The main tributaries of the Sukhona River. Brief description of the Sukhona River in its upper reaches and its tributaries as a habitat for fish. Tourism and recreation on the Sukhona River
In the European part of Russia, in the Vologda region, the left component of the Northern Dvina.
The name comes from the word “sukhodon” (i.e. “dry bottom”); This is how sandy and loamy shoals with a hard bottom were called in the North.
The Sukhona flows from Lake Kubenskoye as a full-flowing river 150 m wide. The length of the river is 558 km, the basin area is 50.3 thousand km 2 - the 2nd largest tributary of the Northern Dvina in terms of basin area (after the Vychegda). Main tributaries: Vologda, Lezha, Voya, Tolshma, Staraya Totma and Strelna (right); Dvinitsa, Uftyuga and Verkhnyaya Yorga (left).
The river basin drains a poorly dissected flat area. This territory is characterized by a moderate continental climate and excessive moisture. Taiga coniferous and mixed forests predominate. The forest cover of the basin is 70%. Lots of swamps.
The river valley in the upper reaches is practically absent. Due to the small slope and backwater from the confluence of tributaries (Vologda, Lezha), during high water, river water flows into Lake Kubenskoye. Downstream, the river valley narrows and the slopes of the riverbed increase. In the middle reaches of the river, the banks are composed of glacial deposits, when washed away, boulders fall into the riverbed, their accumulations forming rocky rifts. Around the village Opokka, the left main bank of the river is subject to erosion and landslide processes, revealing beautiful folds of rocks (“opoka”). In the lower reaches of the river, the height of the sides of the valley reaches 100 m (below the village of Nyuksenitsy). In spring, current speeds in this area increase to 4–5 m/s. Before the confluence with the river. To the south, the Sukhona valley expands from 4 to 8 km, the width of the river bed near the city of Veliky Ustyug is 500 m.
The average long-term water flow at the mouth is 460 m 3 /s (flow volume 14.518 km 3 /year). The maximum water flow exceeds 6000 m 3 /s. Water regime of the river The Sukhona River corresponds to the Eastern European type, which is characterized by high spring floods and low winter low water. The main source of nutrition is melt water. The characteristics of the river's water regime in the upper reaches are largely determined by the regulation of water flow by Lake Kubensky. The spring flood lasts about three months. Summer low water (up to 120 days) is often interrupted by rain floods. Maximum water levels in the lower reaches are observed at the end of April, in the upper reaches - in mid-May. Ice on the river appears in early November and in the second half of the month a stable ice cover forms on the river. In the area of There may be no ice on the riffles in winter. The ice thickness in the lower reaches and in severe winters reaches 1 m. The Sukhona River opens up almost simultaneously along the entire length of the river. During the spring ice drift, ice jams form in the lower reaches of the river, causing periodic flooding of the city of Veliky Ustyug. In the XVIII–XIX centuries. the city experienced nine catastrophic floods. Annual runoff-jam fluctuations in water level at the mouth of the Sukhona reach 8–9 m.
The turbidity of river waters averages from 25 to 50 g/m3. In the Sukhona basin there is a river. Pelshma is one of the most polluted rivers in the European part of the country. It receives wastewater from the Sokolsky pulp and paper mill. The water of the Sukhona in the section of the river between the cities of Sokol and Totma corresponds to the category of dirty. Sometimes in winter, along the entire length of the river, there is an acute deficiency of dissolved oxygen, which occurs against the background of an increased content of easily oxidized organic substances in the water.
The river served as a trade route back in the 9th century; in subsequent centuries - the main transport route connecting the central regions of the European part of the country with the White Sea and the Northern Urals. In the 12th century. the city of Vologda was founded in the river basin by the 12th–13th centuries. The first mentions of the cities of Totma and Veliky Ustyug include. In 1828, the Sukhona and Sheksna rivers (Volga River basin) were connected by the North Dvina Canal. In 1834, the Znamenity lock was built to regulate the flow from Lake Kubenskoye and maintain the depths on the rifts.
Currently, the river is navigable from the Znamenity lock to Veliky Ustyug. To the city of Totma, vessel traffic is possible throughout the entire navigation; below Totma - only during high-water periods of the year. The tourist route of the Russian North runs along the river.
On the banks of the river are the cities of Sokol, Totma and Veliky Ustyug.
The Sukhona is the longest river in the Vologda region, the main component of the Northern Dvina, which flows into the White Sea near Arkhangelsk. The etymology of the hydronym is rooted in the Old Slavic language. Hundreds of years ago the river was called Sukhodna, which means a river with a dry bottom. Where is ?
The first settlements on the river date back to the 5th millennium BC. The Veksa residential complex, located at the confluence of the Sukhona and Vologda, is known to history. Settlers from Russian principalities began to appear on the Sukhona at the turn of the millennium in the 11th century. Due to the strategic importance of sea access and navigation, control over the river subsequently became mandatory for the Russian Empire.
The Sukhona is also unique in that it is one of the few rivers in Russia on which hydrological work was carried out during the formation of Russian statehood. Back in the 13th century, on the initiative of Gleb Vasilkovich, the Belozersk prince, the bend of the source was significantly corrected for navigation.
Today, on the river, just like hundreds of years ago, similar work is being carried out aimed at increasing the transport permeability of the Sukhona. Find out where the river flows.
Geography of Sukhona
The length of the river reaches almost 560 km, and the area of the water basin is 50 thousand km2. The Sukhona originates from Lake Kubenskoye in two branches. In this part of the reservoir, the flow is controlled by a dam and locks. The floodplain in the upper reaches is wide. Due to insignificant slopes in the spring, a reverse flow into the reservoir is observed.
The river basin covers 482 rivers of various sizes, as well as over 6 thousand small streams. The vast area has 424 lakes, most of which are small in size. The surface area of four hundred reservoirs hardly exceeds 0.5 km2. The swamp part occupies only 3% of the catchment, which is surprising for the north. Forests, in turn, extend over 70% of these lands. Coniferous vegetation predominates; small-leaved trees are also found.
Sights of Veliky Ustyug
On the Sukhona stands Veliky Ustyug, which has the unofficial name of the Estate of Father Frost. This city has absolutely everything that is inherent in a traditional Russian city. This is white stone lace, golden domes, rickety wooden huts, chiming bells, river expanses and the Russian spirit tangible everywhere.
The best panorama in the city opens from the embankment. From here you can go on a city tour. The first point will be the Dymkovo settlement of the 17th century. In the historical part of the city there are 28 temples and countless architectural monuments of the 19th century.
The most ancient building in Veliky Ustyug is considered to be the Church of the Ascension at Torg, the construction of which dates back to the mid-17th century. If you walk from the embankment, you will come across many historically significant buildings: Buldakov’s estate, Leontyevskaya, Elias Church. However, the most striking architectural ensemble of the city is rightfully considered the Assumption Cathedral with its belfry, the Bishop's House, the cathedrals of John of Ustyug and Procopius the Righteous.
The city became the main residence of Father Frost in 1999. There was no better place for this than Veliky Ustyug. The image of the saint fit perfectly into the fairy-tale city with the provincial atmosphere of late medieval Rus'.
Veliky Ustyug, just like the entire Russian north, is a unique symbiosis of cultural and material heritage, the identity of the people, and incredibly fascinating nature.
Sukhona is the largest and longest river in the Vologda region of Russia, the left and main component of the Northern Dvina (the right is the South).
The name of the river is Slavic in origin, derived from *Sukhodna (cf. Sukhodon) - “(river) with a dry bottom”, or directly from *sukhъ “dry”, similar to Old Russian. sukhona “dryness, heat.”
Length - 558 km, basin area - 50,300 km². The Sukhona begins with two branches (the Sukhona itself and Bolshoi Puchkas) from Lake Kubenskoye, the flow from which is regulated by a dam with a shipping lock. In the upper reaches the floodplain is wide; due to minor slopes in the spring due to the backwater of the Vologda and Lezha rivers, a reverse flow into Lake Kubenskoye is observed. In the middle reaches, the depth of the valley is up to 80-100 m, the riverbed is replete with rifts; there are rapids and rocky islands; in the lower reaches the current speed is low.
Watercourse
Source
Kubenskoye Lake
. Height 110.1 m
. Coordinates 59°30′40″ N. w. 39°46′52″ E. d. (G) (O) (I) (T)
Estuary
Northern Dvina
. Location: confluence with the Yug River, Veliky Ustyug
. Height 50 m
Sukhona River .jpg)
Hydrology, Sukhona River
The food is predominantly snowy. High water from April to mid-July. Huge, sometimes many-kilometer-long, spills form in the upper reaches. The average water flow 39 km from the mouth is 456 m³/s, the highest is 6520 m³/s, the lowest is 17.6 m³/s. It freezes at the end of October - November, in the middle reaches and in December, and opens in the second half of April - the first half of May.
Main tributaries:
Pelshma, Dvinitsa, Strelitsa, Tsareva, Uftyuga, Upper and Lower Erga (left);
Vologda, Lezha, Ikhalitsa, Tolshma, Ledenga, Pechenga, Gorodishna, Strelna, Luzhenga (right).
Sukhona River .jpg)
Water Register of Russia, Sukhona River
03020100112103000005023
Pool code 03.02.01.001
GI code 103000502
Volume GI 3
According to the State Water Register of Russia and the geoinformation system for water management zoning of the territory of the Russian Federation, prepared by the Federal Agency for Water Resources:
Basin District - Dvinsko-Pechora
River basin - Northern Dvina
River sub-basin - Malaya Northern Dvina
Water management area - Lake Kubenskoye and the Sukhona River from the source to the Kubensky hydroelectric complex
Water body code - 03020100112103000005023
Sukhona River, Opoki
Economic use
It is connected by the North Dvina system via the Sheksna River to the Volga. It is navigable along its entire length, but in summer sometimes navigation is interrupted due to low water in the lower reaches. Freight transportation on barges. Passenger transport has been completely absent since the mid-1990s due to its unprofitability and the extinction of coastal villages, especially in the upper reaches. In recent decades, the river waters have been heavily polluted by discharges from industrial enterprises in Vologda and pulp and paper mills and Sokol mills; a high phenol content is noted; it is not recommended to drink raw water from the river. The river bottom is covered with melted wood from decades of rafting. Work to widen the channel and deepen it is not carried out. Russian settlers appeared on the Sukhona in the 11th century.
Settlements
The cities of Sokol, Totma, and Veliky Ustyug are located on the Sukhona.
Along the Sukhona River, navigational guide for the Sukhona River.jpg)
Length - 274 km. Number of walking days - 12. Seasonality - June - August. Difficulty category - I (diagram 54).
The route passes through the Vologda region. The Sukhona (length 562 km) flows from Lake Kubenskoye and, after merging with the Yug River, gives rise to the Northern Dvina (called the Malaya Northern Denna before its confluence with the Vychegda). This is a typical northern river with a fast current, frequent shoals, riffles and wooded banks. The Sukhona can be divided into three characteristic sections: the upper one - from Lake Kubenskoye to the village of Shuiskoye (137 km), where the river flows slowly in a low-lying valley and has a width of up to 100-120 m; middle - from Shuisky to Totma (146 km), where the valley narrows, the banks rise to 9-10 m; then the meadows are gradually replaced by forest, the width of the river increases to 140-240 m, shoals and riffles appear, the flow becomes faster; the lower one - from Totma to the confluence with the South (279 km), where the valley narrows, the main banks approach the water and in some places reach a height of 80 m, the width of the river is 80-100 m, in some sections - 400 m.
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In high water the Sukhona is navigable along its entire length, and in low water only in sections: from the source to Totma; from Totma to Nyuksenitsa; from Veliky Ustyug to the village of Opoki. River conditions have been established along the entire river, and along the shore every 5 km there are kilometer posts indicating the distance from the mouth. Access to the beginning of the route is from Vologda, located on the river of the same name, which flows 45 km into the Sukhona.
Vologda is the regional center of the RSFSR, one of the oldest cities in the North (XII century). It is recommended to visit the local history museum, the Kremlin, St. Sophia Cathedral of the 16th century, the bishop's chambers, the art gallery, the house of Peter I, the Prilutsky monastery of the 16th century and other monuments of ancient architecture. From Vologda take a boat to Totma (250 km), where the route begins.
Totma is an ancient city, in tsarist times it served as a place of exile. Associated with the names of A.V. Lunacharsky, N.V. Shelgunov, V.G. Korolenko and others. In the city, an architectural monument of the 18th century is the Church of John the Baptist, a local history museum. Assembly of kayaks in the marina area.
Below Totma, the width of the Sukhona is 70-100 m, the river flows quickly in high, steep banks covered with pine and mixed forests. At the mouths of the right tributary - Ledengi and the left - Edengi there are small islands. Below the forest retreats, but behind the pier Kamchuga again approaches the shore. Gradually, the banks rise and in the area from Kochenga to Brusenets reach 30 m. The forest is heavily cut down, there are many villages. There are a number of rifts and shoals in the riverbed, follow the fairway.
Below Brusents, the forest again surrounds the river, the banks drop briefly. At the mouth of the left tributary, the Uftyugi, the height of the left bank is 26 m, near the village of Nyuksenitsa up to 55 m, and the height of the right bank is 25-35 m. The banks either drop or break off to the water itself, forming a long corridor. The current in these places is fast, and the shipping channel is narrow and winding. The steep slopes of the valley, made of sandstone, limestone, and marl, are exceptionally picturesque. Unable to erode particularly hard rocks, Sukhona makes frequent turns. The banks are especially high and beautiful in the area of the village of Porog and before reaching the right tributary - Strelna. Then they noticeably decrease. Behind the village of Priluki there is the Opoksky roll. The forest moves away. As you approach Veliky Ustyug, the population of the shores increases.
Veliky Ustyug, the regional center of the Vologda region, is located on the left hilly bank. The city has architectural monuments - the Church of the Ascension (XVII century), the Myrrh-Bearing Women (XVIII century), the Trinity-Gleden Monastery (XVII century), etc. Museum of Local Lore. The city is famous for its artistic crafts - wood and birch bark carving, silver plating.
It makes no sense to sail further along the Malaya Northern Dvina due to the intense traffic of ships, the large width of the river and uninteresting banks. It is better to take a boat or bus to Kotlas. If desired, the route can begin from the village of Shuisky, 146 km above Totma, where the Sukhona has already left the Prisukhonskaya lowland and flows in relatively high wooded banks. There are a lot of mushrooms and berries in the forests, and there is good fishing in the coastal lakes and the mouths of tributaries. It is better to stop at the mouths of tributaries, as the water in Suyaon is polluted, especially closer to the upper reaches. In 1975, it is planned to begin construction of the Veliky Ustyug hydroelectric station.
Sukhona River, history of the region, travel.jpg)
The Sukhona is one of the most beautiful rivers in Russia and the largest river in the Vologda region. It is majestic, mysterious, and not very full of water. And full of surprises.
For the first sixty or seventy kilometers from the source it barely flows; The drop of water is no more than a centimeter per kilometer, as if the water was lying there, dozing and wondering where to go. Having made up her mind, she slowly moves southeast, to the lower reaches. Then the current suddenly speeds up and for the next two hundred kilometers it drops by seven meters. In the last two hundred and seventy kilometers before meeting the Yug River, opposite Veliky Ustyug, the river manages to drop another forty-nine meters. This is already fast!
This is where the river shows its character. On the steep bend of Opoka with high stone banks, the river bed becomes very rapid. The village on the right bank is called Threshold; Not far from it there is a creek - a parking lot for ships before testing. And then the Chermyaninsky furrows, over which the water seems to boil; Harrow Roll, where, at shallow depths, stone teeth of slate gleam, ready to tear even the iron bottom of a ship; the Popolzukha roll, the very name of which is more than clear, and finally, after a large wave over the smooth mud - wavy stone slabs - you can wipe the sweat from your forehead and land on the shore where the village of Vypolzovo is located... They crawled out, that means. Our ancestors were not without humor!
This is how the boats of the pioneers once dragged themselves through the rapids and rifts, whistling and even crawling, through dangerous shallow waters, where it is especially “dry” in the summer, at the height of travel and shipping, until they crawled out to a deeper place to transfer, as they say, spirit.
Probably, more than once or twice, the wide boats and props of our ancestors sat on the sharp stone rifts, and the shipmen jumped into the water to drag the ships to this very Creep.
Sukhona River .jpg)
That’s probably how it was born - “where it’s dry,” that is, Sukhona. This is how the mockingly respectful name came from somewhere in the eleventh century, perhaps, and the not-everyone-understood name Sukhona with the emphasis on the first syllable has reached our days.
The second surprise, a kind of geographical paradox, occurs on the river near its very sources. These sources, as you know, are hidden somewhere very close to the long, trough-shaped Kubensky Lake. The lake was dug by an ancient glacier and is fed by rivers running from the north: Uftyuga, Itkloy, Kikhta and Kubena. Sukhona next to the lake is still barely moving, stands thoughtfully in the bays, sleeps among the endless meadows.
In the spring, while Lake Kubenskoye is covered with reliable ice and its surroundings are just swelling with melt water, to the south two large tributaries of the Sukhona - the Vologda and Lezha rivers - manage to open up and overflow. They help Sukhona break out her winter clothes and quickly fill them to the brim. The river is almost flush with the banks, but it can’t choose which way to flow. Either down, or up... Having reached a certain critical point, Sukhona slowly begins to move in the direction below, into... her native Kubenskoye Lake, in other words, against the legal flow. And not a day goes by against the rules of geography, not even two, but until the lake breaks its ice and rises on its own to finally pounce menacingly on the reckless daughter: where have you turned, you fool?!
The spring month of confrontation ends in favor of order. Sukhona seems to come to her senses and change direction. The growing wave of flood, pushed by the overflowing lake, begins to move to the southeast, from the source to the lower reaches.
The oldest river people - Korels, Chuds, Novgorodians, who settled in this meadow and forest region, only marveled at the quirks of the river and adapted to it in every way.
Only at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when to the west of Lake Kubenskoye, from Beloozero along Sheksna and to the Volga, the Mariinsky water system was built, connecting the Baltic basin with the Volga; when the need arose to connect this canal with water roads to the White Sea and the Kama, engineers began to look closely at the Sukhona. It was very conveniently located on the ancient trade routes from Novgorod to the north and east along the Russian Plain, combined with a chain of lakes and rivers north of Lake Kubenskoye, with portages along which the pioneers dragged their horses on rollers and wheels - so fortunately that it remained just connect lakes and rivers with canals and create a unified shipping system. We began to study in detail all of Zavolochye. It was then that they noticed Sukhona’s strange whim and examined it so as not to make a mistake.
The shipping system, built in 1825-1828, came in handy. Trade with the north and east of European Russia increased more and more. Shipbuilding expanded in Arkhangelsk, where it was necessary to deliver oak timber from the Volga. And in general, a waterway in these vast and roadless places was desperately needed in order to use the rich region, where there were forests, ores, furs and salt.
One of the first hydraulic structures on the new waterway was a dam at the source of the Sukhona, on the lake. A long water-regulating barrier made of metal posts with gates could hold or pass water in two directions: from the lake to the river and from the river to the lake. Its seals hold up the water of Lake Kubenskoye all summer, preventing it from becoming shallow. In the spring, when the Sukhona “plays around” and begins to push water towards the lake, the dam gates are laid on the bottom, and the river flows without delay into the Kubena through the resulting wide opening. Large ships sail along this open opening in the spring from Sukhona to the lake and back, bypassing the lock.
But there are still five hundred kilometers to the dangerous rifts and rapids in the lower reaches, to those places where the iron bottom of a motor ship or barge will even “strike” against the rocky mud, a sharp harrow hidden in the depths of the current. We have to think in advance about other obstacles, created not by nature, but by people themselves.
The city of Vologda is connected with the Sukhona small river Vologda, after which it is named. We begin our journey along this river in the evening. The sky is still bright, thoughtfully quiet, visible far, far away, but in the first kilometers the northern fabulousness is completely obscured by a diverse “civilization.” Boats and motorboats scurry about, imposingly, with chests, like our "Chagoda", motor ships go, parting the muddy yellow water of the river, which is clean and transparent only above the city.
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Vologda is one of the oldest Russian cities. The founding date of Vologda is considered to be 1147, when the city was first mentioned in the chronicles of St. Gerasim. Today, Vologda is one of the best preserved ancient cities in Russia and is one of 116 Russian cities that have a particularly valuable historical heritage.
In the center of the city is the St. Sophia Cathedral, it is the first stone church in the city. Built in 1568-1570. The construction of the temple is directly related to the name of Ivan the Terrible. In 1568, during his third visit to Vologda, Tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of a cathedral church in the name of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary inside the city near the Bishop's House to begin. With the departure of the king in 1571, construction stopped. The cathedral remained unfinished for 17 years, and only under Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich did its final completion and arrangement begin.
confluence of the Yug River and the Sukhona River, Northern Dvina.jpg)
Next to the St. Sophia Cathedral is the Vologda Kremlin. The Kremlin buildings are very different from each other in style. And there is nothing surprising in this: the Kremlin was built and rebuilt over several centuries. The Kremlin complex includes the former Bishop's Compound, mainly due to its high fortress walls, the Resurrection Cathedral and the bell tower are inextricably linked with these walls.
We are silent, peering into the night, because in Moscow it is already night, the twelfth hour, and there is twilight over the river, over the northern expanses; only the distance somehow turned blue: there the earth merged with the sky in one color, and the space expanded to infinity, the details were lost in it.
“And here is the mouth,” says Kryazhev and gets up.
Sukhona obliquely crosses the path to Vologda. The left bank is meadow, no higher than two meters - a black stripe above the water. There is a two-story house on the shore, the upper windows are lit. River fleet control room.
- How are you, “Chagoda”? - comes from there on the radio. - Are we going far? Is there order on board?
“Order,” the captain answers. “To Ivanov Bor.” Who's ahead of us?
- "Tarnoga" passed, about forty minutes. You will overtake her to the Famous.
I look to the right. Another, lighter strip of water breaks out of the darkness of the right bank half a kilometer from the mouth of Vologda. The stripe shines distinctively and flows with joy.
- This is Lezha. - Yuri Sergeevich guesses and warns my question. - A clean river, not like ours.
Obeying the rudders, "Chagoda" describes a smooth semicircle - now its nose is looking strictly at the bright Polar Star. The splashing behind the stern intensifies and the engines become more audible. We increased our speed.
It's already midnight. Wisps of fog appear over the meadows. You can’t distinguish them from lakes - they are the same dull silver as the water, the sky, and the distance. The pockets of fog are growing and connecting. You move as if in emptiness, in the middle of an immense, quiet and mysterious sphere, where there are not even stars. The fog covers the earth, the river, the sky, and imperiously buries the real world. Both the low banks and the water overboard disappear. Twilight is thickening, there is no longer up and down, right and left. White swirl.
Yuri Sergeevich is calm at the control panel. Buttons and keys click, the ship obeys the will of the captain. How can we discern anything in the milky abyss through which we are swimming? The rare lights of the buoys blink suspiciously quickly and immediately disappear.
“It’s a habit,” Kryazhev says briefly. “I’ve been going here for eight, no, nine years.” Dozens of times back and forth. I looked closely at the banks, at every curvature. I don’t have to look at the pilot, everything is from memory. Besides, I'm from here. The village of Sukhoverkhovo near Kirillov. There is school, childhood. I climbed lakes and rivers with fishing rods, ran after lapwings in meadows and swamps. I close my eyes and I can imagine any place.
Sukhona river, Totma city.jpg)
He speaks abruptly. A light bulb shines softly from the side. A long smile appears on Kryazhev’s young, handsome and stern face. She is from there, from childhood with fishing rods, where there are unique days, mother, grandmother... He sighed and lit a cigarette. "Chagoda" was moving at speed along a quiet, sleepy river. Somewhere close to the bottom there were shallows hidden; it is dangerous to be distracted by conversations.
The night was receding. The fog began to shine through. Here one shore turned black, then the other, silhouettes of wooden houses with high-raised windows appeared, boats under the shore, stairs, and then there were pipes, more pipes and factory buildings with windows red from insomnia. City of Sokol.
The Sukhona here is full of forest. On the banks of the mountains of already dried logs, endless rafts on the approaches to the city, the drifters standing on their butts nod their black heads. That’s what rivermen call them: golovans. Kryazhev winces and slows down when such a gift goes under the ship...
- Where are they from, Yuri Sergeevich?
- From the bottom of the river. There are a lot of sunken logs in the city limits and on the approaches,” the captain answers. “Some logs with a heavy butt rise up, float, half-submerged.”
We pass through the city of woodworkers and paper workers. It is dawning imperceptibly and quietly, and you won’t understand where the light is coming from. There will be no sun for a long time: the clock shows three; but the sky is already filled with a mother-of-pearl glow, one edge is browned, and against this background distant villages are drawn—a typographic engraving line of black huts, covered courtyards with capital gates, boardwalks and boats under birch trees wet with dew.
The river moves smoothly below us. The water breathes warmth. I ask if it’s possible to speed up the pace. Kryazhev shrugs his shoulders vaguely.
- Let's try...
Motors acquire a bass tone. From the wheelhouse you can see how the bow rises. The stern naturally settles. And immediately a nasty trembling occurs. The ship shakes angrily. Kryazhev slowly slows down.
- Like this. We are sailing with a draft of about one and a half meters. A little more, at speed, and we already reach the bottom. Limiter...
What happened to you, Sukhona?
sights of the Vologda region, Sukhona river.jpg)
There has always been a forest on both banks from the source to the distant city of Veliky Ustyug. And he was your friend and guardian, this dense and endless forest. All tributaries filtered through the forest thicket and replenished the bed of the main river with clean, fresh water. All the springs and swamps in the forest fed the Sukhona. It was deep, full of water even in hot years, always rich in fish and beavers in secluded tributaries.
People willingly settled on its banks and nearby, setting up graveyards, from which cities known in history emerged: Priluka, Vologda, Shuiskoye, Totma, Nyuksenitsa, Veliky Ustyug. The ancient Kirillov, Kharovsk, and the young city of Sokol gravitated towards the lake river. They lived and used the river, revered it, marveled at its beauty and decorated it themselves.
When they began to cut down the forest along the banks, again the river could not be avoided: logs were floated both up and down the river. Sukhona regularly carried the ever-increasing weight of wood. The more logs were rolled into the water, the more deserted the shores became, of course, and the more often a muddy or rocky bottom was visible through the shallowed tributaries.
Then Sokol's factories grew. Endless rafts and barges with timber reached here from April to October. The forest filled the river, people at times lost control of this moving forest. And only recently they began to understand that this cannot continue. Rafting companies have begun to clean the river bed, raising the drift every year, and monitoring the rafts more strictly. There's plenty of work here. And for many years...
A warm orange sun rose over the wet meadows. Every drop of dew on the grass sparkled. The river began to breathe, a light steam rose above it. Thousands and thousands of logs are drying out at timber exchanges. The greedy timber haulers are moving faster and faster, the workers are running across the rafts with acrobatic dexterity: they are using hooks to direct the logs to the conveyor. The river gives food to the factories...
There are fewer buildings, more and more open banks, half-mown meadows with haystacks, and, finally, Sokol behind.
The feelings generated by the sight of a river within the city limits give no rest. Something is wrong... The river, this precious creation of nature, is perceived by the Sokol people, it seems, only as a path along which raw materials for factories move.
Meanwhile, the morning cleared up. There is no trace of the fog. White clouds float across the sky, clearly reflected in the river. There are many of them - light, cumulus, summer. Green along the banks, fresh, beautiful. There the herd is wandering, there just weren’t enough cows to complete the picture! On the shore behind the cape rises an alien hill of greenish-gray dolomite flour. For liming arable land. A cargo ship came with its floating crane, unloaded this flour - and be healthy!
We emerge from behind a cape covered with alder. Village, tall birches and willows, a gateway in their shadow, a dam to the left. "Famous" opened.
The black ribbon of the dam, low above the river, is traced across the wooded green backdrop. The shields are open, white water glistens widely from the lake and, pushing out large flakes of foam, it pours like a shaft to the left, into the sandy bed of the Sukhona.
Ice drift on the Sukhona River, Veliky Ustyug
The sluice is low, the log chamber is embedded in the slopes of the ditch. They are paved with stones and overgrown with grass. Thick gate leaves with a front strip on top are spread apart. Nestled to the side is the neat Shera Village, surrounded by old and thick birch trees. Behind the dam and the Chamber you can see a wide strip of water, and along the banks there is greenery of all shades: a dark-colored spruce forest, light birch trees, a sunny, salad-colored meadow. A large wooden house on the island - a recreation center for river workers - is also painted green.
This is Lake Kubenskoye. Blue and green, it shines so much in the sun that you can’t look at it without squinting - it’s pure shine. Zhulitov skillfully guides the ship through a side current and with absolute precision - like a cartridge into a gun barrel - drives the Chagoda into the lock without touching the sides of its log walls. There is about forty centimeters of water left before them, no more.
Everything here looks simple, homely: the lock itself, already filled to the brim - you stand on the last crown, and you can touch the water with your foot, and these talkative women, and the open windows of the control room with geraniums, with a cat at the threshold, and music made of wooden five-walls, and an empty box thrown onto our deck, so that at the next lock it would be filled with fresh bread and brought here again by a passing ship... All this creates an atmosphere of ease of relationships, rustic simplicity.
About twenty minutes later the Chagoda shuddered and slid out of the lock into the lake. Now we are not on the Sukhona, but in its basin, on its continuation, in connection with the Volga-Baltic route.
On Lake Kubenskoye, as well as on Vozha, to the north, the oldest human settlements in these latitudes, dating back three thousand years, were discovered. On the western elevated banks a chain of sites of sedentary people of that time has been traced. And now there are villages here, one after another. All the huts are on a hill, with windows overlooking the lake, from where a grassy canopy falls to the water. Behind the order of the houses, the hemlines are noticeable - ancient arable lands, long ago inhabited and well-groomed by the Novgorodians, who came here for freedom, “they did not accept any property from the prince, nor from the bishop, and the pasha did not give himself peace.” Flax and rye with barley, turnips and radishes in the vegetable gardens, oats and meadows fed the farmer. They kept cows and transported manure from the farmstead to a nearby field; there was no shortage of fish in the lake, they also got something in the forest, so they lived and lived, they didn’t make a fortune, but they didn’t break their backs on other people’s owners. Themselves with a mustache...
Today this is the most productive agricultural region of the Vologda region. True, not very crowded. Again meadows and meadows. There is an abundance of grass in the lake floodplain. The valleys of the Kubena, Uftyuga rivers and small tributaries are also visible. From the lake the path along the water goes to Ust, Kharovsk, to everyone living on the side. And everywhere you look there is greenery!
It's time for hot haymaking. The weather is perfect. But there are few people mowing. It is difficult to say how much hay and grass can be produced by the huge Sheksna-Sukhonskaya floodplain, where there are one hundred and sixty thousand hectares of pastures and hayfields. From this area, even with a low harvest, you can collect at least two hundred thousand tons of hay and feed one hundred thousand cows. But this, as they say, is at first glance. More than half of the floodplain area along the canals and along the Sukhona, Vologda, Lezhe, Sheksna is either overgrown with bushes or is of little use due to swampiness.
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Zhulitov sits at the control panel on a high chair, calmly steering the ship. The lake is spacious and light, the buoys sway on the shallow waves - look, admire the sides.
We pass the Mouth. It's on the right, barely visible from the lake.
- Do you often go there? - I ask the assistant.
He raises his narrow, intelligent face.
“It’s impossible to live there without river workers.” We deliver everything. Flour, Fertilizers, containers with goods, concrete and bricks for construction sites, even dactors. The pier is not so great, but we manage, the path is well-trodden, and to Uftyuga, and along it to Berezhnoe, there to the railway, oh-oh-oh! And you know the roads... Only the river and the lake help out the outback.
Alexander Andreevich is an experienced riverman, both a navigator and a mechanic. He studied in Kotlas, worked on the Irtysh, but still returned to his native place, and now he has been in the Vologda region for ten years. Here, as they say, the soul is in place.
Nearby, a tugboat, scanty and mottled, really looking like a bird, was dragging a scow full of slushy soil from a dredger deepening the fairway higher up the lake. It looks like he’s looking for a place to dump his cargo into the depths and quickly back away. At the stern the laundry is drying and rinsing in the wind. Probably a family crew, with a mistress.
The lake gradually narrows; on one side there is a swampy spruce forest, on the other there is a sedge swamp. The reed is taller than a human being. On lagoons clear of grass, fishing boats and the fishermen themselves look like frozen statues.
We enter the mouth of the Porozovitsa River. Such a glorious title, a credit to the nameless author! On this sunny day, the slopes of the banks shine with colors like spring dawn. The clover is fragrant and red, the hills are covered with a multi-colored carpet. Lots of rye creepers, red clover, forest baits. The huts in the villages are scattered over the hills, like in Berendey’s kingdom, and there is such a blessed, warm silence around that you listen to it like good music.
At the sixth lock everything is the same as at the "Famous": the same pleasant homeliness and dexterity of the ship's gatekeepers, the rustle of poplars over the water, the sound of carpenter's axes and the smell of sanded pine logs, from which the frame of a new house is formed. "Chagoda" immediately entered the cell, the gates closed.
Porozovitsa, short-lived, full of water, well inhabited by people. On the right bank there is Nikolsky Torzhok with a ruined cathedral. This is a former trading village with a huge cobblestone paved area. Next are two villages, and behind them is the fifth gateway, which we pass through without delay. Another village in the hills. Slate roofs make it look young. Nearby is an enviably productive field of oats, and a herd of black-and-white cows crowds near the water. They are well-fed and calm, fearlessly standing close to us and watching the gray carcass of “Chagoda” with wet eyes.
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The Itkla River and the lakes along the way - Vazerinskie, Kishemskoye, Zaulomskoye, Pokrovskoye, the canals and locks that connected them - our entire road, sometimes very wide, sometimes so narrow that you can’t see the water on either side. The canals are filled to the brim, so sometimes it seems as if we are moving on a ship on dry land, straight through meadows and copses, rounding humpbacked hills in spruce thickets and just not getting into them. So natural, so convenient in this undisturbed nature, ancient engineering structures! Nothing sticks out or separates them from the landscape. I just can’t believe that this part of the large North Dvina waterway is the work of human hands. You catch yourself thinking about the unity of the useful with the beautiful, and a feeling of gratitude arises to the skillful and careful builders of the Severodvinsk system, who did not detract from the natural beauty.
Who are they? When and how was it built, giving Russia a much-needed waterway? Nothing about builders anywhere! There is no name for the structure that brought together peasants and river workers, cities and villages in this ancient region, once cut off from the rest of the world.
The Vologda region, like the neighboring Arkhangelsk region, is vast, but lacks modern communication routes. In the past, builders were scared off by endless miles, untrodden forests and swamps. The current ones have not yet had time to develop in full force.
At both ends of the long Sukhona - from Lake Kubenskoye to Veliky Ustyug, to the north and south of the river - there is a vast territory where the railway lines are more than three hundred kilometers apart from each other. The first goes through the Arkhangelsk region from Konosha to Kotlas, the other along Yaroslavl and Kostroma and covers only the southern edge of the Vologda region.
Sukhona river, Vologda region, beautiful places
villages are completely cut off by impassable roads. Only rivers save...
What would they do in Totma, Nyuksenitsa, Syamzha, Kirillov, Belozersk, Vytegra, Tarnogsky Gorodok, Nikolsk, Kichmengsky Gorodok, Veliky Ustyug and in the neighboring Vyatka regions, gravitating towards the Yug River, in Podosinovets for example, without a river, without river boats, without shipping companies - Sukhonsky and Northern?
The North Dvina waterway - Sukhona, South, Northern Dvina with navigable tributaries - has today acquired paramount importance for the life and development of the north of the Non-Black Earth Region. We dare to say that these most important waterways will not lose their priority for a long time, until the newest types of transport take over all worries about cargo, and the rivers become excellent areas for recreation and tourism. But if we remember that transportation by river is one of the most economical, then the transformation of rivers only into places of tourism will not happen any time soon.
One can only marvel and rejoice at the wonderful gift of nature in the Non-Black Earth Region, the ability of our navigable and small rivers to help people move and transport goods - the larger the larger the program for the development of our economy and culture. And "Chagoda" continues its journey north through lakes and canals. Along the banks you can see far away meadows, copses, hills dark with fir trees, small villages, lonely churches. Quiet Vologda land.
rivers Northern Dvina, Sukhona, river Yug
"Chagoda" goes along the canal along the wooden houses of the outskirts, as if along a street, goes out into the large Siverskoye Lake with rugged shores, goes to the right, even more to the right, and goes around the cape. Behind it opens a wide expanse of water. Directly in front of us we see the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery near the water and at the same time in the water.
No matter how much you read about it, words still cannot convey even a small fraction of the charm, the amazing fairy-tale charm of this white monastery-fortress, created by Russian masters in the 14th-15th centuries, almost five hundred years ago. The monastery must be seen on any day, be it clear or cloudy, but only on a summer day on a plate of living, fish-scale-colored Siverskaya water and surrounded by greenery.
The schema monk Kirill, a native of the Moscow Simonov Monastery, having wandered quite a lot through the forest and lake Zavolochye in search of a secluded place, came out to this lake and, looking at the shores, wrote down for memory: “The place is green, like a wall surrounded by waters.” It was. This remained the case when Kirill became archimandrite.
The monastery walls descend like a white ledge to the shoreline, look into the water, and when the lake is quiet, as it is today, they are completely reflected in it along with the sky, creating the illusion of a double overturned to the bottom. From behind the walls, domes humbly grow on temples and belfries, all different, not repeating anything, each with its own form and wonder, higher, lower, thinner, more extensive, while the whole image as a whole is walls, green elms, temples, the refectory is a complete miracle, a fairy tale of stone and greenery on a lake full of the already magical colors of the north. It’s hard to take your eyes off, the proportions of the buildings are so perfect, everything stone and living is so successfully elevated on the gently sloping shore of a strange lake, covered on all sides by forest.
"Chagoda" solemnly and quietly passed through the creek and moored to a wooden pier behind the monastery.
Veliky Ustyug, Northern Dvina, Sukhona
Yuri Sergeevich could not restrain his enthusiastic, almost childlike emotion when we walked through the city to the monastery. Here he grew up, ran, studied, and experienced his first joys. As a boy I climbed every bell tower, walls, basements, secret passages a hundred times. I rode down the hill at the Stone Entrance with a cross, sat next to the artists in front of the Ivanovo Wall, ran along the narrow path near the Assumption Cathedral. Of course, I also visited the Ferapontov Monastery (where there is now a museum of frescoes of Dionysius) above two other lakes that are far from here, under a high hill in dense forests.
Time is rushing, and we - not without regret - are moving away from the tiny pier. We would like to live here and think... Once again we take a farewell look at the white-stone fairy tale, bathed in the reddish rays of the late afternoon sun. Our history. And the protection of young Russia.
The lake is narrowing, the ship is now heading west.
“Now we’ll go down,” says Kryazhev. “Here is the watershed, ahead is the Sheksninskaya floodplain and the Volgo-Balt.”
The last section of the North Dvina waterway, the Toporninsky Canal, is narrow, cut deep into the sandy hills. On the sides, behind large and dense pine forests, linings and sogrs (swampy forests of watersheds) can be seen. There are a lot of cranberries, lingonberries and blueberries on the verts - small elevations. The channel looks different too. The water in it is brown, forest and peat infusion. To prevent the wave from breaking the pliable sands in the poorly overgrown recess, a palisade of short poles was built almost everywhere below, with brushwood piled between it and the beret. The wave from motor ships is attenuated in such a support. Simple and good. You can feel that the canal here is being looked after by skilled people.
The Toporninskaya “staircase” of two locks is visible from top to bottom. As if through a window, at the end of the clearing you can see the wide expanse of water of the Volgo-Balt. Vessels pass and flash along it thickly.
The canal, the locks and the village of Topornya itself are very beautiful. This seems to be the most comfortable and healthy place. There is a pine forest around the village on white sands. Clean, dry, pleasant smell of tar. The houses are solid, log-built, bright. The sluices are also made from pine logs. And also light. The water is flush with the shore. The vessel stands very high in the filled chamber, its sides almost touching the walls. The gates of the sluices shine with fresh pine. Everything looks somewhat ancient, miniature, close to nature and therefore especially to the heart.
Water crossing of the Non-Black Earth Region. Here the North Dvina shipping route meets, which includes the entire Northern Dvina with the Sukhona and the South, Vychegda and Pinega, Sysola and Vaga, with canals and lakes with a total length of about five thousand kilometers, and the Volga-Baltic waterway. It also starts far away - from the mouth of the Neva, goes through Ladoga to Beloozero, and from Beloozero to the Rybinsk reservoir along canals, locks, lakes, along the Vytegra and Sheksna. The length of the entire Volga-Balta system is about three thousand kilometers.
Three and five - eight thousand kilometers of navigable roads! Four directions from Toporni. To the west, north, east and south. This was once the headquarters of the Northern Dvina system. Day and night barges, motor ships, tugs... Up and down the locks.
"Chagoda" met in Toporn with two passenger ships. They were returning with tourists from a trip to Volgo-Balta. Motor boats were coming, also with travelers. We met a beautiful, clearly family sailing yacht. On the sides there is an unexpected name: “Demon”, which is not at all suitable for the elegant, white boat in this epic place.
The last (or first?) gates opened, and our ship cut through the water of the wide-spread Sheksna with a strong breeze from nearby Beloozero. Entered Volgo-Balt...
Fishing on the Sukhona River
Fishing report: August 15, Sukhona river
Date of fishing: August 15, 2009
Body of water: Sukhona river
Detailed description of the place: 505 kilometer.
Description of the road: There is no road, only by water.
Weather: The weather was rainy with intermittent sunshine.
Fishing method: Spinning
My tackle: China rod 200 rub. fishing line 0.3, Cobra reel for 320 rubles.
My lures: Wobbler for 30 rubles. was completely repainted.
Nozzle: - not specified -
Groundbait: - not specified -
What kind of fish did you catch: pike
Biting/Fish Activity: Fish were caught during periods between showers.
My catch: 3-5 kilograms
The largest fish - not specified -
As the success of other fishermen? There were few boats on the river due to inclement weather. There was a white yacht, they were also fishing for pike. I saw 3 of them.
Detailed fishing report Upon arrival at 505 km. Everyone was already wet, but they decided to start fishing. From the first casts it was clear that the pike didn’t favor them. After that, we decided to try trolling. And here we were lucky, passing under the left bank the first bite. We walked against the current. Progress-2 on Suzuki-2.4 - tact. The pike only took it from me for homemade work. I ignored the purchased colors. Soon my son caught it on a spoon, but they released it because the pike was young.
General summary: The weather was not great, but the fishing was good.
After spinning, we decided to have some fun on the feeder, and here after the rain there was excellent fishing. The catch was worthy as always. Up to a kilo of bream, silver bream, roach, and perch.
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Fishing report: October 27 - October 27, Sukhona river
Date of fishing: October 27, 2012 - October 27, 2012
Body of water: Sukhona river
Place - region/district: Vologda region.
Detailed description of the place: The Sukhona River is not far from the mouth of the Dvinitsa River.
Road description: - not specified -
Weather: The weather is simply disgusting strong wind -1;-2
Condition of the reservoir: The water level is much higher than in summer. It didn't change during the week. Water of medium transparency. We also caught it in muddier conditions.
Fishing method: Spinning
My tackle: Braid 0.3; Rod length 1.8 m, spinning reel.
My lures: Wobbler
Nozzle: Wobbler.
Groundbait: No
What kind of fish did you catch: pike
Biting/fish activity: for 4 s +
My catch: 5-10 kilograms
The largest fish is pike, 4 kg.
Notes on fishing techniques, the best baits. There was a strong wind so only trolling.
As the success of other fishermen? No other fool would have gone fishing in such weather.
Detailed fishing report
We were going fishing in the middle of the week and were waiting for the weekend. And as the law of meanness happens, the weather completely deteriorated by Friday. The wind is strong, gusty, snow has fallen, cold -2;-3. We called on Saturday morning, are we going, are we not going? Well, since hunting was more than a matter of will, we decided to try it. To be honest, I doubted any catch at all. There is a strong wind, there is a wave on the river, and there is snow on the shore. We met at the boat at 09:30 in the morning, while the engine was being installed, etc. for 10 hours. Well, in short, we got on the boat and went. Cold -2, wind, waves. In about 30 minutes we arrived at the future fishing spot and successfully laid out the paths. And after 30-40 minutes the first bite. The pike grabbed it right away without any pokes. I tell my partner that something has pecked, get the net ready. I brought it safely to the boat and then the pike went under the boat and didn’t want to come to the surface. I pull and pull and now a toothy one appears. As soon as we had time to sweat her with a net, she bit through the braided line. The small wobbler was deep-throated. I pulled 2 kg. The second bite happened again after 10-15 minutes. It turned out that the pike, a little smaller than 1.5 kg, also took it greedily and without prodding, and ate it. We drive on, talk, and freeze. And here again, at first there’s a bite and then it’s like a hook, but it starts to drag. I say, prepare the net for something large and turn off the engine. I pulled out 5-6 meters and this fish came off. I don’t know what was there, but it was very big. Then we decide to go to the mouth of Dvinitsa, where the wind is less and at least a little warmer, otherwise we are very cold. We walked as far as Dvinitsa without any bites, and along Dvinitsa itself for 1.5 km there were no bites either. We are driving back where two pikes were caught and not much before reaching that place I get a strong jerk and pull. Well, I don't think you'll leave. It's going hard. My partner prepared the net. But she is a beauty. And with a deft movement he removes it. And already in the net she spits out the wobbler. (The wobbler is small, the hooks are small) The pike turned out to be the largest on this fishing trip, 4 kg. The price went up a little more and we were completely frozen, so at 2 p.m. we decided to go home. That's how Vitalik and I went fishing this Saturday.
General summary: Despite the bad weather, the fish still bit. And once again my little favorite wobbler came to the rescue
Fishing report: July 18 - July 19, Sukhona river
Date of fishing: July 18, 2008 - July 19, 2008
Body of water: Sukhona river
Place - region/district: Vologda region.
Detailed description of the place: In the Ust-Pechenga area
Description of the road: Either to Churilovka or to Ust-Pechenga, depending on where you are going from.
Weather: Cloudy, slight northwest wind
Condition of the reservoir: the water level is high, almost like in spring
Fishing method: Donka / Feeder / Picker
My tackle: donka with a sliding sinker 20 grams. fishing line 0.2
My lures: - not specified -
Nozzle: sandwich, 3-4 maggots and a worm.
Groundbait: - not specified -
What kind of fish did you catch: bream
Biting/fish activity: small fish were constantly hammering
My catch: 3-5 kilograms
The largest fish is bream, 2 kg.
Notes on fishing techniques, the best baits. - not indicated -
As the success of other fishermen? Other fishermen swam up and things were a little worse
General summary: I came to the conclusion that the water level does not affect the bite, a lot depends on the place and method of fishing.
Date of fishing: January 28, 2010
Body of water: Sukhona river
Place - region/district: Vologda region.
Detailed description of the place: confluence of the Vologda and Sukhona rivers
Description of the road: on a snowstorm along the Vologda River or to Lake Molotovskoye and then on foot along the snowstorm trail to the place
Weather: cold, windy
Condition of the reservoir: - not specified -
Fishing method: Jig
My tackle: - not specified -
My baits: homemade jig, heavy because of the current, yellow in color, similar to a soldier’s button
Nozzle: worm 2 pieces
Groundbait: - not specified -
What kind of fish did you catch: ide
Biting/fish activity: the bite was excellent
My catch: more than 10 kilograms
The largest fish is ide, 1.5 kg.
Notes on fishing techniques, the best baits. - hidden by the author -
As the success of other fishermen? - not indicated -
Detailed fishing report - not specified -
General summary: in addition to the ide, they set up girders and took burbot, but only on large dead roach! but other than that, the fishing was great, everyone was happy
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SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:
Team Nomads.
Kuznetsov A.V. Sukhona from mouth to mouth: Toponymic dictionary-guide. - Vologda: Ardvisura, 1994. - pp. 37-39.
Vasmer M. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language. T. III. P. 814.
Statistics on the UNESCO website
Surface water resources of the USSR: Hydrological knowledge. T. 3. Northern region / Ed. N. M. Zhila. - L.: Gidrometeoizdat, 1965. - 612 p.
State water register of the Russian Federation: Sukhona. Archived from the original on December 27, 2012.
Wikipedia website.
http://www.skitalets.ru/
L.A. Plechko, I.P. Sabaneeva. "Water routes of the USSR. European part." Moscow, "Physical Education and Sports", 1973.
http://www.ru-regions.ru/
http://photosight.ru/
http://photos.lifeisphoto.ru/
http://www.fion.ru/
Although the length of the Sukhona is only 558 km, it is usually divided into three parts: the Upper - from the source to the mouth of the Vologda River, the Middle - from the mouth of Vologda to the mouth of the Konchenga and the Lower. The Lower Sukhona was formerly called the Great Sukhona, and the Upper Sukhona is now often called Rabangskaya.
Previously, the river flowed out of Lake Kubenskoye in two directions: the main one - Sukhona and Bolshoy Puchkas, the mouth of which is located about 5 km to the south. Having described an almost 20-kilometer arc. Bolshoy Puchkas connects with Sukhona near the village of Shery. Currently, its riverbed has become so silted and shallow that there is no water in it in the summer. In the nutrition of the Sukhona, Bolshoi Puchkas no longer has any significance; it is only the boundary of the overflow of its spring waters. During high water, the space between the branches of the Sukhona usually turns into a vast flood.
Despite the fact that at the source the river is regulated by Lake Kubensky, in the spring more than half of the total annual flow flows through it.
The largest river in the Vologda region, famous for its rifts and rapids, picturesque banks, reverse flow in large floods, and repeated changes of bed at the mouth, is the Sukhona, obstinate, willful, majestic and beautiful. And the most amazing place on the Sukhona is Opoki - the Sukhona miracle, the pearl of the Sukhona.
1.
Opoki is the name of a sharp bend and the most dangerous rapids on the Sukhona.
The river, squeezed by high steeps, bubbles and foams among the stones.
The current is the fastest here (speed reaches 5 m/sec, which is comparable only to mountain rivers)
and the smallest depths (up to 30 cm).
2.
I have known these places since early childhood.
My grandfather was the head of the OPOKI pier in the 50s of the last century)))
Wow! My sister and I often visited here in the summer. We rode down steep banks on soft colored clay, like down a hill in winter)))
But now those places are no longer recognizable.
3.
Starting from the water's edge and up the slope to the edge of the main bank between the previously existing village of Opoki and the mouth of the Strelna River, in the area of the village of Opoki there is the most dangerous rapid on the Sukhona River with the same name - Opoki. The length of the rapid is 1.5 km, the bottom is rocky. In the old days, when rivers were the main trade routes, merchants preferred not to take risks, but to drag ships with goods.
4.
5.
The water in the river is clear, every pebble is visible.
In the shallows of the river you can find fossils, geodes with quartz and amethyst, and colorful flints.
They were brought to the Sukhona shores by a glacier from Karelia and the Kola Peninsula.
And what air there is - beyond words!
Here and there there are tourist stops.
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10.
11.
In the Old Russian language the word "opoka" meant "rock". The Sukhona rocks were formed not in the mountains, but on the plain.
12.
The river, having cut through the bedrock deposits, revealed a 65-meter thick layer of Permian and Quaternary sediments. The shore resembles a giant layer cake with brownish-brown, dark gray and white stripes. A cake is “baked” from clays, marls, siltstones, limestones, which are more than 200 million years old! The rocks are fractured and lie with a slight slope downstream of the river.
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In Opoki, the Sukhona makes a sharp turn, forming a narrow and long cape.
At its very peak in 1943-1947 was the Gulag zone - “Opokstroy” with 1,100 prisoners.
They built a hydroelectric power station: they cut down ryazhi, filled them with stones and earth, and covered them with iron.
16.
In the 1940s, work was in full swing in Opoki: under the barking of guard dogs, prisoners moved millions of cubic meters of soil in wheelbarrows. The construction was carried out by the largest "construction" organization of that time - the NKVD. They tried to tame the wayward Sukhona by building a hydraulic complex, upper and lower shipping canals, a navigable single-chamber lock and a blind water-shed dam. By the beginning of navigation in 1947, the work was completed. However, during the first flood, the river demolished most of the dam. Its remains were scattered along the Sukhona. Much water has passed under the bridge since then... Almost nothing has survived from the Opoksky waterworks. Only dilapidated sluice structures and a worship cross for people who innocently died during construction remind of the past.
In place of the Gulag zone there is a worship cross “For those who suffered without guilt.”
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In 1963, Opoki became part of the state natural monument "Lens - places of alleged paleontological finds." At the beginning of the 21st century, the Opoki tract acquired the status of a landscape reserve.
This is a natural monument.
From Veliky Ustyug to the Sukhonskaya landmark is just over 70 km. We're approaching.
Our goal was to cross to the left bank of the Sukhona.
From the high bank we easily went down by taxi straight to the crossing.
19.
Let's go look for the boatmen
20.
Swifts fly over the river. They make nests on the high left bank of the river.
21.
Streams and rivulets flowing into the Sukhona further tear apart these layered-striped rocks, forming creeks.
22.
We found a boatman, a boat, briskly boarded the motorboat and... LET'S GO!
We got out to the opposite bank and went to the well. Along the way we admired the flowers
23.
Motorboats cannot approach the fountain itself, so we had to walk along the bank.
24.
Here he is! I saw him for the first time. Still, it’s a long way to get to it.
25.
On the left bank of the Sukhona there is a gushing source of ferruginous artesian waters.
A well up to 192.4 meters deep was drilled in 1941 by geologists during engineering-geological surveys of quartz sand with the aim of building a glass factory. But instead of sand, geologists discovered clean artesian water. The aquifer, from which water flows under pressure, is located at depths of 95.3 m and pours out 50 liters of water per second.
26.
Rainbow on earth.
27.
At first glance it is a fountain. But the fountain is natural. It would be even more correct to say – a gushing source. It has been roaring here for decades, leading to bewilderment - where does such a burst of water come from?
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And there is beauty all around!
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Of course, I wandered around the pebbles barefoot, took a bath in an ice-cold shower... to the general friendly squeal))))
The pebbles are so hard that if you walk barefoot by the fountain,
I came home with a complete bruise on my left foot. ((((((
32.
We return to the boat past the sedge. The boatman arrives in response to a call from his phone.
A trip on a motorboat is paid for both ways.
How cool it is to ride along the river on a motor boat! I wanted to sing songs)
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We head back to the crossing, where a taxi is patiently waiting for us.
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It was here, under the pressure of the river, that the Sukhona rocks were formed. Gradually gnawing into the thickness of ancient Permian and Quaternary sediments, the river exposed a 70-meter layer of red clays, white gypsum, and other mineral rocks, hundreds of millions of years old. And this entire exposed “construction” fascinates with its regular, and in some places even ideal, geometric shapes and a restrained but expressive palette. A dense northern forest is green on the rocks above. (from the internet)
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These shores are 200 million years old!!! It's scary to think about. Next to them you feel like a little bug.
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We're on our way back! But it was not there...
Our car couldn’t get back up the steep bank (((We had to walk up the hill...
Finally, we got into the car and drove off.
39.
And here they are repairing the bridge across the Strelna River. They cut off part of the hill - and it’s like a layer cake!
40.
Temporary bridge over the river
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And without any problems, we return to Veliky Ustyug with the breeze.