08:00 Camp at Liehtjitjavrre

What a beautiful morning! I’m sitting in my tent with the abside open on the leeward side, facing the sun. The rather chilly wind from behind drives away most mosquitoes except for the very bravest, and the sun gives a nice warmth to the morning hours!

As much as I spent time out here, it never stops to amaze me how swiftly and completely the weather can change within a day or even hours.

It really felt nice to have the sunlight hit the tent this morning and not raindrops – even if I nowadays, thankfully, accept and adapt to whatever weather without huge emotional engagement, I frankly admit the I haven’t preferences!

Anyway, Ketonix readings are still higher than before, actually a lot higher, and I feel amazing. I experiences as slight GI discomfort yesterday afternoon, probably due to the rapid increase in coconut oil, and that resolved quickly.

So I just continue going at this with an increased amount of nutritional fat and enjoy the experience!

Plan for today is to go all the way to Saltoluokta as the weather could hardly be better and I’ll get an early start.

I like to call this part of the trip:

‘A five day hike, to be planned for six days’

Meaning that one should do it in five, yet have one day in reserve. Now it looks as that reserve is not necessary and this gives me an extra day for all the other stuff I want to do when back a little farther up north again!

22:30 Camp at Staloluokta

So, day 15 is in the books and I reached the halfway mark of this years hike. Backpack is still feeling so much better than just a few days ago and moving through the mountains has become more or less effortless compared to the first 10 days or so. What a difference a few kg can make!

Carl, Fredrik and I started today’s tour together at 10:30 and began following the trail northwardtowards Suorva. About level with the reindeer keeper cabin I spotted a potentially easier line and went scouting, finding a long stretch of boulders and rocks taking us all the way to dry ground free from bushes. Up until that point we had some struggles with scrubs, bushes and wetland. Good reminder to not blindly follow a trail at any cost!

After about 2.5h they wanted to stop for lunch and I did indulge in another cup of coffee with PF. 45 min later we’re moving on for another half hour before splitting up, they going north to the western end of Bietsavvre to camp and take a boat across the lake in the morning. I heading east up the valley to hike the distance of the lake and continue to Saltoluokta.

I have to admit that the first hour or so was a struggle… Lots of vegetation, wetlands and pools of standing water to be avoided and really no straight line to follow despite my efforts of aiming at the high point. In these situations it always feels like the forward progress is frustratingly slow and it becomes a mental game besides the physical struggle with the uneven ground and getting hooked up in the vegetation all the time.

Getting through and up onto higher grounds and the soft grass of that elevation was a relief and my steps became instantly lighter!

The rest of the hike to the eastern end of Bietsavvre was pure joy, mixing grassland with rocks and some occasional bushes that I’ve got increasingly better at avoiding!

Descending in the shadow of Rasek I found a very well defined trail which I could follow all the way to the beach at Bietsavvre’s eastern shore.

Crossing the mouth of Avtsusjjåhkå, emptying into the lake, has been made easy by a small boat running on a rope across the river.

Unfortunately the cafe in the Sami village was closed and so I continued almost immediately along the trail down to Saltoluokta. The six km trail was super easy to follow and after a slight uphill slope merely downhill, after just under an hour I reached the fjällstation and checked in for a camp site. Sara at the reception was kind enough to help with recharging my Ketonix battery and the power bank over night, turns out she’s been following LCHF earlier and got of it during guide training.

She told me she was eager to start the fat fueled lifestyle again, though, and never felt better than when she ate this way. In general people are almost surprisingly curious and positively interested when they hear about this project and it’s fun to help out with some tips, tricks and information.

Now, I hiked around 25km total, of which all but the last six were off trails, and so far only had three coffee with fat (one with coconut oil and two with PF) for energy, so dinner came high on my list of priorities after check in. I just grabbed a camp site, raised my tent and then headed for the kitchen.

Here I just want to point out that at no time during the day I felt anything but energized and sufficiently sustained, or I would have stopped and had something to eat. Even being used to the ketogenic lifestyle I’m still amazed by the amount of physical and mental work that can be completed without refueling.

While waiting for my dinner to cool down to eating temperature I emptied my pack and brought next weeks food up to the top when repacking. Realizing the real amount of provisions I already used was reassuring and totally explained the new and lighter feeling of my backpack!

The only real miscalculation is with the beef jerky, I used less than half of what I’d planned to have. Thankfully it’s not a lot of extra weight to carry!

After dinner I managed a quick sauna before it closed for the night and finished of with shower and a shave.

Good feeling to be thoroughly clean again!

As it’s now well passed 22:00 and people are sleeping in their tents, today’s closing video just has to wait until tomorrow morning.

Followed by my first planned over eating breakfast for this tour!