Sea Kayaking in Lake Hovsgol National Park. Copyright Nathan Ward

This is a story I published several years ago in Paddler Magazine.  It was later reprinted in the book Best of the Decade of Paddler Magazine.

In the fabled land of Genghis Khan where nomads still walk the earth, lies a huge, blue lake. We wanted to paddle the waters and experience this wild land first hand.

Dark shadows of birds whirled above the water, their soft songs filling the nighttime air. Not used to hearing birds at night, I awoke and crawled from my tent to find the source of this mysterious music. The full moon of a few days before had faded into near nothingness, letting the Milky Way shine like a glowing white river flowing across the sky. To the north, the jagged Sayan mountain range marking the northern border of Mongolia, was little more than a dim outline against the stars.

My two friends and I were camped on the northern shore of Mongolia’s Lake Hovsgol. At 80 miles long, 22 miles wide and over 700 feet deep, it is the fourteenth largest freshwater lake in the world. A week earlier we’d set out in our sea kayaks to become the first people in the world to circumnavigate this remote body of water. [Read more →]

Winding among the steppes and mountains of Mongolia lie some of best fly fishing rivers in the world.  In these rivers, you’ll find massive trophy taimen who strike like monsters, hard fighting big grayling and impressive lennok.  [Read more →]