Thartor
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 6.37 mi
- Elevation gain
- 2,028 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 2,028 ft
- Max elevation
- 1,710 ft
- TrailRank
-
45
4.7
- Min elevation
- 406 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Time
- 5 hours 30 minutes
- Coordinates
- 496
- Uploaded
- March 1, 2014
- Recorded
- March 2014
near Koç-Sheshaj, Tiranë (Albania)
Viewed 1373 times, downloaded 24 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
With the prospect of rain for the weekend but a few dry hours on Saturday, we were looking for something not too far and not too high.
Thartor is a good choice for a low altitude hike, but do not take it too lightly. The hike is part of our "erosion rambles", which are the hikes west of the Tirana - Elbasan axis. This area is subject to heavy erosion, resulting in knife-edge ridges and sheer drops. While the Thartor hike mostly follows well-used shepherd paths, there are one or two difficult spots (near waypoint 01), which should not be tried by the beginner. It should be possible, to find a deviation to avoid these. The difficulties are at the beginning of the hike, and once you passed waypoint 01, the rest should be easier. If you find it hard, turn around, and you still have the whole day ahead of you to do something else.
Thartor has two summits. We are not sure about their names, as they are not reliably marked on any map, so we just call them Thartor 1 and Thartor 2. Both exceed 500 meter altitude, and mark some interesting highpoints in this erosion prone area.
Hiking here gives you some insights into active rural life, though we believe that schools in the area have closed for good.
Thartor village is, in theory, connected by a road from the Peqin-Rrogozhinë road. Up to the trailhead, it is in good condition. We used the stretch from the trailhead to Thartor for our return from the summits, and suggest not to try by car - or certainly not when there is a chance of the road being wet. For the drive to the trailhead, check wikiloc #6243263.
Thartor is a good choice for a low altitude hike, but do not take it too lightly. The hike is part of our "erosion rambles", which are the hikes west of the Tirana - Elbasan axis. This area is subject to heavy erosion, resulting in knife-edge ridges and sheer drops. While the Thartor hike mostly follows well-used shepherd paths, there are one or two difficult spots (near waypoint 01), which should not be tried by the beginner. It should be possible, to find a deviation to avoid these. The difficulties are at the beginning of the hike, and once you passed waypoint 01, the rest should be easier. If you find it hard, turn around, and you still have the whole day ahead of you to do something else.
Thartor has two summits. We are not sure about their names, as they are not reliably marked on any map, so we just call them Thartor 1 and Thartor 2. Both exceed 500 meter altitude, and mark some interesting highpoints in this erosion prone area.
Hiking here gives you some insights into active rural life, though we believe that schools in the area have closed for good.
Thartor village is, in theory, connected by a road from the Peqin-Rrogozhinë road. Up to the trailhead, it is in good condition. We used the stretch from the trailhead to Thartor for our return from the summits, and suggest not to try by car - or certainly not when there is a chance of the road being wet. For the drive to the trailhead, check wikiloc #6243263.
Waypoints
Risk
784 ft
01-Difficult
01.03.2014 10:47:36 239 m 61° true
Intersection
1,122 ft
02-Fork
01-MAR-14 11:12:08
Intersection
1,158 ft
03-Fork
01-MAR-14 11:14:26
Intersection
1,217 ft
04-Fork
01-MAR-14 11:21:24
Panorama
1,181 ft
05-View
01-MAR-14 11:55:25
Intersection
0 ft
06-Fork
06-Fork
Summit
Waypoint
Intersection
1,398 ft
10-Fork
01-MAR-14 13:11:55
Intersection
1,335 ft
11-Fork
01-MAR-14 13:40:01
Comments (2)
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I have followed this trail View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Moderate
Palmtree was right about not taking this hike very easily. Especially during the first part of the trip, let's say the first 60 minutes, the trail was often covered by bushes, and not easy to be found. It was obvious that it was used by the locals very rarely and you have to take in consideration that we did it many years after it was initially uploaded.
Anyway, after this first not very nice start we started to enjoy it and the higher you go the better the view was.
Thanks a lot for uploading it