For our kayak circumnavigation of Lake Baikal we decided to branch out and expand our team. In addition to Matt and Hannah, Anya Gleizer will be heading to Siberia with a paddle in hand and adventure in mind. We met Anya in the summer of 2008 through an Earth Watch group that Matt was guiding on Isle Royale. At the time Anya was just 16 years old, but had already set her mind and heart on the wilderness. Over the last few years we’ve kept in contact with Anya and she has become a good friend.

Anya was born in Moscow. Not Moscow, Idaho – we’re talking the real thing: Russia. She moved to the US with her mother when she was four and was immediately swept up into the yellow-cab-rush of New York City. Used to the lights and traffic and endless shuffling mobs of people, she was somehow always aware that this was not where she was meant to be. When she was in high school she naively resolved to plan her life, and after reading a book by David Mech decided that perhaps studying wild animals would be a good career path. She typed “wolf research trip” into Google and her fate was decided with the click of a mouse. The trip she found was through Earthwatch, an organization that connects people with scientific research projects for adventure vacations.  She spent a week bushwhacking around Isle Royale National Park looking for moose bones and learning about wolf ecology. Matt just happened to be her guide and this trip. During the week she was introduced to the idea that life can be lived for adventure and that this type of life was actually possible (Matt was living, breathing proof). She returned to New York with a new found addiction to adventure. In the midst of city life she managed to escape for a backcountry dog-sledding/skiing trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota and a kayak trip to Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. After high school she was accepted to Dartmouth College but kept her heart set on a big adventure. At Dartmouth she joined the legendary Outing Club and Ledyard Canoe club to keep her connected to the outdoors.  School may have her attention for the next few years but the shining beacon of adventure is always on the horizon.