{"id":102,"date":"2018-04-04T23:58:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T23:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsteemers.com\/Siberia\/?page_id=102"},"modified":"2018-04-05T00:13:28","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T00:13:28","slug":"description","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wsteemers.com\/Siberia\/description\/","title":{"rendered":"Description"},"content":{"rendered":"

Description<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The following is a description of the 14 days of hiking and rafting.\u00a0 It is an adaptation of the program as it was sent to me beforehand (thanks, Lena).\u00a0 On a trip like this you can never plan each day exactly, since much depends on the weather, possible mishaps with the rafts, the water level and so forth.<\/p>\n

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Hiking\/rafting the Zun-Murin, Siberia, August 2001<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

or: Lewis and Clarke, eat you heart out…<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Approximate are of the hike and rafting itinerary:<\/p>\n

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Hiking Part Length \u2014 approximately 60 km<\/i><\/p>\n

Rafting Length \u2014 150 km, about 120 obstacles<\/i><\/p>\n

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Day 1 (July 28)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Arrival at Irkutsk on the plane from Moscow, at around 6 am..\u00a0\u00a0The bus met the group at Irkutsk and (after loading all the equipment) started going South.\u00a0\u00a0On the way we passed Sludyanka, on the westernmost point of Lake Baikal, where we had lunch from freshly caught Baikal fish.\u00a0\u00a0Transfer to the district center of Kyren, situated in the center of the Tunkin Hollow.\u00a0\u00a0Visit to Hangar-Ulla resort.\u00a0\u00a0The resort (formerly only accessible to high Party officials) is founded near the mineral springs, long used by local inhabitants for sanitation and treatment of various diseases.\u00a0\u00a0It is interesting to mention that the two springs bring up water which is different in its composition and healing properties, though only two dozen meters separate them..\u00a0\u00a0We were supposed to stay overnight at the National Park hotel or at private family inns (B&Bs), but since the village was flooded (!) we couldn\u2019t go there.\u00a0\u00a0Instead we camped in the backyard of a local farmer \u2013 the same man who was arranging the horses for carrying the equipment on the hike.\u00a0 We had dinner in his house, a typical Siberian farmer’s house: no running water, no plumbing, no indoor toilet, but electricity and telephone were available.<\/p>\n

Day 2 (July 29)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Trekking up to the Valley of the Kharagun River.\u00a0\u00a0We had 15 people (14 Russians and me) with their own luggage, plus all the rafting gear.\u00a0\u00a0We rented four horses to carry the equipment \u2013 they were guided by four horsemen (on horseback themselves).\u00a0\u00a0Because the horses could carry enough luggage, about five of us didn\u2019t have to carry a backpack, but the rest of us did.\u00a0\u00a0Going uphill the character of the vegetation changes, huge poplars give way to conifers typical of the mountain taiga.\u00a0\u00a0During halts impatient fishermen tried their luck and went fishing \u2013 there is much fish (grayling) in the Kharagun River (supposedly anyway \u2013 we didn\u2019t catch anything until the fourth day).\u00a0\u00a0The path winds it way along the river (too small to raft at this point), crossing it many times: we had to wade through numerous times.\u00a0\u00a0Of course I had the misfortune of falling flat in the water right the first crossing\u2026<\/p>\n

Day 3 (July 30)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Trekking along the valley of the Kharagun River to its tributary the Khamyr Brook and climbing along its steep serpentine to Korovic (Cow) Lake \u2013 a small mirror of dark water set in a frame of cedars.\u00a0\u00a0That night was the last camp before the mountain pass at the height of 2300m.<\/p>\n

Day 4 (July 31)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Mountain pass 2300m.\u00a0\u00a0This area that is devoid of forests, much like high alpine meadows.\u00a0\u00a0From there a long descent to the river Bolshoy Uguday, which is the Zun-Murin tributary.\u00a0\u00a0In one of the places the path crosses a dense thicket of\u00a0\u201dpink radiola\u201d<\/i>\u00a0more known as\u00a0\u201cgolden root\u201d<\/i>.\u00a0\u00a0We also passed an ancient volcano crater and numerous stone scatterings.\u00a0\u00a0From the place where the brook runs into the Bolshoy Uguday River one can see a snow hill, which is quite unexpected so far from the mountain pass.\u00a0\u00a0This phenomenon \u2013 the absence of snow in the upper part of the pass and massive snow hills in the middle and lower flow of rivers and brooks is characteristic of this area.\u00a0\u00a0Camping on the left bank of the river \u2013 the end of the hike (if the water level had been lower we would have had to walk another day, but since there was enough water we judged we could start rafting here).<\/p>\n

Day 5 (August 1)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Assembling the catamarans, building a banya.\u00a0\u00a0The Russians call their rafts catamarans (or more frequently catarafts): when you have a look at the pictures you will understand why.\u00a0\u00a0A banya is a Russian steam bath, which we built on the bank of the river.\u00a0\u00a0See the pictures to get an idea of how this works.<\/p>\n

Day 6 (August 2)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Finish assembling the catamarans, start the rafting.<\/p>\n

Day 7 (August 3)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Spent the morning repairing one of the rafts, which had a problem.\u00a0\u00a0Rafted the rest of the day.<\/p>\n

Day 8 (August 4)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Rafted during the morning.\u00a0\u00a0Shortly after lunch, one of the rafts ruptured on a sharp stone in the river (at this point the river was still very shallow and we actually had to get off many times to push the rafts when they got stuck).\u00a0\u00a0Spent the rest of the day repairing the rupture; by the time we were finished it was too late to proceed any further.<\/p>\n

Day 9 (August 5)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Rafting.\u00a0\u00a0Around mid-day we finally reached the point where the Bolshoy Uguday flows into the Zun-Murin.\u00a0\u00a0Now we started to go through many interesting rapids.\u00a0\u00a0Fishing (greyling, taimen (salmon trout) and lenok).<\/p>\n

Day 10 (August 6)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Rafting.\u00a0\u00a0Camping just before the \u201cShurik Rapids\u201d (category 5), the most complex rapid on our route.<\/p>\n

Day 11 (August 7)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Free day.\u00a0\u00a0Built another banya.\u00a0\u00a0Caught a lot of fish.<\/p>\n

Day 12 (August 8)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Rafting.\u00a0\u00a0Decided to walk around the Shurik rapids, since we deemed they were too dangerous to go through.<\/p>\n

Day 13 (August 9)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Half a free day, which we used to shoot a movie (really!).\u00a0\u00a0See the pictures for details.\u00a0\u00a0Rafting for a half day.\u00a0\u00a0Last night in the woods.<\/p>\n

Day 14 (August 10)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Rafting to the settlement of Zun-Murin in the Tunkin Hollow.\u00a0\u00a0Catamaran disassembling.\u00a0\u00a0The same bus picked us up and drove us to Irkutsk where we checked into the hotel (Shower! Warm water! Soap! Shampoo!) and had a nice goodbye dinner (Wine! Wodka! Meat!).<\/p>\n

Day 15 (August 11)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0Transfer to the airport for the flight back to Moscow (and New York for the lone foreigner on the trip, i.e. me).<\/p>\n

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