Bikepacking Kyrgyzstan
A post Soviet nation, Kyrgyzstan is a country of opposites: arid canyons and lush green rolling valleys and hills. Incredible beauty abounds if you're willing to conquer the passes 🏔️
Kyrgyz are known for their yurts, horses and kumis (fermented horse milk). In the two months of summer in July and August, head to the hills and be wowed. You can camp anywhere or, when in town, stay at a welcoming guesthouse.
If you love the outdoors, Kyrgyzstan in summer is the place to be.
The lush green pastures of the Arabel Valley.
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Our route
Kegen (Kazakhstan) to Karakol (Kyrgyzstan)
Karakol to Naryn
Naryn to Song Kul lake
Song Kul lake to Osh
Osh to Sary Tash
Sary Tash to Sary Mogol and Peak Lenin
Best guesthouses and food resupply points
Water
Camping
Bikes and tires
Dogs
Elevation
Weather
The wrap up
Our route
🚴 1,500 km over 22 days with multiple 1000m+ elevation ascents
There were multiple stages to our ride through Kyrgyzstan:
Kegen (Kazakhstan) to Karakol (Kyrgyzstan)
Karakol to Naryn
Naryn to Song Kul lake
Song Kul lake to Osh
Osh to Sary Tash
Sary Tash to Sary Mogol and Peak Lenin
Kegen to Karakol
2 cycle days
We flew into Almaty, Kazakhstan and organised a taxi to Kegen. A four hour drive, we deliberated a couple of options like cycling or driving all the way to Karakol, however, we believe we got the best of both worlds.
It was both cheaper to get a taxi to NOT cross the border and the section of cycling from Kegen to Karakol was unexpectedly beautiful with the most relaxed border crossing!
We investigated a couple of taxi options, eventually paying 70,000 tenge. Whilst the drive was interesting to say the least, we made it in one piece, skipping the arid section of Charyn Canyon and starting in the lush green pastures of Kegen.
This section, newly tarmac in parts, was pretty enjoyable and the border crossing was super relaxed. They were selling SIM cards at the border so we were immediately online and ready to conquer Kyrgyzstan.
The only section to mention was a pretty steep section of hill with an extremely rocky surface as you take the southern direct road to Karakol.
A bit of hike a bike but nothing insurmountable!
Karakol to Naryn
5 cycle days
We followed the BIKEPACKING.com Tian Shan Traverse route with one adaptation - instead of starting the ascent from Kyzyl-Suu we cycled the main road along Issyl-Kul to Barskoon and then followed the road past the Barskoon waterfall up to the Arabel Pass. A word of forewarning: it's an active road to a mine site so there is decent mine truck traffic.
The weather changes at the drop of a hat up there - be prepared for snowstorms even in July!
The Arabel Valley is a firm favourite for us, so in our books, it's a must see part of the route and one to savour 😊
Naryn to Song Kul lake
4 cycle days
Naryn has a Globus supermarket so make sure to stock up before you hit the road!
We continued following the Tian Shan Traverse for this section. Note that Baetov does NOT have any decent guesthouses and one very strange restaurant. Don't count on it for a decent resupply or an ATM that works.
After a decent trifecta of ascents to Kulak Pass, MELS Pass and up to Song Kul, it's well worth staying at a yurt camp at Song Kul lake. They light a fire in your yurt and that was worth the higher price tag for us.
Song Kul lake to Osh
4 cycle days
We followed the Tian Shan Traverse down to Chaek, but 20km west of the town, instead of heading north to the Kugeti Pass, we continued heading west through a canyon for another 100km to Kazarman. A tarmac road, it's pretty undulating so it can make for a big day. The road follows a canyon with limited, if any, spots for camping. As it was, we had our sights set on a lovely guesthouse in Kazarman for a rest day. It was worth cycling the longer distance!
After Kazarman, we cycled to Jalalabad via the Koldomo pass, with some nice camping and spots to get water along the way.
We ended up doing Jalalabad to Osh in one day (going the longer route to stay in Kyrgyzstan) since we couldn't see any guesthouses in Uzgen.
Then we made it to Osh, the start of the Pamir Highway!
Osh to Sary Tash
4 cycle days
In late July, this is a hot, sweaty, fumey cycle out of town with a multitude of cars and trucks. However, the pass before Gulcha is beautiful and the 20km descent down to Gulcha is bliss.
The next two days we spent climbing again, culminating in another decent ascent to the pass. Beware that this road is dominated by Chinese and Kyrgyz trucks as they head for the Irkeshtam pass into China.
Whilst Sary Tash itself leaves a lot to be desired, it was a very social location for bikepackers! Like Osh, there were many cyclists finishing or starting the Pamirs, heading to China and beyond.
Sary Tash to Sary Mogul and Peak Lenin
1 cycle days and 30 kms
Cycling to Sary Mogul is an easy and worthwhile detour so you can hike Peak Lenin! A stunning kaleidoscope of colours, Peak Lenin and the hike from base camp to Traveller's Pass at 4,150m elevation is beautiful.
We cycled to Sary Mogul from Sary Tash, which is along a super easy tarmac road, and then organised a taxi at our hostel to Lenin Peak base camp so we could hike to Traveller's pass. Some folks cycle from the town of Sary Mogul to Peak Lenin base camp, which is appropriately 40kms of unpaved roads. However you decide to get there, it's worth it!
Best guesthouses and food resupply points
We stayed at these guesthouses throughout Kyrgyzstan:
Batykgul guesthouse in Naryn
Batykgul guesthouse in Kazarman
Good Night Hostel in Jalalabad
Tes hotel in Osh
Guesthouse Akun in Sary Tash
CBT hostel in Sary Mogol
Water
We stocked for 5 days of food and had a minimum of 3L of water per day per person. In hindsight, it was good that we carried this much food because, aside from Naryn, most towns do not have an extensive range of food.
If anything, it might be worthwhile carrying more water for cooking and camping. You'll need a water filter but throughout summer, there are plenty of sources of water to fill up.
Camping
You can camp almost anywhere!! It's a wild camping paradise.
Like with anything, common sense should prevail and unless you plan on having chai (tea) with the shepherd, give yurts a wide berth.
Bikes and tires
You will need decent tires for this adventure - we had 2.6” tires for this trip and whilst they’re more of a mountain biking tire, they were perfect for the off road components of this route.
Dogs
There aren't really any dogs 🐶
Elevation
Buy some altitude sickness tablets and ascend no more than 400m per night when over 2500m.
Weather
Bring rain pants, you'll need them 😀 the weather was pretty variable for us and afternoon storms were pretty frequent!
The wrap up
Kyrgyzstan in July is a bikepacker’s paradise. You can wild camp pretty much anywhere on the lush green pastures. The Arabel Valley and the hike to Traveller's Pass at Peak Lenin were highlights for us so we hope you enjoy them as much as we did!
