Zeza Canyon Alpine Loop
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 6.47 mi
- Elevation gain
- 2,244 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 2,244 ft
- Max elevation
- 2,656 ft
- TrailRank
-
72
4
- Min elevation
- 731 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Coordinates
- 480
- Uploaded
- April 28, 2013
- Recorded
- April 2013
near Barkanesh, Durrës (Albania)
Viewed 14719 times, downloaded 328 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
The Ishmi River Canyon - or probably better known as Zeza canyon - winds its way between Kruja and Gomnit mountains. There are two bridges over the Ishmi River - one at the entrance to the canyon, and one in the middle of it - showing the importance of the old trading route. In ancient times, part of the track used to be paved with big cobblestones.Today, the trail is falling into disrepair as the villages behind the mountain are more easily reached by new roads.
Zeza canyon is wild and dramatic, as it zigzags between the mountains. We had visited it before, following Endrit's trail (which also can be used to find the road to the trailhead). This time, we climbed the eastern wall of the canyon, crossed it to the other side, and returned back for a ballon hike through the Zeza Canyon.
This hike opened dramatic views towards Kruja mountain, and over the canyon, from close range. These give the hike a truly alpine feeling.
The hike generally follows existing trails, though they tend to be barely visible on the upper north end of Gomnit (between waypoint 6 and 8.
When reaching the crest of the eastern wall, the drops to the east appear almost vertical - simply continue a few meters along the crest and a steep but very manageable path will lead down.
Warning: At the waypoint 14-Difficult the trail is badly eroded, with a sheer drop on one side. The conditions are quite hazardous as the ground is clay, not rock. We suggest to alter the route as follows:
Either, from waypoint 12-Tree, continue east (down) until you hit the road.Follow the road downwards (north) until waypoint 20-A. Find your way down to houses near the river, there should be some wide trail. From waypoint 20-B, a good trail should lead back in Zeza canyon, and meet our trail at waypoint 15-Fork.
Alternatively, just 20 Meter or so before you reach waypoint 13-Path (you already can see a wide earth path, which shortly after deteriorates so badly), a smaller path crosses your way. We believe this new path has been developed to avoid the hazardous stretch, and that it will join the regular trail a few hundred meters on.
See image Nr 2 with the explanations.
Zeza canyon is wild and dramatic, as it zigzags between the mountains. We had visited it before, following Endrit's trail (which also can be used to find the road to the trailhead). This time, we climbed the eastern wall of the canyon, crossed it to the other side, and returned back for a ballon hike through the Zeza Canyon.
This hike opened dramatic views towards Kruja mountain, and over the canyon, from close range. These give the hike a truly alpine feeling.
The hike generally follows existing trails, though they tend to be barely visible on the upper north end of Gomnit (between waypoint 6 and 8.
When reaching the crest of the eastern wall, the drops to the east appear almost vertical - simply continue a few meters along the crest and a steep but very manageable path will lead down.
Warning: At the waypoint 14-Difficult the trail is badly eroded, with a sheer drop on one side. The conditions are quite hazardous as the ground is clay, not rock. We suggest to alter the route as follows:
Either, from waypoint 12-Tree, continue east (down) until you hit the road.Follow the road downwards (north) until waypoint 20-A. Find your way down to houses near the river, there should be some wide trail. From waypoint 20-B, a good trail should lead back in Zeza canyon, and meet our trail at waypoint 15-Fork.
Alternatively, just 20 Meter or so before you reach waypoint 13-Path (you already can see a wide earth path, which shortly after deteriorates so badly), a smaller path crosses your way. We believe this new path has been developed to avoid the hazardous stretch, and that it will join the regular trail a few hundred meters on.
See image Nr 2 with the explanations.
Waypoints
Bridge
Mine
Intersection
1,079 ft
04 - Fork
keep right
Intersection
1,260 ft
05 - Fork
21-APR-13 11:58:01
Intersection
1,434 ft
06 - Fork
21-APR-13 12:09:08
Intersection
1,568 ft
07 - Fork
21-APR-13 12:18:01
Summit
Mountain pass
2,657 ft
10 - Qafe
21-APR-13 13:44:50
Intersection
2,306 ft
11 - Fork
21-APR-13 14:16:28
Tree
Intersection
1,785 ft
13 - Path
21-APR-13 15:28:08
Risk
1,693 ft
14 - Difficult
21-APR-13 15:39:39
Waypoint
0 ft
20 - A
Unpaved Road
Waypoint
0 ft
20 - B
Trail
Comments (10)
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The ravines to the North of Tirana are little known and don't feature in tourists' recommendations either, whereas the more southern Pellumba cave is getting much more attention. The northern landscape is more challenging and offers fantastic perspectives as documented in this description.
Beautiful https://www.wikiloc.com/outdoor-trails/zeza-canyon-alpine-loop-4381185#wp-4381187/photo-2171807
We have followed Endrit's route today with children until the second bridge. The followup is very abrupt, so you were brave discovering the loop. We found a nice pique-nique area close to the river just before the canyon gets narrow. We enjoyed the peaceful surrounding as well as our sandwiches.
I have followed this trail View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Moderate
This is a really great tour, we can highly recommend it!
We somewhat combined it with this tour (https://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=2362365) from Endrit - both tours overlap - due to the condition of the road leading to the trail-head. We only have a small car and about 1 1/2 km before the trail-head (and the first bridge), the road gets difficult to drive without a high car (that's the part we took from the other track). Altogether It's not the most easy tour and it does take roughly 6 hours to walk.
Even though the description in the track is good, let me add some points that might help:
1) If you want to do a great tour with wonderful scenery, with somewhat of an adventurous feeling, away from any noise (besides the sound of a mountain river) and people including some historical sights, this is it. =)
2) Do NOT attempt to do the full tour without a GPS (the first part alone, up to the second bridge is not a problem) - the track is hard to follow without one and there are not markings along the way.
3) Bring an offroad car to get all the way to the trailhead or stop at Kurcaj Village (there are some spots to park near the mosque), roughly 1 1/2 km before that.
4) The parts between waypoint 5 and waypoint 7 are a little difficult as a landslide has destroyed sections of the track. You have to climb a little over bigger stones and up some dirt hills. Which also means: This is no route to take after or during heavy rain!!
5) The climb between waypoint 7 and 8 is basically through the woods, cross-country. We couldn't find any real track to walk on and its quite steep. This is also the most difficult part in terms of physical condition. After that it gets a lot easier.
6) Between waypoints 10 and 12 again, some parts of the track have been washed away/rerouted due to land slides. Just follow the basic route of the gps track downwards. The following part up to waypoint 13 is easy to walk, but hardly doable without the GPS - there is no real indication of where to go.
7) Waypoint 14 is only half as difficult as it looks. You have to be careful because another landslide took away half of the path, but when we passed, it was still good to walk as some mountain goats had cleared a new path slightly higher then the original one (again no good part during or after the rain because it can be slippery)
The rest of the walk is fairly easy and you can relax and enjoy while following a clear and distinctive path along the mountainside downhill towards the second bridge.
Thanks again to Detlef and Gabi for creating this! It was a really great hike!
Glad you enjoyed it! It is true that many trails change over time, due to rockfall or landslides. In many cases, the shepherds and their flock will create new variations...
I would always recommend a GPS for hiking in Albania, especially as there is the very good basemap which one can load on to a (Garmin) GPS....
Happy hiking, Detlef
Followed this trail yesterday. It was beautiful, but there was definitely areas that have had rock slides, places where it appears trails have overgrown with thorns, and the gps can be a bit funky. I suspect some of the trails have migrated a bit from what was originally recorded. I would upload ours but it got dark and I don’t think we quite stayed exactly on the route. The trip took us quite a bit longer than expected so I would suggest making sure you have plenty of time. It gets dark fast after the time change haha. If I were to attempt it again I would bring a machete to cut through brush. I’m finding that this may just be required equipment for our hikes in Albania anyway, for all but the most well travelled trails.
I have followed this trail View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Experts only
SOS - do not go to this trail as the quarry next to it has proven to be dangerous!!!!
What a beautiful path
Your photos are really exciting and you will surely have a great day
I would be happy to visit my page and send me your opinion
With respect and friendship
I have followed this trail verified View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Very difficult
Half of the trail on the left is relevant, if you take it from the right side there is no path to climb the mountain. do not make this trail, forest took over the trail and its hard to find.
Don't try to complete this trail!
The path is good up to the bridge view point(second bridge)!
Did this trail today. The paths are destroyed,blocked by bushes,you risk sliding down the mountain(13 path).We were 4 ,but two of us had to return from Bovilla lake path.We had to change the returning loop, into the next mountain(dangerous). The current shown path, doesn't exist anymore! It is highly not recommended to fully complete it!