Bikerafting Kyrgyzstan – The Prologue

Words: Max Corcoran

Here’s a question: What do you do when your friend asks if you’d like to bring bikes, packrafts and camping gear halfway across the world to a country you can’t even spell the name of?

This was the position I found myself in late last year, thanks to my good friend Bernhard. Since meeting him through the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club, we’d done a few ‘out there’ trips… such as purposefully riding our bikes through the snow to get to alpine huts, and riding 330km in one go on the winter solstice, celebrating the shortest day of the year. This idea of a bikerafting trip in Kyrgyzstan, however, would certainly take the cake… it was time to take things to new heights and see what we could concoct.

As such, a few weeks later, we were in the Snowy River National Park in far eastern Victoria, on our first ‘bikerafting’ trip, having hired two packrafts a couple of days before. We drove five hours to Orbost after our lectures on Friday, camped the night next to the river, and set out the next morning, first setting up our bikes on the packrafts to make sure that we knew the setup. Bernard strapped his raft down on the top of his rack, I chucked mine in a backpack, and we rode upstream until we were far enough to paddle back along the river over two days. Bombing down incredibly steep 4WD tracks down to the river, we finally made it to the put-in spot, which was a lovely, secluded campsite with a couple of campers already enjoying the weekend. We shared some laughs at the ridiculousness of what we were about to do, set up the bikes on the front of the packrafts, and began paddling.

For me, there was a clear moment when I realised that combining both biking and paddling into a single trip was not only entirely possible but also incredibly worthwhile. When we engage with outdoor landscapes, we usually do so through one medium; one avenue, mode, if you like, that allows us to experience an environment in a particular way, whether this is hiking, biking, paddling, skiing, etc. These activities are all utilised to get us out into the outdoors, and the vast differences in these activities result in vastly different experiences. As such, as I floated calmly down the Snowy River, cutting the silent water with my paddle and watching the banks slowly move along beside me, I couldn’t help but marvel at how incredibly different this experience was from the biking we had done only 15 minutes before, which was white-knuckled, adrenaline-filled and frankly, pretty scary at points. On the water, we were in the same landscape as we were on bikes, seeing the same trees, same dirt, same people on the banks, yet we couldn’t have been having a more different experience. We could experience the landscape in two entirely different ways in such a short period of time, which was possible purely by bringing not only bikes, but rafts as well.

After our two days of soaking up the sun on the river, we arrived back at the car with a sense of newfound adventure. Our slightly unusual trip became a talking point for a lot of the members of the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club (MUMC), in which we are strongly involved, and many suggested we apply for MUMC’s yearly Adventure Grant for a bigger trip of this kind. We drafted up an application, applied, and were delighted a few months later when our application was accepted. We immediately spent the money on packrafts and associated equipment and continued planning the trip, researching rivers, streams, and lakes we could traverse by bikerafting in Kyrgyzstan. This hasn’t been easy, as we want to keep the paddling down to class I or II, yet we have arrived at some solid options to check out once we arrive properly.

So, what’s the plan? Bernhard and I will arrive in Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan, on the second of June, and will then get transport to the far east of the country, to a small town named Kyzyl-Suu, where we will begin the Tian Shan Traverse route westwards, a route made by Joe Cruz. 280km later, after riding through some of the most remote regions in the country, we will arrive in Naryn and set out on the At-Bashi Circuit, a 380km loop that starts and finishes in Naryn, created by Tristan Bogaard. This is where the majority of our bikerafting will happen, as we will put in to either the Naryn River or other rivers in the area, following the route's vague course, but on rafts!

After 5-8 days of this, Bernhard and I will split off at the town of Baetov, with Bernhard finishing the rest of the Tian Shan Traverse route, going back to his studies in Melbourne, whilst I will continue westward toward Osh. Bernhard will fly out of Bishkek at the end of June, while I (hopefully) will spend July riding the entire Pamir Highway, all the way from Osh to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. While I would be tempted to bring the packraft with me for this section, I think I might send the packraft back to Bishkek when Bernhard and I split; it’s one thing to lug your bike up 3500m passes with a loaded bike, but it’s quite another to also have a packraft and paddling gear with you too! I’ll be writing many more blogs with stories of these travels, so stay tuned!

When I read pre-trip blogs like these, I always like to know what set-up people are running, so I thought I’d show our bikes. I’m going to be riding a Cotic Solaris, a steel hardtail frame which is currently my ‘do-all’ bike in New Zealand, regardless of whether it’s cross-country racing, blasting around the trails at Rotorua or doing the odd bit of bikepacking. I’ll have two more drybags strapped to the side of the rear rack, and lots more food, but my setup will more or less be as pictured below. The tricky thing is carrying the packraft; I will be attaching it to my front harness and putting my sleeping gear on the top of the rack during the bikerafting segment of the trip, and will be utilising a cargo net around the bags so I can quickly transition from bikepacking to bikerafting.

Bernhard’s going to be riding a Surly Ogre in the XL size. For this trip, I’d say that it’s close to the perfect bike; mounts galore, wide tyres for the poor-quality roads we will be coming across, and a large main triangle with a big frame bag. Here’s his set-up with the packraft in the front bar roll, and the rest of his gear on the rear rack, including PFD and paddle. The start of the trip on the Tian Shan Traverse will be incredibly remote, so his front cargo cages will come in handy to haul all the food we can carry. We’ll also be carrying some packable backpacks so we can easily expand our storage for food for these remote sections.

And that’s it for now! I’d like to give an incredibly special thanks to Ground Effect for supporting Bernhard and I on this trip with all the kit we’ll need to keep us comfortable, warm and dry. I’ve been incredibly impressed with the Berglar top and Juggernaut shorts in particular, and I must admit, I’ve hardly taken them off since receiving them… We’re incredibly excited for this trip to come, a little bit nervous, but overall, immensely grateful that we can undertake expeditions like this in the first place. Looking forward to sharing our stories!