Sibley Family and Friends Mount Ararat Expedition Dispatch

August 3, 2013 – A Day of Adventure and New Boots for Woodie and Kelley

Today we had an early start; we left the hotel at 7:00 AM. The goal was to go on a full hiking day and that’s exactly what we got. We drove for 2 hours to the Taurus Mountain range. After preparing our lunch bags we started our hike.

Woodie had a big surprise. When we made our first water stop, Jim looked at Woodie’s boots and mentioned that the soles were falling off both boots. Not sure how he didn’t feel anything while hiking but it was clear that he needed to turn around.

Woodie moved down, slowly, trying to avoid rocky surfaces and doing further damage to the boots. We tried to use some duct tape, together with strong medical tape, in order to try to keep the soles attached.

As Woodie got near where we had left our bus they realized they were off track from the direct route to where our driver was waiting. This led to a comic turn of events as they managed to get a ride from a local farmer, who promptly started driving them back uphill; the last thing that they wanted to do! Wally was talking to them by cell phone listening to their efforts to get the truck, that they were on the back of, turned around. Eventually they made it down. They waited the day in the lobby of a mostly abandoned ski lodge, wondering where and how we were going to get a new pair of size 14 boots for Woodie.

Meanwhile the rest of team was having another adventure. They climbed uphill 2,700 feet to an elevation of over 8000 feet above sea level. There our local mountain guide, who is from this region, decided to take the group down through a canyon. He couldn’t imagine not showing us one of the wildest and most beautiful areas in all of Turkey. The canyon was beautiful; Wally Berg mentioned that it was one of the most beautiful areas of natural terrain he had ever been in; reminiscent of the wildest slot canyons of the canyon country of Southeast Utah. It was a challenging descent, more than the group had bargained for; they had been thinking about going for a beer and shopping for boots. Kelley had discovered that her mountain boots had fallen apart as well. But we made the complete descent in about four hours and arrived at the road where our buses were waiting. Woodie was in the lodge only about one kilometer away. Now it was time to go look for those size 14’s.

On the way back to our cave hotel we made a stop in the town of Urgup where we had a variety of gear stores to pick choose from in sizes that ranged to size 46 and 47 European. Woodie decided to stay with brand that his old boots were, Merril. Kelley also found a great pair of North Face boots in a store next to Woodie’s.

When they got back to the hotel the group went straight for dinner, no stop for shower. Tomorrow is going to be a long day of travel to eastern Turkey.