Another Long Walk: Day 10: The Adolfstrom Zero

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Day 10: The Adolfstrom Zero

August 25: Karolina and I woke up early, ready to hit the trail and hike all the way into Jakkvik 21 kilometers away! I'd like to say that the sun was shining and life was good, but I'd be lying. In fact, it was pouring rain outside and we lingered in the cabin hoping it would let up and maybe even clear up.

By about 10:00 in the morning, it was still raining and looking at the horizon outside, it didn't appear to have any intention of stopping and we got an idea--a zero day! The weather is rotten outside, so why not take a zero? We had already been talking about taking a zero tomorrow in Jäkkvik. We'll just take it a day early! Karolina was still hurting from our 30 km day earlier and this would give her a full day of rest.

There was one downside to this plan which bothered me--no Internet. If I was going to take a zero day, I'd have preferred to have an Internet connection so I could get online, do some work and such. It would have also been nice to be in a bigger town with more of a food selection at the grocery store.

But to miss a miserable day of hiking in the rain? Priceless! Even better, we knew the accommodations here were quite affordable. In fact, if we could move to the smaller cabin, it would be a mere 370 kronas. About $40.

So we headed up to the front desk to inquire about an extra night. They did have the smaller cabin available, but told us to go ahead and stay in the bigger cabin and they'd charge us the price for the smaller cabin. Win-win! Awesome! So we didn't have to clean up the cabin to move--not today, at least--and we didn't have to pack all of gear just to move it to a cabin across the parking lot.

So with that settled, we had to figure out what we'd do for the rest of the day. I pulled out my laptop and did some offline work, processing more JMT videos for Walking 4 Fun. We read books and watched a couple of movies and shows that I had downloaded to my smartphone earlier.

Late in the afternoon, the rain finally stopped and we headed outside to explore the town. We visited a small shop in town--the only shop in town as far as we could discover with a very basic groceries and souvenirs. Knowing we had a kitchen at our disposal, Karolina bought bacon and eggs for breakfast tomorrow. We also picked up a frozen lasagna from the store that we could heat up in the microwave for dinner.

After dinner, we headed back to the shore of the lake that borders the town to watch the sun set. I skipped some rocks and Karolina used her smartphone to take a time lapse of the sunset which turned out quite nice. Then I sat down and worked on building a small arch made of rocks. It probably took me the better part of a half hour but I finally got it!

But then it was starting to get dark so we headed back to the cabin for the night, ready to get an early-morning start on the trail tomorrow. Jäkkvik or bust!