LAKE BAIKAL KAYAKING TRIP JOURNAL 7

The Selenga River to Lake Baikal

July 8th Monday day 20 on the water:As usual we were up at the break of dawn and I made sure I had everything ready to load up, just in case the guy who helped me across the border shows up at noon like he said he would to take us down to the Selenga river, about 20 miles East out of town.

There were several things I had to do to make sure we were ready to go and in control. I needed to go to a bank and get some rubles. I needed to make sure that I had purchased all the supplies/food on my list that was made.

The bank was not easy. I finally found a bank that would exchange rubles out of my ATM card. I couldn’t use a credit card for a cash advance, because I hadn’t thought of putting a pin number on the 2 cards, I had brought with me. But after 30 minutes of utilizing Google translate, the girls finally understood what I was trying to accomplish.

Once that was accomplished headed to the grocery store, which was right across the street from the tourist hotel we were staying at. They had everything I had on my list.

When I walked out the door of the store, my ride was just opening the gate to pull into the back yard so we could load up the kayak on top of his car and put the gear in the back and the back seat. 2 hours early, which was great because I was ready to go.

It didn’t take long and we entered a little village off the main road, and we were on the banks of the Selenga and it was just what we needed. A large, free flowing river compatible to the Mississippi, the Missouri, or the Yukon. And a absolutely beautiful day for the 1st day on the river.

Once we were unloaded, he wanted a picture and he was off.

A guy who did what he said he was going to!

It didn’t take long and we were loaded up and ready to shove off. I took a quick walk with Stormy and took a few pictures.

One of the lasting impressions I will have of Russia is it just seems to be falling apart. Everything is broken, old, falling apart, in disarray, not finished and deteriating. The garbage like Mongolia is everywhere and it is overwhelming. It is a constant.

The deteriating of the buildings is everywhere.

What a great 1st day, absolutely no issues at all and it didn’t take long and I felt like we were in sync and in control of the water.

Shade for Stormy, very hot.

Our 1st camp site couldn’t have been any better.

Constantly finding good camp sites.

July 9th Tuesday day 21 on the water:

Always up and on the water. I am trying to get to a point so all I have let to pack in the kayak is the bed, air mattress and the tent. Doesn’t seem to always work out that way. I am either tired, or distracted or unengaged.

We are getting lucky on the weather, but it is that time of year.

Ready to go before the sun is up.

Not a lot to content with on a river this size. It has no floating debris in the river. It has no root balls or trees on sand banks to speak of. The river is high and flowing very quickly in most areas if one will just let the current keep the kayak in the main channel.

Doesn’t get any better than this for a river kayaker like me.

Never an end to the various landscapes.

Another beautiful uneventful day of paddling on the Selenga River. Once again, we found a great campsite, in the shade, out of the wind if it comes up and the weather is beautiful.

This has to be an old Russian Orthodox Church 100’s of years old.

I kicked up a couple of chucker’s walking up to this old church.

A very happy dog to be out of the kayak.

July 10th Wednesday day 22 on the water:

The mornings are peaceful and calm.

Trying to spot something to interest her.

Another uneventful 8 hours on the water.

Another great camp spot.

July 11th Thursday day 23 on the water:

The Russians like their statues.

I have seen statues in the villages of Lenin and Stalin. Lots of statues of Russian Military heroes.

They burn a lot of coal and it shows in the air quality.

We are headed into Ulan Ede, which is a large town in Siberia. It is the capital of this state/province not sure what they call them. I am going to stop and go to the grocery store, I must replace my tent, both zippers are broken, and the floor is rotting, and it is time.

Starting to see downtown Ulan Ede.

I had no idea on where to stop but was going to just get into town and see what happens. As I approached downtown, the river flowed to the right a bit and there was a walkway along the river, and it looked like a large shopping area just on the other side of the walkway.

There was a guy fishing right there on the bank with his wife and two kids and he spoke a little English. He pointed out the grocery story and the sporting’s good store for me, with in a short five-minute walk. Unbelievable. What luck I was having. I asked him to watch Stormy for me and my gear which he gladly said he would.

I first went to the sporting’s good store and purchased a tent. Now I don’t know what I was thinking but it was the wrong one as the day unfolds and we get to a camping spot and I put it up for the 1st time, about 10 miles downriver.

Then I went to the grocery store. I try not to go to the grocery store without a list, I have just so much room I must deal with. However, I am trying to keep at least 30 days of food on hand and just keep replacing it.

Once I was done, went back to the kayak, loaded up and we were off down river.

Looks like an abandoned brick factory but who knows.

Once out of town, I found a camp spot and that was another day on the Selenga and good day.

Once I got the new tent set up and realized my mistake I was so upset with myself I didn’t even take any pictures. But the fact was, it was about 6 times to big. I have no idea what I was thinking.

So I accessed the situation and decided the only thing I could do was to paddle across the river in the morning, take the tent with me, go to the village across the river on the hillside and find somebody, to somehow get back to Ulan Ede to the Sporting Goods store and rectify the situation. I knew it was going to be an all day deal and I was not pleased with myself. I also knew I was going to have to leave Stormy tied up with the kayak and that is not something I like to do for any length of time. We both get terribly upset when I have to do that.

July 12th Friday day 24 on the water:

I didn’t want to get to the village to early, because these Russians don’t seem to get moving too early in the mornings, like the Mongolians. I paddled across the river, found what I felt was a good place to leave the Kayak in the trees and good place to tie Stormy up, really no way for anybody to see anything except a boat come by and there just wasn’t anybody on the river doing anything.

I didn’t know when I took this pic it was going to be an all-day deal.

Once that was accomplished, I grabbed the tent and head up to the railroad tracks that would get me down to the village about a mile. This is a very busy railroad system here in Russia. A train comes by about every 15 minutes one way or the other, it is a dual track system, and a lot of them are passenger trains. On the way along the tracks to the village, when a train would come, I would just get off to the side and sit down while it passed, less than 10 feet away.

Once I got to the village I took the 1st road up the hill and spotted a young guy sitting in the garden having a cigarette and I think it was about 7:30. I said hello and it startled him and he called out for his dad and they came and opened the gate to the back yard. Between the two of us using Google translate they understood what I was trying to get accomplished. Get back to Ulan Ede and get another tent.

His dad told me to just give him a minute and he would help me. I thought that meant drive me is what we talked about. His son probably about 25 years old was a great guy. Once he came back out, he was dressed and the 3 of us started to walk down and out and around a road, that I swear you couldn’t drive on. I have never seen such poverty, bad roads, poor living conditions in my life. But they seem to be happy.

As it turned out, we got into a van that would drive us to the out skirts of Ulan Ede and from there he called a taxi for me and he was on his way to work, which up until then I didn’t know that was what he was doing.

Once the taxi finally got there, it turned out the driver was a Jehovah Witness, great guy and he followed my directions and I took right to the front door of the sporting’s good store. It was 9:30 and they didn’t open until 10. I had him drive me around to the grocery store, got a few more things, went back and was patient until the door was open.

Once inside, it turned out that their internet system was down and therefore I couldn’t get a refund on the credit card, so I just gave the tent to one of the young boys who was helping me. I found the right tent and had made the decision on the way into town to purchase another, smaller sleeping bag. The one I had was for very old weather, bought it in Ulan Baatar while I was getting ready to head to Lake Kovosogul staying at the Hostel.

Then I had him stop at a store where I thought I purchased some more data for the hot spot for the cell phone but more on that later.

We headed back and I had him take me right to the place where we got in the van to head to town, 4 hours earlier. When I got there, the young man was sitting there waiting for me, I thought to just say hello. No, he told me his mother had made a table with the Google Translate and I took that to mean she had fixed something to eat and it would have been very rude of me to not go. I didn’t want to leave Stormy any longer but really had no choice. I grabbed the new sleeping bag and new tent and we headed up the road to his house.

Once we got back to his house and after a few minutes, I knew this was going to take a couple of hours so I told them I was going to go back and get Stormy and I would be back within the hour. Once I got back, I brought some clothes with me I had intended on giving away and the sleeping bag I replaced and gave them to the young man, who probably had never had anything like the bag or clothes before.

This is the young man who helped me.

Waiting for the fish and meat to cook. His brother.

Dinner is ready. Carp.

The family next door where I took the Russian Sauna bath.

Once we ate, I got to go next door and they had gotten the Traditional Russian sauna bath house hot for me to take a bath before I left, and I certainly appreciated that.

We said our goodbyes and Stormy and I headed down the railroad tracks one more time, almost 10 hours since I had left the kayak that morning. A very long stressful day for me.

July 13th Saturday day 25 on the water:

After spending the 1st night in the new tent and very satisfied with it, we head out, losing a day to the tent fiasco, but all ends well that means well and I meant well at all times.

Back on the water headed to Lake Baikal.

Cloudy day, but a good break from the hot, sunny weather we had been having. No wind to speak of and that is a huge blessing.

There was a good road along the river right going down stream and as I looked at my in Reach map I had no idea where it went or where it ended, if in fact it did. Once I got around the corner, under a railroad bridge and a new one they were building, the ferry explained my bewilderment.

This ferry even carried loaded logging trucks.

A canoer’s and kayakers’ nightmare.

This is what I had to contend with on the Eg in the channels and the channel was no wider than the downed tree.

2nd night in the new tent.

We keep getting lucky on the weather and very lucky on the good camp sites.

July 14th Sunday day 26 on the water:

The days have kind of got away from me on the Journal, so I am struggling to get caught up and remember what happened on those days.

Even with the sunny days, there is a lot of haze.

Fairly clear in this picture.

As we move down river, I am endeavoring to make sure I stay to the right, always taking the right channel that will take us down into the Baikal.

Another good camp site.

July 15th Monday day 27 on the water:

The idea all along was to follow the right channels and it would take us right down to the Baikal. I don’t know what happened, but I got off the right channel and ended up in a channel that was taking me down to almost the center of the Selenga Delta. Not a pretty picture. I twice paddled back up this channel and just didn’t go far enough I guess and didn’t get out of that channel.

I ended up down in the middle of the Selenga Delta in a couple of hours and it was extremely stressful and knew I was in for a hard work out to get out of there. As I knew I was approaching the lake I saw a wind generating blade turning around out over the marsh. I made my way to it, and it turned out to be a cabin for the â€œpreserveâ€ that the Selenga Delta is.

No one was there but someone had been recently They had cleared the weeds/grass out from around the buildings and the covers for the windows had been left open. I decided to stay there on the front area. I washed the clothes I was wearing, shaved and took a quick pot bath and organized. I climbed up on the roof on a ladder that was in the back and could see the open water about a mile away. That was going to be my way out in the morning.

I made sure everything but the tent and the sleeping stuff was in the kayak so we could get up and go.

It rained like hell that night for hours.

Beautiful afternoon while we were there.

Good place to end up after a huge mistake.

July 16th Tuesday 28 on the water:

We were up and out of there well before the sun was up. My only hope was no wind and if it was going to blow it was to my back so I could sail. I had our life jackets on. When we packed up, I have never, never seen so many mosquitos in my life in one place. It didn’t take long, but if you opened your mouth you had a dozen of them in it.

Headed out into open water.

It was a battle to get out far enough to keep in open water. The water was full of plants and marshes.

This was no fun.

After about 6 hours on nonstop paddling this hover craft came into view and I managed to get him to stop and he pointed out across the water to where in the village I could see was the grocery store and a place I could spend the night. He spoke enough English for us to communicate. This man will enter my life again in a couple of days and it is a good story.

I was surprised to see this coming my way.

It took a full 7 Â½ hours of nonstop paddling to finally get to the bank. We couldn’t stop because there was no hard ground to get on and miles away from the bank. The 5 P’s weren’t part of the last 2 days, I have no idea how I missed that channel. All turned out well, but completely beat up.

Stopped at the 1st place I could.

You can’t tell by this picture but from where I took the picture to the kayak is a bog that you sink up to your knees. I had to stop so had to make 5 trips back and forth to put camp up and of course repeat it in the morning.

In spite ofâ€¦ another good camp site.

While I was setting camp up and lady walked up and we communicated enough that she understood to go get her granddaughter who did speak English and she told me where the grocery store was for certain in the village about 1.5 kilometers away. They took me up to the house they were staying in for a couple of days’ vacation and let me leave my electronic stuff there to get things charged up. There hadn’t been any sun for days, so everything was pretty much dead.

I then walked up to the store and back and got a few things. Don’t think I wasn’t tired after the paddle and the walk. I went up and retrieved my electronics all charged up and they came back and the girl wanted a picture with me before they headed back to Ulan Ede.

A very nice young lad