Along the reserved river Shuger. Northern Urals: rivers Podcherem-Telpos-Shchugor Equipment and maps
...The idea of going to the Urals had been brewing for a long time, but finding a convenient mattress river turned out to be not so easy.
Firstly, it required throwing the wheels into the water, and throwing it out too. Secondly, a minimum population, no zones, and no tourists, if possible, were desirable. Thirdly, most of the group wanted not too cold, but clean water, so the Subpolar-Polar somehow quietly disappeared, and the Middle and Southern were not even considered - it’s no secret that on many “all-Union routes” you can no longer drink water from the rivers, and the number of infectious ticks exceeded all reasonable limits. As a result, from the thick folder of Ural applicants, only Shchugor remained...
The ambiguities with the abandonment, with the proper approach, have become clearer, and the experience of the abandonment, I believe, will be useful to many, especially since the situation has changed in several years (since the last report).
A park
This year, the National Natural Park “Yugyd Va” celebrated a milestone anniversary - 10 years since its foundation! This is a lot, considering how difficult it is to protect protected areas in our country from encroachment.
The territory of the park lies on the western slopes of the Northern and Subpolar Urals, and part of the Pechora Lowland. INThe park is included in the UNESCO World Natural Heritage List with the Pechora-Ilychsky Nature Reserve adjacent to it in the south.Any economic and industrial activity is prohibited on the territory of Yugyd Va.The nature of the national park is unique - this is the only corner of Europe where it has been preserved in an almost undisturbed state. Today, the park represents the largest area of virgin northern taiga in Russia and Europe; it is home to more than thirty species of mammals and one hundred and twenty species of birds. Among those unusual for a Muscovite are the chipmunk, the arctic fox, the reindeer, and the wolverine. Here are concentrated places where extremely rare plant species grow, many of them are listed in the International and Russian Red Books.Geological history has left numerous natural monuments, of which there are more than half a hundred within the park.
The territory has no equal in the world in terms of the density of its river network. The main fish in the reservoirs is grayling. Salmon comes into the cleanest rivers to spawn... The park is one of the largest natural reserves in the world, occupying almost two million hectares. And all this is protected by fifty rangers for a salary that is embarrassing to write. It is not profitable for the state to protect parks; it is easier for it to sell forests and water into private hands. Apparently, one cannot expect sponsorship from the city of gas workers Vuktyl - new gas developments have not been carried out in the territory for a long time; old wells are being milked. A small cash influx into the territory is possible only through tourism account – that is, for you and me, dear water workers.
There are plenty of people willing to exploit the natural complexes of the Pechora Urals - timber merchants, gold miners, subsoil explorers, and just poachers. In 2002, the head of Komi, Toporov, tried to move the boundaries of the national park in order to begin mining gold and quartzite sandstones, thereby disturbing the park’s ecosystem in sensitive mountainous areas. As far as I understand, the number did not go through.
According to the stories of the rangers, dredges brought by enterprising businessmen are still rotting somewhere on the tributaries...
It is unknown how the struggle for such a rich territory would have ended if it had not been for the active position of the directorate of the national park (director - Tatyana Fomicheva) and the patronage of UNESCO. True, this struggle continues... The conversation with Tatyana Savvateevna about the needs and problems of the park was close and understandable to me - I grew up myself in the national park where my father was the director.
In the 90s, the park operated several year-round tourist centers and had its own tourist service with staff. It was planned that ecological and geological tourism would rapidly develop, combined with rafting on the rivers Kozhim, B. Synya, Podcherye, Shchugor, Vangyr, Kosyu and others. At the beginning of the century, due to lack of funds, many initiatives in this area stalled, and the influx of tourists decreased significantly. For example, on Shchugor we did not see a single operating tourist center (which, in general, only made us happy: the fewer tourist centers and camps there are along the banks of the Ural rivers, the more attractive they are for “wild” tourists. This is an axiom!J)
But in recent years, it seems that scientific interest in the park has increased - zoological teams, survey expeditions of scientists from Komi and Russia have again turned their attention to “Yugyd Va”. The composition of the flora and fauna of the park has not yet been sufficiently studied, but then what can we say about its depths!…
River
Shchugor is a mattress river, with the exception of a rather fun three-kilometer rapid in the upper reaches. It originates from springs in the very heart of the Northern Urals, vigorously flows between the ridges along the valley to the north, and then goes west, along the Pripechora lowland and flows into Pechora. The total fall of the river is more than 330 meters, and the length of the route from the gas pipeline to the mouth is about 320 kilometers .
The Shchugor flows through the territory of “Yugyd Va”, which in the Komi language means “light water”. In my opinion, it is the Shchugor that represents the park - I have never seen cleaner and more transparent water throughout the rafting. Even just for this reason, you can make such a long journey!...You can drink water from the boat at any time, dilute your tea; beautiful graylings are visible swimming under the boat, the colored pebbles on the bottom are visible to the smallest detail, and on a sunny day the bottom of the holes is visible at a depth of up to eight meters! The children were almost constantly in the water, despite its coolness. After the hike, I had no one crack on the fingers, as usually happened after Karelia... To be honest, I expected the water to be much colder, and I told everyone to take swamp boots, but the river is fine in neoprene slippers and even in ordinary sneakers, and you can catch fish from the shore and from a boat without any problems .
Along the entire length of the river, hundreds of small streams and springs run into it, pristine and cold. The river bottom is always pebbles of different sizes.
The character of the Shchugor is fast-moving, but not dangerous - small rifts, rapids and rifts interspersed with sluggish deep spills or stagnant holes near the rocks. However, even in such low water, which we traditionally found ourselves in (40 cm less than usual), in the middle reaches of the river we were able to travel up to 40 kilometers (in some places the river runs at a speed of ~4 km/h), and the thirty-meter course was walked without any strain at all. True. , in the lower reaches we seriously struggled in the wind, and in the upper reaches we had to squirm for a couple of days, dragging boats through shallow rifts, which greatly reduced the speed of movement (~ 15 km per day). But the towing It’s not particularly stressful there: there are no blockages on Shchugor, the river meanders from pebble to pebble, small places are fordable. The river is constantly split into islands, forcing you to read the water and choose the right channel at the level of intuition. The lowering of the forest edge does not always indicate a good stream, and a wide and seemingly deep branch can be 10 cm deep.
Due to the drought, the tributaries turned into modest streams, littered with stones, and vividly reminded me of the sadly heroic campaign along Lakhna.J
The Leningraders who were slipping with us were hit hard - they intended to ride up Torgovaya, drag their feet and go down Maloye Patok to Shchugor. As a result, the guys carried the kat on their hands almost the entire way, walking without days or normal rest. We met them already at the anti-stapel, emaciated and silent; and only alcohol seems to have poured life into them...
Shores
The forest is gloomy, dense, full of dead wood and not intended for walking - real thickets of animals. So there is no problem of dead wood for a fire. There are practically no cheerful clearings, fields and meadows - their mission is carried out by stone pebbles and screes overgrown with grass.
There are also almost no parking lots on Shchugor, in their depraved Karelian understanding. Personally, this only made me happy. Thank God, this river has not yet been trampled and polluted. After the slipway, during our two weeks on the water we did not meet a single tourist.
You can swim 20, 30 kilometers - and the shores will be inhospitable everywhere - either pebbles, or rocks, or hummocky clearings with impassable trees and grass up to your neck. Crooked birches and sick brownish fir trees, overgrown with beards, are interspersed here and there with bright young fir or cedar. There are no pine trees, they appear only on Pechora, where the sand begins. In principle, you can stand on the edge anywhere, the banks are not swampy – which we did in a couple of cases. We got up on the islands a couple of times (marked).
I recommend standing on the windward side so that the wind disperses the eaters. But most of the sites indicated on the electronic map are still suitable for the group’s habitat, although they had to be looked for. Officially, only a couple of parking lots are marked with the park - one of them is opposite the rocks of the Upper Gate, and there are also good places in the “alien parking lot” and “parking lot No. 6”; the latter is visible from the water only thanks to a column made of stones. Weather stationJ
It should be noted that the weather was very kind to us this time - in fact, we returned from the resort, and even with live water!
Checkpoints and rangers, opera and poachers...
At the checkpoint in the lower reaches of Shchugor (marked on the palm map), we had great pleasure talking with state inspector Nikolai Mikhailovich, who has been working in the park almost since the day of its foundation and told us a lot of interesting things about the life of the region. From him we learned that it was so hot and so early midges are generally difficult to remember. Therefore, the water is half a meter lower, and there are no gifts...
...The checkpoint is a kind of cordon for the raiders from Pechora, but tourists here are treated humanely. Don’t grab too much, don’t make a mess, put out the fires and you will be welcome. Since there were no parking places, we were offered to stop for the night. Part of the group settled in a hut with a stove, while those who loved fresh air set up tents in the yard.
We talked about poaching and fishing. All huntsmen know very well that Turier catches grayling with a spinning rod; Well, he’ll catch a bucket, salt it and fry it, not a big loss. Other animals in the park are scary, about which below...
Operatives subordinate to Komirybvod quietly sneak up on guests on a fantastic ash-hovercraft.Their faces are incorruptible, their gaze is stern
... 8) The air cushion allows you to quickly walk along the river and overcome the rifts upstream. The opera catches poachers and gloomily looks into the boats of tourists. But tourists don’t catch salmon, there’s nowhere to put it, there’s a lot of stuff. We can buy salmon every day at a nearby supermarket.
Poachers remain...
...From the gas pipeline and almost 30 kilometers down, the poachers’ Urals go straight along the river. Many times we walked along densely packed ruts, running from pebble to pebble, and where there are no spits, the Ural scratches straight along the riverbed for hundreds of meters. On the rifts, the raised wheels block the channel with ridges, interfering with the migration of fry. The Pharisee Bridge over Shchugor, built by gas workers, is just an excuse for the park management. As an illustration, the green Ural was shamelessly following us, which had parked “for the night” on the island directly opposite, about 25 km from the bridge. Maybe they were waiting for a “messenger” from the tributary. Perhaps it was the park rangers themselves who were fooling around, but we didn’t swim up to the night guests.
...To be honest, after learning about the water level, I tried to ventilate in Vuktyl, whether it was possible to throw myself downstream in the “Ural” along the river bank. I was given an “ecological punishment,” with which I dejectedly agreed. Now we know that cars run calmly along the riverbed. But now I saw Shchugor too. And I personally don’t like such a barbaric method of getting onto a clean river; I’d rather slog through the wire a little, especially since the upper reaches are very beautiful, and it’s worth a walk there. Today, if I were offered to travel a couple of tens of kilometers by car, I would categorically refuse.
...The cruise boat taking us back to Vuktyl stopped opposite Andronovo, a few kilometers below Ust-Shchugor (marked by the point “poachers”) - a couple of men came out of the forest and loaded a bunch of heavy, tightly tied craft bags on board. There were probably acorns there :)
Big threshold
The rapid starts from the Sumyakh-nyer ridge and flows north in three steps for about 3 km. Each supen is interspersed with some calm. I don’t know how we would have walked the threshold if it hadn’t rained for a day and a half before, adding about twenty centimeters to us... I must say that the threshold pleasantly pleased with the extreme - the first stage was rated as category 2, the second - “three rubles”, the third about 2, 5. By and large, it all came down to skillful maneuvering in a good current between hefty stones, with shafts, drains and even barrels. Our smart but inexperienced kayaker plunged twice, without a life preserver or helmet, but in waders, which made me think about accidents that give rise to tragedies, and that dummies still need to take life-saving equipment on the threshold... All other vessels went well. There is excellent fishing on the threshold, especially before it and after the second stage.
For a catamaran, the jets between the rocks are too narrow, and it seems to me that a catamaran has nothing at all to do on this river.
We passed the threshold in two hours, an hour of which was spent fishing while waiting for the slowest crew. In some reports, “the threshold passed for 3 days” - well, this is the lot of the eliteJ
Telpos-Iz
The ascent to Telpos-Iz deserves special mention. This is the highest mountain in the Northern Urals, 1617 meters above sea level. Of course, you won’t get altitude sickness there, but even such mountains once again proved to us that they must be treated with respect.
…The group ascended from “parking lot No. 6” (from the north), making a loop from left to right. Both peaks have been climbed. Of the eight people, only three reached the very top: Irina Koloskova, Masha Solovyova and our Ilyukha Postoev.
An excellent digital photo selection was made, fortunately the weather was clear - a huge rarity for Telpos-Isa.
Overestimation of strength and incorrect planning of time for ascent and descent clearly showed that someone born to swim will rarely become a climber...)) I ran downstairs until midnight in frustration with a walkie-talkie, every hour contacting Ilyukha, who cheerfully reported that the “little negros” were becoming fewer and fewer , and then he completely fell out of radio communication range...
Part of the group, which left at 10 am, returned only at three o’clock in the morning, completely exhausted. As a result of the… unsatisfactory attitude to the mountain winds of the Northern Urals, one of the group members, after climbing the plateau (not even reaching the top), became seriously ill and lay there for two days in a fever, and for two more days he was dragged in a lying position on a rope in my “corpse wagon” (as they affectionately dubbed “Scout-36”). True, it later turned out that there was no hospital in Ust-Shchugor, but, fortunately, the man recovered himself, although he fell into the blues and asked to go to civilization.
Loss of strength and hypothermia could easily provoke pneumonia - one of my friends had already died this way, albeit at a higher altitude... We started fussing, and then it turned out that no one from the group had taken antibiotics!
The old wolves are already accustomed to the fact that on mairas campaigns there are only diarrhea and cuts; such a habit could easily turn into a drama for a newbie, given that for three hundred kilometers there are no settlements or roads in that area. …Telpos-Iz is as majestic as possible for the Urals, which is crumbling before our eyes, and the views from it are magnificent. Bare slopes overgrown with harsh lichen, rockfalls, glaciers
By the way, there is no need to take water up the mountain - there is plenty of your own there.
Better dress warmly...
Rocks and caves
The middle course of the Shchugor is replete with beautiful rocks, covered with harsh spruce trees, clinging to the stones with their roots - either in the form of cliffs or long stone walls. The loose rock is interspersed with hard rocks, on which it is quite possible to organize rock-climbing competitions. The Upper, Middle and Lower Gates, framing the river on both banks, are magnificent. There are usually holes near the rocks where you can catch ide or perch.
The main caves are located on the Middle Gate. We foolishly climbed into a shallow (~ 30 m) grotto on the very first rocks of the Middle Gate, but it’s better to do real cave exploration lower down. In addition, we still didn’t understand where the 100-meter cave was... Apparently, on the right bank, where there are numerous “holes”. It would be nice if someone took a jar of acetone with them and erased the plebeian paintings of the “guests” on the rocks. Unfortunately, we were pressed for time and according to the schedule we did not even have time to glance out of the corner of our eye into the dark, inviting openings in the Middle Gate...
At the Upper Gate, where we had an excellent day in the blueberry field, on the right bank the rock is cut through by a damp gorge of a nameless stream. Along the right bank there is a narrow path that leads to a beautiful waterfall flowing straight from a hole in the rock.
When the water is high, a grayling comes into the stream to freshen up, and an ide sits in a hole near a rock...
Fish and fishing Fishing on Shchugor is grayling.
To catch pike, perch, peled, you need to go to the inland lakes along the banks of the tributaries - Torgovaya, both Patoks. There is ide in some holes. Salmon does not bite in the summer - it does not eat anything at all, rising from the Barents Sea along Pechora and Shchugor. Usually the salmon reaches the rapids and spawns there. In September, having laid eggs, the salmon protects them, attacking everything that swims by and kills. At this time, you can catch it with a spoon, but, firstly, fishing for it is prohibited, and secondly, in September it is already frosty.JA herd of salmon is usually accompanied by a cloud of noisy seagulls.
Seagulls, it seems, have generally taken root on Shchugor: we saw them in the very upper reaches, they sit on spruce trees like owls - a unique sight...
The frantic fishing quickly got to me personally, and soon it turned out, as in the famous joke: “they pour it, let it go...” In the lower reaches, I didn’t take out the spinning rod at all - it’s a pity, especially since I started to come across only females with caviar.
We fried fish, salted them, and made barbecue. There is no grayling fish soup unless you add ide or perch to the pot...
For those who are passionate, but busy and live all year waiting for a single fishing trip, spinning on Shchugor is simply a joy to the soul!
There is no point in harvesting grayling - after a couple of days, maggots are steadily appearing in the canal. So you should catch it only when needed, and after several days of gorging, this need quickly subsides.
Know in moderation in everything! Fishing is officially prohibited in the park, but everyone knows that everyone is caught.
Fishing is almost the main thing for which people go to a non-category river. It would probably be necessary for visitors to the park to somehow license the fishing of at least grayling, so as not to hide their fishing rods in fear when pepelats appear.
As for guns, it’s better to forget about them right away.
Animals and "eaters"
...The animals, having survived the raid of the gadflies, hid in impenetrable thickets. Around Shchugor live a large number of mammals, including predators, but they stay away from people, in this sense the river is safe. We saw a moose with a calf, a reindeer, a huge hare, a chipmunk, frogs, a lot of large longhorned beetles, wasps, bees, and night hawk moth caterpillars. There are butterflies, which is not strange at all - there are a lot of flowers around!J
We also saw a small mouse-like rodent with a long tail and an elongated snout, which was taken for a muskrat, brought to me and ran around on my clothes for a long time, after which it found nothing better than to bury itself in the hair... I have to disappoint the public - this is not our totem animal, but shrew or water shrew. Rather, it is the latter - the cutter swims well, does not disdain fry, and, apparently, we found it in the stomach of a large grayling, capturing the carcass in the photo. There is also a possibility that shrews will be washed out of burrows made close to the water. A sharp rise in the river level during heavy rain in the upper reaches takes shrews by surprise - I observed a dead animal floating in the riffle with its paws up. That's why the local graylings are so hefty - they eat miceAmong the birds, seagulls visually dominate, from top to bottom, there are falcons and many hen harriers, looking out for living creatures scurrying in the grass-covered stones.
The mosquito, Turya's old friend, was very modest on the river, but the midge became active ahead of time. In the upper reaches there was almost none, but in the lower reaches, when there was no wind, whole clouds swarmed. In one place we stood on the leeward side of the island and paid for our laziness: I have never seen so many midges anywhere! Just look at the ten-second video where I film my legs...J
.. A little midge... (Fr. Davdi)
This amount of midges is explained by the catastrophic heat this year, which is unusual for the Urals. You can only fight small crap with a mosquito net or Gardex-Extreme spray in red cans. Nothing else worked.
To repel midges, a folk method was used - vanillin diluted in water. The coolest thing is that it works! Vanillin does not irritate the skin on the face, but, unfortunately, its smell quickly disappears. In general, Gardex is still more reliable.
But the midge turned out to be nothing compared to what would have awaited us if we had arrived a week earlier!
It turns out that a gadfly was rampant on Shchugor for a month, and even in Vuktyl it devoured people. The driver of the Volga showed me a trunk full of corpses of gadflies - there was no time to clean it. The Ural gadfly is as healthy as an elk; Unlike other eaters, he rips out a piece of skin when he bites, intending to lay eggs there. Throughout July, maddened animals jumped out of the forest and rushed into Shchugor, trying to escape from hordes of skin eaters. The deer were submerged in the water right up to their antlers! In this area, for thirty years now, they have not remembered such heat and rampant gadflies - so we were lucky: the creatures left literally three days before our arrival.
As for the midge, I personally reacted to it without hysteria, considering the creature a common attribute of northern adventures. The midge keeps the routes untrodden and the rivers clean, the grayling feeds on the midge - the joy of the fisherman's soul - may he live, the dirty little beast!... J
“Guzzlers” and scientific discovery J
I made an interesting discovery: the midge on Shchugor does not land on green!
I placed different germs nearby: light green, blue, gray - the midge stuck to everything except the light green one. It’s the same with clothes: white, gray, black, blue, red, yellow are the favorite colors. But the gluttons frankly didn’t bother with a green sweatshirt or a swamp T-shirt! Moreover, the point is not in the structure of the fabric, as some have suggested. For example, a sweatshirt is a very attractive, “warm” and clingy structure, a cotton T-shirt too. However, even on myself I observed this amazing fact: having stuck around my black pants in an impenetrable layer, the midge did not sit on the upper part of the body. If some individuals landed by mistake, they immediately flew off.
The conclusions are obvious...
Perhaps the midge considers green to be a vegetable color and therefore not attractive. But what about, for example, a blue windbreaker or a bright yellow carrington? There is no trace of such animals in the local forests, and she clearly really likes this palette. Mysteries of nature...
...In general, the discovery is worthy of a Nobel prize!J
Stones
Shchugor is a paradise for those who like to dig deeper into stones. The luxurious pebbles, in fact, do not end until Pechora itself. True, carnelians and chalcedony, as on Yarenga, were not found there, nor were gold or malachite, but a magnificent crystal of smoky crystal was found. You come across “eggs” - crystals or quartz rolled into a quartz-like haze. Of several cracked eggs, one revealed frank crystal.JIn two and a half kilos of stones brought home, I found syenite (a relative of granite, but without quartz), olivines and serpentines (serpentines) of olivine origin, wax patterned jasper (a gift from Romka!J
), green jaspers, conglomerates with wax jasper, a sample with crystals of uvarovite (a green variety of garnet). The rest of the beauties could not be classified, but does that make them less valuable?…
The banks are full of quartzites, and in the upper reaches there are also calcites; alas, one very beautiful sag fell off the boat and was lost...
And we still came across a vein of gold at the top, in a huge boulder lying right in the middle of the riverbed, but there was no time for it - we were dragging, you know, boats...
Sun, wind and boats...
The wind in the Shchugor valley always blows in your face, no matter where you turn. On the one hand, this is good - it blows away the bloodsuckers, on the other hand, sometimes it completely prevents you from moving forward.
Inflatable boats are especially affected. The “single-engine” “Scout” sometimes did not move forward at all in strong winds, and in floods closer to the mouth, where the river becomes wide, it did not even move on a rope. “Taimen” with two oarsmen could not budge me at all for several minutes! “Pikes” had to fight hard, but “Taimen” and KB went quite well.
I'll tell you more about my boat. To be fair, I would like to point out that the Scout is just right on the road. Thanks to its zero draft, it can handle small riffles perfectly and loves rifts and rapids. In the rapids, I actually had great fun, falling into barrels either sideways or backwards - the Scout is almost impossible to turn over. During the entire trip, it never blew away, nothing came off, and not a single piece of dirt remained on the bottom, although it dragged along the stones kilometers. The quality of Raftmaster is excellent, to say the least. In addition, all my clothes fit into it, surprisingly - “Scout” is an expedition solo, with low weight and normal handling.
I sat almost level with the sides and rowed along them with my usual oar (227 cm). My rowing style has hardly changed compared to Desna. The inflatable bottom turned out to be very comfortable for the legs and the boat itself, which thanks to it “licks” obstacles. But the “bones” of the apron were particularly successful - they constantly fell out of pockets, got twisted - the design was not thought through. In addition, it is better to shorten the front apron - otherwise it is difficult to get in and out often.
“Scout-36” is basically impossible to “break” at the threshold and is very difficult to pitch.
...But the clothes created a solid hump, which only added to the sailiness of the boat, whose round bows were strongly lifted up. Lake routes and floods with the wind are death for the “single-engine” “Scout”. Scooping out with the last of my strength against the storm gusts at the mouth, I regretted it more than once, that I sold Desna...
...Apparently, inflated clothes are not for women in the spillJI’ll have to buy myself a Marinka, no other way...
I will not undertake to assert, as was said in one report, that “Pikes” are an ideal rafting vehicle for Shchugor. If in the upper reaches they “made” heavy frames on small riffles and rifts, then in the lower reaches they were hopelessly behind and rested their horns in an unequal struggle with the wind... The best boat, in my opinion, turned out to be the design bureau “Kolibri” - loaded under “solo”, it got off with a shallow draft, and excellent performance would have allowed her to always go ahead if Ilyukha don't constantly drag someone in towJ
Drop-in and drop-out
To avoid any hassles and unnecessary expectations, it is better to order the delivery in advance. A group of more than 8 people may have problems - we had to order a whole bus stop to Vuktyl, which cost almost twice as much.
You should arrive in Ukhta (trains from Yaroslavka to Sosnogorsk, Vorkuta or Labytnangi) no later than 21.00 - otherwise the car will not make it to the ferry, and you will have to wait for several hours on the banks of Pechora. The car takes about 4-5 hours to Vuktyl. The road is first asphalt, then concrete, then compacted primer, cruising speed is 80 km/h.
There are continuous escheated swamps around, Vuktyl itself also actually stands on swamps. And under the swamps there is gas, gas... Not far from the city, the “eternal flame” is constantly burning, burning millions of cubic meters of gas in vain...
You will have to spend the night in Vuktyl, and in the morning register at the park administration and go to the river.
By the way, in the same house there is a grocery store where you can buy almost all the necessary food. The Urals do not belong to the park, and the management is forced to look for cars outside, from gas companies. There are “loaves”, they are cheaper. However, the “loaf” with a parallel group broke down before reaching the pass, and we had to take six people with cargo on board.
At the final point there is no particular place to put up a slipway, but a small group can still put up tents near the shore and spend the night. We packed the boats in the evening, so the next day turned out to be fully operational. Slipway coordinates: N 63 18 32.6 E 59 11 20.0, approximately 5 km below mark 389 on the map.
In order to order both cars, you can contact the National Park Directorate no later than 10 days before departure.
Phones: 8-821-46-24-763 Fomicheva Tatyana Savvateevna (park director),
8-821-46-22-639 Valentina Umrilova (assistant director).
Address: Vuktyl, Komsomolskaya, 5.
You can also communicate by mail:ftsnpark@ komifree. ru
All questions can be resolved in writing, including sending a list of the group with passport details and route to save less time on registration. Without a voucher, the group may have problems at checkpoints and with operas.
Just in case, Komi rescue service: 8-821-46-912-63
...The ejection should be discussed separately. For those who do not have problems with funds, you can pre-order a boat from Vuktylakustyu Shchugor through the national park through the directorate, and at the same time a car. But since you will have to pay for both runs, the boat will cost a hefty sum. Therefore, it is better to plan your exit to Pechora so that you leave by Tuesday or Thursday, when a regular boat leaves from Ust-Shchugor to Vuktyl (schedule - 13.30, but sometimes it is late). The boat takes about 4 hours to reach the pier. To make things really good, you can order a car directly from Ust-Shchugor to the pier to Ukhta or Sosnogorsk. There is no post office or hospital in the village, but there are several huts from which you can call, having agreed with the owners. We called from the saleswoman’s house (I should immediately note that the store in the village does not work, everything is brought only to order and you shouldn’t count on food and drink there, unless someone sells natural products - there are cows, vegetable gardens.) We were forced to spend the night on the banks of the Pechora in front of the village, on a grassy bank, relying only on their food.
The locals behave quietly, only the sorcerers beg for alcohol, and the day before our arrival, icons were removed from one house...
Taxi control room telephone number in Vuktyl (from Ust-Shchugor): 9-2-10-44
With some minor hiccups, the cargo "Gazelle" was delivered to the pier and for 3,000 rubles and 4 hours brought us to Sosnogorsk, where we immediately bought tickets for the Labytnangi-Moscow train (leaves at half past two in the morning, arrives in Moscow at 5 in the morning).
You can also drive up to the Vuktyla bus station from the pier and go to Sosnogorsk by regular bus. – if you fit in;) There is a stall selling beer and chips on the pier, and it’s quite far from the city.
There is also nothing to eat at the Sosnogorsk night store near the station, so tighten your belts until the first grannies with pies and potatoes at the stopsJ
The described method of ejection is the only real one today. Dreams of leaving on a barge to the glorious city of Pechora did not come true. There are almost no barges and no one they don’t take us on board anymore - we spent almost the whole day idling on the shore, shouting to people passing by watercraft. Forget also about the possibility of leaving by boat or car from Ust-Voi or Berezovka. All roads are winter roads, and boats in the Pechora region were completely canceled this year due to catastrophically low water. Besides, shoveling several tens of kilometers along Pechora turned out to be an unpleasant task: the separated part of the group I rowed in the wind for three days, got caught in a storm with a meter-long wave, there was nowhere to stand on the banks - either waist-deep grass, or taiga - thick dead wood or swamp... The water in the river is disgusting, smells rotten, and the rocks along the bank are covered with an oil film.The Pechora fairway there has not been cleaned for a long time - there are no funds, and accordingly, navigation is getting worse and worse every year. Only chance helped them: the marking boat took pity on the small children and took them to Byzovaya, from where they took a regular bus to the city of Pechora (20 km) and left on the same Labytnangovsky train. As a result, Roma, Masha and Mikhail arrived in Moscow 3 days later than us.
Prices:
I will give the basic prices for 2004, in round numbers:
- reserved seat Moscow - Ukhta – 640 rubles (1 person).
- Gazelle from Ukhtydo Vuktyl - 2500-2600, PAZik - 5000 rubles. By the way, on the way back we were charged money for the ferry crossing, separately - 250 rubles.
- “Ural” to Shchugor: from 10,000 to 14,000 rubles.
- “Baton” to Shchugor: ~ 5000 rub.
- Boat from Ust-Shchugor to Vuktyl – 400 rub. ticket (1 person)
- Car from Vuktyl to Sosnogorsk (or Ukhta) – 3000 rub.
- Reserved seat Sosnogorsk – Moscow – 720 rub.
- Ordering a boat from Ust-Shchugor to Vuktylu – ~ 7000 rub.
Hotel in Vuktyl: from 200 to 320 (1 person). for different numbers.
Overnight "on the floor" at the park management: 30 rubles (1 person).
Travel and more:
- 1 day in the park: 35 rubles per adult and 10 rubles per child
- Photos, videography, travel arrangements, escorts, permits, etc. – a total of approximately 1200. Plus some organizational expenses. VAT, etc. is also added to the amounts;
I would advise the management to simplify payments to visitors. For example, I can say that I won’t shoot, and I’ll whine 300 rubles. Who will check? And yet, everything is filmed. Therefore, it is better not to increase the list of payments, especially with pennies, as they sent me, but simply to increase the amount of the voucher for an adult tourist. Let's say, up to 50-60 rubles. Then a person will be able to properly calculate in advance how much the trip will cost him, and will be sure that this amount includes everything necessary for payments to the park.
On average, it seems to me that a drop-off trip will cost 150 USD per person. Less than going to Turkey, but much more fun!
Equipment and cards
The creations of human hands behaved differently. Sonisdohla's combat chamber on the third day of the rafting - a part fell out. Considering that the digital camera taken by Irka turned out to have a dying battery, the full-length film this time was covered with a copper basin.
But the compact digital camera performed superbly in field conditions Minolta Dimage G 400. Constant shooting, from water and in the rain, did not particularly affect the life of the camera, and if not for the constant viewing of the footage and deleting it, even one battery might have been enough (a total of 2 batteries were taken, 330 meg of memory.) Unfortunately, in the end along the route, I sowed two flash drives - all the numerous cliffs, rocks, gates and waterfalls I filmed - I sprinkle ashes on my head! – except for one photograph of the Lower Gate, the “figures” of these places no longer exist. The rocks of the middle reaches and lower reaches are filled with a scanner with regular photos and videos. By the way, I would like to note that no filters were applied to any of the photographs in the gallery - everything is “live”.
The following couple worked just as well: GPS Geko 201 and Palm Sony Clie Peg SJ 22. Three times a day I determined our location with an error of 30 meters on the topographic map. Parking lots, almost all snacks, a threshold, a checkpoint, and an anti-slipway are marked. In principle, we could have done without this, but the exact location helped us understand the distance traveled and determine the speed of movement - the help of electronics in this can hardly be overestimated. “Palma” definitely ruled. Firstly, they were downloaded into it in the format txt all the necessary addresses, reports and descriptions, so as not to carry a pile of papers. Secondly, topographic maps - analogues of paper ones - also lived in it without problems, and the program PathAway version 3.x has proven itself in the most positive way. Thirdly, the presence of a full-screen calculator with a touch screen made our life much easier when making settlements during drop-offs. Fourthly, you can perfectly draw diagrams of thresholds and other things in it, if you wish, I just had a bummer, and I kept my diary the old fashioned way, in a notebook. However, with the help of a stylus and a virtual keyboard, you can take notes, or even better, buy a small flexible keyboard, which is sold to Sonya palms.
The “handheld” lived well, even in damp conditions. No problems connecting to GPS and there was no definition on the map. The wonderful tandem fit in the CD box and rode in a small bag on the boat right at hand.
Black and white copies of the cards in ROM were not needed - the flash drive with color ones worked without failures.
“Geko” also worked without problems, one set of batteries is enough when using the navigator several times a day (without recording a track; a total of 14 days). “Palma” ate its charge, 3 alkaline “Krona” Energizer and a couple of coin-cell batteries; I suspect that they still have a lot of energy left, although the charge was given as much as 60%, but their capacity is also not small.
Actually, with such stable operation of the equipment, it was possible not to take paper maps at all...J(joke) However, there is still some truth in this - not everyone has laser printers and laminate for printing maps, but everyone can upload them to a PDA.
There were three CB radios in the group - two Berkut 601m2 and Alan 42. In principle, one of the radios was practically not used. The different speeds of movement of the crews stretched us for several kilometers, so communication was very useful.
Sometimes dispatchers were caught on the Berkut in the evenings, but it was completely unclear from which city and which side of the Urals (channel 805). The nearest city was no closer than 80-100 km. However, this did not prevent us from communicating at all, and at some point the dispatcher seemed to us the only way to contact people in the event of force majeure (and force majeure almost came when Knyshev fell ill).
Maps for printing and calibration were taken from the Vesla.ru library, Northern and Subpolar Urals - 6 in total:
Q 40-139,140
Q 40-129.1 30
Q40-141,142
Q40-143,144
P4005-06
P4011-12
Two “three rubles” of the upper reaches and 4 kilometers. In “three rubles” the side of the square corresponds to 10 km, in the rest – 2 km. Electronic versions of maps are built on their basis and are designed for use with a pocket computer. PalmOs and PathAway 3 programs.
I gave the paper kit to the state inspector at the checkpoint - it turns out that the rangers don’t have topographic color maps!
In general, most of the houses indicated on the General Staff spreads no longer exist. But new ones appeared, which I marked on electronic maps for palm.
On the site of the extinct village of Michabichevnik, a house and a bathhouse are already being built - the builders are sure that they are riveting a “residence” for the former head of Komi, and the state inspectorate classifies the buildings as national park objects. The truth could not be foundJ
You can read a detailed description of working with the Minolta Dimage G400 digital camera, Berkut radios, Palm Sony Clie, GPS and PathAway programs in my articles in the “Equipment” section.
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my gratitude to the director of the park, Tatyana Savvateevna Fomichova, and her assistant, Umrilova Valentineza, for their assistance in transporting
And also to the captain of the boat "Puteisky-40" Viktor Kirillovich Shpakov and foreman Vadim for responsiveness and assistance in ejectionAnd also to Ilyukha, without whose help I would still be rowingJ
conclusions
Shchugor is an excellent non-extreme river with unprecedented purity of water, absence of population and ticks, excellent fishing, wonderful views, wild banks, decent flow, rocky cliffs; sailing along it, you feel true relaxation and complete detachment from civilization. Unlike the closed channels of Karelia and lowland rivers, the eye simply rested on the distant hills, sometimes pink from the sunset, sometimes gloomy from the clouds... The colored patterns of licked stones and rock slabs with quartz veins running under the bottom constantly reminded you that you were in the arms of ancient mountains ... And everything else became unimportant and far away. I went on a hike completely sick, like a broken trough, but rowing therapy and cool living water worked a miracle - now Shchugor will be firmly associated with the sanatoriumJ
The first acquaintance with the Urals left the most pleasant impressions, despite the lack of mushrooms this year and the somewhat long route. But it is impossible to shorten it, unfortunately or fortunately.Therefore, Shchugor cannot fit into two weeks; for normal rest he needs 20 days. The entire route (with a couple of days) is covered in 13-14 days, drop-off and drop-off - 5-6 days. The minimum known travel time without days at high water is 8 days. But this is more self-torture than relaxation.
The wind in your face and the midges that appeared in the lower reaches are perhaps the only troubles of the route. I’ve already written about how to deal with midges, but the wind seems to have stressed me out of the whole group...J
The most sane description of the river http://webdesign.perm.ru/005/05/index3302.htm
True, in our low water, a lot of things have changed - there are more stones, and the strength of the rapids is not the same, and the current is weaker, and the water is warmer. In general, we need to make adjustments for the wind :)
Photo: Ilyukha, Roman Soloviev, Khanuma.
Some information about the Yugyd Va park was taken from the Internet.
summer 2004
Shchugor (Shchugyr, Shchuger, in the upper reaches Sakurya) - a river in the Komi Republic, the right tributary of the Pechora.
Length - 300 km, basin area - 9660 km². Sources on the western slope of the Northern Urals. The river is fed by rain and snow. The average annual water flow is 252 m³/sec. Freeze-up from late October to early June. Shchugor is a spawning ground for salmon.
Shchugor flows its entire route through the territory of the Yugyd Va National Park. The river originates in one of the most remote places, in the region of the “pole of relative inaccessibility” of the Northern Urals. The source is located at an altitude of more than 750 meters above sea level, between the peaks of the Molydiz, Akvalsupnel and Paryaur mountains. For the first 100 km, Shchugor flows almost strictly north, along a valley bounded by the meridional ridges Yany-Yankech, Khosaner and Summakhner from the east, and the Tuytymneyor, Telpossky and Uuty ridges from the west. In the area of Mount Telposis, Shchugor follows the conventional border between the Northern and Subpolar Urals. Here it turns west and crosses the western ridges of the Ural Mountains, breaking through between Telposis and the southern slopes of the Issledovatelsky Ridge. Further, the Shchugor crosses the Parma region and flows into the Pechora near the village of Ust-Shchugor.
Shchugor is distinguished by its exceptional purity and transparency of water. The river is shallow along almost its entire length, abounds in rifts, and there are rapids. There are several interesting geological monuments on Shchugor: Ovin-stone, Upper, Middle and Lower Gates.
Shchugor arises from springs in the very heart of the Northern Urals, flows briskly between the ridges along the valley to the north, and then goes west, along the Pripechora lowland and flows into Pechora. The most picturesque places on Shchugor begin after the confluence of the river. Telpos, when the first high rocks appear. 20 km below Telpos, Shchugor receives the Sedya River on the left and enters the Parma region. After 7 km, on the left bank you can see the remains of the Gerd-Yu settlement, opposite the picturesque Gerd-Yu rock. The width of the river here is 100 m.
In the area of Parma (110 km) Shchugor has the character of a mountain river. Deep long stretches alternate with rifts and rapids. At 30 km of the way there is a Wide reach, below which there is a strong roll - the Narrow Zev rift. Its length is 2 km. It is divided into Upper, Middle and Lower. The most stormy is the Medium one near the Shelyasor rock.
42 km below the mouth of Telpos, Shchugor receives a large right tributary - Maly Patok, from where one of the most beautiful sections of the river begins. Behind on the horizon you can see the silhouettes of the Jurassic with the bulk of Telposis. A river flows ahead, bordered by coastal forests. This canyon-like section of the river valley. Shchugor, which is a complex geological natural monument of federal significance, is subject to protection. The rocky sides of the canyon are composed of coal deposits. The upper part of the section is represented by massive reef limestones of the Gzhel stage with a rich assemblage of fossil brachiopods. At the left bank outcrop, a contact between Carboniferous limestones and Permian terrigenous deposits can be traced. In the right bank part of the canyon there are interesting weathering forms: pillars, cones, caves, niches, bas-reliefs. Below Malyi Patokok Shchugor narrows, forming Upper gate. This is one of the most beautiful places in the national park.
2 km below the gate is the Krivoy Roll - a steep drop with a complex fairway between two islands. Below the Crooked Creek is the Krasny Stream. Zyryan - roll in front Middle Gate(the most spectacular). From the Upper Gate to the Middle Gate is 9 km. In the rocks of the Middle Gate the largest cave is Sher-kyrta. Its length is 100 m, the height of one of the grottoes is 6 m. The Gate rocks rise to 100 m. Upon exiting the Gate, the left bank goes far away, but the right one rises and exposes Permian thin-layered sandstones and shales.
9 km below the Gate, Shchugor receives Bolshoi Patok, in front of which there is a violent, unsafe rapid with high standing ramparts. At the mouth of Bolshoy Patok there is an island that is bypassed along the left channel. The width of the river here is 180-200 m. Below Balshoy Patok there are many small places. After 2.5-3 hours, the channel branches into 2 channels, forming an island. 24 km below the mouth of Bolshoy Patok is the village of Michabechevnik. From it to Ust-Shchugor 32 km. This section of the river has dangerous rapids and very picturesque Lower Gate. There are many fossil shells and 7 caves in their layers. The width of the channel here is up to 300 m, there are many shallows. Several islands appear, but they also disappear. The valley becomes wide, and after a few hours the current carries it to Pechora. On the left bank of the Pechora, 2 km below the mouth of the Shchugor, is the village of Ust-Shchugor.
21 July
At 18.10 the bus left the bus station in Syktyvkar. In the trunk there are two boats and two huge backpacks and a bag with tents. We are going from Syktyvkar to Ukhta. We're sleeping. Let's read. We're sleeping. Stop in Yemva. I haven't stayed here for a long time. The stop is not near the train station, as before, but somewhere in the city. There is no toilet nearby, no store, but there is a cafe with beer. There is no place for people to wait either. The parking lot is 30 minutes, and people are just standing on the side of the road.
Let's move on. We're sleeping. Let's read. Stop in Chinyavorika. It's getting dark. We stand for 15 minutes, it’s not clear why. There is no toilet. There is nothing at all. People stand in a bunch on the side of the road. Why the stop is not clear. Let's move on. We sleep and read again. I'm reading Propp. Or rather, I’m finishing reading it. Finished. My son is traveling by bus to Ukhta for the first time.
At midnight we enter Ukhta. I'm calling a taxi. We disembark. The taxi is already waiting. This is a minivem from Lada. We load into a taxi. All our junk fits and there is still room.
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Can you take me to Vuktyl tomorrow?
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Yes
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Then we'll call you at 3 p.m.
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Fine.
Well, I got a big car for tomorrow. We are approaching the house where we will spend the night. 2nd entrance. Let's unload. I'm calling. Kiril comes out. We begin to carry things to the 4th floor. They feed us. Sema is playing on the computer in his room. Oleg sits down next to him. I sit down at the TV. I'm watching the movie Desperado. We're all in bed at 2 o'clock. My son and I are on the sofa in a large room. Our things are here in a big pile.
I get up at 9.30. I drink tea. At 10 Oleg and Semyon get up. We're having breakfast. I'm going to the store. Heat. I buy extra bags for things and bananas with water for the trip. I return to the apartment. I'm reading the article about Propp at the end of the book. Watching TV. I'm calling the airport. At 14.00 it is clear that G. arrived without delay. We are waiting for G. from the airport. Let's eat.
G. arrives. Our taxi driver immediately arrives. Let's load. Everything fits.
At 15.00 G., I, Oleg and Semyon leave for Vuktyl. Drove from Azerbaijan He’s going home soon, so he won’t meet us in Vuktyl on the way back and take us to Ukhta; we’ll have to look for a taxi for the way back at the place we’re going. An hour later the driver nods. G. notices this. I drive instead of the taxi driver. Let's go. The driver is dozing with the children in the back seat. After 2 hours I reached the crossing. The driver got enough sleep. Pleased.
We pay 250 rubles for transporting the car. And for each person 60 rubles. People sail separately from the ferry on a boat. This is a new way to shake out money, but people say they are very happy because there are no more interruptions. Previously, there were many interruptions in the crossing and people waited for a long time, but now the crossing operates constantly.
Hot. You can see the place where there was a special village where my mother, Ichet-di, was born. Let's go. The road became very bad. Crushed stone. At 18.30 we arrived in Vuktyl. We circle around the city in search of a hostel near the office of the Yugyd-Va park. We ask the woman. She shows. We're approaching. Let's unload. Let's move in. We pay 500 rubles per person. The administrator couldn’t write “Yugyd-Va” for a long time; in the end she wrote “Yugyt-2”. The 9-story dorm building is huge and empty. Double rooms. Toilet and shower in the hallway. Cosy.
Let's go along Vuktyl. We went to eat at a restaurant serving Caucasian cuisine. There is a lot on the menu, but nothing. We take okroshka with kefir, pasta, cutlet, tea, juice, beer. Cheap. Well-fed. Let's go to the shop. We buy more stew and pasta. Ice cream. We find the office of the Yugyd-Va park, it is opposite the hostel. We return to the dorm. Trying rubberized bags for backpacks. A necessary thing when rafting. One of the bags is very narrow - this is bad.
We go out again and walk around the city. Midge. Warm. We reach the forest. It's around the city. The vuktyl is very small. We buy some thick bags from one open store, they might come in handy. We return to the dorm. Sleep.
In the morning we leave the dorm. We take things out. G. and I go to the Yugyd-Va office. The guys stay near their things near the dorm. I go up to the 5th floor. There is the Yugyd-Va office there. They're already waiting for me. They issue a ticket. They said we were driving a park car. I pay about 6,000 rubles for a transfer to Shchugor. I receive checks. I go out onto the porch with the girl who arranged everything. She shows me one of the workers we are traveling with. A UAZ “loaf” drove up. Loading up. We wait. The workers are also busy. There are two workers: fashion and old. The old one's name is Mikhalych. Young from Moldova. As it all started there, he left. Mikhalych has been working in the park for a long time. Previously, he was a foreman in Lemtakh. Knows my Uncle Vanya well.
Mikhalych is traveling on some business and asks us to go to his house. The deputy for tourism comes out. He wishes him luck and warns that the gas workers may not let him in.
We're leaving. We're going to Mikhalych's house. We are standing outside the high-rise building, waiting. 30 minutes. A man appears, also waiting for Mikhalych. Swears. Mikhalych arrives. We climb into the park's UAZ and drive off. We left at 10.00. There were 2 park workers in the car, and there were four of us driving.
First stop at CS-3 (to compressor station). Checkpoint. Checking passports. Children are allowed through without a census. The guards chuckle. There are 18 people from another group sitting at the entrance to the checkpoint. They will be checked later. According to Mikhalych, they still have a lecture on the rules of being on the gas pipeline. They give us a reminder and let us go in peace. Since my last visit in 1998, the access system for the gas pipeline road has become more complicated. Previously, you could simply bypass the CS and walk along the road freely. Now everything is tougher. We leave the checkpoint and drive further through the territory of the police station.
We are driving through the territory of KS-3. Turbine noise. Checkpoint again, exit. They hardly look at us. They are released from the territory. We are driving along the gas pipeline. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Rain. Heat. Stop near the Sukhoi stream. We carry water. The water is very cold. The glacier feeds the stream. We climb Pelener. Pass. The car has overheated. We got up. Cool the engine. Strong wind. Let's go out. We wait. A crashed helicopter is visible. A communications machine is visible in the distance. Stones. Bushes. Moss. We begin the descent. Cool. The driver often grabs the handbrake. We crawl slowly down.
Plein Air Photos
The hills are coming again. Mount Yaruta is visible. Mikhalych points to this. Shchugor begins there. You come across strange names for streams: “first”, “second”, “third”. We are approaching Shchugor. Bridge. Over the bridge to the left. Through the forest. Small parking lot for gas workers. We're passing through. We turn into the forest on the left. There is a hut, a bathhouse, and two gazebos. This is the park checkpoint on Verkhny Shchugor. They take us down to the river. I'm going upstairs to cook food. The guys with G. are inflating the boats. I quickly cook pasta with pork. Tea. The guys rise from the shore. Let's eat. The workers and driver do not eat. They are waiting for us. We go down and load the boats. Let's set sail. We are accompanied by Mikhalych and one of the workers.
We are pulling the boat. The guys are walking along the shore. Too small. We go, we drag, we go again. Soon they began to take children on board. The river became deeper. Oleg is with me, Semyon and G. are in the boats. We passed the “Camel” stone with three humps. Let's go. Let's swim. On the way we came across a beautiful roll. The water falls from the slab, but it is impossible to swim. Small. We lower the boats.
It began to rain. At 20.30 we get up because of the rain. G. and Semyon got wet because they fell behind. We put up tents on the left bank, on the pebbles. We turn over the boats. The rain has stopped. Cooking food. Buckwheat porridge with chicken. Let's go to bed.
The Podcherem-Shchugor pairing has been attractive for a long time, but it seemed that it would take a lot of time (3-4 weeks).
But we had to keep it within 2 weeks, so we chose a shorter portage option - not through Ponya River, and through Telpos River. I was a little concerned that this route had not been used for a long time... but I wanted to try.
The portage turned out to be very difficult Telpos River, especially 2-3 km before the stream Vaska-Kemasny-Yol(floodplain forest littered with windbreaks and densely overgrown with grass, the GPS signal is often lost, you start circling)…
And there was no climbing (the weather did not give us a “window”).
Our trip
But, let's start in order: the summer of 2019 in the basin is characterized by unprecedented water flow (it rains all summer and the spring level on the rivers lasted until the fall!). In such conditions, it is much more difficult to rise against the current: pebble spits and gently sloping banks are flooded, the current is stronger, and there are fewer reaches. Therefore, after speaking with a national park ranger in Podcherye village Evgeniy - asked to throw us higher Orlovka village.
“The time will come when a city will be built on the other side of the Pechora, and a beautiful park will be laid out here and working people will enjoy this amazing spectacle.” V.A.Rusanov
Podcherye - Kamchatka
Arrived late in the evening steamship "Shapkina" V Podcherye village and immediately transfer to the “komyachka” (a long wooden punt boat with a special “ski”, under the engine it can pass through rocky rifts). It was amazingly comfortable to move against the current at night on such a boat - very soft and reliable. Drove the boat inspector Alexey, a native and expert of these places.
The steamboat "Shapkina" is sailing through a thunderstorm
In the morning they already began to move up on their inflatable kayak "Lukna-470", but due to the high water we spent more time on foot and rarely paddled. I manage to do up to 20 kilometers a day. But the higher you go, the harder each km becomes. The parking lots are in good condition, there are many new shelter huts (with bathhouses).
shelter “Petny” (R. Podcherem) (everything is there - a canopy and a hut and a fireplace and a bathhouse and even a woodshed!! and almost all the shelters on Podcherem and Shchugor are built this way) (and everywhere, of course, there is a toilet and a place for garbage )
According to plan we reach Kamchatka parking lots, there is no shed or hut - only waist-deep grass. And this is where the extreme begins. Firstly, the weather is radically deteriorating - there is a thunderstorm almost continuously! Secondly, there are no remnants of the path, no marks - we walk along the azimuth (in 2 walks).
Stream Vaska-Kemasny-Yol
Our first trip was according to plan before stream Vaska-Kemasny-Yol(for myself, shortened to Vaska-Yol), and during a thunderstorm at night we found ourselves in the most difficult and unpleasant place on this portage - it was impossible to go straight - windfall, hummocks, thickets! The GPS signal is often lost - you start to “wrap up” (also, the batteries on the GPS run out, and there are spare ones in your things, but it takes a long time to search...). In general, when we, with incredible physical efforts, made 2 circles in one place and did not get any closer to Vaska-Yol stream- I had to leave the drop here and with great difficulty break out of these “witch” circles...
The next day we had a day's rest - Volodya's waders were completely torn, and he didn't have much strength to walk... But the next day, in the sun, we walked this difficult section almost straight (the sun helped us walk straight when the GPS signal disappeared).
Successfully reached Telpos River, and there, due to the high water, it was difficult to find a place to camp (there was water almost everywhere!!). But we settled down...
Rafting on the Telpos River
Then there was the 2nd trip to get there and we started rafting along Telpos River.
I was struck by the pristine pristineness of the shores - no traces anywhere, beautiful! (but problematic with campsites). The water was very high, the speed was 10-15 km/h. 50 kilometers of the river to the mouth could be flown in 3-4 hours.
We walked a little and stopped for a day at the mouth Semidyrka River- to stay longer on such a beautiful river. At night, the water began to rise sharply and our evening fire on the spit was flooded by almost 1 meter, but the tent was higher and the water did not reach... although we were worried!
But rafting Telpos River It was fabulous on such water - no shallows, no stones - you fly straight at high speed! But very quickly Telpos river ended.
Shchugor River
Although on Shchugor River In such water the speed was high. We walked 60-70 kilometers in a day without effort, and every other day we had to take days off to get to Ust-Shchugor village on time (tickets for the boat were purchased in advance).