We took the easy path. Supposedly, anyway.
We’re not great hikers. We’re in sort of medium shape, we don’t have any wilderness skills, and I have more than once gone out for a hike in slip-on Converse. Still: we were determined to do this hike: to Holy Trinity Church, up the hill from Kazbegi, Georgia. With an elevation gain of 1500 feet, it was at the outer edge of our hiking abilities, but I was sure the payoff would be worth it.
Spoiler alert: like everything else in Georgia, it absolutely was.
The hike ended up being harder even than we’d anticipated. Despite careful research, we ended up on an extremely steep trail up the mountain, and with dark clouds hovering at the horizon, we debated turning around approximately every five minutes. We persevered, making it to the church just in time for the sun to arrive, gloriously.
If you’re willing to drop $40, you can get a guy to drive you up to the church in a Jeep. (The road is…not a good road.) On the other hand, when they built this church back in the 1300s they definitely did not have a Jeep. We felt like we’d at least gotten a taste of their travails.