So the short story is, we made it! Long version below!
So our target of this short trip was the remote lake, Kel Suu, which is near the Chinese border in Kyrgyzstan. Our route and destination are in the map below. The Green Line is day 1, the Red Line is days 2-4, and the Blue Line is day 5.
I should note that I organized the whole trip, so if something went wrong I would feel responsible. Hence I pretty much overpacked. Plenty of tools, plenty of extra gear, etc. In all there were 10 of us on the trip in 4 cars. In my car I had my friend and employee, Azamat, the only one in the group who had been to Kel Suu before, as well as my American friend Jeff who is opening a hunting and expedition company here. We took one of my fleet 4x4s, a 2014 Ford Ranger T6 Double Cab with 2.2 diesel engine and 6-speed manual transmission. It's fitted with a steel frame, aluminum skin cap on the back, so we had more room than we could possibly need to haul gear. The truck is shod with Maxxis Pressa Ice SUV tires in 265/70/16 size.
Friday, 19 February 2016. We started the morning around Bishkek packing up the truck and getting everything ready to roll.
Everyone had agreed to meet in the evening in Naryn, so we did the first leg solo. We finally had everything gathered up around lunch time, so we stopped for the last few supplies at Alamedin bazaar and some street food to tide us over till dinner. About half way to Naryn we made a detour up a 4x4 trail overlooking Orto Tokoi Reservoir to take some photos (especially promo photos for the truck).
We arrived in the evening in Naryn and stayed in the comfortable Khan Tengri hotel without any issues. Plenty of time around maps that night after dinner and we were all stoked for the coming day.
Saturday, 20 February 2016. Naryn is a lot colder than Bishkek, so we were excited to that all the cars started without incident the next morning. Azamat and I made a trip over to the border police station to meet with the guy in charge of the zone we would be in. We had to sign off that we knew where we were going and that we'd be good. Evidently some Russians last year wandered into China and spent three months in jail. At least that's what the guard said. He also informed us that they got their УАЗ stuck the other day out in that area. Oh, and to throw in for good measure the Marco Polo sheep are down low now and the wolves are having a party. After that encouraging meeting we gathered our border permit for the group and hit the road.
Other than a section of broken pavement and dirt through the Naryn to At-Bashi pass the road is clean all the way to Tourgart now. The Chinese have built new asphalt. We made a quick stop in At-Bashi to pick up our hostess, Jirgal Edje. Since At-Bashi means "Horse Head" in Kyrgyz, they decided a build a huge horse's head right downtown. Too good a photo op to pass up. Here's our convoy. From left to right, my 2014 Ford Ranger, a lifted 2006 Hyundai Starex 4WD (essentially a licensed Mitsubishi Delica), a late 2000s VW Touareg V8, and a 2001 Lexus LX470.
We entered the border zone courtesy of a nice young guard who spoke English having visited Montana. We drove till we came to the final border control to China and hung a hard left along the border to the east. The road follows the border fence (which is still at least about 10km from China most of the time) for quite a while.
Eventually as the border turned a bit further south the road started getting some snow. This really isn't normal for Kyrgyzstan. With El Nino this year we're just not getting snow. Most of the road was smooth, but here and there were holes in the road hidden by the snow that were great for testing suspension travel and bump stops. Mostly we just drove through small drifts and kept going.
Driving along the southern shore of Chartyr Kul Lake.
After heading through a wide, river valley toward the east we finally reached the turn toward Kel Suu. There really wasn't much indication. Azamat thankfully recognized the turn even though he usually come through from the eastern route through Bosogo Jailoo. There is this sign post that's sort of not helpful.
We stopped for a break near the sign and had our first small problem of the trip. The Starex had picked up a small hole in the rear tire. A quick plug fixed it right up.
The road ahead was traveled rarely, but there were tracks. Most were from a few local residents using Lada Nivas.
The road winds through a canyon and across a rickety bridge.
Heading on further is a small pass that brings you out into the Kel Suu valley. The river flows out of the lake through a cave and spreads across the valley floor.
Truck-Skating should be a sport! River crossings are much easier when they are 70cm thick ice!
It's about 15 years late, but I think we got a great advertising photo for Lexus!
Your's truly on the ice.
Our group was very international. We had a members from: Australia, Austria, Germany, Spain (Catalan), the USA, Kyrgyzstan, and Bulgaria. Our hostess, Jirgal Edje is in the middle with the red hat.
We arrived later in the evening to the hunting lodge which the family runs for people coming to the area for Marco Polo and Ibex.
That night we were actually served Kurdak (stir fry of meat, potatoes, and onions) made from Marco Polo left by a hunter. Probably the most theoretically expensive dinner I've ever had!