MY MOUNTAIN TRIP NEAR BAIKAL

My July 2009 Trip To To Tunkinskie Goltsy

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Русская версия

     Tiring of my office job, I quit and planned another wilderness trip.
     My last trip was a bit rough - I travelled alone because none of my usual companions could come. In fact, hiking solo isn't bad - you wait for no one, go as far as you want and camp where you want.
     But if something bad happens you can die, alone, and when it starts raining, it takes longer to start a fire and put a tent up.
     Having a woman (tyotka in Russian hikers slang) with you on the trek has advantages you don't think about food.
     So, this time I assembled a team of six: three from Moscow and three from Krasnoyarsk. We had 3 tents amongst us.
     I always thought of going to Baikal - a huge lake in the center of Siberia. There are some cool mountans around Baikal. There are some interesting places there - Krugobaikalskaya railroad, for instance. This is an old section of Trans Siberian railroad (Transsib).
     It became a dead-end siding when the connecting line was flooded after the huge Angara river dam was built near Irkutsk. This railroad was almost unused so the tunnels, galleries, viaducts and bridges saw little wear and tear. There are 38 tunnels and 18 galleries on 89 kilometers of rail line. There are also many bridges and one of them is the oldest concrete bridge in all of Russia. Krugobaikalskaya section of Transsib railroad was built in 1899-1905.
     Another important factor in the current good condition of these structures is the extremely high quality of engineering and construction that went into them.
     The 9300 km Transsib was built in just ten years. This feat was performed by free people before the communist revolution. 70 years later, the commies coul dn't even build the 600 km Baikal-Amur railroad in the same amount of time!
     My Sony camera was stolen so I replaced it with a Canon EOS 400D:

After using the kit lens that came with my new camera, I bought a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II. Light and small, it took nice, sharp pictures. Later I bought a CANON EF-S 17-85 mm zoom lens:

     It's heavy with lower aperture but it's a zoom lens.
     Because I didn't have to return to work, I could take up to three weeks for this trip.
     I chose Tunkinskie Goltsy mountains. Anatoli, my companion on previous trips, did the planning the 16 day trek.
     We planned to follow part of Krugobaikalskaya railroad after the mountain trip.
     This is the region in question. (click on the image for a larger, 1.1MB version):

     If you want to get to Tunkinskie Goltsy, you need to fly to Irkutsk. Then take a train or car to Sludyanka town. Then - take a car to some place near the mountains.
     Arshan or Nilova Pustyn can be such places. We started from Nilova Pustyn and finished the trip near Arshan.
     In Sludyanka they sell Arctic cisco - local endemic form of a fish - very tasty!
     This is the firsat part of the trek - seen in Google Earth:

We arrived at Datsan - a bhuddist temple. I must say Buryats (local people) are not orthodox Buddists, they also have shamans. Datsan is on the sharp bend of the blue curve of the trek. You can see grey spot nearby - it's Sand Mountain.

Datsan near Nilova Pustyn, Sand Mountain - Hair-Han behind	Datsan	Lion
Datsan	Triangulation point can also be a sacred tree	Ekhe-Ger river near crossing

     The first day plan was to get to the Ekhe-Ger river crossing, cross it and camp nearby close to the water.
     Later, we discovered we could have gotten to the river by car - farther if we took a 4WD truck like the GAZ66.
     There were some of these vehicles near the river crossing. We had an offer to cross the river by vehicle or go even farther, instead we crossed the river on foot and camped near the river bank.
     As shown on the trail overview, green triangles mark campsites. The first was on July 18, marked "Camp On Erheger River".
     There was a shed and a table with wooden benches there, but not much firewood.
     If we had gone another 200 meters from the river we could've camped near a small creek. There were also campsites with water about 1 or 2 km up the trail. We didn't know this at the time though, so we played it safe, camping near the river.
     On the second day we hiked North from the Ekhe-Ger river to the Khubuty river, then up Khubuty river to the forest's edge. We camped above the large waterfall on the Khubuty river. A group of young Lithuanians camped by the waterfall. They had to bring water from afar as it was impossible to get to the river near the waterfall.
     We arrived when it was almost dark. There were more waterfalls down-river, but we only heard them from the trail.
     This second camp is marked as "Camp near Khubuty waterfall" on our (Google Earth) trail overview picture.

Tramp

Fungi on a dead tree	Rapids on Khubuty	Weiew to the East from the trail along Khubuty
Same fungi on a green larch	Look back after ascent	Waterfall
Waterfall	A hut near waterfall	Power of the water
Waterfall	Looking back	Looking back
Looking down the river near the waterfal	Looking up the river	Camp near Khubuty waterfall
У этого холмика поилка для коров и изба	Canyon near the waterfall	Canyon near the waterfall
Canyon near the waterfall	Path to the water	Last sunbeams
Camp near the waterfall
I also like to watch others working

The third day was wet and cloudy. We were going along Khubuty river valley to the Khubutsky mountain crossing. Then along Baromgol river til it flows into Arkhat river.

Up along Khubuty river	Tunkinskaya valley down there	Another waterfall on Khubuty
Khubuty canyon	Deep	Creek - left tributary
Khubuty valley	Mountain cows	Water
Snow in July	Cows left under	The mountain to the right - Navgather, 3029m (?)
Khubutsky mountain crossing saddle ahead	The cows left behind	Looking South from the crossing, Granatovy mountain crossing is left around the corner
On the crossing, going south	On the crossing, horse trails everywhere.	View south from the crossing - Baromgol river valley
Poppies	Rocks	River crossing
Kubutski mountain crossing, can be seen on the Google Earth picture. Pervomaiski crossing is hidden by the spur on the right.	Camp near Baromgol River - can be seen on the picture from Google Earth as "Camp Baromgol Arkhat"	Baromgol river before flowing into Arkhat
Evening near Baromgol	Baromgol (right) and Arkhat (left) confluence	Cedar - Ent of Middle Earth
"Krugozor" moumtain 2745m or 3042m mountain (?)	Baromgol canyon before flowing to Arkhat	Baromgol canyon

     The fourth day was a days rest. The camp was good and scenic.
     We wanted to see lakes on Arkhat river and waterfalls.
     Our day walk is shown as sharp trangle near CAMP BAROMGOL ARKHAT green camp mark in Google Earth picture.
     It srarted raining and we happened to reach only lower lake. Then wу took the wrong way in spite of a GPS device and covered half next day way.
     We had to cross the river in tough place.
     Didn't make it to the waterfalls also. They are just near the confuence in the canyon, but we went high up and passed them.

Edelweiss	Crossing Arkhat near confluence with Baromgol	Down Arkhat
Going up Arkhat	Arkhat and Baromgol	Camp
Mount 3042m (?)	Horses (Asfaloth и Shadowfax probably)	Dry creek
Eden	In the Heavens	Rock
Where are we?
Sand lake	Sand water and rock	Washed away dam
The gang	Quick sands	By the water
Lower lake in Arkhat upper reach	Rain starts	There is another lake up the valley, but we didn't make it because of rain
Large and unfriendly	Upper reaches of Arkhat	Long finger on our way back

Русская версия
Part2