On Baikal by kayaking: along the Great Baikal Trail

DAY 1

Meet in the morning in the city of Irkutsk, the transfer to the starting place, the village of Bolshaya Holoustnoe, will take 3-4 hours.

This is one of the oldest Baikal settlements located near the mouth of the river of the same name. From the beginning of the 19th and to the middle of the 20th century, many Evenks lived in and near the village along with the Buryats, but various vicissitudes reduced the number of this historical people to nothing. At one time, the village, located in a small steppe near the lake, and the steppe itself, were called “rock”, since they were surrounded by albeit small, but mountains of the Primorsky ridge. There's an old church here. In the 18th century, when instead of a church in the village there was a chapel founded in 1709, it contained the icon of St. Nicholas.

We come to the place, set up camp, prepare lunch. We'll go to Dry Lake tonight. The walk will take a couple of hours, 6-8 km on foot. The dry lake is remarkable because once every 4 years it is filled with cold spring water, then gradually shrinks, reaching a dry state. Therefore, it is considered a geological monument of regional significance.

DAY 2

Early rise, brisk exercise and breakfast, this will begin every day. Today we go kayaking along Baikal to the parking lot of Kadilnaya Pad 15 km.

We walk along the Great Baikal Trail. We pass the Fall of Ushkanya in the summer in it many flowers and there are wild animals. We'll stop for lunch somewhere.

Pad (in Siberia and the Far East) is a mountain valley without runoff or with temporary runoff, as well as a fall on the plain (wetland, beam).

From the water we see the teeth of the rocks on the slope, here we get up for the night.

In the distant past, there was a village and quarry where limestone was mined and burned to make lime.

There are two caves that we will look at.

To the cave Malaya Kadilnaya about 1.5 km along the trail along the decay. The cave is located at the foot of Mount Strelka, at the fork of decay.

In the cave there is an oval-shaped hall measuring 8x12 m. A narrowing vault with a height of 20 m ends with a through opening. In the cave were found traces of ancient fires and various items of everyday life of the Iron Age: the fangs of a boar, the bones of a bull, a horse, a seal, and other animals.

Kadilinskaya cave, located in the right decay of the padi of Small Kadilna, built of limestone rock, at an altitude of about 60 meters above the level of the padi. The cave is 16 meters long, 2-4 meters wide and 2-3 meters high. In the cave found the remains of the culture of the Iron Age, bones of a bull, a horse, kulana-jegetai.

We return to camp, spend the evening by the fire on the lake.

DAY 3

Today we go to the fall of the Big Hay, we stand at the camp, in the evening we will make a bath. We'll walk 12 kilometers on the water.

We continue along the Great Baikal Trail. This is one of the most picturesque hiking routes, but from the water the views are no worse. Moreover, we will make stops along the way to admire the colorful landscapes from the shore.

Not far from the shore in the Sennaya Padi there is an abandoned gold mine of the Irkutsk merchant Patushinsky, who worked in these places in the late 19th – early 20th centuries.

Gold mining at Baikal began in 1842. Was discovered and began to develop placers along the valleys of the rivers of the western coast of the lake Big and Small Cats, Big and Small Seine.

In the evening, we will walk to the Skriper Rock, there is a good path up to it, about 200 meters of climbing and before us a stunning view of all the surroundings.

Near the top, we will see another cave with an area of about 60 square meters, where traces of ancient people were also found.

The Skriper mountain range is composed of a rare rock on Baikal - the Jurassic conglomerate, which is a sandy rock with rolled pebbles of various sizes.

In the evening, the bathhouse, rest.

DAY 4

Today we stand on one of the capes on a wild sandy beach, we will walk 14 km.

The highlight of today's Big Cats village.

The village got its name from one version of the word "cats" - the so-called trap for fish that spawned in the river.

According to another version of the word "cats" (stress on the first syllable) - warm shoes, usually used by gold miners in cold damp weather in swampy places.

The village of Big Cats appeared in the middle of the XIX century. It was founded as a village of gold miners. Gold mining on the site where the village is located began in 1842. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a mine was organized there, where both convicts and civilian workers worked. Gold mining in Big Cats continued until 1968. Over the entire history of Big Cats, more than 160 kg of gold was mined there.

Now this place comes to life in the summer when summer residents and tourists come.

We'll stop here for lunch and walk around the village.

Let's see the Museum of Baikal Studies.

In the evening, we will camp on a wild sandy beach, sit on the shore and exchange impressions under the sound of waves.

DAY 5

Let's get to the post. Let's stop at the campground. We'll walk 13 kilometers on the water.

The name of the village was given to larch, which grow here in large numbers. This village at the source of the Angara stretched along the coastline of Lake Baikal for five kilometers. In the village there is a nerpinarium, there we will definitely see the Baikal seals.

7 km from our base is located the Chersky Stone, at a low altitude, 728 meters above sea level (about 280 above the level of Lake Baikal). The mountain is named after Jan Dominik Czersky, a Polish patriot who was exiled to Siberia and became the famous explorer of Baikal. They say that Jan Chersky sat on this mountain and admired Baikal.

The beauty from the observation deck opens indescribable: Listvyanka, Port Baikal, the source of the Angara, Hamar-Daban in a blue haze and the Baikal horizon merging with the sky. You can see the Shaman Stone and the train on the old railway!

Take a look at the famous fish market, where there are many souvenirs and a variety of fish are sold, including the Baikal omul. This is a famous fish that locals catch with nets, so catching it on spinning is unlikely. And we can catch a gray, a pike, a pike.

DAY 6

Today we stand in the Parking lot Listvichny Pad on an abandoned tourist base, walk 15 km

We get up early in the morning and cross the Irkutsk reservoir. After the construction of hydroelectric power plants on the Angara in 1958, the water level in Baikal rose by 1.46 m and Baikal was considered the largest reservoir in the world.

In Listvyanka ends the Great Baikal Trail along which we walked all these days. On the other side of the Angara begins the Circum-Baikal Railway. CBJD.

The Circum-Baikal Railway (KBZhD) is the “golden buckle of the steel belt of Russia” (that is, the Trans-Siberian Railway), one of the most beautiful railways in the country. What is the Circum-Baikal Railway, and how did it come about? Lake Baikal was a serious obstacle for the Trans-Siberian Railway. On the western side of the Trans-Siberian Railway, it went to Lake Baikal at the source of the Angara, where the Baikal station was opened, and from the east - at the Mysovaya station (now the city of Babushkin). The movement of trains along the Trans-Siberian Railway was opened in 1900, but the first five years of trains across Baikal were transported by ferries, and in winter the lake was crossed by ice on temporary rails. So it was for five years, until in 1905, the steel belt of Russia closed its gold buckle.

DAY 7

We'll reach Cape Tolstoy, 12km by water.

Today we're walking along the BCG. We will see tunnels, bridges on stone supports, arches, and passing trains, real locomotives.

On the slopes of Cape Tolstoy with grassy vegetation grow rare and endemic plants. From here opens a panorama of Cape Tolstoy and Circum-Baikalka towards the village of Kultuk. This is where we sleep.

DAY 8

Parking at Cape Polovinny - 110 km KBZD, we will walk 20 km

We're going out early today with a big transition and a lot of interesting things ahead.

We continue our movement along the rocky cliffs and the miracle of engineering thought of its time – KBZD. Today we will see many interesting objects of KBZD - tunnels, galleries, retaining walls, bridges.

In the area of Birch Bay, we will see how an already unused tunnel breaks directly into the waters of Baikal.

And after it we will admire one of the most beautiful places of KBZD - the retaining wall of the "Italian".

At the end of the day we will pass by the longest tunnel of KBZD (778 meters)

We will stand in the parking lot behind him at the 110 km KBZD stop at Cape Polovinny.

DAY 9

A day at Cape Half. And this means that today we are not rowing anywhere, walking around the BCJD and the surrounding area.

In this place there are 2 tunnels through Cape Half the longest 778 meters it is straight and visible light at the end of the tunnel. Almost immediately beyond the Big Half river is the shortest, only 31.2 meters tunnel, pierced at the base of a rock called Chaikin Cliff.

In the evening we relax by the fire on the shore of Baikal.

DAY 10

At 04:42, we leave by train, which the locals call “motanya”, according to the railway. At 7 a.m. we'll be in Slyudyanka for a little walk. Transfer by minibus to Irkutsk 114 km, in Irkutsk we will arrive after 13 hours.