Dry river Sukhona

The Sukhona River, the mouth of which is located near the city of Veliky Ustyug, flows almost through the entire Vologda region. It has a length of more than 500 km, when merged with the South, forms the river Northern Dvina.

The name comes from the ancient Suhodna, which means a dry bottom.

That is, the river by the end of summer is so shallow that it can be crossed in some places even to the waist! Although in the spring the water level is around 5 meters!

In order for the river to remain navigable during the Soviet period, special dredging operations were carried out with the help of a dredger.

Previously, scooped sand with a bucket and loaded on barges, now they wash sand. After the collapse of the local Shipbuilding Plant, the river was not cleaned, the channel was washed away, and as a result of this, floods became more frequent, because the ice gets stuck on the bottom.

Another reason for the low water level in the river is deforestation - small forest rivers dry up, which feed the big Sukhona.

As is known, in most of the northern rivers the timber was fused, Sukhona was no exception, so there are a lot of "duds" - drowned logs at the bottom.