As strange as it may seem, Tent Camping in Siberia is a fascinatiing book, mostly because Kennan is a terrific writer with all the observational skills of Mark Twain and the intrepid character of John Muir, both of whom were writing at the same time. I'm struck with the similarities between Tent Camping and Muir's First Summer in the Sierra.
The big drawback is that the book has not one map. So I'm offering this sketchy approximation to get you oriented. Petropavlovsk is on the east coast of the Kamchatka peninsula about where the first arrow starts. By the way, a verst is .66 miles.
Tent Camping should be read in January because, no matter how cold, bleak, dark or miserable Wisconsin gets in the winter, Kennan's descriptions of huddling in a cold, lightless, smoke-filled yourt (yurt) or sleeping under the stars at 50 below will make you feel like a wimp for complaining.
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