 In the fur hunting trade, since there are no easy portages to the Okhota, the Russians usually approached Okhotsk from the Urak or the Ulya to the west.The only main route that used the Okhota ran from the "corner" of the Yudoma over the Okhotsk Portage to the Okhota about 100 kilometres north of its mouth.There was some pasture along the river but not enough to keep many Yakutsk pack-horses over winter.