Wandering Through Siberia - Russia E7 Trip Report

cruiseroutfit

Supporting Sponsor: Cruiser Outfitters
Hey Kurt,
I wonder if you would be willing to talk some about living out of the rigs and the sleep setups.
I know you guys split up time between hotels, guest places and camping but you still spent alot of time in the rigs. And when you did camp there was the cooking, packing, cleaning and sleeping setup.

Did you guys pack up the sleep setup each morning since it was based on top of the storage?
Was the fridge sizes ok for the group do too big? too small?
How many people were in each rig and was there room for all of each persons gear?
Showers?
Was the water storage enough?

Having owned a Troopie myself I know they really do hold a ton of stuff and the high roof really helps with moving around inside. So I am looking forward to your comments as I go into my next build.
Thanks a ton in advance.


I'd be happy too.

We did have to pack up the sleeping bags and pads each morning. We would stuff the gear normally loaded in the back, down in the under the deck in the bench seat, so to haul 3 people this stuff needed to move. It was a very smooth transition each morning, Greg and I literally had it to under 5 minutes from park to sleep or sleep to driving, it was about as optimized as one could hope for with the situation. We would stuff our sleeping bags & roll the air pads, both of which stored in the roof cargo net. From there, open the second bench back open and slide those bags/boxes back to the back and we were off. Our team lunched along side the road often as well, the setups were designed to allow access to all of the food without needing to unpack a thing, we could have a table off the roof rack and the Red-Oxx chuck-bag open for cooking in under a minute. Kudos to those that laid out the system, I know Greg and Scott brainstormed much of the design and product selection and the gents at AT, Equipt and Proffitts dotted the i's and crossed the t's with the construction and setup.

The fridge sizes were adequate for our group size in fact we often stored things inside the fridges just to 'keep them full' rather than because we really needed too. We made an effort to cook/eat as much local fresh food as we could, thus we would stop in the small towns and visit their local market if we were not sitting down at a local cafe. Things like fresh bread, raw vegetables, etc were all re-stocked every few days as we traveled. In the event we couldn't find fresh foods or we got into a bind, the trucks had food-storage in the 'deep-nine' bins. Literally 2 weeks (or more) worth of emergency food was stuffed into a large duffel bag. We went through a couple of 1 gallon cans of the dehydrated meat (sausage and beef), using it in everything from eggs, burritos and spaghetti. The dehydrated meat was sourced by Greg from a local SLC company (turns out my SIL works for them) and I've grown quite fond of it, for dehydrated meat it was very tasty and filling.

While being self sufficient food wise is obviously an important factor, I think its also important to get to know the local culture and what a better way than at cafe's and diner's frequented only but the locals (very little tourism in these areas). In one case we ended up eating at the dining hall for a local gold mine, it was basically a company store that served meals and sold convenience store type snacks. Some of the neatest memories I have of Russia come from our interactions at the cafe's. We were enjoying our lunch in a small truckers cafe when Andery our fixer came busting through the door "Guys, guys, they have a bear!". We drop our lunch and walk behind the cafe, turns out they have a captive black bear whom enjoys left-overs from the cafe. Those experiences happened at nearly every stop. In another case, we were walking out of breakfast at a small cafe when again Andery our fixer bumped into a geologist whom had just traveled some of the routes we planned to voyage. He took us back to his office in an old government building, and walked us through some very detailed maps they had assembled through their trips into the Road of Bones.

There were 5 in our group between the two rigs. Scott's rig was primarily setup for 2 passengers and Greg's was setup for 4 passengers. We had plenty of room for personal gear, in fact our goal packing each morning was to keep the back seat of Greg's rig clear. This allowed the person in the back seat to stretch out and get some rest, its fair to say everyone got their share of sleep in that back seat over the weeks. We packed appropriate for the trip and knew that excessive luggage was going to be a detriment to loading/unloading, etc. All of my personal gear was confined to a single ARB small duffle bag and a backpack, pretty easy to shuffle around. On the first day of my portion of the trip we had 2 extra participants (Kyle and Earl whom had participated in the first few weeks of the trip), with the extra bodies and gear Scott's rig was setup with the back seat and we were storing gear on the roof racks in the gear bags.

The trucks are equipped with hot water systems but we never ended up utilizing them, had the conditions warranted it would have been an easy deploy but it was never really on our minds :D We stayed in hostel/hotel type places every few nights but it was cold (not sweaty) and we all did our best with personal hygiene so I don't think anyone we begging for a shower (or begging someone else to take a shower) at any point on the trip. Again if it reached that point the system is in place, we just didn't need it.

Water wasn't ever an issue. Each truck had ~5 gallons on board, when shopping at the local markets we would occasionally pickup 1 gallon jugs of water to keep handy in the vehicle. It seemed we each had a nalgene or similar bottle and we would refill as needed from the jugs or container in the back. The trucks had water purifiers packed away, if clean water was an issue at markets or such, there were rivers and lakes often enough that we would never have had an issue.

Hope that helps, lemme know if anything else pops up.
 

r3run33

Adventurer
kurt what did you guys do for toilets??? I know being in remote areas makes it easier with lots of tree etc and no people. plus your group was all men so that also makes it easier ( no offense to women on this forum :)
 

cruiseroutfit

Supporting Sponsor: Cruiser Outfitters
kurt what did you guys do for toilets??? I know being in remote areas makes it easier with lots of tree etc and no people. plus your group was all men so that also makes it easier ( no offense to women on this forum :)

Just that... :D

All of the cities and smaller towns had readily available restrooms, they were often of primitive nature but they were there. When we were in the stix far, far from civilization, we had plenty of room to ourselves :D
 

1leglance

2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
Great post!
Thanks very much for this level of detail.

I really like your thoughts on local cafe's and eating spots. I know for me traveling in Latin America with it's low food cost I much prefer to each at small places like locals and enjoy regional beverages and food styles. Especially when much of the trip happens on known, well traveled routes.

Also good to know on the water setup. I am debating a hot water system vs heating on a stove when I want to shower/bath and while I think drinking water storage is important I am thinking spending on a hot shower vs fuel money isn't worth it.

Also good info on the daily routine with the sleep setups. I am leaning towards packing up each morning as much due to dust in the desert Southwest but good to see you guys did it also for gear storage.

As much as I love the pics and experiences you shared I also think there is true value in learning the day to day trials and tribulations from an extended adventure like yours.
Thanks for being our "everyman" on this.

Please post up anything else from more details on the dehydrated meat (I like that you can get just that to add to meals) to your thoughts on the sleeping bags/pads, to your thoughts on how having a "fixer" impacted the trip compared to if you had tried it without.
 

cruiseroutfit

Supporting Sponsor: Cruiser Outfitters
...Also good to know on the water setup. I am debating a hot water system vs heating on a stove when I want to shower/bath and while I think drinking water storage is important I am thinking spending on a hot shower vs fuel money isn't worth it.

I should mention that for cooking or heating water we used a JetBoil. It was stored in the Red-Ox bag so it was out in a few minutes at each stop. We would make coffee/cocoa/cappuccino for breakfast (instant packs), oatmeal, etc. It worked good for a group of 5, any more than that and I think you might need a second JetBoil or some other higher volume option.

Please post up anything else from more details on the dehydrated meat (I like that you can get just that to add to meals)

The dehydrated meat is from a company called Daily Bread (dailybread.com), Greg planned and packed a nice assortment of their goods, my favorites being the diced beef and sausage crumble. I'm not sure how it relates price wise to other options on the market but the one gallon cans of meat lasted us 5-6 meals (for 5 hungry men). I'd eat it at home :D

to your thoughts on the sleeping bags/pads, to your thoughts on how having a "fixer" impacted the trip compared to if you had tried it without.

The NEMO sleeping pads and bags rocked, that said I'm a pretty easy sleeper... rocks, sand, sofa. So I slept like a baby each night, always warm. The troopies are equipped with diesel powered heaters that are set with a thermostat in the cab. We didn't use the heater every night but when we did, we stayed plenty warm.

Our fixer Andery was fabulous. Could the trip have happened without him? Sure, but we would have missed so much. We spoke for hours on communism, Russian 4-wheeling, education, you name it. He interpreted street signs, menu's, etc. It would have been a different adventure going in 'blind' and our team would have made it un-scathed but he lined up some amazing organic opportunities, the ice mine tour in Tomtor, the geologists office, the bear, his buddies shop in Magadan.
 

r3run33

Adventurer
hello leglance what would you consider for heating the water for your shower?? In my past experience it was just cabin temp from the vehicle because most of the time they are plastic containers; how would you heat these items or do you have another water storage planned??
 

cruiseroutfit

Supporting Sponsor: Cruiser Outfitters
Sit down for a minute and started flipping through the channels, low an behold Long Way Round is on and its the Road of Bones and Magadan segment :cool:
 

cruiseroutfit

Supporting Sponsor: Cruiser Outfitters
where do I sign up?

For Russia?

Book a flight, rent/buy a 4x4 and enjoy. Invite me, I'd love to come along :D

I've been very fortunate to have been invited to join along these segment, still pinching myself when I look over the pics.
 

grimbo

Explorer
Great report thanks for taking the time to share.

So the Troopies are already down here in Oz? When do they start the Oz section? I know originally it was sort of now ish but I seem to recall a mention of March perhaps
 

cruiseroutfit

Supporting Sponsor: Cruiser Outfitters
Great report thanks for taking the time to share.

So the Troopies are already down here in Oz? When do they start the Oz section? I know originally it was sort of now ish but I seem to recall a mention of March perhaps

I'm not sure where exactly they are, somewhere between Magadan and Australia, the next leg kicks off in several months.

Glad you enjoyed the report.
 

cruiseroutfit

Supporting Sponsor: Cruiser Outfitters
When it comes to Trans Siberian train travel, there are basically three options. To go on a luxury group tour, to book a custom individual tour program or to arrange every part of the trip yourself. Learn more about advantages (and disadvantages) of each approach.

Feeling a bit like canned meat but obviously we chose the 3rd option, or I should say we chose to trust in Scott whom had chosen the 3rd option. I just drove :D
 

JLink

Member
Most of the pictures didn't fully load for me (I'm on my phone), but what I did see and what I read painted an awesome journey in my mind. Thanks for putting this together Kurt!

Btw I need to place an order with you soon... :D
 

cruiseroutfit

Supporting Sponsor: Cruiser Outfitters
Most of the pictures didn't fully load for me (I'm on my phone), but what I did see and what I read painted an awesome journey in my mind. Thanks for putting this together Kurt!

Btw I need to place an order with you soon... :D

Thanks and thanks! :D
 

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