21:40 Camp 1km northeast Teusajaure cabin
I woke before 6AM and packed my stuff, thankfully the forecast had been wrong and there was no rain during the night. For the first time this tour I was able to get everything, included tent and abside, to fit inside the backpack. Great sign that I’ve eaten away some weight and volume!
After taking care of my boots and some other equipment I went over to the main building where they serve breakfast between 7 and 9. Staying there for the entire time and eating small portions continuously, I managed to get approximately 1200-1500 kcal in, mostly from fat – cheese, butter, eggs, meat, seeds and nuts – and probably a little too much protein. Yet very limited carbs and apparently the insulin spike never got high enough to impact keton production as my Ketonix readings were still showing nutritional ketosis hours after the meal.
The boat taking me over to the other side of the lake left at 10:40, leaving me more than enough time to gather my stuff and say ‘bye’ to people I talked to. Many showed interest in the project and are curious about ketosis, which is very encouraging for the health development in the future. I actually thought that most people hiking would be more stuck in the old carb paradigm and this is a good point to be wrong!
Bus ride took a while and I was arriving Vakkotavare just before 13:00 – as it was raining at the time I went into the cabin for a cup of tea and spent a couple of hours chatting with the hosts and their family and a couple I met last year when they were hosts in Vistas cabin.
Besides having a great social time I also got a video for the ‘Cabin host series’ on offthegridhiker.com!
Leaving the cabin at ten to 3 in the afternoon I was still energized from the breakfast and felt no need for any additional intake
of food. I hiked the 15km in 3 hours and 15 min, arriving at the lake more than an hour before the motor boat ride I aimed for.
Thankfully I found two rowing boats on my side of the lake, which meant I could just take one and get over. So I rowed the 1km over the lake and knocked at the cabin hosts door looking for video nr 2 this day.
Not only did I get my interview but stayed for two hours total, taking part in the preparation for smoking trouts and even got treated to one he’d smoked some days earlier. It was delicious!
I totally would have stayed there and camped, the place is just beautiful, yet having spent the night before in Saltoluokta’s birch forest I longed to get up above the tree line again for some wind and a view.
Just half an hour of additional hiking brought me just that and after finishing my dinner and get ready for bed, I’ll spend the night here in this wonderful spot.
Observation: when undressing I noticed that my left calf was weirdly swollen from just below the knee down to where the top of the boot shaft ends. No pain involved at all, just this swelling of the subcutaneous tissue… Gotta keep an eye on this.
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Peace // Claes
What a beautiful morning! I’m sitting in my tent with the abside open on the leeward side, facing the sun. The rather chilly wind from behind drives away most mosquitoes except for the very bravest, and the sun gives a nice warmth to the morning hours!
Plan for today is to go all the way to Saltoluokta as the weather could hardly be better and I’ll get an early start.
I have to admit that the first hour or so was a struggle… Lots of vegetation, wetlands and pools of standing water to be avoided and really no straight line to follow despite my efforts of aiming at the high point. In these situations it always feels like the forward progress is frustratingly slow and it becomes a mental game besides the physical struggle with the uneven ground and getting hooked up in the vegetation all the time.
The rest of the hike to the eastern end of Bietsavvre was pure joy, mixing grassland with rocks and some occasional bushes that I’ve got increasingly better at avoiding!
Unfortunately the cafe in the Sami village was closed and so I continued almost immediately along the trail down to Saltoluokta. The six km trail was super easy to follow and after a slight uphill slope merely downhill, after just under an hour I reached the fjällstation and checked in for a camp site. Sara at the reception was kind enough to help with recharging my Ketonix battery and the power bank over night, turns out she’s been following LCHF earlier and got of it during guide training.
Another day starting with rain, it began pouring down again sometimes during the night and continues throughout the morning with short breaks in between the showers.
Hiking through the valley following the lake was easy and none of the rivers required a change of shoes crossing. Soon the ascent towards the ridge started and half way up I decided to go far west instead of the shortest route up. It was just an idea I acted on, and what a view i got, both of the valley i just hiked through and the area lying in front of me. Marvelous, just marvelous!
one more river without getting my feet wet, where I once again met Carl and Fredrik.
The evening turned out beautiful also weather wise, with only a few drops of rain coming down and the sky looking rather clear for now. Let’s see what tomorrow has to deliver!
It’s been raining and quite windy all night and I rested/slept/stayed in my sleeping bag more or less twelve hours – I feel amazingly rested and recovered!
wind did the rest. Just before 11:30 I moved on with everything packed dry, just amazing how well things work out!
The higher part of Alggavagge is beautiful with huge plains o green grass and an abundance of camp sites, you could basically put a tent down almost anywhere up there.
case – turned out the water was never more than knee deep and the whole thing turned out to be just fun.
Little later I get to the next river to cross, Tjågnårisjågåsj, and find a nice snow bridge over the stream. Now, let me get one thing straight here, I don’t normally use snow bridges for crossing rivers and I certainly don not endorsed doing so! It’s potentially very dangerous as one can never know exactly how strong or thick the snow is or when or why it might break.
analyzed separately and one better be very sure, or else go downstream and wade!
Almost like a clockwork I now sleep for six full sleep cycles per night and wake up rested after around nine hours. It’s just amazing and I really hope to get used enough to this rythm that I can keep it up once home again.
started and the slowly motor on in the direction of Sarek.
Anyway, all in all it has been another amazing day up here and I had a lot of time to contemplate life in general and some things specifically. It’s just amazing how simple life can be when we’re close to nature and far from the (so called) civilized world. When I’m fed, warm and dry I really don’t have much need for anything else out here. So how come I ‘need’ all that stuff back home to consider myself happy? I don’t know for sure, yet my best guess is habits. And habits can be changed by will!
As I got to bed a little later than usual I slept till around 07:30, waking up rested and feeling great. Soon thereafter I heard the first helicopter fly in over my tent and realized that I could very well could have had my sleep disturbed by civilization even in this remote area.
blue sky and a slight breeze blowing just enough to keep mosquitoes down most of the time.
The trail I chose to start by ascends from behind the ‘Kyrkokåta’ and leads up the hill. Though unmarked, its very easy to find and follow and soon leads through a birch forest you definitely don’t want to fight your way through outside of the trail.
Passing the lakes on the plain before ascending for the last part of today’s hike, I found a beautiful, sunny spot, with wind, where I had a decent break. This time I tried PF mixed in cold water, which worked great, and I didn’t feel any adverse effect in my belly like after the nuts yesterday. So, from now on I’ll add the nuts to my fat coffee in the morning and up the fat intake that way. Then I can stick to PF during the midday break and boast energy without getting slowed down.
At some point after my map was printed someone set up a reindeer fence in the valley and I had to follow it for some time before I found a part that was slightly folded and I could get through without causing damage.
the day my energy is top notch, I feel strong and my mood is formidable. From a personal, subjective standpoint this little experiment is already a success.
What a beautiful day, the weather was just fantabulous most of the day with a short rain shower when I stopped to do my midday measuring of ketons. Just put my rain jacket on and waited 15 min, then everything dried up just about as fast as it got wet.
Staloluokta, to the point that I played with the thought to camp up at the lakes.
So, after a snack with fat coffee and reindeer meat I made camp and then it was time for the sauna. It was every bit as good as I remembered it, I did five rounds of sauna, each followed by a dip in the little lake next to it – and with an exquisite view!
part between Änonjalmme and Gisuris.
The first part down to the saddle was really easy, I used a large snowfield to get down with minimum effort. Walking on snow, especially downhill, is so much easier on the joints than rocks and blocks of stone.
the time it didn’t take much to get to the other side of the lake (it has no name on the map, only marked with its elevation above sea level: 1091) which is still covered in snow and ice for the most part.
The decent was largely on instinct coupled with the sound of the river on the right, not until halfway down I could see the far northern part of Gautelisvatnet and, once again, once again had something to aim for.
and wet day, having had a good dinner and waiting for my tea to get ready.
An elderly German couple, Traude and Eckhard, whom I met several times in the trail, even invited me for a cup of hot tea after I’d been out in the rain raising my tent.
