Trip in the White Stone direction and Berezovaya Mountain in November

Yesterday I rode on the bicycle in the direction of White Stone mountain near Zuzelka village and to Berezovaya mountain. The snowy and cold morning was, temperature was near -3 degrees on Celsius. Icing was on the roads, covered by snow, so, in the city I rode mostly on the sidewalks and with slow speed on the road. I reached Zuzleka without problems, village itself is located on the hills near Azov-mountain and there is ability to warm-up on them before upcoming trip. According to the map, to the west from it road goes on, and to the north from it another small branch leads, under the snow I rode past it; next strayed for a while on the crossroads in the forest and arrived to quarry to the west from Zuzelka. Search of the right path to White Stone in the knee-deep snow would took too much time and I would not arrived in time before dark to the place, which I wanted to visit the most in this day; so, I’ll search right path to White Stone closer to Spring, when snow-crust will be solid or when snow will melt. From the quarry I navigated to village and from it rode in the direction of Azov mountain.

On the way I met skier : “Sportive-hello!” – “Hello!” – and people, who exercised Scandinavian walk, road in this area is slowly covered by snow. According to the map, after 2 km after turn to Azov mountain road is crossed by river Polevaya – here is it, crosses it in 3 places with 3 its riverbeds, next road branch goes to the north – here is it; next another 2 – 3 km and branch goes on to the south to Berezovaya mountain. Near it I met 2 Nivas ( Russian Jeeps ) and 1 minibus and hunters with guns, part of them stood and talked about their businesses and part stood aside. I turned to the south, from here to the mountain is around 5 – 6 km, half of this way – is relatively good ground road with packed snow, on which still not frozen puddles are located periodically, here in the forest it is still warm enough. It is still rideable on the bicycle. Then clay road goes on with sides chest or sometimes neck tall, that is rolled only by tracked bulldozer : it seems, that at summer rainy time only such kind of transport and people on foot or on horses will be able to ride here. Part of clay and puddles still not frozen and is covered by snow, first I drenched my left boot, after some time – right one, I went further.

On the way to mountain open areas are located, on which through some times weakening snowfall its silhouette can be seen in distance; road is crossed by other ones, which go from east to west, after approximately 3 – 4 km after turn bulldozer road goes to the east, I walked on it for around 1 km, but it does not lead to mountain, as Berezovaya should be very close to the forest path; in the south-west direction very snow-covered road goes on from this moment. On the way I met old wooded pillars, with signs on them, it seems, that they signify forest areas and directions. Above the forest helicopter flew, very close and very low, and flew somewhere in the north-western direction. And so Berezovaya peak shown oneself, it is very tall, even taller than She-wolf mountain. Ahead only snow-puddles go on with trodden tracks somewhere there in the deep, I went on them for a while, looking for the rolled way to mountain, but there is no one. So, I turned from the road and went to mountain through the snowdrifts on the meadow, carrying my bicycle on the shoulder. On the meadow snow goes up to hips, so I turned to the small spruce forest on its side, snowdrifts are smaller in it, and went to mountain through it. Uphill to Berezovaya with bicycle on the shoulder through snowdrifts – is a thing to remember, no gyms are needed after it.

On the snow there are only dog’s ( unlikely ) or wolf’s footprints, so bicycle can be left in forest, it will not be stolen, and, even if there would be other people in the forest, then unlikely somebody, except me, would have been wanted to carry it on oneself through the snowdrifts. So, upwalking almost to the rocks of mountain, I mounted bicycle to tree with lock, took off bag with tea, food and equipment from it and went to the mountain on the light. On its top from ground relatively big rocks look out. In the northern and eastern directions its slopes are not very steep and they are grown with trees. There are lots of birches on its peak – from here is the name ( Berezovaya mountain is the Birch mountain in Russian ). The biggest rocks are located on its south-western sides and on these sides its slopes go sharply down, opening view on tenths of km around : on the open areas near it after forest cuts or after fires, lake and open areas in the distance. I ascended on all rocks and made photos and videos, then went to the biggest rock, strong wind blew periodically, which pluck off snow from trees and rocks and covered everything in snowy mist. I stood on the rock and made photos and let this view inside of me, sky cleared slightly for a while, when wind dispersed clouds, weather was changing : it was snowing, and then Sun glimpses shown oneself for a while. I descended from rock, slightly further from wind, wet boots, pants, mittens and bag was covered with ice on the wind, it additionally kept warmth and protected from the wind. I took with me raincoat and this time was equipped much better, than at the rides to Shunuth and to the She-wolf, and almost did not felt any cold or wind. Only hands frozen on the wind, when I made photos and videos.

I drank hot tea from the thermos, warmed photo camera in pocket of my jacket : on the wind its battery frozen and stopped to power it, so, periodically in photos and videos recording it rejected to work. After warming I ascended again on the biggest rocks, recorded video and made a few more photos, stood and looked on this view for another 20 – 30 minutes. It is time to go home. Sunset hours are already on the mountain. I descended from the rocks, made some more its photos, recorded video and on my footprints started to descend down and to the bicycle. Horse waited for me there, where I left it, metal lock covered with ice and started to stick to the hands, when I unlocked bicycle. I put my bag on the shoulder, took bicycle under armpit and went down to the road. On the way I met not frozen puddles in grooves of meadow and the forest edge, quickly enough I arrived to cars prints in the forest, by that time they were covered with snow even more.

After puddles in the snowdrifts both wheels was being covered with snow-icy mass and frontal wheel periodically stopped, I rotated it and plucked ice layer from the rim and went further; after some time I unfastened frontal V-brake, because wheel completely iced. There was need to took off frontal wing before trip, because wet snow accumulated under it, which turned in the ice, and stopped movement, so there was need to push bicycle with strength ahead. When I managed to bulldozer road, dusk descended on the forest, road here is straight, so one cannot be strayed here, on the way I drenched both boots a couple of times more, but did not payed attention to this anymore, even more : in the snow in forest on the foots water on the contrary warmed feet slightly. When I arrived to rolled ground road with scattering of stones, it became dark, I went on feet here also, because by that time it was already strongly covered with snow, in the darkness its more or less rolled parts was not visible and ice stopped movement. Under sky light trees was clearly visible to the sides of a way, and after some time I managed to road between Zuzelka and Large Lavrovka, scratched ice from frontal wheel, rotated wing sideways, so that wheel would pluck off ice from under it, walked uphill and rode further to the home; on the way I met cars, that moved in the Large Lavrovka direction, in their lights it was visible, that road is already strongly covered with snow. Without problems I arrived to Azov mountain, then to Zuzelka and then to the Polevskoy.

I rode to home, took off my coat, boots and shoelaces on them was icy, so, I walked for around 10 minutes in the boots at home, giving them ability to melt. Then took off them, hung icy armor in the bedroom to melt and to dry after it, drank hot tea and ate food. Made some home businesses and went to sleep. Ye-e-es, see you on the next bicycles event!

You can see rest of photos here. Tomorrow I’ll upload rest of videos.