There you have it. Four months of touring on one compact map. I’ll call this chapter of my tour The Pontic Alps Explorer. From Erzurum to Bayburt (with detours). Haha, I really did start this tour in Erzurum after taking a train from Ankara with Sage, and I really did end this tour in Bayburt from where I took a bus back to Ankara. And at one point during this serpentine adventure I actually pedalled directly from Erzurum to Bayburt in about a day and a half!
So if you want to know how to turn 10 hours of cycling into four months of touring, study this map (above).
A break from the bike seemed like a good idea (even though really I’m quite good at taking breaks). Sabiha and I spent five days trekking in the Yenice-Eskipazar, Karabük forest. As with the Tbilisi-Borçka ride it was a fall color extravaganza.
For the first half of the trek we joined a group from İstanbul. They had hired a local guide to lead us on an unmarked route north from Eğriova Eskipazar Gölet to İncebacaklar. Certainly it would have been difficult to follow the route on our own but not impossible. It tended to follow paths and old currently-impassable-by-vehicle roads. With a 1:25000 scale map (supposedly available, but where?) and a compass I think I could have led this route with only a few more wrong turns than the guide made!
