“Ron
Marla and I arrived home safely Sunday night at about 10:00 We were tired, having traversed 13 time zones in two days, but exhilarated. From both of our perspectives, the trip was a home run. I am going to ask Marla to send her impressions to you separately as her adventure turned out to be a bit different. I am just finishing the morning coffee, but, based on your eagerness to hear, thought I would prioritize this message.
The Moscow portion of the trip was great. Marla and I had a tight connection in JFK and our luggage did not make it. However, Delta had notified both us and the Moscow personnel about the situation and they were waiting for us with the news. The luggage was delivered to the Peter 1 while we were at dinner. The tour of Red Square, Kremlin and the city were fine. I had already done those, but found the experience still beneficial the second time. At the conclusion of the City Tour, we ended up shuttling to the airport for our overnight flight to Irkutsk and the real beginning of our adventure. We arrived in good shape and were shuttled maybe 30 KM to breakfast near where we were to pick up the sleds. We had a nice breakfast and were delivered to the pickup point for the sleds. We did not have a chance to rest or leisurely repack out stuff after getting out the cold weather gear. Instead, we were put in an office about the size of a large closet to get our gear, get changed and repack our stuff. This was a real bottleneck. After we got changed and our stuff repacked, we met at the sleds for our briefing. After a short briefing, away we went. Marla was right behind Mike, the leader, with me behind her and the others following. Marla was a bit unsure, but found her snowmobile skills pretty quickly. We were hoping for a leisurely loop of a reasonably short distance on the first day, but it turned out to be a 50 KM trek on some really rough and tricky ice. We arrived safely at the first night’s stop and got checked in.
I must admit that this was a long day for me as we had spent the prior day on our feet most of the time in the City Tour, then did an overnight flight and undertook a number of hours of strenuous activity with no rest. We also crossed five time zones. The flight was on an Airbus A-320, but in coach, my 6’1″ frame is unable to get any real sleep. I slept maybe two hours. I was ready to stop when we reached our destination about 4:00 PM. The group discussed this situation a lot, but did not see a lot of (or any) options based on the available facilities.
At the end of the riding day, Marla and I had some major discussions about her continuing the adventure on the snowmobile or in the jeep. We consulted with Sveta and Mike and decided that she would leave the sled and join Alexi in the jeep. It was not that she was unable to do the riding, but she was concerned about the stamina of riding three times as far as we did on day one on days two and three. As it turned out, this was a great decision as she had her own adventure with her new best friend. I will let her tell you about that.
Days two and three were long riding days. The first day was spent on the river, on trails, and a 100 KM logging road. The riding was awesome, but the day was long and, due to some snow conditions, we ended up arriving at our destination after dark. Due to the ice conditions, we had to leave the sleds maybe 10 KM from the hotel by the river, and we were shuttled to the hotel. This workaround worked fine. The midday activity on this day was dog sledding which was an experience in itself. Due to the length of the day, this activity might have been eliminated.
Day three was back on the lake. The ice on the southern part of the lake was not good at all. It was rough with a lot of ice buildups that we had to break through with open water in the middle. At one point, the ice was so built up that the guides had to use an ice axe to break us a path through — which they did with great expertise. Lunch on this day was really interesting as we stopped at a farm, where we had lunch with a Shaman and his family. What a great experience to meet them on this farm with no amenities. We were crammed around a very tiny table in a room with maybe a 7 foot ceiling and had a wonderful meal that the Shaman himself, and his wife, had prepared. We were serenaded by their 5-year old twin daughters that were cute as buttons. We arrived again after dark due principally to the ice conditions. Sveta gave us the option after dark to leave the sleds about 17 KM short of our destination and shuttle us to the hotel, with the guides to move the sleds to the hotel. She promised us “smooth ice” for the 17 KM (HEHE). As it turned out, there was a patch of really rough ice in the middle that we had to negotiate in the dark, which was a bit difficult, but we got along fine. The accommodations for the free day were great.
The free day was used to do a loop with lunch in the middle. We rode about two hours to lunch and about 1.5 hours after lunch. The ice was surprisingly smooth and we had a really nice ride. Marla and Kevin opted to stay in the hotel and take a rest day. As this was the last day on the snowmobiles, we had our first “final dinner” with the snowmobile guides. As you might guess, vodka played a major role in all of our activities. As it turned out, one of the snowmobiles was used to store tools, one for oil, and a third for vodka. The toasts flowed freely and Marla found that she could do three toasts, along with a half bottle of wine and still function. HEHE.
We left the rest day in the hovercraft which was a really cool experience. It was really windy when we left, but the pilot got along great. We stopped and had a picnic on the ice and had the opportunity to walk around at length on the fascinating ice. It was interesting how it froze totally clear in many locations, just like the ice you buy commercially. You could actually see fish through the ice. We ended the hovercraft ride at the village created on the ice where we were going to stay in a gerd. This village was really cool the way it was created from scratch. We met Constantine, who would be our leader for the next section. We did some ice fishing, which was an experience of the process with no fish, drank some vodka to the fish, then got settled in our gerds prior to dinner. Dinner was a fascinating experience crammed in a gerd, but the lady cooked us a wonderful meal and we had a great time. Needless to say, Sveta had planned ahead and had plenty of wine for us, and the vodka continued to flow freely. We had an interesting night in the gerds as the weather got really cold, but the guides kept our fires going and we got along fine. As we were settling into bed, Alex was in tending to our fire and he heard Marla tell me that she was a bit chilly and asked if she could use my jacket over her to help keep her warm. Well, Alex sprung into action and showed back up with another sleeping bag to help his new BFF stay warm. Rumor has it that that was Constantine’s sleeping bag, but we never heard for sure. Anyway, she got along fine, as did we all.
The next morning, we headed out in jeeps, with us getting an opportunity to drive on the ice. We stopped at a museum in a National Park for a tour, which was interesting, but a little long due to the cold temperature in the museum. The stop this night was at the location with the hot springs that a number of our group took advantage of. Marla and I passed on this activity, but looking back, I wish I would have done.
The second day in the jeeps was cool. We ended up leaving the lake, and the guides took over the driving. We headed north on roads and the snow got progressively deeper. We arrived at our destination early and got settled in. We then had lunch at the restaurant where the original final dinner was to be held (however that had to be changed due to the flight cancellation). After lunch, we went for one of the most fascinating activities on the trip. We drove out on the lake where Nikolai and his associate fish. They fish through two huge holes in the ice with a net stretched between them. They pull the net through the hole and harvest the fish, then pull the net back into the water for more fish. Needless to say, we had to toast to the ice, the lake and the fish to make sure we got big ones and many fish. Nikolai then led us to his home where he stores his fur inventory. He is also a trapper (among other things). We admired many raw furs and a number of hats, vests, etc that he had made himself. He was a fascinating man that it was a pleasure to meet. Dinner this evening was in one of the buildings in which we were staying that had a kitchen. Constantine prepared fish soup for us using a large fish that Nikolai had given us. The dinner was marvelous and, again, the toasts flowed freely.
The next day, we went further north on roads to where we were going to catch the train and have our second final dinner — this time with the guides for the jeeps. This dinner was great and they delivered us to the train. After sad goodbyes, we boarded the train where we started the long trip back. We arrived at our destination in the middle of the night, then slept for some hours and caught a flight south late morning. This was a five hour flight in a 17 passenger turbo prop plane with a fuel stop half way. We arrived in Ulan-Ude and had a really nice dinner, which was our farewell dinner for Sveta and Ilya. The next day, we did the 6 hour flight back to Moscow and under Elena’s guidance got shuttled to the Peter 1. Elena joined us for our really final farewell dinner which was on my birthday, so I had the opportunity to have a birthday in Moscow just like Mona did on the Gold Ring Tour. The next morning we got shuttled to the airport for the flight home.
All-in-all, this was the trip of a lifetime. We saw some things that I am guessing no other Americans have experienced. The only one in the group I had ridden with before, except Sveta, was Wayne Bentley, who was on the Gold Ring Tour. The group got along very well and we turned rapidly into new best friends. As the female member of the group, Marla was admired by many along the way and all the guides took great care of her, especially her jeep riding buddy Alex. As with the Gold Ring Tour, this was a shakedown cruise and there were some unforeseen things that occurred, but the guides took each of them in stride. I think we were all a bit surprised with the strenuous nature of the snowmobile portion, which was due principally to the condition of the ice. I don’t think they experienced these ice conditions last year when Sveta took the Russians on a similar trip. We really gave the sleds a beating in these conditions, but they did very well. If I would have known how strenuous the riding conditions were, I would probably not have convinced Marla to attend — but that would have been a mistake because she had her own adventure riding with Alex in the jeep for those two days.
One thing that was missing from our package was a tour book which provides all the details of the trip and offers the space for us to keep our daily notes on the activities. We have discussed this with Sveta and she said she would undertake to make sure we receive one at least after the fact. We also did not receive the normal luggage tags, pen and other paraphernalia that we normally receive. The shirts we received were really cool and the patch was nicely done. We have asked Sveta for an additional patch or two, and if we could get that in a sticker for our bikes, it would also be great.
As I get the fotos sorted out, I will share some of those with you. I am also planning to do a trip summary for the many friends that are dying to hear the story, which I will share with you.
Be well, my friend.
TS
Anthony W. (Tony) Smith”
