Yaroslavl Bike Fest

Went up to Yaroslavl this weekend, but my buddy wasn't in town, so I had to hang out by myself. On the way out of Moscow I noticed lots of bikers heading out of town, and then I bumped into a guy on a 650 in a town along the Volga called Uglich who said that there was a "Black Bear" biker fest in Tutaev, a bit north of Yaroslavl (the Black Bears are the local bike gang in Yaroslavl). As I rode from Uglich to Yaroslavl, there were huge storm clouds all around, especially right over Yaroslavl. I seemed to be just a bit behind the storm, however, and while I encountered some trees it blew down laying in the road, it didn't start raining on me until I actually got to Yaroslavl, and even then only for a few minutes. I went to Cocktail Bar for dinner and then went home for a quick nap before going out...but then didn't wake up till morning...

Next morning I got up and headed to the bike fest, although I didn't know exactly where it was...I figured I would just follow all of the other bikes. Finding it was easy enough all right, and there must have been a couple thousand bikers there, a big stage, and...a rather nerdy sword-and-shield reenactment.

I wandered around for awhile, but I couldn't drink since I was riding, wasn't really into the "loudest bike" or other competitions, and didn't really feel like hanging out until evening when the music and other festivities would start. Plus I didn't bring my tent, so couldn't spend the night. Anyway, decided to leave and do more riding around.

First, I decided to head to the other side of the Volga, check out Uglich again. There is a ferry at Tutaev, so after looking for it for a bit, found some other bikers waiting for the ferry as well:
It was a nice ferry ride, and then off to Uglich. I poked around there a bit, saw the usual churches, etc., and then back to Yaroslavl. Here is an old church at an intersection I went through several times this weekend: