Thator village and mountain

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Thartor village and mountain

Summary: 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.

Maximum altitude:	521 meter
Minimum altitude:	124 meter
Cumulative height:	618 meter
Cumulative length:	10.25 kilometer
Difficulty	moderate
Time:	4 hours
Date of this record	March 2014
Download GPS info:	Thartor Hike

General location and approach: Trailhead is about 6 kilometer from the Peqin-Rrogozhinë road, near Koç-Shehaj. See below:

Drive to the Trailhead for Thartor:

Maximum altitude:	166 meter
Minimum altitude:	31 meter
Cumulative height:	150 meter
Cumulative length:	6.1 kilometer
Difficulty	easy
Time:	20 minutes
Date of this record	March 2014
Download GPS info:	Thartor Drive

At waypoint Gate. The summit of Thartor in the distance.

From waypoint 11, an interesting piece of erosion leads to near the summit of Thartor

Approaching Thartor summit. The view goes to the secondary summits which we hiked earlier and the ridge we used to come up. In the distance, for those in the know, Tomorri and Shpiragut mountains are barely visible.

Thartor is, in theory, connected by a road.

Old fortification from the Enver Hoxha era.

GPS and trailmaps: The map and trailinformation is generated by

, based on GPS information collected from the actual hike. Waypoints can be downloaded to a GPS device from Wikiloc. If necessary, use GPSBabel to convert GPS data to different formats. For more hike descriptions by Palmtreetreeproduction, browse this website or visit Wikiloc and search for "Palmtreeproduction". You may also find nearby trails from other authors.

Google Earth: You may also view the trail in 3D by clicking "view in Google Earth" when on Wikiloc. You need to have Google Earth installed on your computer.