This is the math I do in my head: 1,500 divided by 25 equals
60. That’s the length of the Selenge River and its uppermost tributary in
kilometers, divided by an anticipated average distance per day, meaning that
after 60 days, I’ll be rowing an inflatable boat atop the biggest body of fresh
water on the planet: Russia’s Lake Baikal.
Because 60 days is only 2 months, which does not seem long
at all, I redo the arithmetic, starting at the river’s headwaters in the Ulaan
Taiga, a sparsely populated region well-known among Mongolians for its shamans
and reindeer herders, then continuing downhill, to that unknown place where the
initial trickle will gather first into a brook and eventually become a
navigable stream.
At this point in my calculations, the expedition should be
barely a week old, though no doubt our forced reliance on horses and camels
will make it feel like a much longer span. Seven days, perhaps, before we can
climb into the boats, before it’s all riffles and pools and very few bridges: the
floating, Russian army-surplus monstrosity below Bayanzurkh, the concrete model
near Mörön, the highway span north of Bulgan that I know only by hearsay.
Here’s another bit of math: of the river’s 1,500 meandering
kilometers, I am familiar only with about 10 percent, a mere 100 miles or so. By
that reckoning, embarking on this expedition from Mongolia to Siberia is akin
to setting out on the road from Paris to Budapest and only knowing the way to
Reims.
That is, it would
be like that, if we were riding
bicycles instead of rowing boats, along a route liberally populated with
restaurants, hotels, and other travelers’ conveniences. But we’re not—and for
that I’m grateful.
Instead of sampling roadside cafés, we will collect data on water quality, mayfly populations, taimen genetics, and
angler effort, among other things. And my obsessive calculations? A symptom, perhaps, of both
anticipation and anxiety, like a rookie guard mentally rehearsing plays before
tip-off, or a teacher counting heads before a field trip.
For more information on the 2018 Baikal Headwaters
Expedition, visit baikalheadwaters.org. To donate, please go to fundrazr.com/baikalheadwaters.
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