river crossing

Tour of 2018 – Day 26, August 21st 2018

Camp at Gautelishytta

Another day I woke up early and snuck into the cabin at 7 am when I had heard that the only other guest also was up already.
Picking a break between the rain showers to wipe my tent and bring it inside to dry ensured that I could pack everything the way I want it this morning.

Having an extra cup of coffee, talking to the cabin host, Leif, and taking my time packing my stuff, left me with a departure time at 10 am and I headed northbound on the trail back towards Norway.


Depending on the circumstances my plan was to either do a short day and stay at Gautelis or push on to Caihnavagge. There’s virtually no real good campsite in between these cabins.

The wind was rather mellow for the first hour or so, then it quickly picked up and reached the same strength as yesterday, just considerably colder and accompanied by ice cold rain showers chasing each other until midday. Suddenly the sun started to fight its way through the clouds and the rain stopped for a couple of hours.

The trail is easy to follow and mostly easy to hike, just a few stretches with the rocky ground to consider. This season the streams hold so much less water than normal, allowing rivers, that normally need a change of shoes, to be crossed by just walking over them. On the other hand, the ground was still very wet from all the rain, again making a point for high boot shafts!

The wind continued to be a challenge the entire hike, and to be frank with You, these conditions with cold wind and rain are not just unpleasant. They’re potentially dangerous as it, for one, is very easy to underestimate the cooling effect of the wind (it’s definitely possible to get both frostbites and hypothermia at temperatures well above the freezing point), secondly, the conditions invite to rush, and make poor decisions to get to the goal sooner. Just be aware!

During my descent to Gautelishytta, I got hit by another rain shower, and that, in combination with the sauna at the cabin, made me decide to save the 12km to Caihnavagge for tomorrow instead.

I’m still well on schedule and the next stretch is just not as easy and so I’d rather do that one after a good night’s sleep.
I’ll just hike all the way to either Cunojaure or Unna Allakas tomorrow instead of hitting the pass between here and the next spot this afternoon. Safety first!

 

Side note: The weather starts getting at me, and some of the plans I have for the rest of the tour are just not safe to do under these conditions. So I made the decision to consider breaking the tour early, depending on the weather forecast for next week that I can access on Friday.
Hoping for a positive weather change so I can safely do what I came here for!

 

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Peace // Claes

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!

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Peace // Claes

Tour of 2018 – Day 16, August 11th 2018

Camp on the eastern slope of Gisuris
Back off the grid again!
After getting an interview for the cabin host series, I left Akka cabin at 10 am and headed down the Padjelanta trail towards Kisuris.
As usual, the trail was nice, soft and easy to walk!
About 1.5h into the hike I changed into rain gear and 30min later a really heavy and rather lengthy shower hit. Once that was over the wind picked up and soon my gear was all dry again!
Just about 1km before reaching the Kisuris cabin, there are two bridges right after each other and the trail leading south takes off almost immediately after crossing the first bridge. It’s really easy to find the right one, though there are several leading into the birch forest. Just follow the one that leads up in the ridge between the two rivers and You’re good!
The trail is unmarked yet well used and very easy to follow, after passing the Kisuris ‘kåta’ it turns fainter and one just needs chooses one’s own track!
I originally planned to go passed the kåta and actually didn’t make it too much farther before I found a nice place on the mountain side. As I didn’t sleep very well last night and the weather looked like more rain I decided to call it a day after just six hours of hiking.
After pitching the tent I made myself a cup of tea and that’s about when the rain started. And it hasn’t stopped yet…
Accompanied by a strong wind and even stronger gushes, it’s been pouring down heavily for the last 2.5h with no real end in sight.
Normally going for the view, I’m so glad I stayed lower on the mountain this time, still, my tent gets shaken more than ever before!
The temperature inside is just 10C (50F) and falling so it’s time to get into the sleeping bag for some reading before trying to go to sleep. I sure hope this storm passes by swiftly!

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 9, August 4th 2018

Camp below the southern mouth of Dolbotvagge
This day had a theme of walking on rocks and covering elevation, most of the tour happened in higher altitudes, over 900m, and involved a lot of stepping from rock to rock.
I started at 990m, went down to 630m, up to 1270, down to 1100, up again to 1210 and ended at 910m. Quite a few of the climbs and descents were rather steep!
Got woken up by heavy rain around 4 am this morning and lay listening to the drops falling on the tent for quite some time before I fell back asleep. Next time I woke up the rain had stopped and when I got up at 7 am my first action was to wipe off the tent so it could dry in the wind.
Wasn’t hungry at all so I just had a plain coffee without any fat while going through my morning routine and getting ready for the day!
Just shy of 9 am I picked up my backpack and went down to the glacier river, this time planning to give it a try upstream of the sediment delta. It worked out pretty well, I just had to change to get over the last stream and the bottom was made up of rocks so this was so much easier.
Once past the stream, the descent back to the gravel road was rather swift and soon I had made my way to the next trailhead and back into nature!

I love the hike up to Smaileriehpas, it starts with a fun river crossing (there’s a new bridge close to the lake that I deliberately ignored) and the valley is wild, beautiful and always different. This year there was so little snow left on the other ridge and an almost inconceivable amount of water came down from the snowfields and glaciers.

The ascent was rather heavy, yet I can’t say if that was due to the late evening climb up to Storsteynshytta or my fatless morning coffee.
I reached my favorite spot, right next to a little waterfall, close to the highest point of the pass around 1 pm and stopped for a coffee with PF, some jerky and walnuts.
The sun came out behind the clouds and warmed the air, yet as soon as it got obscured again the temperature was rather chilly and I moved on after an hour.
My plan was to continue for 3-4 more hours, or until I find a really nice spot for my tent.
Compared to last year the tour was rough, no snow at all, just rocks and some small patches of dirt. Even for me, it takes a lot of concentration and mental focus to keep the pace on that kind of ground and after some time it becomes rather tiring.
I got to the south end of Dolbotvagge in good time and originally wanted to do the 3km gravel road leading over towards the nest stretch of trail. Mainly to avoid having to do it first thing in the morning tomorrow.
Yet on the way down, I spotted a great campsite near the waterfall coming down from the mouth of Dolbotvagge and quickly decided to stay in the wild and do the gravel tomorrow.
Thereby, it turned out, I also got my tent set up just in time to get inside before the first rain shower really got started. And since then the rain has barely stopped at all…
There’s definitely been a complete weather change from the first week out and I’m so grateful that the girls got to experience the nice weather!
Even down here, at about 900m of elevation, the evening is rather cold and I’ll probably get into the sleeping bag early!

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Peace // Claes

Tour of 2018 – Day 8, August 3rd 2018

Camp near Storsteynshytta
Woke up early and just stayed in my sleeping bag as I didn’t want to disturb the guests inside the cabin. Turned out I should have followed my first instinct and packed everything up – minutes after 6 am it started to rain heavily.
Not until 8 the rain lightened enough to get from the camp to the cabin without getting totally drenched. I grabbed everything except the tent and went for breakfast.
As the cabin was rather cold and damp I made a fire in the stove, very appreciated by all the other guests!
After a couple of mugs of coffee with coconut oil, I went back to the camp and took the tent down. One of the groups had left their room already and I could hang my tent to dry, two hours later it was good to pack!
Still, I lingered in the cabin, waiting for the host to be ready for an interview, finally, I left at around 1 pm.
Getting into another rain shower on the first stretch, I dropped into the cabin at Cunojaure to have a cup of coffee away from the rain. Between chatting with two Austrian guys and a Swedish couple I met already on the trail to Unna Allakas yesterday, I stayed until 4:30 pm.
In the meantime, I had decided to go check out Storsteynshytta, as my original plan of going up towards Smaileriehpas felt a little cocky due to the weather. Pitching my tent in the clouds isn’t one of my favorites…
The hike up to that cabin was only around 12km and I’d easily been there before 8 pm if it hadn’t been for the last river crossing. Right below the glacier, the meltwater stream spread out into a kind of delta, leaving islands of sediment between the arms of the river. I made it about 1/3 of the way before I had to change into my Crocks and pack my trousers into the backpack. Water was more than knee deep and painfully cold, worse, the sediment wasn’t stable… I sank into the bottom and almost lost one of my Crocks, the last arm I did barefoot, carrying the wading shoes in one hand.
Once through the river, I didn’t stop to change yet continued up the hill all the way to the cabin in a successful attempt to get warm.
The cabin itself turned out to be a disappointment, though, there is a nice one that is privately owned, the NTO cabin didn’t have a stove to make fire and the ceiling was so low I couldn’t stand up. After a quick glance, I went and pitched my tent instead!
Soon I had dinner ready, followed by a couple of mugs of tea, and soon after 10 pm, I went to bed.
Even if the hike was neither long nor hard this day, the last 3km involved quite some elevation and the river crossing was tiring and I’ll have no issues sleeping well tonight!

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Peace // Claes

Hike of 2016 – Day 8

Rest day yesterday did wonders for my tendon, probably supported by some anti inflammatory drugs I got from fellow hikers. Normally I don’t do that stuff, by hey, this was kinda a special occasion ?
Swelling went down fine and I’d say it healed more than 50% since my arrival here.
My original plan was to head east south east and cross the high plateau towards Alimg_4541esjaure spending one night at over 1200m (3600ft) yet looking at the clouds having gathered up there over night another change of plans was an easy decision!
I had actually never done the “normal” trail from Unna Allakas towards Abiskojaure and so this should be the day. As you might have picked up I like to keep of the all too beaten path and stay on more deserted trails, now at the begin of the off season seemed like a good time to try this trip out.
Staying an extra hour or so while drying my tent in the wind assured a complete dry start, trail was super easy and actually very enjoyable. Nice views of The Valley, virtually no people, except the Austrian mountain bikers overtaking me, before I met two other people from the cabin who started earlier and just stopped for lunch.img_4545
I decided to join them and after the meal we had company until I left the main trail to cross the river and head east while they continued to Abiskojaure.
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After crossing the bridge I got lucky and found the original foot trail leading east despite the area
being full of quad trails from the Sami’s driving reindeer from one area to another and gathering them for marking earlier during the summer season. It was a beautiful hike first through birches and soon passing the tree line opening up a nice view again.
Reaching Kungsleden (the Kings trail) I turned south and followed it just a few km before heading east again crossing over to the eastern side of the lakes just north of Radujavri. Something I definitely only recommend if you’re very experienced and preferably in a group of two or more people, that crossing was rather difficult. Water up to knee deep, partly slippery stones and the river wide enough to put the cold water into play, I’m grateful for the still warm rays of the late afternoon sun fighting off the cold wind. Anyway, after a quick wash I didn’t take long to get the camp ready and some dinner cooking. Just shortly after food was ready it started raining again and I retired to the tent, to be frank just as much because of the cold wind as the rain.
Despite the hike having been far from strenuous I felt weary after good 25km and the river crossing, grateful for the tendon still feeling a lot better than the day before I had an early night after reading a little.

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