Day 17: Leaving Kvikkjokk

Sept 1: Karolina and I woke up to a beautiful, clear day! We'd have loved to taken a zero day--after being on the trail for nearly three weeks, a rest day would have been nice. But we had had so few days without rain, we didn't like the idea of wasting a beautiful day like today by not hiking. And anyhow, we already felt like we wasted a perfectly beautiful hiking day yesterday by only crossing 3 kilometers across a lake--on a boat! Nope, it was time to hit the trail again. If we took a zero day, it would be when the weather sucked.

We ordered the breakfast at the restaurant--a buffet style, all-you-can-eat setup. Karolina loved it, but I longed for more American-style foods like bacon and eggs. Don't get me wrong--the food was fine and it was a nice change from the usual cereal that I would eat, but not necessarily the food I'd have chosen either.

Then we brushed our teeth and packed up, ready to hit the trail. Before leaving, we both weighed our packs on the scale outside the reception. Karolina's packed weighed in at 18 kg (40 pounds) while mine came in at a hefty 25 kg (55 pounds). Way too heavy. I offered to switch packs with Karolina, but she had no interest in such a trade.

My pack come in at 25 kilograms. *sigh*

The day's hiking was gloriously uneventful. We went up and down hills. At one point, our pace slowed down as we navigated a rocky section of trail, but nothing we couldn't handle.

The trail followed alongside a scenic lake. We didn't see any reindeer--but no surprise there. It didn't rain, after all. During rest breaks, I would pull out my tarp to dry out in the sun. Although it didn't rain during the night, the condensation made my tarp rather wet.

Late in the day, we finally stopped to set up camp near a small suspension bridge next to a river. Although no rain was expected during the night, I set up my tarp anyhow because of the condensation problem.

And that was it! It was a beautiful, pleasant day of hiking--but not particularly eventful.

Karolina opens a gate in a reindeer fence.

Karolina got tired of opening and closing the reindeer fences, so she convinced me to close this one with the argument that we should get photos and videos of me operating the fence. But I knew it was just a scam to get me to put it all back together again, but I went along with it anyhow. ;o)

 

This gate in the reindeer fence is a lot faster and easier to get through. It works just like a door!

We don't need no bridges! Charge on!

This was the suspension bridge we camped near.

This is me eating dinner (a freeze-dried meal that you just add boiling water to to rehydrate) in camp.