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For the majority of today I was below the tree line, breaking out above the trees in the late afternoon helped my Feral mojo though.
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Somewhat surprisingly after yesterday’s big day, I woke up this morning feeling pretty good. Actually so far on my Kungsleden stroll my ageing body was hanging in pretty well, a little niggle here and there but generally all the niggles were disappearing after a nights sleep. The mental game is harder on these longs walks and that’s where I’d struggled a bit more. It’s one thing to know that I had days of hard walking ahead of me but it’s another thing to know that I’ll be doing it on my own and quite often I’d be spending a lot of my days in fairly uncomfortable weather conditions. Still after last nights human interaction, a hot feed, a shower and being able to dry out my gear I was feeling pretty good.
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Leaving Bäverholmen the Kungsleden started off easy enough.
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Back in the Birch, these forest sections can be a little claustrophobic on grey overcast days sometimes.
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On paper the walk from Bäverholmen to Adolfsström looked like a pretty strait forward affair, a flat lake side ramble. The problem was I wasn’t walking on paper, the actual Kungsleden between Bäverholmen and Adolfsström is another one of those lake side walks that featured lots of rocks, roots, slick boardwalks and numerous short sharp little climbs over small moraines. With the Kungsleden skirting around the huge Lake Iraft I was hoping for a few views, however the track stayed stubbornly in the forest for most of the journey and it seemed that any time I did manage some water views it coincided with a passing shower.
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The walk between Bäverholmen and Adolfsström seemed a little harder than my map suggested, although there was still lots of beautiful scenery to check out.
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Approaching Bäverholmen I started to get a few looks at Iraft Lake.
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The Kungsleden follows a bitumen road for the last few hundred metres into Adolfsström and I walked into town this morning accompanied by light showers. Still with a small shop and café in town it meant that for once I wasn’t scrambling around for my wet weather gear, the precipitation was all the excuse that I needed to sit in the café and enjoy some coffee and cake. This quaint little store/café had an amazing array of bric-a-brac on sale, the seemingly random goods stored from floor to ceiling (and even on the ceiling) in the shop. Once again I was warmly welcomed inside and soon had my second breakfast in front of me. Walking the Kungsleden can be a bit of a mind fuck when it comes to working out how much money to carry, the majority of places in Sweden don’t take cash however up here in the deep north some places don’t take cards. The trick is trying to work out which method of payment you’ll need where, so you can work out how much cash to carry. I had Adolfsström down as a card place where I could do a bit of a re-supply however that wasn’t a straight forward transaction, it was more of a bartering situation. With much brow furrowing I was told that I could only use my card if I spent a certain amount of krona so as I browsed the store doing my little re-supply I got a running total of my bill to make sure that I spent over the designated amount (now I would tell you the exact amount of krona, however after talking to other walkers it appears that the amount varies depending on how well you hit it off with the proprietor, let’s just say the fading Feral charm served me well this morning!;).
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The shop and accommodation in Adolfsström.
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There is a diverse range of goods on sale here, although no freeze dried or gas.
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I managed to spend enough money to be able to pay with my card.
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After my little pit stop in town I shuffled out of town in the drizzle with a fair bit lighter wallet…but a heavier pack…still with a coffee and two pieces of carrot cake under my belt I was still feeling pretty content with life. I needed to concentrate a little as the Kungsleden left town (the trickiest navigation on the Kunglseden is generally where it enters and exits these small settlements, I found) as I followed a series of ATV tracks, slowly climbing. With this section of the Kungsleden largely climbing through the forest and with the day being a little grey and overcast I was now looking for something to photograph for the blog. Obviously the flora in the deep north of Sweden is fairly different to that in the deep south of Australia so, while things could be a bit claustrophobic in the forested sections, I’d generally find something that interested me.
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Leaving Adolfsström the Kungsleden followed a series of ATV tracks for awhile.
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Once again I was walking through a few showers of rain.
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The light rain seemed to be keeping the bugs at bay today.
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Another big difference between here and home was the amount of fresh water lakes around, any number of these lakes would be a big tourist attraction back home but here in Sweden they are just a run of the mill thing. I never got sick of checking out these lakes and tarns and even in todays grey conditions they still got my attention. After climbing fairly easily for a couple of hours I arrived at the outlet of a particularly big lake Luvtávrre. This was one of the spots that I had pencilled in as a potential camp however as it was still only early in the afternoon and I was feeling pretty good with life I decided to shuffle on.
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Some more slick boardwalk on the Kungsleden.
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| Lake Luvtávrre...any one of these big fresh water lakes would be a major attraction back in Australia. |
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| Crossing over the outlet to Lake Luvtávrre. |
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Leaving Luvtávrre Lake the Kungsleden is a bit of a bitch for awhile, the track now got incredibly rocky as I headed towards the Pieljekaise Stuga. While the track was never overly steep or muddy it was the sheer amount of uneven slippery rocks that made it hard to have any kind of confidence that each step that I took could be the one where I’d end up on my arse! While I hadn’t had any heavy rain today I’d had enough showers pass through that meant the rocks had that wet sheen about them, enough of a wet sheen to have me doubting every step. Still progress north was still being made…slowly! Arriving at the very flash looking council run Pieljekaise Stuga around mid afternoon I decided that I was going to head for Jäkkvik tonight. The thought of another hot shower and real food over riding the thoughts of another 8 kilometres of walking, yeah I’m hardcore!
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I was really starting to notice the country changing colour as Autumn closed in on me.
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The Kungsleden between Lake Luvtávrre and the Pieljekaise Stuga was pretty rough and rocky.
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While the Kungsleden climbed a bit after leaving Pieljekaise Stuga the good news was that the rocks that had been slowing me down since Luvtávrre Lake largely disappeared as I climbed above the tree line. As usual being above the tree line was pretty good for my Feral mojo and as I was towards the end of my third very solid day in a row, breaking out of the trees for awhile was just what I needed. While I’d been walking fairly slowly over the rocks earlier on, now I was procrastinating taking photos and enjoying the wide open views, sweet! It was while sitting beside a creek, gear spreadd out across the track, whilst eating my afternoon tea of biscuits and water that I bumped into Matt and Alex again, apparently they had been at the stuga when I passed through and I hadn’t even realised. After a quick chat we agreed to catch up that night down in Jäkkvik.
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| It was about now that I decided that I'd head for Jäkkvik tonight. |
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| After leaving the stuga the Kungsleden soon climbed above the trees.... |
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....raising my spirits as well.
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The Kungsleden dropped around 350 metres down to Jäkkvik from today’s high point and it was mostly a quick descent. As usual after reaching the tree line the track got a bit rocky but things were generally pretty good. I wasn’t mucking around now though as I was keen to get to Jäkkvik before the shop closed to save me hanging around in the morning waiting for it to open (on leaving Jäkkvik I had a 80 kilometre section of the Kungsleden with no real re-supply options). By the time I’d walked into Jäkkvik (I think I went the scenic longer route into town in hindsight) it was just before 6pm so I headed straight for the Handlar’n shop, arriving a few minutes before closing time. This shop/service station had pretty well everything the walker could need, from gas to freeze dried meals and a limited selection of camping gear.
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I've just started the descent down to Jäkkvik.
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Once back below the tree line it was business as usual on the Kungsleden, roots, rocks and boardwalks:)
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And bridges!
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Loaded up with my shopping I wandered up to the Kyrkans Fjällgård hostel, the only real accommodation in town. Dropping my pack I headed into the hostel to find what seemed like around 100 teenagers inside…hmm this wasn’t looking overly promising. Eventually a rather flustered looking lady came to the reception area and when I asked for a bed for the night she mentioned that she hoped I wouldn’t mind sharing with a big mob of kids (she actually put it a little different to that but I’ve cleaned it up a bit for my family friendly blog!). It seems that a bus load of teenagers were spending the night. When I mentioned that a couple of other Kungsleden walkers were just behind me (Matt and Alex) she let out a sigh and said OK. Up until that moment things had been looking fairly grim however as the lady led us out of the over run hostel towards a private cabin things suddenly started to look a whole lot better. Arriving at what looked like the honeymoon cabin that came complete with it’s own kitchen and bathroom (not to mention an Adam and Eve mural) the night had taken an unexpected turn…how good is the Kyrkans Fjällgård Hostel! After quickly establishing that Matt and Alex weren’t in fact on their honeymoon, we settled in for a very comfortable night.
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The nice scenery pretty well continued until I entered the outskirts of Jäkkvik.
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Our very flash cabin.
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How romantic...I bet Matt and Alex were so happy to be sharing this wonderful cabin with me!
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The Dirt.
I walked 31.4 kilometres today and climbed 696 metres on another hard day on the Kungsleden. Over the 7 days of my walk so far I’ve walked 180.8 kilometres and climbed around 4481 metres. While the Kungsleden didn’t have any huge climbs today the track itself was fairly rough in parts which slowed things down a bit. Once again there were many options for camping today. Accommodation was available in Adolfsström and at the council run stuga at Pieljekaise, as well as at Jäkkvik. As I’ve mentioned Adolfsström has a shop (limited supplies for walkers) and Jäkkvik also has a shop (very good selection for walkers). Once again I used Cicerone’s
Trekking the Kungsleden book today, along with my GPS topo maps.
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