In August 2013 I made a trip to the Polar Urals, a geographical region in the middle of Russia, around the Ural Mountains and the border between Europe and Asia. I planned this trip while working at the sports facility of a design and engineering firm. At that time I had had a great deal of cycling experience, most of which was in Crimea, Karelia and the Kola Peninsula. My shortest day trip was near Saint-Petersburg, and it was 200 km. I spent dozens of hours on the road and thousands of dollars on equipment. Waiting for the train without reservations for the next two weeks in the Ural mountains, I had not anticipated problems when I arrived in Vorkuta city 48 hours later.
Imagine a man in Europe or the US sitting in a comfortable seat looking out the train window with a cup of coffee as he flies towards his destination at more than 200 km/h. You can experience exactly this in Russia. However trains from Saint Petersburg or Moscow to the Ural region aren’t as fast or as comfortable. You just need to know who the conductor is. Although they are not all that friendly, they can be your best friend, whether male or female and whateverage, nationality, character or experience. This is the one person in the car who can help you, because with Russian passengers, you never know who you’re dealing with. Train life can be anything, and if you do talk to your fellow passengers, what you hear may be true, half-true or totally fictional. Understand that what you say may be just lost in the chugging of the wheels, or it may even irrevocably alter your future. So if you have questions or concerns, best to ask the conductor, who is probably the least dangerous person in the car–hopefully.
Travel in all the far-reaching regions of Russia is controlled by security services, especially if you are going to areas where there is mining for precious metals like gold . During these trips I had several encounters with security. The most surprising incident occurred seven years ago when a woman asked to take my photo in front of a souvenir shop at a large station near Vorkuta City. Who knows where the photo is now …
To break up the monotony of the 48-hour journey, you can stare out the window or get out and stretch your legs at one of the scheduled stops in a small town. Would you believe that there is a station named “Wow”? Yes, there is such a city. So you can exclaim: “Wow!”, if someone says that he is from Wow (the Russian equivalent of “wow,” of course). Yet what you can also see is the sad picture of rundown towns. For example, forty years ago you were able to go by train farther north to the Khalmer-Yu railway station. Today it happens to be a weapons proving ground called Pamboy, which was bombed by the Russian Army. Why? Typical post-Soviet, Russian inside-politics. For history buffs, it was a sign from president Putin to the whole country that “we can do anything”. Before that, it had been a town for mining high-quality coke to be used in atomic submarines, like the Kursk, well-known for its tragic accidental sinking. Khalmer-Yu is the name of the town and the river, the name meaning “River in the Death Valley.” Vorkuta is the last stop for the day, the biggest in a series of small towns which were all connected to the mining industry. They have almost all since been destroyed. There was nothing to do except visit the grocery store, where I just bought smoked deer meat and fresh bread.
The first real challenges were two rivers, the Small and the Big Usa, neither of which have crossing bridges. I needed to travel 10 kilometers by asphalt road and then 20 kilometers by dirt road passing through the half-abandoned tiny town of Sovetskiy, which today has partially recovered due to nearby mining operations, however at that time, it was not a good scene at all – houses were without windows and had broken roofs. I made my way through the town until I came to the shuttered culture center, then, turning right I moved between several rows of garages. In an hour I saw a blinking ribbon of river behind a cover of small hills and low shrubs. Next I encountered an old dam from which the city of Vorkuta gets its fresh water. Six wind turbines stood nearby as a reminder of blind imitation of foreign ideas. Built in 1993, after the mayor had seen wind power being used during a visit to Greenland, the turbines ran for only three years before the project was abandoned and forgotten.
I didn’t know where I would be able to cross the Small Usa, so I just traveled along it in search of a shallow section to wade through. Even the shallowest part was too deep for the average car to drive across. Before the trip I had a discussion about it in a local forum with local citizens. They said that the river could be forded in places by Jeeps, but not everywhere. Even if you see the end of the road on one side of the river and the beginning on the other, you still need to find a suitable place to cross. I chose a spot that was not too deep and had three separate streams, but the first had a very swift current. When I attempted my first crossing of the Small Usa, I wondered whether maybe it would be better to just go home. I didn’t think about the consequences of jumping into the river, so after walking my bicycle across the first fast stream, my legs spasmed from the cold water. Then I almost fell in and the rapids grabbed my bike. It didn’t sink because of the wheels and hollow frame. I wasn’t ready for the shock of cold water; with the pain in my legs I felt like I couldn’t take another step, but I managed to carry my bicycle across and sat down on some stones. I needed to go back for the bags of food. It was a challenge for me because I couldn’t afford to get sick on the very first day or lose anything in the river. (A few years later I swam there but chose a calmer yet deeper pool of water.) I couldn’t stay on the shore too long because I needed to dry my clothes and get warm again, so I packed my bags and started to ride over the tundra towards the mountains.
There was no road after the Small Usa, which was like a border separating wild tundra from civilization. Certainly, I couldn’t ride or even walk over the low bushes that looked like green Alpine fields in the distance. There was a meter high wall of bushes atop the hills and even higher vegetation around them that protected their slopes from the cold north wind. I had to ride over ruts that could have been made months or even years ago, as the tundra grows very slowly. In my experience, you only run into people in this region once or twice a week. They could be groups of tourists, or the native Komi or Nenets people, who live in temporary dwellings called “chum.” Chums look like the Native American teepees or Sami “lavvus” in Scandanavia but are bigger and wider at the bottom. You can see such Chums along the valley pathways, near big rivers or lakes. It is better to keep a good distance from them because it can be dangerous passing through their territory, as you might encounter roaming dogs and their drunken owners (who often have guns). I would always try to find a detour around any chums. Of course they knew of my presence since the dogs could smell me from several kilometers away and would bark. Sometimes I encountered Komi and their quad bikes (ATV bikes) or handmade cross-country vehicles on their way to the city or coming back with goods.
The most common phrase I would hear talking with the locals was: “We see a lot of different things here, but never a bicycle!” It may have been a surprise for them, but I knew of a few tourists who had traveled by bicycle over the northern regions of Russia because it is cheaper and you can get further on a bike than motor vehicle, apart from helicopters. I guessed they were most surprised because they knew exactly how hard it was to ride over this kind of terrain. They didn’t believe that it was possible without an engine or specialized equipment, and wondered what secret or even magic in my bicycle allowed me to be there. This would be followed up by queries about where I had come from and where I was going. You have to be careful what you say, because If you say something out of place around there, it could cost your equipment or the rest of your belongings. I recommend you tell them you are native to the area and that you’re not alone, that you know perfectly well where you are, and that you may or may not be armed. But I was never met with any aggression out there. It’s not like the countryside around Moscow or other big cities. In this area, everyone knows there’s nowhere to run for help, and any mistake could be your last. However I only nothing but good people.
I arrived at the Big Usa, and crossed without problem; from there I moved on to the next river, the Nia U. I didn’t know that I would go the whole length of Nia U next year on foot. That night I just camped on its high shore. It had been a hard day with two cold baths, covering about 60 kilometers after 48 hours on the train.
The river Nia U flows through a remarkable canyon about 20 meters high/deep. Many people from Europe like this wild place for whitewater sports using catamarans, rafts, and kayaks. You can even meet groups from Siberia where they have lots of big rivers, but they still come to this canyon because of its great views of the Ural Mountains, the tundra and the rapids–despite the often cloudy, gloomy, and gray weather of summer. Though the rapids are not very difficult, and you can’t call them extreme, this is a very good place for vacation and family travel. There are people who return because they were born there, served in the Army, worked as geologists, or even served time in the local prison. I can say with confidence that once you go there, you will come back again and again because the North binds itself to you. If you are a first timer, you will enjoy the fishing, hunting and foraging for berries and mushrooms. I read articles on the Internet about the summer and winter hunting and actually saw some rabbits who had been shot and were hung up near some chums. While I was there I saw a few big rabbits, but they always ran away from me. They were really fast, and big when they stood up on their hind legs. Not only humans were hunting them – eagles would prey on them, as well. These birds fly above the tundra searching for food, and. many eagle nests can be found on the rocky, steep banks.
Camping on the Nea U shore is the most popular tourist pastime. This river is not far from Vorkuta city, but you need to rent large four-wheel drive vehicles to cross the Small and Big Usa rivers, mainly to transport your camping equipment. Then if you go with a large group and even with kids, it’s better for them to avoid 60 kilometers of exhausting travel, carrying all the gear, from the rail station through the nearby towns, the mining areas and the cold rivers. You can just pay some locals and they will help you to transport everything from the luggage car and deliver it to the campsite. You don’t need to worry about that popular companion, the guitar, which can be easily broken on the way, even if its owner is very careful. ‘Bard’ or ‘Folk’ music is a very important part of Russian culture – you can read in wikipedia that in Soviet times, people tried to escape from city life and government control just to do something that they enjoyed. Wikipedia often exaggerates, but It is partly true. Even today bard music is a very romantic way to express yourself, and you can do it your own way and sing about anything while strumming the guitar, even about love for your government and country. But people mostly sing about bravery and risk, friendship and love, trust, mutual support, etc.
Before you begin to sing around the fire, you need to organize your camp. It’s a very popular topic of discussion among tourists. People spend a lot of money to test out various tents, sleeping bags, hiking boots. It’s like a tournament to see who can be the trendiest in the forest. I prefer German and Italian brands, but again it’s more about guessing what is the best for this type of adventure. I had a lot of problems because I made the wrong choices;the most important consideration is weight, which is only relevant for camping situations. I really need a bicycle that I can throw from the rocks and jump down after it, which means it cannot have a light carbon frame because I would break it the first day. So I have a 14 kg mountain bike instead of an 11. Even today I’m learning a lot of new ways to manage my trips.
On the shore of the Nia U river I spent my first night. Lying in my sleeping bag I dreamt about where I would go the next day. It was like a spur from my reality, but in the end, I needed to choose a route. I could either go south along the Nea U where the mountain looks like a human foot on the map, or further east to the Estoto lake that goes right under a cliff face, over a mountain pass to the Paypudina Valley and then another hundred kilometers to the north to two big lakes, or even four hundred kilometers all the way to the Arctic Ocean.
