Padjelanta/Sarek 2003, Solitary hike (Almost). Staloluokta in Padjelanta through Sarek to Saltoluokta

his autumn I (Claes) made another solitary hike in SAREK, in the end of August. The plan was to be out in about one and a half week, I had food with me for 11 days in the mountains. Since I until now only had visited the eastern parts of Sarek I choose a route approaching Sarek from the west, from Padjelanta NP; helicopter from Kvikkjokk to Staloluokta (Stalo) and then as straight as possible towards the Alkavare Chapel, in the west part of Sarek. Further through the valley Alkavagge to the Mikka cabin in the center of Sarek, over the river Smailajåkken on a bridge, then parallel to the Rapa valley, up over the valley Snavvavagge and down into the Rapa valley near the Skårki cabin. Then to follow the Rapa River down to the delta land and the big rock Nammatj and from there by boat to the Aktse cabins. Finally, as a transportation stretch, to follow the Kings Trail (Kungsleden) to Saltoluokta Mountain Station and as usual end the hike there.

SUNDAY August 24 (Day 6) From the little hill Pielavaratj through the Snavvavagge and down to the mountain side above the Sårki cabin in the Rapa valley. (8 km, 5 mile) Dear Diary! It's late and I'm laying in my tent, trying to get hold of this, to say the least, dazed day, unhurt after all. This is what happened: A waked up at half past seven. It had been raining quite much during the night but had stopped. The guys in the other tent were also on their way up. I made and eat my breakfast. Since it was dry weather and windy, I swept the water from the flysheet of the tent hoping that it should blow dry before I should pack it again. After that I once again climbed up to the top of Pielavaratj to take some pictures as the weather was propitious. The only pictures this day, it turned out. As I wrote yesterday, two of the Uppsala guys planned to make a detour up to Snavvavagge, and they left directly after breakfast. I started packing my things. I took the backpack out of the tent so it should be easier to pack. Just before I was finnished the rain started to pour down! It became dead stop in the packing presidia and the backpack had to be provisory covered with the rain cover. It was impossible to continue packing without having all the gear soaked. Verry irritating, the tent was almost dry before the rain started. Irritated I stood there in the rain, waiting, eager to get ready and be on my way. It didn't stop until 45 minutes later, and I finally could break the camp, pack my drenched tent and leave. The time was about 11 am. The first stage today was to go the passway from the Piela Plateau to the valley Snavvavagge. The west offshoot of the mountain Pielatjåkkå ends with a steep precipice. The lower end of the precipice is half way down in the Rapa valley and below that is a talus slope with boulder terrain. This cliff is in between the Piela Plateau and the Snavvavagge. So I had to go down below the lower end of the cliff in the boulder terrain and then up again The trail towards the passway is a quite knotted path winding up and down through scree, rocks, willow and marsh. When I finally approached the passway, right above the spökstenen (the ghost stone) a big rock at the bottom of the Rapa valley, an ancient place of sacrifice, I met three gentlemen I their 60s. They were following precisely the same route that we followed in 1989, around the Skårki massif. They had arrived with the same train as I had. After the hike they were going to stay a couple of days at Saltoluokta and then we should go back at the same time too. They warned me that the trail up to Snavvavagge was very slippery owing to the rain. We said goodbye and left in opposite directions. After a while it struck me that it had been interesting to ask them if they had got the idée about the route from our homepage, I haven't seen exactly that route described anywhere else. I have, as I mentioned, walked this trail before, but I didn't remember it being this miserable (despite the weather). My memory is that it was a quite decent path, not this crawling between rocks that hardly stayed in there position. But the fact is that it's a talus slope, so principally I could remember right, since much could have changed in the 14 years since I last was here. Indeed, the trail was very slippery. I tried to be cautious but never the less I nearly slipped away a couple of time on the muddy trail. Everything went well until I reached the turning-point, the lowest point of the trail, with the precipice of the Pielatjåkkå's offshoot magnificent above me. When I put my foot there the entire trail collapsed under my weight. I've no idea how it happened, probably my knees bent under me and I fell forward, but suddenly I found myself sliding headfirst down the 45 degrees slope below the trail. After 4 - 5 m/yds (12 - 15 ft) I was caught in the osier thicket and stopped. With difficulty I turned around to get heads up and feet down, not quite easy with a 25 kg, 55 lbs, pack on your back. I examined my limbs to see if I was hurt anywhere. No, nothing serious thank heavens! only a skinned knuckle and then something had hit me, on the way down, just under my nose so I got a bump there. But… with Orvar Scarface (my hiking staff) it was worse! He was broken, misery… on a trail like this you really need a long staff. By crawling and pulling me upwards in the osier I, after a couple of tries, succeeded in getting back up on the trail again. After taken a breather and consoled myself by eating some chocolate I continued up towards Snavvavagge, muddy from top to toe and with a somewhat weakened self-confidence. It was a tough climbing, especially with only a short staff for support. Almost up in the valley I met the guys from Uppsala on their way back to Pielavalta, and got a chance to complain a little. I asked them to check and see if I had scratched my face in the fall, but luckily I hadn’t. Then we said goodbye and parted and the guys picked up speed down the trail. When I got up to the valley I set of in a brisk pace. It was a steady downpour and strong wind, at my back for sure, but it was tough anyway. Snavvavagge is a bare plateau with a long lake in the middle. There is not much to see there, the only of interest is a raw of strange stone formations in the middle of the valley and quite a few reindeers. After a while I finally found a little stream and could wash off the remaining mud from my cloths. While I still was in the north part of the valley I met a young couple. We stopped and talked a while and I warned them for the slippery trail and told them about my fall. In the south end of the valley I rounded the end of the lake and crossed a couple of stone fields and then up a hillside. There I got to the highest point, then starts the descent towards the Rapa valley. This trail is very steep as well but it doesn’t go in the middle of a boulder terrain, but is mostly decent trail. The view down over the Rapaselet (a stretch of smooth water in the Rapa valley) was overpowering beautiful. When I started the descent I finally escaped the strong wind. The rain also abated a little. After a little between-plateau the trail goes down in a deep ravine where the river Jilajåkkå flows down from the mountain Skårki to the Rapa valley. The trail was very steep. Down by the riverside was a little flat ground and there I took of my backpack for the first time since I left Pielavaratj. I had contained myself for a long time and a relief was necessary, so I had no choice. The stream was rapid but relatively easy to cross on stones. On the other side it was as steep upwards so I took it quite slow. Luckily that side was not so high. My original plan had been to go down to the area round the Skårki cabin and camp there but when I saw the nice camp sites here just above the tree line I changed my mind. It could be nice with a last night on a higher altitude before going down in the birch forest. There were already two tents pitched here. I reconnoitered at the ledges of the plateau and at last I found a flat area to pitch my tent on. While I was fixing with the tent I heard someone in the other tent on the same ledge an soon a guy came out and came over to me. His name was Jonas Ahlman and he was from Stockholm. He was another solitary hiker. We talked a while and then we went in to our tents to make and eat dinner. After finishing the dinner I went over to Jonas tent and asked if he would like to share some chocolate pudding with me, I had namely skipped the dessert a previous day so I had two portions. And he did, so I went back to my tent and prepared the pudding and brought it over too his tent, a Hilleberg Nallo2, since it was bigger than mine and more suitable for being together. We wolfed down the pudding and Jonas offered some biscuits. We sat there a long time talking. He had started in Suorva and also arrived through Snavvavagge, but yesterday. During the conversation it showed that we had more in common than mountain hiking, he was also a scout leader, which resulted in a new pleasant topic of conversation. About the rest of our respective hikes we had the same plan so we decided to walk together the rest of the hike. Preparing to repair Orvar, my hiking staff. After a while I went back to my tent to see if there was any chance to repair Orvar (the staff) in some way. Certainly it was possible to use the lower part as a short staff but it's in the situations were you need a long staff that it's important to have one. I found out that it had broken in a way so that it could be possible to rejoin the parts. The lower of the two handles of the staff had split apart and one half of it was on the upper part and the other was on the lower. I took the repair kit from the pack. For a start I glued the parts together with Liquisol then I strengthen the handle in the upper and lower end with steel wire. Finally I wrapped the handle with Duck Tape. We have to wait until tomorrow and see if it works when the Liquisol hardens. Even if the repair isn't perfect it will help anyway since the balance of the staff are restored with the upper part in its place. Then it was time to write down today's adventures in the journal. A good eight kilometers, 5 mi, I have covered today. After a cup of chocolate milk and some Swedish arrack punch I crawled into my sack and fell asleep at once.

Orvar fit for fight again. MONDAY August 25 (Day 7) The Rapa valley, from the Skårki cabin to the hill Lulep Spatnek. (13 km, 8.1 mile) After a good nights sleep I woke up early and got up. The first thing I did was to check on Orvar. The mending job felt stable and good, Orvar was fit for fight again, GOOD! Then I strolled around a bit before I went to fetch water, a little adventure itself, on a narrow steep path down in the ravine to the river Jilajåkkå and up again. I made breakfast. While I was eating Jonas woke up and started to root around in the tent. We had planned to get going round 11 o'clock. After packing our things we took some pictures over the Rapaselet before preparing to leave. Packed and ready, the day shaped up to be real good; the rain had stopped during the night. We shouldered our packs and started of down the trail. On our way down we said hallo to two guys that where camping on the ledge below the one we had been camping on. Last night we had talked to them and they had told us that the ordinary trail in the valley on many places was blocked by birches knocked down by an avalanche last winter. But they also said that they had found a very good trail on the river bank reaching all way down to the affluents from the valley Vassjavagge. We decided to try that trail. When we came down in the valley we passed the trail towards the Skårki cabin and cogitated a while of going in to the cabin and have a look but then we skipped that and turned east instead and started our walk down the Rapa valley. After a little while in the birch forest the trail came down to the riverbank and there we found the promised trail. It was in perfect shape and as they said just at the waterside. If you have read my journal from the last time I was here ”Sarek 89” you might remember my opinion of this part of the Rapa valley: ”you didn't see anything but birch”. Forget it! The walk past the Rapaselet was fantastic this time! Piellorieppe: upper 1989, lower 2003. We had a beautiful view up to the peaks on the south side of the valley. The little three-cornered glassier in the little kettle between the peaks at the mountain Piellorieppe had decreased substantially since I was here 14 years ago, only a little edge of ice left, owing to the warm climate. Rapaselet has many small pools, between the trail and the slope of mount Skårki, where the mountains reflect. In them where also a lot of birds, among others Greater Scaup, Mallard Duck, Whooper Swan and Red-breasted Merganser and everywhere flew a lot of Bluethroats. When we took a little beak in a little glade just by the river, in the Rapa valley's luxuriant foliage, we were attacked by mosquitoes or gnats. This was the first time (and only it should show) this hike that there were so many that I unpacked the Mosquito repellent. We had all the day looked for the Rapa valley's gigantic elks in vain, but just after we started after the break we finally got sight of our first elks. At first we saw four elk-cows grazing at the river bank. When we approached they started moving towards the trees. Then we saw that there was an elk buck there too, and it came jumping through the wet morass with a cascade of sun glistening water splashing around him, a mighty sight, pity I didn't have time to get the camera up before he disappeared among the trees. We met some other people who also had found this trail, first an elder man and a boy and then we passed a young couple having lunch. In the afternoon we reached the river Alep Vassjajåkkå. Both braches of that river we could cross balancing on fallen trees. Here the good trail at the river bank ended and we followed the river up to the ordinary trail. Up in the birch forest we unfortunately lost the good view. Suddenly I saw a man, standing on the trail in front of us, video filming. I stopped Jonas and we stood silent so we shouldn't disturb him. After a while we saw that it was an elk cow he was filming. It seemed quit intrepid. After a while the filming man started slowly to move away from us on the trail and we started to move forward. When we came to the place where the man had been standing we put down our packs and got hold of the cameras. The elks, yes it was a buck there too, had lain down. Jonas took camera and tripod and crept nearer. Finally he was only 6 – 7 m/yds, 20 – 23 ft, from the cow, and there he stopped and started photographing. After a while the cow raised up, now it runs I thought, but no… it was only interested and came even closer to him with curiously stretched neck. That's what I call a close encounter. After a while they started to move away, slow and leisurely. They often stopped, posing for me when they crossed the trail only 25 m/yds, 80 ft, from me, they even grazed on the bushes, completely intrepid, so I took some decent pictures despite that I only had a 50 mm lens. Finally they diapered in to the forest. When they had left we took a little break and eat some GORP when we yet had taken our packs of. After walking a while we came to the real river crossing of the day, the river Lulep Vassjajåkkå. I took on my CoverBoots. Jonas crossed the stream jumping on stones (young and quick as he is). The crossing offered no peculiar problems. Jonas found a pair of Telescopic Hiking Poles in a driftwood heap in the middle of the wade, and switched his wooden staff for them. When we approached the mountain ridge Alep Spatnek we saw smoke rising from a place further away along the trail. Soon we came to the source of the smoke, two middle-aged Norwegians that had established a little "base camp" on a little hill by the river. They were just drying their cloth by the fire. We talked a while; they came from the Lillehammer area. They had their camp here and made day trips around in the valley. One of them was the man we had seen video filming the elks earlier. He hadn't noticed us so we must have been quiet enough. Then we walked on. We had planned to camp somewhere near the next peak on the mountain ridge, Lulep Spatnek. When we had walked a bit from the Norwegians I discovered, to my alarm, that my binoculars weren't hanging round my neck. I put down the pack and rummaged around in it but no… no binoculars. Where could I had forgotten them? We had stopped for a break roughly 1 km, 0.6 mi, earlier and then I think I took them of. After a quick negotiation we decided that I should leave my pack here and go back and look for them and Jonas should continue walking looking for a good camp site, and stop at the first he found, we had reached about as far as we had planned anyway. I went back to were we had our last brake and looked around but didn't find anything. So I walked back again. Back by the backpack when I was putting it on I found it! It had slid down and was lying in the rain cover under the sack. Then I had to find Jonas. I continued along the trail for about 1 km, 0.6 mi, and there I saw some people camping just beneath the trail. I stopped and said hallo to them. It was Erik Widegren and his friends. They were from Sundsvall and were planning to stay a couple of days in the Rapa valley (if the weather didn't get worse). They told me that Jonas had found a good camp site by the rapids, about 100 m/yds from the trail. I walked down to the camp site. It was a nice little glade just by the river with a little fire place, just beside a beautiful fall in the rapids. Jonas came jumping back. He had been exploring a little islet in the river just downstream the camp site. He was very curious about how things had worked out for me so I told him the story with its quite funny, but happy, end.   A little fire is warming you up at the evening. I pitched my tent and hastened to put in my things in case it should start raining again (it had been raining to and fro during the afternoon). Then I set my mind on making a fire, something that Jonas didn't think I should succeed with in the wet weather. I made a raid in to the bush and found some dry juniper branches and some decent dry firewood in a driftwood heap on the riverbank. By dint of some bark from a dead birch I got the fire started. The rest of the evening we spent by the fire chatting and trying to get our clothes dry. At the nightfall we went in to our tents and made dinner. I eat a quite tasty sweet-sour chicken casserole. The coffee and the Punch were enjoyed while I was writing my journal in the light of my torch. We had covered about 13 km, 8.1 mi, except for my little excursion of, at a guess, 1,5 km, 1 mi, extra on the hunt for my binoculars. And Orvar, my staff, has worked fine, I haven't felt any difference compared to prior stability. Then it was time to sleep for a while, with the noise of the rapid as a soporific background.

TUESDAY August 26 (Day 8) The lower part of the Rapa valley: From the hill Lulep Spatnek to the big rock Nammatj in the end of the valley. (9,5 km, 5.9 mile) This day can be summarized with two words: Wet and Soggy! I woke up with the rain rattling on the tent fabric. It was about eight o'clock but I stayed a while in the sleeping bag, I didn't feel like going out in the slushy weather. After a while however the call of nature forced me up and out in to the bush anyway. After settled errand I didn't feel like squeezing myself I to the tent again so I went for a little exploration trip instead. I went to the little islet next to the rapids. From the islet you could see the tents of the other gang up by the trail. Everything was calm there, no one outside the tents. At half past ten Jonas started to move around in his tent. The rain started to decrease a little and at eleven it stopped. We made breakfast and ate, and then we packed our things and tents. We walked up to the trail again. We came to the tents of the others, they had just gone up. We talked for a while and I asked if they had decided to continue up the valley, and they should do that, they said. Then we started the stage of the day. The distance down to the big rock Nammatj is just less than 10 km, (a good 6 mi) but we prepared for the worst after all we had heard about the hardships in the lower part of the Rapa valley. All the foregone conclusions I had about the stage were confirmed: wet trail, a lot of osier bush, marshy ground and worst of all no view because of all dwarf birch. I the middle of the day we were passed by the elder man and the boy that we met yesterday. They were at full speed on their way down to the boat berth at Nammatj hoping to catch the evening trip at 5 pm. It was a quite uneventful hiking day. If I want to walk around in water logged birch forest, I have more than enough of that at home in Södertälje. We sploshed on and saw principally only birch, no animals, and, just now and then, a glint of the river. Just below the mountain Ritok we came to the morass where people, after what we heard, use to get lost. The trail suddenly ended and around us were only morass with knee deep water. We stood irresolute for a while, and then Jonas saw that the ground looked better away by the riverbank. He went back 100 m/yds on the trail and found a tiny little trail through the osier. He tried it and it was good. When he came over to the edge of the wood on the other side of the morass, I followed him. Then the question was where the trail started again. We choose a trail that looked quite well used. This trail turned out to be even worse and provoke many angry oaths from both of us. After a while we came down to the place where one can see the Litnok cabin laying on the other side of the river. Down there we found the "right" trail going on the riverbank. The birch forest started to grow thin so the sight improved and we started to the big rock Nammatj in front of us. The trail started to be a bit stonier and less wet and in addition it started to rise a little on the slope of Nammatj east offshoot. We had planned to sleep on the top of the rock but as the weather came along I didn't feel for climbing up. Jonas on the other hand wanted at least to visit the summit. We decided to split up so that Jonas could take his trip up and I continue down to the boat berth, just by the border of the NP and find us a good camping site. Jonas should join me when he came down from Nammatj. After a while we found a trail that looked to lead to the summit and Jonas swung in to it while I continued on the stony trail below the big rock. A while later I thought I heard I motorboat and just after that I reached the riverbank and saw the red boat of Lennart Lentha, the Sámi who operates the boat traffic round the Aktse cabins, right beside the notice-board, marking the border of the national park. Evidently they got in time for the boat (the man and the boy). I stopped for a while so they shouldn’t discover me and think that I wanted to go with the boat this trip. We weren't going until the next morning. Then the boat departed, turned around and set up a good speed down the delta and I continued to the notice-board. On the board there was a "mailbox" containing a Walkie-talkie used to order the boat transportation. I put down my backpack beside the notice-board and set out on an exploring expedition along the trail were it looked as if there could be some nice camping sites. I found a couple of sites but most of them were quite lumpy. Finally a chose a site where it was room for both my and Jonas tents and went back to get the sack. After pitching my tent I took it rather easy. I walked around trying to body-dry my damp cloths and waiting for the tent floor to dry in the wind so that I would be able to roll out the sleeping pad and unpack my things. I went to the Walkie-talkie and called up the boat station in Aktse and told them that we were two for the morning tour. A little fish, an Arctic Char I think, lying in wait in the backwater by the riverbank. Then I took it easy again, took some pictures and sat on the riverbank studying a little fish, an Arctic Char I think, lying in wait in the backwater of a little root sticking out in the water. After about two hours I saw Jonas coming down the trail to join me. While he was pitching his tent he told me about his adventures. The trail he chose to go was the wrong one. The proper trail started by a little cairn about 100 m/yrd earlier. But besides every thing else had turned out well. The view from the top was fabulous he told me. He said he looked down from the top and saw me when I was fetching water and tried to shout to me, but I obviously didn't hear him. When Jonas was ready with the tent we made our dinners and eat them. While we were standing by the riverside, summarizing the day, the darkness begun to fall. Then we went inside our tents. I wrote my journal. A check on the map told me that we had covered 9,5 km, 5.90 mi, during the day. Finally I made my evening meal, drinking chocolate and salami sandwich, yummy! and concluded with coffee and arrack punch before I went into the sleeping bag and turned in.

THURSDAY August 28 (Day 10) The Kings trail from the Sitojaure cabins to the Saltoluokta Mountain Station. (20 km, 12.4 mile) I woke up early, didn't sleep very well, unaccustomed to sleep indoors as I was. Jonas was still sleeping so I crept out of bed, got dressed and went outside and sat on the veranda for a while. We had decided to start early today since Jonas was hoping to catch the evening bus from Kebnats at Saltoluokta. After a couple of minutes I went inside again. Jonas had wakened and was on his way out of bed. We made breakfast, packed our things and at about 9 we got going. We started at the same time as two of the Gothenburgers, but we soon left them behind. Ahead of us was another quite boring transportation stretch on the Kings trail. The stage was about 20 km, 12.4 mi, but there were not as big changes in altitude as it was yesterday, in any case not upwards. The first part was however quite tough with a persistent slope before we reached the flat valley where the trail twists above a couple of river ravines where the river Autsutj-jåkkå runs. The wind didn't make it easier, we had a strong head wind that sometimes even made you stop in the middle of a step and nearly stumble of the trail. The wind got worse the further we came in to the valley. It was hard to find any water in this part of the trail too, a girl we talked to last night had said the opposite, but we didn't trust her so we had water in our bottles anyway. We had to walk 5 km, 3.1 mi, before we found any drinkable water the nearness to the trail. The trail was in worse condition then the last time I walked it, many Boardwalks was broken, some of them even dangerous with broken planks, tilting or jumping up when you stepped on them. It's High Time for a renovation! We held a very good pace, and the kilometers were covered rapidly. After 5 km, 3.1 mi, we found a depression in shelter from the wind and took a short break. When we started again we saw the Gothenburgers behind us but we soon left them behind again. Here in the valley the trail started to get wider, sometimes even four or five filed. I was afflicted by my right foot but did my best to ignore it, aware of that I should be able to rest it soon. The walk was quite uneventful, and since we started early we didn't meet any one else yet. After walking about 10 km, 6.2 mi, we started to feel quite tender owing to the high speed and the persistent head wind. We stopped and discussed the situation. I suggested that we should continue to walk and endure the strong wind a while longer until we reached the break shelter at Autsutjvagge below the hill Njalatjpakte, and Jonas thought that it was a good alternative to get the chance to get away from the wind. After a while we saw the first hikers coming from the other direction, an elder couple down in one of the ravines. The break shelter is well hidden and you don’t see it until your almost there. It's a simple little cabin with benches fixed to the wall, broad enough to sleep on, and with a little stove. Next to it there is a little out house. It felt good to come inside and put down the sack. After nearly three hours in the hard head wind, ”gutted” was a good description of how you felt. There were already two hikers in the cabin when we came but they left shortly after. We had some coffee and relaxed in a general way. We stayed for a good while, long enough for the Gothenburgers to catch up with us. After a further while the elder couple, we saw in the ravine, arrived at the cabin. They had got lost, mislead by a sign at the trail. They had probably followed a sign for the winter trail and ended up on the trail to the Sámi camp at Lake Pietaure and then tried to find their way back to the right trail through the ravine. We stayed and talked for a while longer before we shouldered our packs and walked on. The view from the trail previously had been quite monotonous but here the valley with Lake Pietsaure started to open up on one side and the beautiful alpine heath Ultevis on the other side, both beautiful and great. It was easier to walk now since the trail started to lean down towards the lake Langas and Saltoluokta Mountain Station. After 6 km, 3.7 mi, we came to the steep slope down to Saltoluokta so it was time to take it easy again so the knees wouldn't get to much grueling. Everything went well but I was quite tiered after the high pace we had held. I started to feel at home, this trail I have walked up and down several times, we had a two weeks vacation her at Saltoluokta. Finally the trail flattened and we arrived at the Mountain Station, the first house we saw was a big new built annex called Laponia. At the head building we went directly to the veranda and weighed the backpack, 23 kg, 50.7 lbs, left this time, inclusive half a kg water I found out later. A check on the watch showed that we had covered the distance in just over 5 hours, not so bad concerning the strong head wind.   Per Westerberg and Åsa Larsson.                                                             © Westerberg When I had put down my pack the door on the station opened and a completely strange girl came out and said: ”Hi Claes, would you like to come inside and have a cup of coffee… ”. What was this? I had no idée of who she was…and how in God's name did she know my name? It showed to be a former college, Per Westerberg, which, to kidded me around, had sent his girlfriend, Åsa Larsson, to welcome me. We had talked earlier about him going up here but that I had totally forgotten. They had started here in Saltolukta august the 22nd and walked to Sitojaure, taken the rowing-boat! over the lake and then walked to Skierfe. From there down to the Rapa valley and Nammatj, the Rapa valley up to Pielavalta, Kukkesvagge, Slugga and came back here today. After talking to them for a while, Jonas and I started to think about getting something to eat. The problem was that the lunch hour was over, but I took a chance and knocked on the kitchen door and heard if they had any leftovers for us. The Reindeer casserole from the lunch was finished but we could have some Plaice. It sounded tasty so we ordered that and sat down at a table. The Plaice tasted excellent with potatoes and saffron aioli. You can always count on the food here at Saltoluokta! We had a beer each to the food. We enjoyed our meal and sat there a long time. Unlike Jonas I was going to stay here at Saltoluokta and wait for the train that I was booked on (the evening train on Saturday). So after the meal I checked in and got a bed in the "old station" actually in the same room as I slept last time I was here. We went down and checked out the room and I left my pack there. After that I showed Jonas around in the area since he hadn't been here before. Then we strolled around in the shop and sat in front of the fireplace in the "lobby" until it was time to separate. I followed Jonas down to the boat and waved goodbye. Then it was SAUNA-time! so I went back to the room and unpacked some clean clothes, towel and my tiny little bag with hygiene articles. On my way to the sauna I went to the shop and bought a six-pack ice-cold beer. We weren't many in the sauna for a start but gradually it started to fill up more and more. It showed that a big gang had arrived with the boat, most of the teachers from the University of Umeå, having a kick-off/conference before the start of the semester. Anyone who hasn't been on a mountain hike in foul, rainy weather can imagine how wonderful it is to have a shower and then go into the sauna and just relax. And that the sauna has the best view in the Swedish mountains (the lake Langas and the great Lake fall) is just a bonus. As usual there was a lot of talking going on in the sauna. Unfortunately it was much colder outside then the last time I was here, despite the fact that this was two weeks earlier, so it wasn't as nice to sit on the veranda when you got outside to cool down. Finally I got weary of the crowding in the sauna and took a last shower and dressed in fresh clothes and went over to the main building instead and sat down in front of the fire place and relaxed. Then nothing particular happened. Mostly I sat in the lounge and read old guest books, talked to people, wrote journal, etc. Later in the evening it become quite empty in the lounge as people got to bed and finally I walked over to my room to sleep too. FRIDAY and SATURDAY August 29 and 30 (Day 11 and 12) A restful two days stay at the Saltoluokta mountain station. I just love it here! I always have. It's the pearl of all Swedish mountain stations. I spent the time socializing with other hikers, eating good meals (the Saltoluokta cuisine is great), just enjoying the surroundings or have a sauna. On the evening on august the 30th I started my journey home by taking the boat over the lake Langas and then the bus to Gällivare and the train to Stockholm and Södertälje.

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