About one million people live in the city, about the same amount that live in the rest of the country. On a tangent, to put that into perspective, Mongolia is about the size of the US east of the Missippi River. The number of people living there is about equal to the number that commute in and out of Manhattan each day. Half live in the city, half in the country, and the average population density is 1.4 persons per square mile. Back on track - we had a good time checking out this modern city, but were looking forward to traveling through the country side. After a few days in the city we hopped on a small flight on Ezines Airlines (pronounced easiness) from Ulanbaataar to Moron, Mongolia.
Then we hopped in the project team van, a Fargon from Russia, and began the 9 hour drive to the Eg/Uur Rivers, and our camp. The ride seemed to take forever because the road is a bumpy double-track at best, and the van makes frequent stops for repairs...
...and stops to visit with anyone who may happen to be living along the way. These vans are not that great and break down a lot, but the drivers carry a bag of spare parts and can fix them with a screwdriver. They have the clearance you need on these roads (or lack of roads). As well as being a mechanic every driver seems to have a supernatural sense of direction. How else could they navigate out here! Anyway, having a driver is key - foreigners should not try to drive themselves in the Mongolian countryside (more on that later). Eventually, late at night, we did arrive at the field site and our camp. The next day we climbed a hill overlooking our camp to get oriented. 
The larch trees were still a rich green color, but the birch trees had already begun to turn yellow. Below is an over view of the valley we lived in for most of the month we spent in Mongolia. 
The River is the Urr River, just above its confluence with the Eg River. The Eg River drains Lake Hovsgol and flows into Lake Baikal, and was the other river we worked on. About six families lived in the valley shown above, or just outside of it. These nomadic herders were the Mongolians who made up the community we lived in. One of the local women was the camp cook. Our community also included a couple of Mongolian students and researchers, and a couple of Mongolian drivers/general fix anything guys. Then there was Char, Katie, Katya (from Russia) and Jon, the volunteers, and Zeb, Brant, and David, the principal investigators. We also had occasional visits from other scientists, fish enthusiasts, traveling Mongolians, reporters and filmakers. In the photo you may be able to see a few white gers (yerts), which are the "houses" that most of us living in the valley slept in.
Although the trip from the US to Eg/Uur Mongolia (also called Tavakteh, or "where marmots are") was long and difficult, it could have been a lot worse (really shorter, but more dangerous). Some people traveled to the region from the capital in a sketchy Russian helecopter.
This thing was built a while back, and at the beginning of the 1990's when the Russians left Mongolia they took everyone who knew how to maintain the chppers home too. They used to have 5 of these helicopters in Mongolia, but now there are two... I'm glad we weren't on any of them when they were "retired." The pilots keep them dangerously close to the ground when they are flying, but I guess they are hedging their bets. It was mainly the wealthy clients of the Stillwater taimen fishing camp that flew in this helicopter. The camp operated at the far end of our valley for the first two weeks we were there. The fishing operation works in partnership with the taimen conservation team, tagging fish that their clients catch and taking data on any recaptures. So that is how we got there, and where we ended up. More on the Eg/Uur later...
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