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Borjomi Multiday Hike
Beautiful, expansive views across Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park
A sharp mountain spine
A distant cabin in the middle of nowhere
To get to the trailhead, you need to continue out of town on the same road as the National Park Office. Eventually, you’ll see a sign to turn right off of the road. Follow a dirt track into the woods and eventually you’ll reach a fence and information board, and then you’ll see the ranger cabin on your left. From the first ranger cabin, you continue along the trail on which you came (the cabin will be on your left as you walk away from it). From the first cabin to the second, there are a few side trails that do short loops. To get to the second cabin though, pass a farm on your right and then cross a creek and head up the hillside. Eventually the trail breaks free from the forest and at the top of the mountain, the views are far-reaching and you can see the trails. Continue along the main trail (watch out for animal trails, which are smaller and less worn). It’s relatively straight forward since many people hike this section of the park to the first cabin (in the park) and then back again. As you near where the cabin is (hopefully you have a map) keep an eye out for a trail that branches off the main trail to left and heads down into a side valley – there are a few signs stuck about. You’ll know you are heading in the right direction if you run into an old farm with several dilapidated buildings and some muddy pens. Here though, we got a bit confused, we could see the cabin on the opposite hillside but couldn’t figure out how to reach it. Finally though, some people who had already reached the cabin shouted at us to turn back and cross from higher up since there was no bridge lower down. A good landmark is to look for a trail that heads to the right, away from a farm outpost. From here, you can cross the creek to the other side before descending to a water basin carved from an old tree trunk. This is the best place for water too – the taps in the cabin didn’t work and the spring near the cabin was unreliable. The cabin itself was nice on the outside, but empty on the inside with seven bunk bed frames surrounding an old wooden table, but no mattresses. At night, it’s best to hang any bags with food since there are plenty of mice creeping around the cabin looking for an easy meal!
The following morning we stocked up on water and headed back up the hill to the main trail. For the remainder of the day, it was nonstop trekking up and down along the ridge line as we followed the meandering path. The views were amazing, but by the end of the day, my legs were aching!! The next cabin does not have a water supply and there are no streams nearby or for the early part of the next day’s hike, so make sure to stock up well before you get to the cabin! Unfortunately, this means schlepping between 4-6 liters of water up and down the mountains along the way!
It was a tough day followed by a cold night since the cabin here is located at a higher altitude and doesn’t have any protection from the wind. On the exposed mountaintop, the wind was stronger and colder than it had been lower down. The cabin was small and had only two rooms with four bed frames. The windows were also very drafty and barely kept the wind out. However, the reward for our efforts: a beautiful sunset over the distant snow cap mountains, was well worth it!
The next day you descend back into the forest and it’s a relatively easy trail to follow again as part of the way is along a jeep road. We passed by many raspberry bushes in this section and saw a few bear paw prints and droppings, but no actual bears 😦 We also ran into several friendly local farmers, all of whom offered us chacha. We successfully negotiated our way out of drinking the first few batches, but the last pair of farmers, who seemed to have already enjoyed quite a bit of chacha themselves, were pretty persistent. Being a woman, I got away with saying no, but the guys weren’t so lucky!
When we reached the cabin, it was just off of the main trail and not too far from town – about a 5km walk. This meant that not only did a lot of one-night hikers stop by, but also a lot of locals, so there was a lot more garbage from both groups of people. The cabin had a fountain outside for drinking water and washing dishes, but the area around it was quite dirty. In the evening, we, and another backpacker coming in from the opposite direction, were serenaded by a group of Georgian men who seemed to be looking for something to do. They stood around outside smoking, drinking, and singing for a few hours before the alcohol finally took effect and they went home to pass out!
The next morning was a very easy hike from the cabin to town from where we hitched a ride (for a fee) to the train station. Getting to the train station was not so bad, but getting from the train station back to Tbilisi required more planning that we had realized! The trains here don’t run regularly to Tbilisi (and perhaps not at all according to who you asked). We had to wait several hours before getting a very packed train to another city, and then from there a minibus (marshrutka) to Tbilisi. I don’t remember the name of the city we got the bus from, but basically, the buses are very cheap and they run as soon as they fill up. When you get into Tbilisi, from the direction of Borjomi, you’ll end up at Didube bus station.
Enjoy the hike!
Neshamayin 