Baikalsk has always lived with a famous neighbour. Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world at more than sixteen hundred metres, lies right at the end of the street, and behind the town the long, forested wall of the Khamar-Daban range rises close enough to feel in the weather. The town grew in the 1960s around a pulp and paper mill built on the shore, a decision that caused arguments about the lake's purity for decades before the mill finally closed in 2013. What was once an industrial site now feels like a place working out what it wants to be next.
The ride in from Slyudyanka, some thirty-four kilometres to the west, is one of the more relaxed ones on this side of the lake. The road keeps close to the foothills, passing through pine and birch forest with glimpses of grey-blue water between the trunks. The asphalt is generally fine, bends are moderate, and you meet logging trucks and the odd local in a hurry rather than crowds. Mornings are the best time, when the lake is calm and the light comes low over the water. In winter and early spring the wind and ice change everything, and snow can hold on in the hills well into spring.
With roughly fifteen thousand people, Baikalsk has everything a traveller needs: fuel, groceries, simple cafes and a few places to sleep. Slyudyanka, the nearest larger town, is the fallback if you want more choice. The shore itself is stony, the water cold even in August, and swimming is for the brave. Look for the fish, omul, smoked or salted, which is the lake's signature food and tastes best bought from a local seller rather than a roadside kiosk with a long queue.
Above the town there is a ski area that has made a modest name for itself on the slopes of the Khamar-Daban, and the mountain air in summer smells of cedar and warm resin. It is worth pausing to take in the scale of the thing. Baikal holds about a fifth of the world's unfrozen fresh water, and its seals, the nerpa, are found nowhere else. You will not see one from the road, but knowing they are out there makes the grey water look different.