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Biking to Eymir Lake... Deep in the Oran Forest Cotafamily4's photos around Gaziosmanpasa

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Entry from: Gaziosmanpasa, Turkey
Entry Title: Biking to Eymir Lake... Deep in the Oran Forest

Entry:

This past Sunday we filled our water bottles and camelbacks, slipped a few munchies in the back pack, tucked in a small bike pump and a patch kit and headed out with good friends for an all day bike ride to Emyir Lake nestled in the Oran Forest.

To get into our natury entrance we only need to simply head across the street to a massive parcel of nature that has been set aside by METU, one of Turkey's largest and best universities... It is beautifully void of all things common to the city... no traffic... no concrete... no noise... just massive rolling hills, green pine forests and deep canyons... a beautiful landscape filled with jack rabbits the size of small dogs, take your time tortoises, coveys of chucker partridge, prickly hedgehogs, long legged fox and a few packs of wild dogs...

I do need to say that these hills are not easy walking, jogging nor biking... they are rugged and steep... and with every strenuous climb one often finds an equally steep drop... it is what we economists call inversely proportional... and these hills can beat-up even the most conditioned soul... It is actually in these hills that I find myself jogging and biking many days of the week... and these hills have become my psychologist... for they always seem to lift my spirits whenever I am feeling drained of energy... It somehow happens that by running these hills I find that inverse proportional relationship happen from within... fully exhausted and spent physical body resulting in an intoxicating fill of mental spirits...

Someday I will introduce you all to my love affair with this slice of mother nature that lies across the street from where I live... but this entry is for biking with family and friends... and what a great day it was...

After climbing... climbing and climbing the hills we arrived to the top... with a commanding view of the mountains that surround Ankara... after a short breather it was a shortish ride along the top of a plateau until the down began... and down I mean... a few thousand feet dropping to another canyon into another valley... winding through single tracks surrounded by a thick pine forest... that opened up at the edge of the hills overlooking Eymir Lake... a reservoir lake that fills a deep canyon... It is a watery paradise for all that take the time to peruse the paths that run along it's ten mile shoreline... Which we did... on bikes... It is probably the most lush place that we know of within close vicinity to Ankara...

We all loved biking the flat surface around the lake... and found ourselves biking increasingly fast... especially Carsten, as he often asks about getting a road bike and heading up to Holland to bike the flat lands... often telling me at the top of a steep climb that he is sick of the f*$*%# hills... until of course he enjoys the crazy ride down... it seems to coax him enough to make the next climb...

After biking around half the lake, we stopped at a shore side restaurant for some fresh Gozleme... one of our favorite Turkish delights... gozleme is made with a very thin burrito like flour wrap that is layered with potatoes and spices and neatly folded multiple times and cut into squares... and each one is freshly rolled and cooked on a convex skillet... always delicious... The restaurant we stopped at was simple... a few older women cooking... with their sons taking orders and delivering the steaming goodies to lounging customers hanging out on pillows along the lakeside...

The pre-lunch entertainment entailed watching the different varieties of chickens that lazily walked along the small islands of cushioned customers... looking for bits and pieces of thrown handouts...

The conversations we all had during our break were lively and interesting... giving us more ...
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Photos from this trip:
1. The Wild Bike Pack
2. Leaving the City Behind
3. Aidan On Top of The Hill
4. Anthony and Alexei... Father and Son...
5. Aidan Refueling After The Climb
6. Carsten Coming in First
7. Carsten Dancing With His Bike
8. Fish Restaurant by the Shores of Eymir Golu
9. Waiting For Gozleme
10. Making Fresh Gozleme
11. High On The Hills
12. Deb and Julia... Tough Mommas
13. Anthony... the Happy Biker Man
14. Carsten Hanging Out Waiting For The Others

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