Putorana PlateauPutorana Plateau, chapter 4 of 10

Khoisinine hours through the bog

Rubber boots, a canyon with huge torrents of water, a "garden" of red blueberry bushes and a bear scare on the way back.

Trip: September 2026Updated: 2 November 20262 min read

outdoorsadventure
The Khoisi river churning between dark rocks, larches all around

The fourth chapter of the Putorana Plateau trip and the most exhausting day of the hike: the route along the Khoisi river (stress on the “i”).

A morning with little cakes

The morning started touchingly: it was our cook’s birthday, but she was the one who made each of us a mini cake: a square piece of apple cake with a candle 🥹 And she said we should all be happy together. We made wishes and blew out the candles.

Boots and forest-tundra

Then the harsh realities began. The road ran through forest-tundra along the river, so everyone was given rubber boots. You can’t get through there any other way.

We walked, as almost everywhere except the photo-tour-only days, as two groups together. The groups kept mixing, and that was fun: sometimes I myself forgot which group I was in, and the other group forgot I wasn’t with them.

It wasn’t so much hard as exhausting. At the start we spent a long time taking photos, and then everyone went at their own pace, and the group stretched out and split up.

Forest-tundra: sparse larches and ginger bushes under clouds
Two people with rucksacks walking along a wet trail
A river in a gorge among a yellow forest

The canyon and the “garden”

We were heading, by the way, to a canyon. A very steep one, with huge torrents of water and rock walls that rise about twenty metres above the river. The way through bog, mud and puddles took about four hours one way, or even more. Just as we reached the canyon, it began to rain.

After that part of the group went on with Denis, me included. We walked another hour to an hour and a half, went down closer to the water and passed through the “garden”. That’s what we called the place, because it’s amazing even in the rain: the colours shimmer, with bright red blueberry bushes all around, a stream, bright green moss and yellow shrubs. It wasn’t just beautiful; it was insanely picturesque.

A rushing torrent between the rock walls of a canyon
A stream among moss and stones
Red blueberry bushes and green moss
Stones, moss and larches in the rain
The “garden”, even in the rain

Back: at a run

We came back at a very brisk pace. We set out at 10:30 a.m. and got back to the base at 7:30 p.m., through bog, mud and puddles. But it was fun.

Also on the way back Genya suddenly started barking, and the guys from the second group blew a bear deterrent. They thought he was barking at a bear. I decided they could see it, and I felt uneasy. But we made it back safely, and everything was fine.