and read so much about—Baikal. Fi- nally it comes into view, a blue expanse stretching out to the horizon. Baikal is literally a sea of superla-
tives. At roughly 25 million years old, it is the most ancient lake on Earth. Sometimes referred to as Russia’s Gala- pagos, it’s home to over 1,200 endemic animal species. Most famous of these are the nerpa seals, the planet’s only freshwater seals. We often spot them curiously watching our canoes from a safe distance. Nestled in a rift between continental
plates, Baikal’s depth reaches 1,637 meters, making it the world’s deepest lake. This incredible depth, combined with a surface length of 636 kilometers and a width of 60 kilometers, means Baikal holds more water than all five Great Lakes combined—20 percent of the world’s unfrozen fresh water. The lake’s size makes it a daunting
place to paddle. When the winds pick up the swell can grow to several meters in height. An old fisherman spots us and rows
his small wooden boat in our direction. A tattoo of a lighthouse is inked into the weathered skin of his right arm; his face is wrinkled from a lifetime spent under the screaming Siberian sun. He looks each of us in the eye, and through very animated sign language, warns us of Baikal’s violent storms: Never stray far from shore. The lake marks the final leg of our
journey. We’ll spend the next three weeks paddling around Baikal’s southern tip to its only outflow, the Angara River, and finish in the metropolis of Irkutsk. We pull ashore on the first sandy
beach we spot and celebrate our arrival Russian style: with a shot of vodka and a dive into the frigid waters. Tonight we’ll dine on omul, a delicious Baikal fish—courtesy of our generous fisher- man friend. •
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www.canoerootsmag.com 47
ILLUSTRATION: LORENZO DEL BIANCO
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