Day 98, August 3, Lake Ala-Kol - Lower Arshan valley

0km - 5571km, rainy 22C, wind?, 0 shots, 0 Lenin, Camping

We all awoke at 630h with the sun, but lazed in bed for 1.5 hours until one of us made the first move in getting up. After tucking away another half-box of porridge and a few eggs hard-boiled before the trek, we packed up and ascended the ridge around the lake. We followed around to the east end of the lake, with the glacier gradually coming into sight offering spectacular views. Eventually reached the steep scree slope that we needed to climb up to the 3870m pass. After a quick break, we all began the uphill trudge. We all eventually reached the pass and, dropping our bags, ran up to the little peak some 50m farther uphill.

We spent a good half-hour looking at the scenery and admiring our accomplishments before dropping over snowy cornice into the next valley. The first 250m of lost vertical were on a very steep gravel slope that required some deft zigzag downhill movements, with a nice run-out at the end over a long snowy patch. The next few hours were spent trudging down the valley slowly descending into bramble, then arboreal, vegetation. We stopped for lunch around 1400h, finishing off our remaining wares, and then strode expectantly onwards toward the mid-valley hot springs. Reached the heated pools around 1630h and, contrary to our expectations, found that the baths were a hot 48C. After a few minutes of timidly tantalizing our toes with the sulfuric solution, we threw our tired bodies into the mix letting our leg/back muscles slowly relax.

We emerged from our private pool room around 1800h only to find that the last bus down the valley left two hours before and that we would have to walk out. We began the trek down the road and slowly realized that we had a solid 12km or so to cover before we could exit the valley to the nearest town. We were all pretty sore by now, my feet having solid blisters, Anja's knee injured from a mud-induced upset on the last descent, and Will being shod in bike gear. We made it about 9km out before the signs of rain appeared yet again, leading us to stop in front of a farmhouse. We asked if we could camp, and they offered to feed us (each for $2.50). We immediately accepted, set up our tents, and were eating a delicious noodly goulash within 15 minutes. Braving the stormy weather, we ran to our tents and quickly fell asleep each not looking forward to the morning's hike out of the valley.