We woke up to sunshine and a gorgeous day... but we had snow later on!

When we left you last, we had used Vladdy's four wheel drive to access a beautiful meadow high up in the mountains.

When we woke up in the morning, we could see it was blue sky... but the sun hadn't yet risen enough to shine on our meadow.

But by 7:40am, we were basking in the sunshine!

It felt sooooo good to have some sunshine after two days of overcast and rain.

So peaceful and quiet up there.

We had some breakfast and a hot drink and at around 9:00am we set off hiking up that valley in behind where Valddy is [arked.

Looking back down at Vladdy on the far right side.

Me, on the trail.

This is not a marked, or official hiking trail. Just a shepherd's path that leads higher grazing grounds.

Ruth, coming up the trail behind me.

There are a LOT of spring wildflowers!

It was such a gorgeous morning.

This is why we came to Kyrgyzstan! 

Zoomed in on the snow covered mountains. 

We would be crossing through this mountain range later in the day.

Just beautiful.

There are some odd plants growing here.

Kyrgyzstan has a lot of horses!

Wildflowers.

Looking down on the highway we will use later to get through the pass.

Zoomed in.

More wildflowers.

Heading back down.

There's Vladdy waiting for us.

On the highway up through the mountain pass.

Looking down on the road we came up on.

Vladdy, on the way up hill.

We were getting close to 3,000 meters (10,000').

There was a 4 km long tunnel near the top.

The view when we came out the other side.

There was a touristy horse statue at the top.

View of the road we will take going back down the other side.

We actually had another overnight possibility... there is a three run ski hill on the other side. And of course it's already closed, but we had read where we could use their parking lot. However, it is now gated. There was another spot we could have used, with a gorgeous view and it even had a cell signal... but there was too much wind, and to be honest it would have been really cold overnight.

The ski hill.

Lots of mountain views.

Vladdy and the road back down.

While we were up there, it started to snow!

The ski hill.

Yikes!

We drove down the other side and stopped for a late lunch. After that, we found another great overnight stop. The only problem was that this area has had a lot of rain. And it was still spitting. In fact, we drove down by the river and we had a storm of sleet... ice crystals and rain mixed together. It was actually starting to accumulate on the ground.

We sat here until the storm finished.

We actually ended up putting Vladdy back in four wheel drive to make it through that track and big puddle!

And we ended up here for the night.

GPS 42.199461, 73.584929

We had to drive right through the side of the river to access that spot!

But it was c-c-c-cold overnight. We were still around 2,300 meters (7,500') and when the sun went down we had a good idea it was going to get chilly overnight. We don't have a fridge or cooler, so the items we want to stay cold we just set out on the roof. Good thing we have a high quality comforter to sleep with! When we woke up in the morning the stuff on the roof had ice on the top of it! 

We got in the van and started driving right as soon as we woke up in order to warm up! At least this little van has a good engine heater!

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And in Canada...

Folding Electric Scooter.