Bactrian Trail Section Guide
The descriptions below are incomplete, and will be updated as more information is collected (last update: January 2025). The guide below should be read only after reading the introduction to the trail.
Preliminary/beta/incomplete GPS track can be obtained by contacting me.
Warning: some sections of the GPS track have not been hiked. The possibly problematic sections will be described in the guide below.
While reading the information below you can best follow along while viewing the GPX track in any map app that uses Open Street Map data (almost every offline map app does, to varying degrees). Read our suggestions for map use here.
Getting to the trailhead: the trail starts at a suspension footbridge over the Surkhob River next to the town of Gharm in Tajikistan’s Rasht Valley. Gharm is a 4-hour drive east of Dushanbe on a relatively good road.
Directions: take a taxi from your Dushanbe hotel/hostel to the shared taxi and marshrutka terminal by the eastern gates of Dushanbe. Show this (below) to your driver in Dushanbe. The car/bus terminal and the area nearby is referred to in various ways, both in Russian and Tajik:
Терминали ШарқТранс
Гарм автостанция
Вахдатские (восточная) ворота
9-ум километр
Here, find a car going to Gharm (the Russian pronunciation “Garm” will work fine). A seat should cost about 100-150 Somoni (2024 prices). The drivers going to Gharm are not aggressive negotiators. None will speak English, so use the number pad on your phone for negotiations.
You don’t have to go all the way to Gharm. Instead, get out before the bridge over the Vakhsh River 2kms west of Gharm. The exact place to exit your taxi safely is about 500 meters west of the bridge. Or take the taxi into the town of Gharm for a visit and break, then roadwalk 2km back to the bridge.
If you want to stay the night in Gharm, the best place to stay as of 2024 is a hotel called “Sokhili Surkhob.“ It’s misspelled on Google Maps, but the location is correct. Like many regional hotels, there may be a note on the front door with a phone number for the manager (they often live or work a second job nearby). Don’t expect a 24 hour front desk and don’t expect English. And like some regional hotels, you may have to convince them that you don’t work for an international organization like the United Nations or some international development NGO. These people have a budget and pay a high price. You should not. You should aim to be paying a price halfway between the price for locals, and the price for a foreign NGO employee with a budget. Read current guides to accommodation in Tajikistan and look at Booking.com prices in Dushanbe to get an idea of what the maximum price should be. You can avoid all this effort required to get a hotel room by starting your hike as soon as you arrive and camping on the mountain side.
Section descriptions, from east to west
The sections listed below vary wildly in terms of distance. This is for consideration of basing section descriptions around water refills, resupplying in village shops, local accommodation, etc… I’ve mixed in some trip report details with the descriptions.
Next: Start the trail - Gharm to Kamchirogh