Ilyich: Mushrooms, Baraban and the Hillfort

Description

A day loop in the Otradnensky district, right at the border with Karachay-Cherkessia: the khutor of Ilyich is the far eastern corner of Krasnodar Krai, reached by asphalt through the stanitsa of Peredovaya. Around the khutor natural and archaeological points cluster together — from a medieval town to a canyon with a waterfall; elevation changes and the absence of signs call for spare time and an offline map. The walking part is a few kilometres on trails by the Urup. Start logically with the Ilyichevskoye hillfort, a federal archaeological reserve on the watershed of the Urup, Gamovka and Kuva south of the khutor. It is a town of the Alanic circle of the ninth–thirteenth centuries on the Darin branch of the Great Silk Road: the hillfort proper covers about ninety hectares, with fortifications, settlements and burial grounds around, and the remains of several Christian temples. Science learned of the site in 1962 thanks to teacher and local historian M. N. Lozhkin and his pupils; excavations were led by N. V. Anfimov and V. N. Kaminsky. It is a protected site: do not dig and do not take stones away. Then come the trails by the Urup. The stone mushrooms, oddly shaped rock remnants, lie right beside the tourist path; the Baraban rock raises limestone cliffs of about a hundred metres with tiers of grottoes at the foot; beyond it a right tributary has carved the Trubny canyon — a narrow trough with overhanging walls which, by one version, is all that remains of a collapsed cave roof. At the head of the canyon the stream drops in a small waterfall, and at the end it falls some twelve metres. Practical notes: closed footwear, tick-proof clothing, water and a first-aid kit — services here are minimal; trails are slippery after rain, and at high water one must not enter the narrow sections of the canyon. Climbing the cornices and summits is for the experienced only and is not a required part of the day.