 In January 2003, a group of interested people from all around Baikal traveled to the West Coast of United States to learn about trail building.In February it was decided to start building the Great Baikal Trail.In the summer of 2003, the first six teams of volunteers began work on trail construction with the support of the Baikal Nature Reserve, Zabaikalsky National Park, the community organization Ust'e from the village Bolshoe Goloustnoe, the club LAT from the city of Ulan-Ude, and the NGO GRIN School of Tourist-Environmental Education of Severobaikalsk.