2 linked stories with separate photos. This one is probably a bit long.
Last year I did a 3 month pushbike trip alone in Siberia following some very rough tracks (BAM Road and the "110" east of lake Baikal). The 110 is basically the holy grail of 4wd tracks in Russia and is very challenging due for just about every reason you could think of, mainly river crossings, mud and a section of river covered with big boulders that doubles as the the road for a while.
The only other vehicle I met aside from the rangers on the first day was a 4wd with 5 Russian guys in it. I had caught up to them and passed them the day before when they were resting and the next day they passed me. About 20 minutes after them passing me I saw this.
Bear Tracks. The tracks were going in the same direction as me and I started to make some noise including singing (would scare anything away if you heard me). It wasn't long before I noticed that the tracks from the bear were on top of the 4wd tracks... I wasn't any more than 30 minutes behind the 4wd and the bear is somewhere between us. I decided to slow my progress down further and get louder. When I saw the 4wd had ditched their trailer in a boggy puddle I was worried. They obviously hadn't been going too quickly if they had ditched the trailer. I was getting worried as it was about 10pm and I only had about 1-2 hours before dark. I didn't feel very comfortable cooking the much needed dinner so close to a bear and felt very uncomfortable sleeping in a tent afterwards even if I did cook away from the tent.
I've been woken by a bear in Romania while trying to sleep in a tent and it was pretty terrifying and led to basically no sleep and a lot of stress. I didn't want a repeat and Siberian bears are much bigger and potentially more aggressive.
While Collecting water from a river I was looking at the collapsing bridge next to me. The 110 (or zimnik 110)was built during a warm winter in the mid 70's. Lake Baikal wasn't frozen solid enough for the trucks to drive on to transport materials for the construction of the BAM railway. They built this track as a link to the railway. The track has been decaying since the late 70's. This bridge next to me was from then and was built for the trucks to supply the railway. The issue with it was 4m in the air and the ramps on and off were gone. The Steel frame was still intact and some of the sleepers for the roadway were still in place but very soft. Unfortunately the ramp on and off had all but disappeared.
Instead of complaining about another river crossing I saw an opportunity. I threw my bags up on to the top of the remaining platform of the bridge and climbed up the steel frame. Once up there I pitched my tent including driving the pegs into the rotting timber. I cooked dinner hoping to draw the bear closer with the smell of the food so I could get a close look at him. I slept great.
I met and passed the guys on the 4wd again on the track the next day when they were stuck in a bog. They passed me when the track improved the next day on the way to a town. We had a few beers in the town as we were staying at the same place. I kept going as they had a lot of things to deal with - their 4wd was fucked every way possible including a seriously warped chasis. They gave me a carved bear from Chariaite, a semiprecious stone only found near a town of Chara where they were going. They had "mined" the stone themselves and one of them had carved it before giving it to me. Probably one of my favorite sentimental possessions.
I had a chance meeting again with the guys a couple weeks later, but that's another story.
