When Echo River Trips asked Vladimir Gavrilov, who literally wrote the book on Russian whitewater (Rivers of an Unknown Land), to lead a trip on his favorite river, expenses be damned, he picked the Kaa-Khem. The 166-mile float begins with an Mi-8 helicopter dropping you in the heavily forested southern province of Tuva, 50 miles north of the Mongolian border. With its vodka-clear waters, exceptional fishing, and swift current—one particularly rambunctious ten-mile section of river offers more than 30 Class III and IV rapids—the Kaa-Khem is reminiscent of the Middle Fork of the Salmon. Except for its location: near the geographic center of the Asian subcontinent, about as far from an ocean as you can get. Then there are the fish. The Kaa-Khem is home to both feisty grayling and harder-to-find taimen, leviathans that feed on mice and that Vlad and his buddies try to land using fur-wrapped pieces of wood with huge hooks. $5,660; July 24–August 7; echotrips.com.
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2011 Trips of the Year: Rafting Siberia (9 of 10)
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2011 Trips of the Year: Rafting Siberia
(Part 9 of 10)
- 2011 Trips of the Year
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Trek Nepal
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Heli-Ski Greenland
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Float Bhutan
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Climb Africa
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Bomb Patagonia
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Paddle Polynesia
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Trek Mongolia
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Rafting Siberia
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Ride France
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2011 Trips of the Year: Rafting Siberia
(Part 9 of 10)
- >
- <
-
2011 Trips of the Year: Rafting Siberia (9 of 10)
-
2011 Trips of the Year: Rafting Siberia
(Part 9 of 10)
- 2011 Trips of the Year
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Trek Nepal
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Heli-Ski Greenland
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Float Bhutan
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Climb Africa
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Bomb Patagonia
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Paddle Polynesia
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Trek Mongolia
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Rafting Siberia
- 2011 Trips of the Year: Ride France
-
2011 Trips of the Year: Rafting Siberia
(Part 9 of 10)
- >
Comments
Great pick! Rafting in Russia was awesome. We went last September on the Snezhnaya River, with Wandrian Adventures and the rapids where class six and we were on pontoons.... The fishing was good, but the taste was not so good. It was also about 1000 less. One other thing, one big part of the adventure is the helicopter ride, it's old school Russian military.
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