Camp at Vassajavri
Turned out none of us slept any good at that last camp, personally, I woke up repeatedly and in the first half of the night never went deep enough to notice I actually slept at all… Only a look at the clock told me how much time had past.
It rained rather heavily around 1:30 am and this again interrupted everybody’s sleep.
Still, I woke up at 5:40 and felt rested enough to start my day with some reading and a couple of coffee with coconut oil!
We had agreed on waking at 7 and I made sure everyone was up, from that on until we could finally dry our tents and get packed up, we got another two rain showers.
The first half of the hike up to the security cabin at Mårma was very pleasant, easy walk, nice temperatures, and a welcome breeze!
Then we started catching some rain again, light showers at first, yet then some heavier rain that not only made us wet but also made the rocks pretty slippery and slowed us down quite a bit. Nearing the cabin the rain stopped, still, we decided to have lunch inside to escape the cold wind!
Side note: The cabin at Mårma is in a horrible state, it’s doubtable if it would even do much good in an emergency situation. There’s no firewood in the shed, people have used the stairs to the outhouse and parts of the floor of the shed for firewood.
Trash has been accumulating for God knows how long and nobody seems to take responsibility for the place.
Upon coming home I’ll send an email to the organizations who are supposed to care for the cabins and ask who’s actually in charge.
During our break, the sky started to look friendlier and we decided to give it a go!
I must say that the girls did great, totally overthrew my wildest expectations and behaved like seasoned hikers on the whole stretch. Tons of respect and a big shoutout for them, I’ve never heard of anyone doing a tour like this on their first time in Lapland, or even the second or third for all that matters.
And they handled every part of it equally well, ascent, descent, river crossing, etc.
I’ll take these two on a hike anytime!!!
Finally, we chose to stay up here in the ‘Lost Valley’ instead of continuing to the planned destination. We’d been delayed several times during the day for different reasons, it was already 7 pm when we got here and the evening sun was so inviting!
I treated myself to a (very short) swim inVassajavri, super cold and very refreshing, before making camp and cooking dinner.
By 9 pm we were all inside our respective tent and looking at an early night.
Hopefully, all of us get some good sleep and wake up rested tomorrow!
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
The night here in Kaskasavagge was cold and comfortable, what a difference when not having to make an effort to just keep the equipment dry.
I’m setting out to start the day going over the pass to Goubirvaggi, then follow that valley westwards back to Tjäktjavaggi and enter Sinnivagge. A few km up that valley I know a really good camp site that I intend to use the coming night.
The actual trail along Sinnjijohka is on the south side of the stream, yet that’s a well worn out trail and I prefer to hike on the north side instead. The first ascent into the valley is physically much more demanding as one needs to climb up to avoid a steep field of rocks. After that it levels out and follows the stream up to the grass field in Sinnivagge.
mber 1st, managed to get the tent dry between showers in the morning and had everything packed and ready. Spent some time in the cabin chatting with other hikers and sorting my stuff for the next few days of the hike.
stones and blocks were damp and slippery. The gradient is partly rather steep and standing on the peak of the pass I felt the total of about 1100m (3300ft) elevation in my legs – awesome feeling to get up there, though, and totally worth the effort!