Irkutsk traveler and writer Valentin Bryanskii promoted the idea of a circular trail around Baikal beginning in the 1970s. However, the modern idea of the Great Baikal Trail was brought up in 1997 by Oleg K. Gusev, a Russian writer, photographer and scientist, who worked at the Barguzin Nature Reserve for over thirty years and was instrumental in forming the Baikal-Lensky Reserve. After visiting the Appalachian Trail in the United States, Gusev realized that creating a similar system of trails at Lake Baikal might also help its preservation. At this time the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was working on the project "Bed and Breakfast and Baikal." The idea was to create a network of private homestays and "micro-hostels" to receive the tourists hiking the path around the lake.