offthegridhiker

Tour of 2018 – Day 17, August 12th 2018

 Camp at Skarja
Wow, what a night! It started raining around 4:30 pm yesterday and kept pouring down more or less intense the entire night and morning. Finally, shortly after 11 am the rain started to subside and minutes later I could wipe off the majority of the water from the rain fly.
Just after noon I had everything packed up more or less dry and could continue my journey after spending 20h inside the tent. I guess God wanted me to have another rest period!
Starting on a downhill slope towards the river I soon found myself on the trail again. From here on it’s very clear and easy to follow, it just blurs out into several separate ‘suggestions’ a couple of times during the day and it’s always effortless to find the main trail.
I pass two rivers, swollen by the heavy rain, that normally would be easy to cross without changing. Today it was an adventure and I chose to gamble a little, betting high boot shafts, skills, experience, and good balance against, maybe, better judgment. It worked out, though, and I saved a lot of time – besides, getting one’s feet dry when it rains is not an easy endeavor.
Soon after the second crossing, I arrive at the reindeer watcher cabin marked on the map. Turns out it’s being kept open as an emergency cabin, and people left it in a depressing state, full of trash piles and with the outer door removed. Kinda makes me sad…
Now, entering Ruohtesvagge, I come to the one major river crossing of the day, being fed by a large glacier in the southwest and swollen by the rain, it’s wide, murky and super cold. One guy I met yesterday told me the water went halfway up his thighs, and that was before all the rain…
Turns out he must have picked the wrong spot to cross, I never got wet above my knees. The main challenge was the cold and I admit it took me maybe an hour afterward before my feet felt normal again.
The rest of the trail was a breeze, nice and soft for the feet and super easy to follow. A couple of rather easy crossings, and soon (well a few hours later) I reached the emergency cabin here at Skarja. Due to the weather, there were quite a lot of people choosing to camp here and have the option of dinner inside, leaving a total of eight tents on the ground.
I had dinner early and left for my tent to make space for others, looking at checking out for the night around 9 pm.
Super special view around here now due to the clouds and rain all around us!

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!

By leaving Your name and email in the box below You get notification of futures posts and news!

Peace // Claes

Tour of 2018 – Day 15, August 10th 2018

Akka cabin
This has been a real rest day for me, slept in until almost 8am and, after taking down the tent, spent most of the am inside the cabin. Taking care of equipment, chatting with other hikers, drinking coffee and tea, and just resting. I totally needed this!
The boat left at 2 pm and I kept my promise to myself even after getting to the other side of the lake. Akka cabin is only 2km from where the boat lands, and that was as far as I went!
Turned out there were no other guests at the time and after chopping some wood I fired up the sauna and spent over an hour switching between the hot sauna and cold shower.
After dinner and some reading inside I’m going out to the tent early, there is a really strong wind blowing from the lake and falling asleep might be a challenge!

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!

By leaving Your name and email in the box below You get notification of futures posts and news!

Peace // Claes

Tour of 2018 – Day 13, August 8th 2018

Camp at the bridge west of Ubmasvarasj
What a pleasant morning at Røysvatnhyttene, I slept in until about 8 am and enjoyed quite a few lazy hours in and around the cabin. Weather was sunny with a light breeze and it was very nice to sit outside with a cup of coffee just reading a book.
At 1 pm I left the cabin and followed the trail south until it crossed the ’gränsleden’ (border trail) where I turned eastbound on that trail.
My mattress had developed such a hump that sleeping on it was causing me neck pain and I needed to replace it. So I headed off towards Ritsem and decided to split the 40km into two more or less equal parts.
The trail was easy to follow and pleasant to walk, no real ups and downs, just a very mellow hike on the mostly soft ground.
Passing over Vakkatjavelk the trail is not consistent with how it’s marked on the map, just follow the stone markers and You’ll get there!
Coming down from that little mountain I encountered (and startled) quite a few reindeers. Finally I also ran into som ripe cloud berries and could pick a handful just next to the trail. A welcome taste of fresh berries, I love the tartness of them!
Reaching the bridge I quickly found a suitable campsite and after pitching the tent and having a quick dinner I just stretched out for a few minutes inside the tent.
Waking up about 1.5h later to heavy rain falling, I got ready for the night and slipped under my sleeping bag.

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!

By leaving Your name and email in the box below You get notification of futures posts and news!

Peace // Claes

Tour of 2018 – Day 3, July 29th 2018

Camp at bridge over Vierrojohka
We went to bed early last night and everyone was probably asleep by 9pm, I know for sure that I was. The frenzy of the last week before departing obviously had caught up with me when I started relaxing out here in nature!
Slept super well and woke up just after 6:30 in the morning, turns out I was the only one up and I let the girls sleep in while doing some reading and enjoying a great meditation.
After a long, relaxed morning we got going at 11am, maybe half hour earlier Ashleigh got some Advil out of her bag and offered Cornelia for her knee pain. This turned out to be one of the highlights of the tour as we all finished today’s hike felling really well. Cornelia felt a slight discomfort at times, no pain.
The trail through Bessesvagge was, for the most part, in better shape than I’ve ever seen it. Still I lost it once on the stretch through the bushes and found it again after some struggling with vegetation.
I followed a creek uphill until I got back on the trail and then got back down to get my backpack and the girls. Super impressed by their effort, they did 100m (300ft) of steep elevation in just about 20min!
After a short break we continued along the trail, turned south towards the bridge over Aliseatnu and crossed over to the south side.
Side note: there’s a new trail heading eastbound when the wetlands start to show up, I checked it out and highly recommend to stick with the original one!
Reaching the intended campsite at the western shore of Vierrojohka we ignored the cold of the glacier water and first got cleaned up. Then setting up camp and having dinner down by the little pebble beach, starting a small fire to fend off the mosquitoes that appeared when the wind went down.
Tomorrow we need to get started a few hours earlier to have enough time for the Mårma pass so we’re all heading for another early 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!

By leaving Your email in the box below You get notification of futures posts and news!

Peace // Claes

Tour of 2018 – Day 1, July 27th 2018

Camp at Cuonjajavri
A day of travel, it turned out that there were no really good connections from Kiruna that fitted our arrival from Stockholm, ARN, and we ended up spending over 3.5h in Kiruna.
The day started a little challenging with one from the group sleeping in, yet our driver was super friendly and agreed to a detour to pick her up. Challenge successfully solved!

Finally at 4pm we got off the bus in Abisko and hit the trail!

Beautiful hike in fantastic weather, actually the heat made it necessary to force down extra water at every creek. One of us was especially challenged by the hot sun and had to wet her cap repeatedly to keep her head cold.
Needless to say we took it very easy and reached the camp site after around four hours of hiking, taking several breaks to cool down!
After pitching our tents we sat down for a late dinner and soon after it was time to hit the sleeping bags!
From a personal perspective I’m super happy that I start the hike this year being fat adapted. Didn’t eat for nine hours between lunch and dinner, felt super great, full of energy and no hunger at all!
I cannot recommend enough that You make sure to be fat adapted when going on a longer hike, it’s a total game changer!

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!

By leaving Your email in the box below You get notification of futures posts and news!

Peace // Claes

Day 30 – August 26th 2017

19:40 Abisko Tourist Station

Clean, warm and cozy – my feelings this evening comprised into three words.

Woke up in a soaked tent, had a lazy morning hanging out at the cabin in Abiskojaure and getting an interview done with one of the cabin hosts.

The 14km to Abisko are a really easy hike and the weather was hugely better than the last days, almost to the point where I regretted heading for the mountain station.
Yet the prospect of checking in a backpack containing wet equipment and dealing with the stuff back home was motivating enough to finish the tour today.

Arriving in Abisko I got the last available room in the hotel part and could get all my stuff dried out inside the facility. Ignoring the eminent restaurant I dined on my last portion of dehydrated ground beef for this tour, enjoying the comfort of doing my dishes in hot water from a faucet.

Looking back at the tour of 2017, it has definitely been one of the best ever, though the weather has been way worse than most years.
From a subjective point of view, the ketogenic way of fueling has been absolutely outstanding for comfort and performance and, regardless of test results, this is the way I fuel my hikes (and, frankly, most of my future life).
The abundance of energy, mental clarity and resilience combined with wonderful sleep and lack of hunger during the day makes it an ideal fit for me and I cannot recommend enough that You try it out.

Let me just end this with a huge shout out for my sponsors, Ketonix and Nourish Balance Thrive, I’m incredibly grateful for the support and there’re no words to endorse their products enough.
I definitely continue to use them!

That’s it for this tour, I hope You enjoyed tagging along just as much as I enjoyed completing it.
Stay tuned for a few shorter tour suggestions building on my hike, as I want to make the area accessible to more people.
And remember, Lapland is still here next year and I´ll be back!

Planning to lead a small group of people through some beautiful nature on week 1 so let me know if You’re interested. More on this later!

Thanks for following and supporting my journey, hope to see You soon again!

Peace // Claes

Day 29 – August 25th 2017

21:00 Camp next to Abiskojaure cabin

Rain, rain, rain – was the name of the game today… I spent quite some time in Alesjaure waiting for the down pour to slow down, yet finally I had to start heading north towards Abiskojaure. Originally planning to camp just outside the National Park, I changed my plan about 90 minutes into the hike when my rain jacket turned out to fail miserably at keeping me dry.
Somehow I managed to get started when the rain took a short break, just 20 minutes later it started pouring again and literally continued for the entire stretch down to Abiskojaure. Except for shorter periods when the rain got mixed with snow…
Needless to say this was not my favorite weather to hike!

One of the beautiful aspects of hiking in a keto adapted state is that You just don’t need to bother about food. Normally a 19km hike would call for one or more stops to refuel and when the weather is hostile as on this day, it just doesn’t invite to have a pit stop for snacks… Such a blessing to just continue on without any sign of hunger, fatigue or loss of energy!

I´m also incredibly grateful for the mental clarity and focus the ketogenic state induces as there were quite a few very slippery and treacherous parts on the trail due to the snow and rain.

Once getting closer to the cabin in Abiskojaure it was a really easy decision to pitch the tent next to it and enjoy the sauna and other facilities. The cabin itself was over crowded with people sleeping on mattresses on the floor, while the service room for campers was almost empty, just me and a couple from the UK utilizing it in the evening. So grateful that my tent was pitched outside and I could retire to privacy and stillness i the midst of chaos within the cabins.

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!

By leaving Your email in the box below You get notification of futures posts and news!

Peace // Claes

Day 27&28 – August 23rd-24th 2017

06:15 Camp near Vistas cabin

 

I slept fantastic, such a wonderful feeling to go to bed really clean for the first time in almost a week. The temperature es really pleasant during the night, I had to close my sleeping bag and then I had perfect conditions inside. I almost slept through, only remember waking once during the night .
The morning is slightly moist with low clouds and I have some condensation on the inside of the tent.

 

It’ll just have to stay here waiting for some wind while I go over to the cabin for coffee.
Usually some wind comes up in the morning and that will dry the tent in no time, and if it I’ll just have to hang if inside for an hour or so!
Today is planned to be a slow day and I right now really hope that the weather forecast will support that plan. My legs are weary and I don’t feel like doing anything more exhausting today!

20:30 Camp at Vistas Cabin

After all I decided to grant myself the first real rest day of the trip, my body needed to recover some more, the people in the cabin were friendly, interesting and pleasant and the snow at higher altitude did not at all invite to do the exit over Mårma that I originally had planned.

Interestingly enough my good friend Helge from Freiburg showed up unexpectedly during the afternoon and we got the opportunity to catch up over a cup of tea. Turned out his cell phone had stoppet working properly and none of us had received the messages from each other. Him turning up here in Vistas was just another of the inexplicable things that happen all the time in my life these days.

Anyway, later in the afternoon I pitched my tent right next to the cabin and enjoyed the sauna for the second day in a row before having dinner and planning the next day. Depending on the weather I might just go for camping next to cabins on my way out, I need my stuff to be reasonably dry when I come home or my cats will just have too much fun claw-climbing my tent in the apartment…

Day 28th – August 24th 2018

20:30 Camp next to Alesjaure cabin

Slow relaxed hiking day up Vistasvagge, I started mid morning together with Mikael, one of the guys I met at Vistas and we took it really easy hiking up the valley.
A day full of pleasant conversations, a couple of tea breaks and totally acceptable weather conditions.

We had a couple of showers hitting us yet nothing serious and, to be frank, I wouldn’t have had to camp here in close proximity to the cabin. It´s just that the next good camp site is found quite a few km farther down the trail and going there would have rendered tomorrows hike ridiculously short.

 

Hiking in Vistasvagge is always beautiful, the valley itself is stunning and the trail soft and friendly most of the time. And they really put in some work marking the trail when approaching Alesjaure, earlier years there has been some confusion as the Sami village right next to the cabin has produced an abundance of intertwining trails.

 

Arriving at the cabin mid afternoon I picked a spot and pitched my tent on semi dry ground, enjoying the warmth of the cabin reading and talking with other hikers.
One of the cabin hosts I had met a few years earlier in Unna Allakas and seeing him again was a really pleasant surprise.

 

As I managed to keep myself dry and warm most of the hike I didn’t feel any need for sauna but checked out for an early evening in the tent instead!

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!

By leaving Your email in the box below You get notification of futures posts and news!

Peace // Claes

Day 1 – March 23rd 2018

After driving around some to find a trail head with reasonably decent parking space, I finally started the hike from Aspradi along the road to Stradovuoni at 1:30PM.

Going for approximately 1.5 hours, mostly on gravel yet some dirt roads and paved stretches, took me to Kornos picnic area where I could sit in the shade for a little while and refill my water bottles. So far I’ve used 3l already and I can tell that regular refills are going to be of vital importance for the success of this tour.
For the first time ever I go on a multi day hike in a faster state, bringing only water and pink Himalayan salt. My last meal was now over 21 hours ago and hydration is top priority.
I feel just slightly light headed, yet cannot tell if that’s caused by moving into mild hypoglycemia or by being in ketosis.
Actually the latter is more probable as I’ve been going on an unplanned OMAD, apart from my usual fat coffee in the morning (mixing 1tbsp each of coconut oil and butter into my first coffee)for the last two days anyway, just haven’t been hungry more than once a day.
This morning I also skipped the fat in the coffee and my last calorie intake was 6PM last night. I’m pretty amazed by my energy levels so far, and by my lack of hunger.
During this break I used my new water filter for the first time, I found it in a shop in Portland, Oregon, and it’s doing a fantastic job. You can’t really trust the tap water here on Cyprus and it’s a bliss to being independent from finding a store and by bottled water several times a day.
This island is pretty well equipped with public bathrooms and they all have running water. Wouldn’t use it without filtering it first, though!
After 30min break I continued at 3:30 PM and hiked on until 6PM when I easily found a superb camp site right next to the dirt road I was following.
Most of the second part was also gravel and dirt roads, yet about 3.5km (2.2 miles) was paved road and pretty busy with traffic. Not so much fun…
The hiking was pretty soft and easy the whole afternoon and I’d guess I did around 18-19km (about 11 miles) total. I feel really good, still not hungry and energy is rather normal.
Pitched my tent right away as it gets dark here soon after the sun sets at 6, and I guess it’s gonna be an early night. Mostly due to lack of other options.
I’m trying out a new tent for the first time and so far it’s great. It’s a combination of traditional tent and hammock so tonight I use it on the ground for starter. Tomorrow I find some trees!

That’s all for now, thanks for checking out the post and I hope you found it valuable.
Please share if you did!
Peace // Claes

Day 26- August 22nd 2017

06:55 Unna Reitas cabin


I woke up a little over an hour ago, pleasantly enough to the first beam of sunlight!
Fantastic feeling to get outside and greet the morning sun at the elevation, instead of wiping the tent dry from rain drops as I’ve become accustomed to.
So grateful for this beautiful morning!!!

Funny enough my old experience junkie personality immediately jumps up and tells me to use the good weather and do this and that ant those cool tours over there…
It’s so good to be able to just observe what’s going on in the mind and then ignore it, staying in the moment and just enjoying the gift of this day in peace and gratitude.


I’ll just stick to my original plan for the day, pass Nallo for an interview with the cabin host and then continue to Vistas and a long, slow afternoon just resting. I have to admit that I deeply look forward to sit in the sauna and soak in the heat for a long time later today. My muscles are pretty sore from the last days and I took a couple of lighter falls on the wet stones yesterday, rendering me some bruises to tend to.

Anyway, I look forward to start my hiking day sunshine and, knowing the route, anticipate a pleasant and rather relaxed hiking day!

22:00 Camp near Vistas cabin

So nice to be clean again, I spent quite a lot of time in the sauna again and really let myself get soaked in the heat. Feels amazing for my worn out ligaments and tired muscles!

The hike down to Vistas was really just as relaxed as I remembered it to be. The first 8km to Nallo took me two hours and fifteen minutes and I spent about an hour there at the cabin, chatting with the host and getting another video!
First part of the trail from Unna Reitas is rather stony and the snow fields were frozen and pretty slippery this morning.


Some water puddles were covered with ice, showing independent proof for the cold of last night.
The river crossing was a little tricky and needed some rock and balance skills to get over dry.

 

 


From Nallo on the trail was beautifully easy to follow, incredibly faster than finding ones own line in nature. After the recent rains it was considerably more wet and muddy than I’ve seen it before, yet nothing that presented a real issue. The 10km took only another two and a quarter hour, and upon arrival I raised the tent and left my sleeping gear in it before proceeding to the cabin.

Again I met some really nice people and enjoyed a pleasant afternoon and evening, it felt great to arrive early and I even got an extra meal in today to refuel a little extra before the last few days of my tour.

Weather forecast promised good weather tomorrow, after that it’s supposed to go back to ‘unstable’ – same forecast as most days this trip…
I’m waiting for in update tomorrow morning and if it’s still states the same message I might do Mårma already tomorrow to get over the pass in good conditions. Then I have ridiculously much time on the other side of the pass to relax or do some extra few km, depending on the weather.

Anyway, no point speculating – tomorrow I’ll make the decision one way or another!

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!

By leaving Your name and email in the box below You get notification of futures posts and news!

Peace // Claes