Tour of 2018 – Day 23, August 18th 2018

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

Tour of 2018 – Day 22, August 17th 2018

Camp at Saltoluokta
Being more than half a day ahead of schedule due to the weather, I had decided on beforehand to take one day completely off here in Saltoluokta.
My rest day started with the breakfast buffet they serve every morning between 7 and 9, what a treat to have eggs, cheese, ham, and some fresh veggies for breakfast!

My plan was to intentionally and purposefully overeat and overcompensate some for the lower intake of food during the tour so far.
This plan was effectuated to perfection, now just during breakfast, I also bought some peanuts as an extra snack, and had my normal dinner in the evening.
I promised myself a real rest day and spent my time reading, chatting with other people at the station, sauna and just relaxing.
Saltoluokta is a perfect place to take a day off, comfortable chairs, generous sauna hours and great food!

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

Stoves


Meals and hot drinks are always highlights of any tour and we need a stove to prepare them.
There are countless different stoves available in the market, yet the wood fired ones are really only workable in forest areas and often too large and heavy to carry on a hike.
Therefore I limit this article to the three types of stoves normally used for hiking:
  1. Spirit
  2. Gas (picture shows my gas stove from Primus)
  3. Multifuel
 Let me give You some details:
  1. Spirit stoves are fueled almost 100% pure, denatured spirit. The advantages are that spirit is easily available and affordable in most places and burns well even in colder conditions. The downsides are mainly pretty low heat and therefore quite time consuming cooking. Some spirits leave a lot of soot on the bottom of the pot which then easily stains other equipment unless properly cleaned and stored separately. There’s also a risk of spilling fuel into the meal, just one drop ruins everything… And putting out the flame can be an adventurous endeavor. I used a few different ones for many years and they are very reliable when operated correctly.
  2. Gas stoves are easy, clean, safe and fast to use and modern stoves often utilizes special heat absorbing and concentration designs to cut the cooking time considerably. Personally I moved over to the use of gas quite a few years ago and never looked back except with winter hikes. When temperatures hit close to 0 centigrade (lower 30’s F) the pressure in the cartridge decreases to a point where the cooking time is painfully prolonged. As long as were operating in non frozen environments in regions where the cartridges can be easily obtained I definitely recommend gas stoves.
  3.  Multifuel stoves use different exchangeable valves to enable the use of several fuel sources. The most common one is chemical grade gasoline, yet they can be fueled with gasoline from any filling station, strong enough alcohol, kerosene etc. Slightly more complicated to use than a gas stove and clearly less potentially messy than spirit burners they are a great choice for colder climates and all year use in moderate ones!
Good luck, have fun and love the experience!!!
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