Bagged my first peak

I never would have imagined myself going to a place called “base camp” by my own choice and on my own dime. Base camp means cold, and I like warm. Base camp means mountain, and I like sea. Base camp means uphill, and I’m more of a coaster.
But there I was, trudging along the [...]

Read Full Post »

Thwarted in Russia

[posted from Ulan Ude. It's sort of a day-in-the-life-of type post. Enjoy.]
Chuckle chuckle. How my fortunes can change, in just a day! I was in the middle of writing a frustrated report from Ust-Barguzin. It was going something like this:
——————–
If I write a book about my travels in Russia, the working title will be “Thwarted.”
I [...]

Read Full Post »

Sucks to be alone

Sometimes.
This morning I took a 7-hour bus ride from Ulan-Ude north to Ust-Barguzin. There’s this guy here, called Alex Beketov, who has a homestay and purportedly can arrange hiking trips – no matter if you’re alone! he said by email. Feh.
His proposal is for me to borrow his tent and to hike alone to the [...]

Read Full Post »

Mysterious Baikal

Jeez it’s been almost two weeks since I posted! Well I have an excuse: yesterday I returned from a 7-day hiking trip along the western shore of Lake Baikal. On the trip I learned many things, including that hiking up fairly steep hills after spending the past 6 weeks just sitting around on trains means [...]

Read Full Post »