Norra Storfjället to Stájnnavárrie, Kungsleden - August 2019

Conditions were looking pretty good this morning.

Over night I’d had a few heavy showers pass through however thankfully they had largely cleared by the time I emerged from the tent to pack up. I was up and going pretty early too, with the sun starting to lighten the sky at around 4am it wasn’t too hard to be packed up and on my way before 7am this morning. The only thing really slowing me down this morning was the changing light on the brooding black cliffs of Norre Storfjället - this was really a stunning place for my first night on the Kungsleden.

Looking up towards the Syterskalet emergency shelter at the head of the valley.

Leaving camp this morning I continued my walk through Norre Storfjället up towards the Syterskalet emergency shelter at the head of the valley. With the going fairly easy I was in a pretty good head space this morning as I shuffled along, a bit of sun will do that for me. Thankfully the track itself, whilst a bit rocky was fairly dry after yesterday’s storms, I’d suspected that things would dry out pretty quickly. After less than an hour I arrived at the emergency hut and stuck my head in for a bit of a look, surprising two walkers who had set up camp in there last night. There are quite a few of these emergency huts along the length of the Kungsleden and it appears that more often than not the huts are being used for free accommodation, some punters obviously not wanting to stay in the official STF huts it appears. With people staying inside the small hut I didn’t really have a good look around but from what I saw the little hut was clean and comfortable and would indeed make for a good refuge.

Looking back down Norra Storfjället...the weather didn't quite look as good.

Syterskalet emergancy shelter.

The country opened up after I'd climbed out of Norra Storfjället.

Shortly after leaving the Syterskalet emergency hut the Kungsleden headed across an area of moraines, walking across these small gravel hills was like walking across a frozen gravel ocean. After climbing for a little while I met a track junction, turned left and climbed easily again onto the top of a ridge where all of a sudden the country to the east opened up before me. Like sunlight, a good view also seems to work wonders on my Feral mojo and the view ahead was fairly pleasing. I could see the Kungsleden dropping easily for kilometres in front of me and soon enough I was able to make out the Syter Stuga in the distance. It wasn’t the stuga that was drawing my eye though it was archipelago glinting in the sunlight to the east that was the main interest, I’d be traversing this archipelago this afternoon with the help of numerous bridges and sections of boardwalk.

Easy climbing to this mornings high point.

I'd be crossing that archipelago in a few hours.

Drinking water is rarely a problem on the Kungsleden.

Immediately after crossing Svärfarbacken River I arrived at Syter Stuga and dropped in to check things out. If this was typical of an STF stuga then I was very happy, I was warmly welcomed and invited inside, the stuga systems and protocols explained to me and I was able to buy my second breakfast (and throw away my rubbish-in the correctly segregated bins). After enjoying my second breakfast I shouldered my pack again and set off on the next leg of my stroll over to Tärnasjö. Before I could start traversing the archipelago I had bit of a sidle before the Kungsleden dropped solidly down towards the lakes, and back into the forest (and the mozzies).

Syter Stuga

Svärfarbacken River

I'm heading down there.

Almost as soon as I arrived at the first of the many bridges that I used to cross this watery wonderland the rain arrived as well, the rest of the day would be one of those days where I seemed to spend more time putting on and then taking off my wet weather gear than I did actually progressing on my way north on the Kungsleden. The lake side walking looks petty easy on paper but can be a bit hit or miss in reality, while the boardwalk and bridge sections are generally pretty easy the rest of the track can be a bit rocky and my first taste of that on the Kungsleden was my walk along the shore of Tärnasjön. While the track can be a little on the rougher side the scenery was pretty good as the track occasionally broke out of the forest onto the lake shoreline, across the fairly still lake water I could see and hear the Rássjajuhkatje River cascading down out of the mountains.

The Kungsleden passes over a series of bridges as it crosses over the archipelago.

The Rássjajuhkatje River cascading down the hills on the other side of the lake.

The Kungsleden crosses some damp ground today.

The weather was now alternating between showers and sunshine.

It was just before 3pm when I trudged into Tärnasjö Stuga and I was pretty happy to sit down on the verander for a little while and have a rest, the rough lake side walking and changing weather conditions had started to do my head in a little this afternoon. Still sitting on the verander of the stuga enjoying my second lunch while I watched a helicopter taking off, it didn’t take long for me to start feeling a bit better. After a bit of a break at the stuga I decided to head a little further up the track before camping - one thing that I was quickly learning was that the insects seemed a lot worse down in the forested areas around the lakes than up on the higher open country.

Back in the Birch Forest.

These portly birds can fly but they seem to prefer to stay grounded.

I had a little entertainment as I was sitting on the veranda at Tärnasjö Stuga enjoying my second lunch.

Of course getting to the ‘higher’ country obviously meant another climb and I was feeling it a bit today, although with around another 7 hours of walkable daylight left in the day I wasn’t really under any pressure. The climb away from Târnasjö was pretty reasonable really, the track passing a couple of swampy freshwater lakes as it climbed above the Birch Forest. Once above the tree line I didn’t take long to find myself a nice, if not a fairly exposed, campsite. With views down to a large lake and snow speckled mountains in the distance it was a very pleasant place to be, although the showers passing through forced me into the tent fairly soon after eating dinner. With so much daylight on offer each day there was no way that I’d be up for both the sunrises an sunsets and on this walk so I mostly settled for the sunrises on this walk and was quite often in the tent a couple of hours before sunset and today was one of those days - although with the grey overcast conditions overhead it didn’t look like I was was going to miss much this afternoon anyway.

Looking back down to Tärnasjön on my late afternoon climb up to the open fell.

Conditions were still fairly variable.

The Dirt.
I walked around 30.8 kilometres and climbed 600 metres on today's walk (the stats are a combination of map and GPS figures). Over the two days of my Kungsleden Walk I’ve walked 45 kilometres and climbed 1139 metres. Once again I’d rate today as a medium grade walk I think. While today had a fair bit of climbing and was reasonably long things were pretty reasonable on the ground although the long lakeside traverse did my head in a little bit. I used the Ciccerone Trekking the Kungsleden book as well as my GPS topo maps on today’s stroll.

Relevant Post.
Day 1, Kungsleden, 2019.

Another nice camp....although I was pretty well tied down as I wasn't sure what the weather was doing.