Camp just north of Teusajaure cabin
I woke up really early, just shy of 5:30, and started getting all my stuff together. The tent had some condensation from the night and I hung it outside to dry completely.
Before breakfast, I had everything packed and ready to go, the food and gas I got in that package brought the weight of the backpack up to 25kg again. So much less fun than the 18.5kg I arrived with…
Breakfast was just as good as the day before and afterward, I sat outside with a coffee until it was time to go down to the boat. Weather was mostly sunny and pretty warm, good day to get back on the trail!
The boat ride costs SEK 140:- if You’re a member of the STF and on the other side of the lake waits for the bus to let You continue Your journey.
My next stop was Vakkotavare, the trailhead for the northbound Kungsleden. There’s basically no way to get around using the trail for the first stretch as in particular one river and a lake are hard to cross without bridge and boats.
In Vakkotavare I met the same hosts as last year, Birgitta and Anders, and we had a nice chat catching up before I hit the trail at 1:30.
After ascending the first part of the trail it gets very pleasant and easy to walk. I did the 16km to the lake ‘Teusajaure’ in 3.5h without hurrying and found two rowing boats on that side of the lake. This meant I could just take one and use to get to the other side, had there been only one, I’d had to row the distance three times to make sure there are one or more boats on either side of the lake.
In that case, I would have waited for the schedule motor boat transport an hour later, now I didn’t have to.
Though I have to admit I’d forgotten how lousy these rowing boats actually are, no fun at all to row the 1km across the lake, especially not as the wind had created quite some waves on the lake. It was a struggle and, once over on the other shore, I went into the cabin for a break, some coffee and to get dry and warm again.
Turned out that it suddenly started raining while I was having that coffee and I ended up cooking dinner inside as well.
Finally, the rain subsided to a mere drizzle and I went up the initial ascent to camp up on the plateau, I just felt I needed some free space around me after two nights at Saltoluokta.
Found a really nice spot and got everything set up for the night!
The journey continues, please leave a comment to tell me what You think and share this with friends and loved ones who might benefit or be interested!
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Peace // Claes
Met some people on the trail who treated me to some really nice salami (I think it was Italian), and this was the only piece of food I ate between breakfast and the dinner later.
Right now it’s again too rainy to go out and make a video for you, so I hope I can do my ‘Day 24 video’ tomorrow morning. The clouds quickly squeeze away the last daylight from around here.
Temperatures outside still clearly indicate that summer is at its end and we’re in the season of fall here in the mountains.
After reaching the end of Sinnivaggi and starting the climb up the whole action got considerably rougher and the clouds started closing up. Still I decided to go for the summit as I saw a chance of the weather lightening up. Turning sharply uphill to converge with the western trail towards the summit of Kebnekaise carrying me whole backpack admittedly turned out to be brutally challenging. The tour is partly very steep and rather slippery as the stones have been ground into gravel by many feet passing. I motored on slowly and, at times, felt like I’d never reach the end – a feeling greatly enhanced by the clouds closing in even more, lowering the visibility to just 10-15m. It’s just inherently frustrating to not being able to see where one is heading – until making a mental decision not to care any more and just go on. And that’s exactly what I had to do… I knew that sooner or later I’d reach the summit and until I did, I’d just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
