Hi everybody!
I'd like to share some of mine impressions after long trekking in Kackar with international team from Turkey, Belgium and Poland.
To help future trekkers I'd describe our route with my comments:
1) 14.5 starting in Kalekoy, end in Sirakonaklar:
Two first day lost in mist, fog and clouds. The weather was fatal - we could see no more than 20m ahead, we had big problems with finding the path (although we had good gps and expert in using it in our team). We walked 2 days to Hacivanak, faster pace wasn't possible in this kind of weather. 3rd day welcomed us with good weather, which allowed us to got to Davali in 1 day. From Davali to Sirakonaklar is few hours of tiring descending. The path is very clear.
In general, the route is not hard. One has to climb only 1 pass, the path to the pass is really clear in a good weather. Pass is not complicated to do, one can try in bad weather too. What is important, the pass divides Black see part from anatolian one, where the weather is much better - there could be clouds but high on the sky, one doesn't have to walk in them. Remember, that Sirakonaklar is not one village - that's lots of villages scattered around road. There's dolmus on mondays and fridays going to Ispir, but I don't know from where it leaves.
2) 13.6 From Sirakonaklar to Dilberduzu Camp:
Without doubt - our hardest day. We did 1600m descending, after what we still had to go down to the camp.
Finding the path could be the problem only in lower parts, just after the Sirakonaklar in Akbas Mali, where there are lots of paths made by locals. Later on it's quite clear - that is the mule path, so You should look for the clear, as for the Kackar standards, path. Ascending to the pass is really hard task. It's not only the matter of the elevation, but also of the distance. Before the pass there are some places to camp. Almost on the pass, really close to it, we encountered the herd of bulls - it took a lot of energy to avoid them.
If You want to do that route You should leave early in the morning. We set off at 5.40am and we reached the camp about 5pm.
Making this in one day is not the best idea, especially when one wants to make the summit on the following day. That's really exhausting route.
3) 12.4 from the camp to the summit:
Some of us decided to make the summit, despite the difficulties of the previous day. We woke up at 3.45, started to walk at 4.45. The route to the summit was many times described, so I'll only write that we walked quite slow (we were not in the hurry and we wanted to admire the view) and we got back to the camp about 5-6pm.
4) 12.4 to Yayalar and 12.6 to Kaler Duzu Camp:
The day after doing summit we walked to Satalef, which was pleasant route after two tiring days. To Yayalar it was easy, one could stop in good café in the entrance to Olgunlar to have some breakfast and continue to Satalef. Whole route to Satalef took us (with long stop in Olgunlar and in Yaylalar, where You can find big shop to buy some food, and even Kate's book) about 5 hours. There's better place to camp than one described in the Kate's Clow book, just before Satalef (about 200m). You can find there lots of raspberries, there are no bulls, it's flat and close to the tap in the village.
The next day we got to the Kaler Duzu Camp. The way to the pass is not easy - it's complicated to find the proper path from the village to the pass. After finding it, we lost it again somewhere in the rhododendrons, and we had to climb in the stream, what was very tiring and in fact dangerous with big backpacks. After that there was still long and steep path (which was clear even in fog) to the pass. As we were approaching the Black See part again, the frog became bigger and bigger, so that on the pass we could see about 50m ahead. From the pass the path was good and clear, even in bad visibility. We had some problems on grasslands, where mules making the path clear spread. There you should look for the cairns, not to loose the path.
After reaching Palakcur the road starts, and the descending begins to be wearisome and long. When you reach the camp you can wait for the dolmus, going down from Kavron, or try to hitch-hike - there are maybe few cars, but willing to take tourists (we were taken without problems)
5) General comments:
Mountains:
they're not easy. Routes goes from one valley to an another, what means that every time one has to get to the pass, come down from it, again on another pass... and so on. Technically they are not demanding, but good condition would be useful:). But Your success is of course a matter of determination.
The weather on the Black See side is awful. I don't recommend staying there for more than 2 days - it's really depressing when you can't see namely anything but the fog. It's also dangerous - some gps may have problems with catching the signal in such conditions. Humidity is extremely high, what makes camping almost impossible (we slept in huts in yaylalars, erecting a tent means having it wet as it's not possible to dry it even during the day). On the other hand, the weather on the anatolian is perfect - there is sun, few clouds. We didn't have any rain.
Guidebook and the map:
here I have some bitter thinks to say. The map is rather symbolic and can be useful only when you lack any other map, you want to compare it with gps waypoints, or to combine routes. It's useless in navigation.
Book is written in very unclear language. Non-native English speaker would have for sure problems with good understanding (which is indispensable when you want to find a proper route). We gave it to the guy form UK we met, and even he confirmed, that it's hard to understand these descriptions. Reading it takes a lot of time and sometimes makes thinks more complicated. On the other hand, book has numerous useful informations about dolmuses, yaylalars, and possible camp sides. But these are hidden between texts. I think that guide should be much more well organised. To sum up:
navigation with the book and the 'map' takes a lot of time, it would be much much better if we had good topographic map, rather than paragraphs of text to read,
guide delivers us useful information, but it's really horribly organised, so that getting it out of plain text takes a lot of time,
I appreciate enormous work which had to be done to write all these descriptions, but the fact is that it's not the best form of helping in orientation.
That's more or less all. I hope that these comments will help you to plan your trip
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