Hej, Hej Kungsleden - Part 3/4

Saltoluokta - Kvikkjokk

Saturday, July 15: 6k after Saltoluokta to Start of Skierfe Path, 24km, 721m ascent

Fresh clothing day! Whoop, whoop! Woke up first again to clear blue skies and sunshine. Another epic morning after a spell of rain and a bit of misery.
Dressed in a fresh shirt and socks I peeled myself out of the tent and started laying out socks, boots and backpacks to dry in the warm rays of the sun. Views were stunning and I was full of energy for the second part of our trip.

Started walking around 10:30am, smelling a lot fresher and my dry boots felt soooo much better after two days of wetness around my feet. Long may it last!
Having had a look at the weather the day before, we had decided to not climb Lulep Gierkav and instead prioritise the ascent of Skierfe the next day. You can't really come here and not do Skierfe.

We walked through a wide valley again with the most stunning mountains to our right. The path was a bit boggy at first, but soon turned into a rocky path and was easy enough to walk. Had a couple of shorter breaks and a lunch break at a big boulder with some shelter from the fairly strong and steady icy wind that was blowing into our faces from the start. There's always something. If it's not rain then it's icy wind or mozzies.

Sjaksjo

Nice views

Last bit up to the pass.

Eventually we climbed a short steep bit up to a pass before we decended down to Sitojaure huts, arriving there 3pm. We had a quick break and then walked the 200m to the guy who was operating the boat. A sign had earlier promised that he was selling smoked fish and fresh bread. We thought bread would be awesome with our breakfast soups, but he didn't have any today. Boo!

The boat ride was lovely and once again we made our way uphill through birch wood on the other side of the lake. Seeing a steep ascent ahead with opted not to fill up with water as we crossed two streams and thought we'd rather do that later.

Looking back to the lake

With a proper sweat on and out of breath we stopped briefly at the top once more stunned by the sublime views all around. Ahead was another high plateau with perfectly randomly strewn boulders all around. The light of the early evening sun dipped everything into a warm golden light, lakes and hills in the distance, it was one of the most memorable moments of our whole journey. Breathtakingly beautiful!

We kept going, looking out for the next stream to fill up on water. But none came. For once there was simply no water. The nearby hill didn't provide any snowmelt. Shit. Eventually, we arrived at the path that led to Skierfe. It was unlikely that we would find water following it, so all we could do was stay on our path and descent towards the next hut until we found water. Even if that meant going all the way down.

It was steep, it was rocky and we were knackered! We passed a group of young people that had pitched next to the path and were frying off some burgers. Oh my gosh, it smelled sooooo good! Pure tortue for two exhausted and hungry hikers.
Eventually we found a stream, filled up and made our way back up the steep path, passing by the burger eating youngsters again. Arg. We had learnt our lesson: fill up on water when you can. Period.
Near the crossroads we found a nice hidden spot for our tent, well away from the path, so we could leave it the next morning to make our way up to the top of Skierffe with only day sacks.
It was already 8:15pm and after all we had had another great day with the highlight being the golden plateau.

Sunday, July 16: Start of Skierfe Path to 2k after Aktse, 22km, 870m ascent

We left the tent 9:30am to make our way to the top of Skierfe to see the famous Rapadalen delta from the top of the mountain. With a height of 1179m/3868ft it is a proper mountain indeed.

Not as stunning as some of the other spots, but still really nice wild camp

We had packed some lunch, water and our waterproofs and started with overcast weather. Remembering the forecast, we had until lunch time before rain was likely, so we didn't hang around really without rushing it though. The first bit was very boggy and took some agility to avoid the worst of it, then the path became rocky again and much easier to walk on.

We could already see the Rapadalen delta but it took us another two hours to reach the top of the very distinguishable mountain. Once above the tree line an icy wind forced us to put some more layers on and the thick blanket of grey cloud threatened with rain. There was no time to lose really.

Amazing wildflowers on the way up

Skierfe on the right, Rapadalen delta middle-left

When I had proposed to do Kungsleden I had shown Rich photos of the view from Skierfe to sell the idea and for him this was the one thing he really wanted to see. That's why he had agreed to do this. So I had hoped that it was every bit as stunning as all those photos from the internet had promised.
Despite the gusty icy wind and the dark clouds, the view from the top was magnificent! Absolutely phenomenal! The photos really don't do it justice.

Rapadalen Delta from Skierfe

That was worth all the hard work and the long walk in. Simply WOW! We would've loved to stay here for hours and just sit at the edge taking it all in. But rain was now immenent so reluctantly we made our way down the slope to find a sheltered spot for a brief light lunch.
Once back at the foot of the final ascent, rain started properly hitting us horizontally with the help of those icy gusts of wind. Definitely type 2 fun.

Type 2 fun, but type 1 view on the way back down

Heads down we fought our way back to the tree line where wind and rain finally eased off. Unpitched the tent in a brief break from water from above and made our way down to Aktse hut just as the rain came back with a vengeance.
Bought tickets for the boat, some dark bread and spread in a tube and waited inside anciously watching the heavy downpour outside. It didn't relent at all when we made our way to the boat for 5pm. My feet were already getting wet again through my boots and the 3km boat ride was very very wet with people showing plain misery in their faces.

We made our way through a lovely primeval forrest on the other side, but didn't really enjoy it much. Shame. Heads down we ploughed on, avoiding deep and big puddles of water here and there until we saw a nice flat secluded spot a bit off the trail. I'd had enough and very well knowing that we were in mozzy country we decided to pitch and call it a day.

Now, in the UK we have midges. And midges don't like rain or wind. Swedish mozzies however give a shit about rain. There we were. Soaked, pitching in heavy rain with our mozzy hats on and a gazillion of the tiny buggers swarming around us. Marvellous!

Now try to get into the tent as quickly as possible with your dripping clothes on, trying to keep water and mozzies out as much as possible. Rich went first and did a pretty good job, literally diving in head first. He closed the zip asap, got out of his wet kit and killed all unwelcome visitors before he opened the zip for my dive. I had to say, I found the whole scene mildly amusing and we could somewhat laugh about it once we had put on our dry set of clothes.
Cooking was a bit of a challenge with hundreds of mozzies swarming in the porch, but we managed and eventually settled down on our mats sipping a bit of whiskey before falling asleep after another long and exhausting day.

Monday, July 17: 2k after Aktse to Parte, 18km, 462m ascent

Heavy rain persisited throughout the night and big drops were drumming continuously onto the tent. At some point I woke up thinking something was dripping onto my face as I slept. Hm. Touched the tent roof and indeed it was moist. Touched my side of the tent and it was a bit moist as well. I digged out my trek towel and started wiping. Thought that was it and went back to sleep only to be awoken again from water dripping onto my face. Woke up Rich and he suggested it might be condensation so we opened some netted vents, wiped some more and went back to sleep.
Not long after more water on my face and my sleeping bag was now wet as well. Shit. The tent roof was leaking. We could see drips slowly forming, so staying in was no good so we decided to pack up and go. Managing to pack everything with both of us inside was well rehearsed by now and we knew how to wrap around each other.
We slipped into fully water proof kit, jumped out of the tent one after another unpitched in the rain with again gazillions of mozzies around and I simply strapped the whole wet tent to my backpack.

It would've been a nice camp spot... anywhere but in Sweden.

Off we went around 8:30am ploughing through the rain again after an unsettled second part of the night and no food in our bellies. Joy! Uphill we dragged our feet through more wood and more bog. Water everywhere.
Eight kilometers uphill with a heavy tent that was dragging me down... Type 2 fun again. The rain stopped eventually only to set in again just as we thought we might get rid of our water proofs.

The shelter hut appeared out of nowhere and was a very welcome sight indeed! Inside we met two fellow hikers who had been on the boat the day before and planned to walk all the way to Kivkkjokk. That was another 30k from here. We wished them good luck on their way and now being all alone made good use of the available space to try and dry out a few things. Not that there was any chance of stuff actually getting dry, but it was better than not trying.

It was now early lunch time and after all that uphill walking on an empty stomach we were starving! Sat at the table with breakfast stuff spread out watching the stove heat up some water for tea and soup whilst we had some more of our bread and spread. So good! That spread in a tube is very popular in Sweden. We should find loads of it later in a supermarket. For once we could prep food and eat without our legs folded underneath us. Nice. Our mood improved as we eagerly dug into our meal.

Yay... mozzies...

Brunch

We didn't really want to leave the shelter hut, but eventually had to aiming for Parte hut today with the intend of staying over. We had a leaking tent and lots of wet stuff there really was no other sane choice.
Packed up, geared up and headed out again. Much to our liking the trees cleared very soon and gave way to very UK-like scenery again with hills, humps, some streams and grass and heather. Just like home. Rain stopped for good not long after and as the low clouds cleared views got better and better.

We really enjoyed this bit and were a bit sad as we dropped down into forrestry again. It was a wonderful wild primeval forrest again with lots of wild flowers and uprooted trees, but stopping for just 10 secs to enjoy it or take a photo meant we were being attacked by hundreds of... well, what other than mozzies. That really took a lot of the joy out of it. That and the undulating nature of the path mixed with lots of rocks, roots and bog. It was tough going up and down and just wouldn't end at all.

Nice views again

Four o'clock we finally arrived at Parte hut exhausted and weary. Once more we were greeted by a super friendly host. We settled into our half of the hut which we would have all to ourselves for the night. Hung up all the wet clothing and kit in the drying room and the tent outside in the wind, which dried it out very quickly.
I had a go at starting a fire in the woodburner and was successful straight away, smirking at Rich who had not been able to get one going in the last hut. Ha! Time for tea and biscuits and some beef jerky. We just chilled in the hut, leafed through some of the books that were stacked on shelves, played cards, had some dinner later and went to bed at our usual time 10pm.

Half of Parte hut just to us

The art of drying out wet stuff

As awful as the day had started, there were again good things to look back to. The nice shelter hut, the lovely views, the warm and dry hut. My mood instantly improves as soon as I get into dry clothes, haha. Definitely learned another lesson today. Not only reproof your boots before such a trip, but also reproof your stupid tent! (To be fair, we had reproofed the ground sheet which put on a solid performace for the whole of the trip.)

Last day on the trail tomorrow!!!

Tuesday, July 18: Parte to Kvikkjokk, 16km, 190m elevation gain

First part of the night hadn't gone too well for me. I had chosen the bunk above Rich's and although we had let the woodburner run out, it was noticeably warmer one level up. So my limbs were more out of the liner than under it, which meant the few mosquitos in the room surely found them and their stings actually woke me up every time. After half a dozen or so of what-the... moments I packed up and settled onto one of the lower bunks. Much cooler there, I could slip into my liner completely and finally wasn't bothered too much by those little buggers anymore. Bliss!

We got up at 8:30am, cooked breakfast and were glad we could do it on a stationary stove having lots of room to spread out our stuff as well. Left the hut just before 10am for our final day on the trail. Bring it on!

It is a strange feeling knowing that the end of the journey is near. Especially on longer trips like this it seems so far away when you start and you really just think from day to day. But the closer you get to the final destination the more eager you are to get it done. Like a sprint over the finish line at the end of a long distance run. No matter how much I've enjoyed my multi-day hikes, this feeling was always there.
And once you're done, you've reached your destination, after that first happiness, the big smiles, the winner photos, you sit down, take a deep breath, reflect on the time past and all your mini adventures along the way and you get the blues. You don't want it to end. You want to keep going.
But lets not get ahead of myself, we still had one more day on the trail and two more days to spend in the area.

It was nice to once more have dry feet after a few days of wetness, but the first 9k were hard work. Arduous walking over endless rocks, roots and circumventing boggy bits. There was hardly any flat bit to put your foot on and give your ankle a rest. On and on we ploughed, heads down, just keep going.
At least it stayed dry, although the dark grey sky was threatening with rain, all we got were a few spots here and there. Fine by us.

Wild and beautiful

Trees, trees, trees everywhere

Once more we walked through endless primeval woods with lots of flowers, uprooted trees, moss and mozzies. Wildly beautiful, but no chance of a longer rest or you get eaten alive. We had a few one minute breaks, just digging out some biscuits and resting shoulders and feet and one longer lunch break of maybe 15 mins fully covered with mozzie hats on. Joy!

6k before the finish line the path got broader and easier to walk on and we met more and more people walking the other way. 14:45 we finally arrived at Kvikkjokk Fjallstation! We made it! Almost two weeks of walking and wild camping. Done!

Made it!!!

We dumped our backpacks outside the main building and had a look inside. Reception was busy so we settled into the dining area and ordered coffees and lush Swedish apple cake with vanilla ice cream. Soooooo good!
Checked in afterwards and were able to move our booking around. We were a day early but could stay in tonight and would then camp for another two nights.

Settled into our 4-bed dorm room which was already occupied by two lads who had come up from Hemavan and were now halfway on their Kungsleden thru-hike. Had a brief chat with them and then grabbed our towels and soap to go have a shower.
SHOWER! The first one in 11 days. It was soooo good! Not the most fancy shower ever. But it was hot and had decent pressure. All fresh and clean we chilled for a bit, cooked our usual Adventure Food meal in the kitchen and spend the rest of the evening in the common room sipping super expensive beer and munching super expensive Pringles whilst playing cards.

That's the end of our Kungleden hike. Done, done, done and we had a great time. Navigating was easy, walking a bit more strenuous than we had expected. We had sublime views and walked through stunning scenery. We had good weather and bad, good moments and not so good ones.
Overall the good moments by far outweighed the not so good ones. It's always a good feeling to make it through a tough bit. you might be swearing and hating it at the time, but having made it despite all the hardship is such an elevating feeling.

Being two days early for our journey home, we had now some time to spend around Kvikkjokk for some day walks and then another two days to travel all the way back to Narvik. Nice way to ease ourselves back into the civilised life with hot showers, fresh food and duvet beds.

Watch out for part 4. Coming up: more stunning scenery and muscle cars!!!