. A russian bike group before us were not able to cross it, so we avoid it and used the road south of Inylchek and crossed Sary-Djaz river on a rope-cage (behind the hot springs).
2. crossing Uch-Kol river
Big river with strong current. Passable only during dry weather (low water level). We had a long rainfall two days before and were not able to cross this river without a boat. We used an Alpacka Raft.
3. last section blocked by landslides. It's the most difficult part, because only footpathes (animal/horse tracks) pass over. At the end we saw an alternative track on the other side of Uch-Kol river, but to reach it, it's necessary to cross Uch-Kol two times additional. See below, I attached some photos and one map of this section. |
thank you very much for this info!
are all your pictures from the last section (3.)?
this looks not really rideable, but the riverbed is quite wide at this point...so maybe if there's not much water you could take the riverbed
or take some truck tubes 
bu that doesn't sound like a good idea if you riding only by yourself
nevertheless, i hope i can check it out in july
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3 Feb 2016
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What I showed on the photos is only the difficult section, where we pushed our bikes over landslides and hills on animal tracks. Only the first one was taken before, when we crossed an eroded point on the wasted road.
The fragments of this old track are drivable on many kilometers, but there are also many points with deep erosion channels, sometimes like little canyons. To climb or round them was not easy as well (see below photo 4). Also the Uch-Kol nibble on some sections (photo 3). And going through the river bed is not the fun because of big stones (photo 2).
It would be interesting, if someone can find a way to pass this valley with motorbike, but as I wrote at the beginning, it seems impossible in my eyes. We needed 5 days from Sary-Djaz river to the end of Uch-Kol valley. In that time we didn't meet any people. If you try this, think about the way back! Because we planned to continue along the Chinese border to Torugart, we had food for two weeks (our fuel  ) and no time pressure.
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4 Feb 2016
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It is my plan for this year as well. I will be there on light bikes with friends who have good skills. But looking for the pictures... I am not sure we can do it. We follow Russian bikers (with bicycles) on Kegety pass and it was difficult terrain. Anyway we will try in July.
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4 Feb 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sambor
It is my plan for this year as well. I will be there on light bikes with friends who have good skills. But looking for the pictures... I am not sure we can do it. We follow Russian bikers (with bicycles) on Kegety pass and it was difficult terrain. Anyway we will try in July.
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maybe we can try it together? I will be in this region mid July and riding a DRZ400
and i would prefer some company on that kind of trail 
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4 Feb 2016
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There may actually be an interesting alternate trip if the main road is impassible. At N41 42 19.4 E78 24 43 there is a track that takes off to the South and East. It winds up in a place called Pikertyk and goes on to Uch-Koshkon at N41 49 53.6 E78 39 37.7 and from there back to the main Kara-Sai - Inylchek road. It seems mostly to be a decent track, but there may be plenty of short sections that will be difficult or impassable.
While tracing this road onto OSM I thought for a while it might bypass the bad main road section, but unfortunately it does not. I have not found a way, except for the power line road on the North side of the river. Not so sure if it will be any better.
From Barskoon it looks like to be a 250 mile round trip. Wouldn't it be nice if we could stash a drum of fuel in Kara-Say.
Another take away from the pictures: it is easy to underestimate the rivers one can run into. What appears to be a minor stream could be a significant / impossible effort to cross.
Moen, Mapcarta vs Google: Yes Mapcarta is overlaid on Google maps, but additional information is shown and it seems it easier to find the tracks.
Can anybody shed light on where to get a permit for this region?
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4 Feb 2016
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I will organize permit in Bishkek Karl. And of course I will help you to get it...
cheers
Chris
Moep, I will contact you soon. We are still with bikes in South America.
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7 Feb 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sambor
I will organize permit in Bishkek Karl. And of course I will help you to get it...
cheers
Chris
Moep, I will contact you soon. We are still with bikes in South America.
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ok, have a nice trip!
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6 Mar 2016
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I dont suppose you have a GPS track ? or can you geolocate (within 10-20 metres) your pics of the difficult section?
That would be useful in planning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bikevagabond
What I showed on the photos is only the difficult section, where we pushed our bikes over landslides and hills on animal tracks. Only the first one was taken before, when we crossed an eroded point on the wasted road.
The fragments of this old track are drivable on many kilometers, but there are also many points with deep erosion channels, sometimes like little canyons. To climb or round them was not easy as well (see below photo 4). Also the Uch-Kol nibble on some sections (photo 3). And going through the river bed is not the fun because of big stones (photo 2).
It would be interesting, if someone can find a way to pass this valley with motorbike, but as I wrote at the beginning, it seems impossible in my eyes. We needed 5 days from Sary-Djaz river to the end of Uch-Kol valley. In that time we didn't meet any people. If you try this, think about the way back! Because we planned to continue along the Chinese border to Torugart, we had food for two weeks (our fuel ) and no time pressure. |
Last edited by colebatch; 6 Mar 2016 at 12:01.
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19 Mar 2016
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Walter,
I saw you never got an answer, but i believe the difficult section starts at N41 53 39.1 E78 39 04.8 and goes East from there. He talks about crossing the river a couple of times and a road across the river. This matches this coordinate. I believe it goes on 4 miles where you ride thru the river bed and were you have to cross the Uchkel several times. I marked this section on OSM and the road across the river as well.
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25 May 2016
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Hello Walter,
I didn't watched this forum for long time.. If you're still interested, I attached our gps tracks from the whole valley (hot springs behind Enilchek until pass Ishegart). The difficult section, where we climbed up the animal pathes was on day 6 to 7 (far from the river bed). There a fresh landslide blocked the continuation of a marginal driving track. If you come from east, you should go into the river bed, before going up (maybe here: 41.902257 N, 78.723573 E) and cross the river to the opposite track. If you come from west, you could reach the opposite track by crossing the river here: 41.895421 N, 78.664795 E.
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25 May 2016
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Vagabond, it was fun watching your obvious struggles by means of the GPS tracks on sat photos. Thanks for adding those tracks.
My Mapsource had trouble reading the GPX files, but I GPSBabel'd them per the attached.
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