Except... she starts her blog post from when we wake up in the morning. So before we get to her post, I will write a bit about our nighttime adventures...
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| The northern lights started relatively muted and--despite the photo--it looked grey. |
It was near midnight and as was becoming the norm on clear nights, we often checked the sky for the northern lights whenever we woke up. Karolina woke up and woke me, saying that she could see the northern lights. Looking out from under my tarp, I didn't see anything and asked where she saw them. She pointed to a direction, and I looked under the side of my tarp and there was, in fact, a light glow coming from that direction--but I didn't think too much of it. I had seen the same glow the previous night from the same direction. It was probably just light pollution from some distant city and said as much.
But to satisfy Karolina that it wasn't very interesting, I took a long-exposure photo and was actually surprised when some of the light in the photo was a distinctive shade of aurora green! Holy cow! It was the northern lights! I took a few more photos, but it was cold and the sight wasn't particularly impressive so declared that I was going back to sleep.
The tiny glimmer of lights we saw turned off. It was like the sky knew it had lost its audience.
They turned off for several seconds, then absolutely exploded in brilliance! A bright green curtain of light spread across the sky, dancing and shimmering and our jaws dropped open with astonishment. It looked just like the amazing photographs we had seen all our lives!
Needless to say, I didn't go back to bed. I tried taking some more photos, but the 30-second exposures I took were becoming over-exposed. The northern lights were so bright they were over exposing my photos! I shortened the exposure, experimenting with shutter speeds between 10 to 20 seconds. The northern lights now streaked across the entire sky, from horizon to horizon, the curtains of light dancing. My head was about to explode. It was magic!
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| But then it turned into a magical show of brilliant, dancing curtain of light! WOW!!!! |
The light show performed for about 15 minutes before it started to fade back to its muted, barely discernible grey. We did a happy dance around camp about the incredible experience, but we were both cold and as it appeared that the show was over, we both went back to our sleeping bags. Sleep didn't come quickly, though. I couldn't help but peak out at the sky from under my tarp hoping for another unexpectedly brilliant show and remember the amazing sight. I hoped there would be more of that in the future.
Eventually I faded off to sleep, and presumably Karolina did the same. We didn't see anymore grand light shows during the night, but I like to think it put on a show or two while we were sleeping to help with good dreams. =)
So with that out of the way.... on to Karolina's blog post which picks up when we wake up in the morning to get ready for our day's hiking....
********** Karolina's blog post *******************
The strong wind did
not stop by the morning. At least it kept our gear dry—even though we camped
right next to the river, condensation was not a problem.
Our first break for
the day we took after hiking a mere couple of kilometers. We stopped at the a
wind shelter which had an outhouse next to it. Our goal was obvious: dump the
unnecessary load from our intestines!
We took turns using the
outhouse (of course!), with me going first and Ryan second. I was waiting for
Ryan inside the shelter, browsing the maps and my notes about the Kungsleden
and possible side-trips and detours along the trail when I made a discovery:
just a few kilometers ahead an alternative route started, connecting the STF
huts Sälka and Alesjaure. The alternative route skipped the official high point
of the Kungsleden—Tjäktja Pass at 1,150 m (3,370 ft)—but lead through what my
notes referred to as “two of the most beautiful valleys in Swedish Lapland,
worth visiting if the weather is good and time permits.” These were the Stuor
Reaiddávággi Valley and the Vistas Valley. We definitely had enough time to
follow the alternative route, which was slightly longer than the main
Kungsleden between Sälka and Alesjaure huts. The weather… could be
questionable. It was hard to say how it would turn out. Right now, the wind was
still blowing hard and even though the morning was rather sunny, angry-looking
clouds were hanging above the horizon and moving our way.
When Ryan returned
from the outhouse, I updated him on the possibility that lay ahead. We agreed
to think about it and make the final decision at the Sälka hut where the two
routes split.
At the Sälka hut, we
took a lunch break, sitting on a bench outside and enjoying sunshine while it
lasted. After lunch, we decided to venture into Stuor Reaiddávággi and Vistas
valleys—both of us were lured by the promise of spectacular views. And the
views were spectacular indeed! We walked along the valley bottom, surrounded by
tall, rocky mountains with pointed tops. I felt like I was walking through a
giant cathedral of nature!
All round us was
rocky. We walked on boulders of various sized and sometimes needed to jump from
one onto another. There were several glacial torrents to cross too—not quite
deep but rather wide. No distinct path was visible which meant we had to hike
cross-country in the direction we knew our route was heading, every now and
then aided by cairns. The valley felt vast and desolated—there seemed to be nobody
else there.
Suddenly, we saw two
people in black heading our way. To our surprise, the couple turned out to be
Magda and Kamil, our friends from Poland. The surprise was mutual—they
definitely hadn’t expected to cross paths with us right there off of the Kungsleden!
It turned out the day
before Magda and Kamil hiked into the Stuor Reaiddávággi Valley and further to
Una Räitastugan—an unmanned hut situated, as they said, “ in the absolute middle
of nowhere”, where they spent the night. Right now, they were on their way back
to the Sälka hut. They reported it was rather difficult and exhausting reach
Una Räitastugan as they often had to jump from boulder to boulder. Having known
about our plans to summit Kebnekaise they were curious to hear our stories and
impressions of that side-trip, which we gladly shared. After this exchange of
war stories, we said goodbyes and maybe-see-you-laters, and continued our
separate ways.
After three hours of
hiking through the Stuor Reaiddávággi Valley—which was a very good time!—Ryan and
I arrived at the Nallo hut. I had expected it to be unmanned—this is what I
understood from my notes. However, as we approached the hut, a warden came out
and greeted us. He offered us some warm saft (Swedish lemonade, or rather
fruit-flavored syrup mixed with water) and asked the usual questions—where we
came from and what we planned to do next—stay at Nallo or continue further.
The latter still we
had to figure out. As I mentioned, our initial plan was to spend the night at
the Nallo hut. However, we managed to reach the hut quicker than expected and
it was still relatively early in the afternoon (around 3 pm). The weather was
rather good—overcast but it wasn’t raining. Rain was in forecast for the night
and the next morning, so we were sure we wanted to sleep indoors but the
question was whether to stay at Nallo or continue for another 10 km (6 miles)
to the Vistas hut. The Vistas hut had one big advantage over the Nallo hut—it
had a sauna! That, in combination with not-too-bad weather and none of the two
of us feeling too tired tipped the balance in favor of continuing to Vistas. We
rested some more on a bench outside of the Nallo Hut, drank some more saft, ate
snacks… and off we went!
The hike to the Vistas
hut was rather uneventful—except maybe for the moment when I started feeling a
little funny. Funny as in the I-might-faint
way. I told Ryan about that and he asked whether I needed to sit down and take a
break. If I was to faint, he preferred to have me already on the ground and
without a large pack attached to my back. I said no, I didn’t need a break, but
I’d love to snack on something and I could do that while continuing to hike. I
was too lazy to take my pack off, though, so I asked Ryan to dig into the outer
pocket where I kept my daily snacks and fish out the last Clif bar I took on
this trip. Of course, the Clif bar had fallen all the way to the bottom of my
snack pocket and Ryan had to take out practically the entire content of it
before he finally got hold of the bar. I ate it and felt a little better. Maybe
I had been too low on sugar?
The views on our way
to the Vistas hut were spectacular. I couldn’t take my eyes off mountains and
glaciers. We hiked along a creek that turned into a waterfall right before the
hut.
By the time we reached
the hut, the skies got visibly darker. First drops of rain reached the ground
just as we were entering the hut where a warden greeted us with a cup of warm
saft. We paid for bunk beds (500 SEK or about $50 per person!) and entered the
large room where we were going to spend the night. The room was a combination
of a sleeping area with maybe 12 bunkbeds and kitchen with a gas stove and a wood-burning
furnace to keep the room warm. No electricity. From the windows, we could see
the mountains and glaciers—at least until clouds and fog rolled in and obscured
the view. We could also see a little building where sauna was located—a place I
intended to visit later that evening. But first, I wanted to eat dinner and
rest a bit, making sure I regain energy and avoid passing out in the sauna
again.
To make dinner Ryan
and I combined forces—I provided a package of Mexican soup, which Ryan enriched
with his dehydrated ground beef. As we were sitting at the table and eating,
through the window we could see people in nude leaving the sauna building and
heading towards the river to take a dip and cool down, before returning to the
sauna.
An hour later, I was
doing the same. By the time I went to the sauna all the other people had left
it, so I had it all to myself. The little wooden building was heated up by a wood-burning
cast iron furnace. While enjoying the sauna I needed to add new pieces of wood
every now and then in order to keep the fire going. Otherwise, I stretched on a
wooden bench and relaxed. There was a window in the sauna, so I could enjoy the
picturesque mountain views. The whole experience was very nice and put a large
smile on my face.
After I had gotten too
hot and sweaty, I decided to go to the creek to cool down. Actually, it would
probably be enough to just go outside and stand in the wind for a while, but I
wanted to do it the Swedish way and take a dip in ice-cold glacial water. I
knew it was going to be a challenge and felt a little nervous, but nothing was
going to stop me!
I dipped my entire body
(except for my head) in the creek for maybe a second before jumping out. The
water was freezing COLD! As soon as I was out of it, though, I felt warmth
spread all over my body—and that was the most refreshing moment of the entire
sauna experience!
In the evening Ryan
played an episode of a show he downloaded to his smartphone from Netflix which
we watched by the light of a hut-provided candle. In the hiker’s box in the kitchen,
I found popcorn, so we even had a treat to munch on while watching. After that,
we brushed our teeth and retired to our beds. The last thing I remember of the
evening was laying my head on the pillow and thinking how soft and comfy my bed
was… I felt happy. =)
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| What a beautiful glacier! |
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| Sälka hut, where we stopped for a short lunch break. From here, we veer off the Kungsleden again for a detour through the Stuor Reaiddávággi Valley. |
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| This section of of the route was largely trail-less and rocky! Although we didn't always have a trail to follow, we knew the route was up this valley so as long as we followed the valley bottom, we wouldn't get lost. |
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| You call this a trail?! |
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| You can tell this is a glacier-fed lake because of the water's turquoise color. It's caused by glacial flour in the water. |
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| Notice the glacier on the left coming out from the mountains? |
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| That's the Nallo hut ahead, where we'd stop for a short snack break. |
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| The warden stands outside, ready to welcome in tired hikers! |
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| We can't see much of this glacier except its terminus, but it still looks impressive! |
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| As we approached this bump, I picked up a rock while Karolina's back was turned then told her I'd been carrying it the entire trail to throw on the pile of rocks and make a wish. "It's tradition!" I told her. "Where's your rock?" =) It was a joke--I made it all up. There is such a tradition on the Camino Frances which I knew she'd be familiar with, but she didn't buy into my joke. "I know you'd never carry an unnecessary rock the entire trail!" she told me. "That part just isn't believable." |
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| Our home for the night--the Vista hut! This would be the first and only time on the trail we'd spend the night IN a hut. It was supposed to rain all night and the next morning and the wind was quite strong. It would have been a miserable night in a tent or a tarp and we figured we deserved a full "hut experience" at least once on the trail. The weather forecast made us decide that tonight would be the night! |
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| The kitchen in the hut |
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| From outside our window at the kitchen, we'd see naked people running from the sauna to the cold river for a quick dip. This is actually Karolina in the photo. Before you accuse me of being a pervert--I asked if she wanted me to try taking a photo of her running between the two before she went to sauna. And in the fading light (the sun had already set) and being so far away, there wouldn't really be any detail in the photo. Tantalizing, perhaps, but not pornographic! (At least I didn't think so.) So she gave me permission to take and share this photo. |
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| Karolina cooks in the kitchen. |
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| With no electricity, light in the huts were provided by your own headlamps for by candles provided by the hut. |
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| Watching a Netflix show on my smartphone by candlelight with a pot of popcorn. Life was good! =) |
