Janapar at 85%

With 12 of the 14 days of the Janapar Trail marked and ready to go, we're on target to finish the trail before the end of the year. I just took a trip over to Karabakh to check out the progress, and do some scouting on the remaining section. The signs look great, with the exception of a few which have been vandalized already, and it was a lot of fun asking villagers where the footprints are and knowing this was the best way to show them the purpose of the signs, and let them know that they will bring tourists soon... which means you! :-) Start your planning and tell your friends who love the outdoors and roughing it a bit. Starting in the spring, you'll be set to see some amazing sights and meet some amazing (and some crazy) people. The trail is set up so that at the end of a day of hiking you can spend the night in a villagers house, which means you don't need to carry a tent and sleeping bag unless you prefer to camp.

Setting up the trail presented some challenges, since I live in Yerevan, and the trail is 5 or 6 hours drive away at the closest. Finding a good person to work on the marking, someone who gets it, took a while - but it just happened by luck that the perfect guy came along, a couple of other things fell into place, and ever since then progress has been almost hassle-free. As with anywhere, the right people make all the difference.

If you want to hike the last bit of the trail, through Nor Shahumyan/Karvajar/Kelbajar, then make sure you have your 10 year visa from your Armenian Embassy, or you might not get permission to go there, and the hot springs and scenery are well worth it. The scenery this last week was great, with the fall color in full swing, and great weather.

Coming back to see that the genocide resolution is still big news was impressive - though a number of anti-resolution commentaries are popping up now, no doubt thanks to Turkey's lobbyists. Check out some of them, and drop them a quick note to the editor. Five minutes here and there will make a big difference - we need to make sure the tone stays pro-resolution, that the facts, that justice is too important to sacrifice. We can easily get our supplies to Iraq via the gulf, a plan for which is being worked on as we speak, and there is never a better time than the present to acknowledge historic mistakes, while excuses for postponing the truth also never end. Let us get recognition now, while a few genocide survivors in the US can finally hear their government state the simple truth, even if the executive branch is crapping all over it...