On the first day of my hike, I walked through the Harangoni Ridge. It starts from the village of Harangoni-Bolo. After turning off from the Dushanbe-Khujand highway, after a while, you reach the village of Harangoni. It is very long and therefore seems to be divided into three villages: Harangoni-Poyon, Harangoni-Miyona, and Harangoni-Bolo. But visually, it feels like you're driving through one big village. Having arrived by minibus to Harangoni-Bolo, I started looking for a way to climb the ridge.
Here is a diagram of the entire route marked on Google Maps.
Initially, looking at the map, I thought I would start the ascent right from the beginning of the ridge. However, firstly, the minibus drove a little deeper, and to start from the beginning of the ridge, I would have to go down a bit and then go back. Secondly, I asked the locals how to best climb, and they all said to follow the road, which would lead to the trail that the locals use to climb the ridge. Walking along the road, I came out onto a wide trail that led in the direction I needed. This photo shows exactly that trail.
While walking along the trail, I vaguely felt like I recognized the place and upon arriving...
I I remembered that I had been here before, in my early childhood. Just beyond the spot where the taxi had dropped me off, if you go from the other side of the ridge, there was a pioneer camp called Kosmos where I spent a few summers. And from that camp, we went on a hike to Kamenny Meshok, which is the very place I had reached.
All in all, it's nothing extraordinary, but it really does look like a stone sack, there's no more accurate name for it. It's a pity the river is weak, otherwise it would have been a great waterfall. I also remembered a funny incident that happened on that hike. I was in third or fourth grade, around ten years old. When we were approaching Kamenny Meshok, my friend and I noticed a solitary rock on the slope that, in our child's imagination, looked like either an old fortress or a tower. According to the plan of the hike, we were supposed to arrive, have lunch, and then have some free time. And during that free time, we decided to investigate what was up with that fortress - as boys are wont to do. I remember we climbed for a long time and completely lost track of time, but we finally made it to the spot from where it was clear that it was just a bunch of rocks. We climbed down, made it to the sack, but nobody was there anymore, so we went back to the camp. And in the camp, search teams were already being organized to look for us. We were scolded severely afterward, and even marched out in front of the whole camp during the roll call, with everyone being told to look at us and how mischievous we were... I had completely forgotten about this incident, but now I remembered it again. I'll show you that rock we mistook for a fortress later.
Paths go sideways from the stone bag, exactly what I need, along them I went up.
Here, higher up and you can immediately see the village and the road and paths.
Photo up and down.
Having climbed quite far, I found a well-equipped spring, not knowing about its presence, I was dragging water from the river below. But, all the same, I replaced all the water, because here the spring is very clean right from the rock.
And I still have to rise and rise.
Here is the rock, which in childhood we took for a fortress, I went to the left side of the bag, and then we went on the right side.
There is already a view of Dushanbe, and just at the bottom of this gorge is that "Stone bag".
I went up to the platform with panoramic views, from here I could see Vakhdat (formerly Orzhinikidzabad), well, Dushanbe and Kharangon, too.
At first I even thought that I had already reached the top of the ridge, but no, not quite yet.
The trail, however, does not go up, but to the side, you can see it in the photo.
And this path, finally, leads me to the top of the Kharangoni ridge, as you can see in the photo, there are no paths from the beginning of the ridge at all, that is, I chose the right path. At the same time I remembered a case from my childhood.
On the other side, the village of Dora-yagnove became visible, I even thought that the minibus was going to it and planned to climb Mushteppa from it. But no, you have to walk to it, but the Kharangoni ridge got into the route, life is good, whatever one may say... :)
There is still much to climb, but here it is somehow easier, apparently due to the obviousness of the path, so, along the paths all the time, you have to choose which one to go.
I climbed the next hill, and then even more hills and my "fortress" can be seen on the slope.
Climbing the next hill, I finally saw the main goal of the campaign - Mount Mushteppa.
Tulips grow here everywhere.
The city is hiding in a haze.
And here is my "fortress", almost completely passed. But I didn't go to her, in the photo it may seem that she is close, but it is quite far to her and back I would have to climb, and, in fact, that there are rocks there, they are rocks.
Here the view of Mushteppa opens up in all its glory.
Well, we have another slide ahead, hopefully the last one.
Already the tail of the ridge is lost in the haze, and Mushteppa is getting closer.
From here, views of the gorges in the upper reaches of the Kharangon open.
So the ridge went down.
Judging by the piece of iron, I am at the highest point of the Harangoni ridge, which is 2611 meters.
Views from here.
Here along my path, there was more snow.
Going down this hill.
Got to the fields of snowdrops, beauty, in a word.
But there were not only snowdrops there, but also white mushrooms, so I put away my camera, took out a bag, armed myself with a knife, and started gathering mushrooms. Accordingly, I didn't take any pictures, and a small part of the way remained off-camera. But nothing new or interesting happened, and I got so carried away with the "quiet" hunting that I almost missed the onset of evening, and we still had to set up camp.
I found a site that is apparently used by either locals or hunters for parking, and stopped there. The photos show the views from this site, but I didn't take any of the site itself since it was covered in garbage, plastic bottles, and bags... not very attractive, in general.
The last photo for today is of Mushetepu, with the peak of Mushetepa on the far left hill, and my path for tomorrow clearly visible.
I tried to take a photo of the night city with my point-and-shoot camera, but it didn't turn out very well. Nevertheless, I will share it so you can get an idea. The view I had during dinner was amazing, and the mushrooms turned out great.
The view at breakfast, therefore, also did not disappoint, I decided to post a photo for contrast.
I had breakfast, got ready and went on ...
The next day, which means the next photo review: Mount Mushteppa, second day of the hike, ridge between Varzob and Romit gorges.
