Bikepacking trips are chaotic by nature — logistics, people, weather, terrain, and dumb luck all thrown into the same pot, cooked and seasoned by feel because nothing is ever in season at the same time. Most of the time you get something barely edible. Occasionally you get magic.
This trip was the second kind.
The crew: myself, my roommate Rennie, and my friend Maia. Rennie had bought a bike a month earlier and shipped it out to meet her here. Maia didn’t have a bike at all — that was tomorrow’s problem. The plan was: land in Cappadocia, a region in central Turkey known for its cave dwellings, rock formations, and hot air balloons, ride around for three days, then bus to Izmir and ferry to Athens.
There was really only one way to start: balloons.
We were up before sunrise to drift over the valleys we’d be riding for the next three days — worth the hype, and a genuinely delightful way to preview the trail ahead. From up there Cappadocia looks Martian: pale rock towers, and flowing textured canyons.
We landed around 8am, built the bikes, sorted Maia’s rental, and headed north toward Rose Valley expecting a short, easy day.
Day 1
It was not a short, easy day. Cappadocia’s trails come in two flavors: plateaus — flat, hot, wide open — and valleys — rolling forested singletrack, cooler and shaded. The catch is the transition between them was always a brutally steep climb or descent down the valley walls. Our easy day turned into endless hike-a-bike.
Not a gentle introduction to bikepacking for Maia, but she held on, and the scenery carried a lot of the morale that the exertion kept trying to take away.
We would intermittently duck into the caves carved into the cliffs for a break from the heat. I’d assumed they’d be roped-off archaeological sites, but they’re far too common for that — they’re just part of the landscape, and they seem to turn up right when you need them most. We napped through the worst of the sun and pushed on once it broke.
Day 2
We reset our expectations with yesterdays learnings. Maia’s bike fit was causing awful pain and the heat wasn’t letting up. Then, late in the afternoon, we had one of our more memorable routing mishaps.
The local guard dog tower
“Turn left,” my Garmin device said, following a GPS track I’d drawn the night before. The alley looked like a dead end, but it was worth a look. What’s the worst that could happen?
The worst seemed to be a large German shepherd and a man yelling in Turkish — until it turned out both dog and owner were far friendlier than they let on. The alley was a no-go, but he pointed us the right way. Then, on his phone, he pulled up Google Translate: Do you want to have dinner?
We said yes. Within minutes the table was covered in bread, yogurt, vegetables, soup, jam. I ate like a glutton. As we ate, more of his family kept appearing — wife, daughter, baby son, then his mother, father, and grandmother, like word had gotten around the neighborhood. We swapped stories over tea til the sun shone gold. Incredible hospitality for total strangers. I learnt a lot from him about how to properly welcome guests.
By the time we got back on the bikes it was nearly dark, and we rushed to make it to our camp above the ridges of Göreme. I pulled over shortly when a group of Turkish men waved me over for help. Turns out they had a slow leaking tire on their car, and needed a pump. With my trusty mini pump, a lot of sweat, and a rotating crew of 4, we managed to get them back on the road. I think that was a sizeable donation to my karma bank! We rolled in to our site after dark, and set up our tents above the glistening lights of the city below.
We awoke to the early sunrise, and gazed upon the balloons skipping gently across the horizon.
This was a great bowl of magic soup. It already felt like weeks since we started, not three days. This is why I keep doing these trips — the chaos is the point, and it’s where I feel most like myself. I find if I just keep smiling, good things will keep happening. Hasn’t backfired yet!
Next up: Izmir, and onwards to Greece!
Trip Beta
GPS track: https://ridewithgps.com/collections/10482643?privacy_code=A9WLpKLmk52cehV5EzsHdfcmedzorYBM
- I pulled part of my route from Cappadocia Delight from bikepacking.com https://bikepacking.com/routes/cappadocia-delight/
- Before committing to your route, check with a local mtb outfitter. Some canyon routes are definitely better downhill than pushing up, and it is sometimes difficult to identify with topo maps.
- 2.2” tires or bigger would be ideal, bigger to have more fun on the single track. Some sandy parts. Rennie got by with 50mm but did get tossed around a bit.
- Amazing and abundant wild camping spots. Well tolerated.
- Water sources were a bit hard to come by. Expect to carry a tad more than normal.