CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
The stops in between: Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve, Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas, Aksu-Jabagly State Nature Reserve - main p and back through Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Kyrgyzstan into Kazakhstan - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Sary-Chelek means yellow bucket, and nobody quite agrees on why. The name belongs to a lake in the Chatkal range of south-western Kyrgyzstan, a deep, clear body of water at the bottom of a forested valley, which was formed when a landslide, probably set off by an earthquake, dammed the river long ago. The water takes on shades from emerald to deep blue depending on the light and the season, and the shore is fringed with spruce, with walnut and apple woods on the lower slopes, and meadows full of flowers in June. It lies at about 1,900 metres above the sea, and the cold clean air has a scent of pine.
Read the complete Sary-Chelek State Biosphere Nature Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sary-Chelek State Biosphere Nature Reserve is where the day begins. Next is Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve.
In the far west of Kyrgyzstan, where the Chatkal range runs along the edge of the Fergana valley and the border with Uzbekistan, a steep, forested set of mountains shelters the Padysha-Ata reserve. It is a strictly protected nature area, one of several state reserves in the country, and its purpose is the plain business of keeping a piece of the western Tian Shan as it was. The slopes carry forest and mountain meadow, rivers rush down from snowfields, and the peaks above are high enough to carry glaciers.
Read the complete Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve comes up about 160 km into the recorded legs. Next is Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas.
This is a remote place, and I should say so plainly.
Read the complete Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 372 km into the recorded legs you reach Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas. Next is Aksu-Jabagly State Nature Reserve - main p.
Kazakhstan's oldest nature reserve sits where the western end of the Tien Shan meets the steppe, in the Talas Alatau range, and it was set aside as early as 1926. Aksu-Jabagly is a country of steep limestone gorges, high meadows and snowy ridges that climb above three thousand metres, and it forms part of the UNESCO listing for the Western Tien-Shan. The Aksu canyon cuts through the heart of it, with walls hung with juniper, and on some rock faces you can find petroglyphs left by herders and hunters thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Aksu-Jabagly State Nature Reserve - main p write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Aksu-Jabagly State Nature Reserve - main p, about halfway. Next is back through Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas sits at 849 km, about halfway. Next is back through Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve comes up about 1114 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sary-Chelek State Biosphere Nature Reserve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sary-Chelek State Biosphere Nature Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sary-Chelek State Biosphere Nature Reserve closes the day.
Sary-Chelek State Biosphere Nature Reserve → Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve is 160 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve → Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas is 212 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas → Aksu-Jabagly State Nature Reserve - main p is 265 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Aksu-Jabagly State Nature Reserve - main p → back through Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas is 265 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas → back through Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve is 212 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve → Sary-Chelek State Biosphere Nature Reserve is 160 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.