Day 28: A slow day of nothing....

September 12: The morning was very cold and frost covered everything, but it was a beautiful clear morning too. Karolina and I lingered in camp late, warm in our sleeping bags and in no particular rush to get going. We knew how far away the end of the trail was--not far--and when our flight was scheduled to depart, and we needed some short days so we didn't finish the trail too early. So today, we planned for a very short 7 km (about 4 miles) day. Yeah, definitely in no rush to get moving today!

Alesjaure hut

Later in the morning, much to our surprise, Claudia passed by the campsite. It had been the better part of a week since we last saw her so we stopped and chatted for a bit before she continued on ahead of us.

Karolina and I walked out to the area's commanding viewpoint to admire the views and take some photos, and eventually we packed up camp and hit the trail. The time was 11:15--among our latest starting times ever.

The day's trail was relatively flat and easy. We took a snack break halfway through the day before stopping by an emergency shelter to set up camp. We didn't sleep inside--it was meant for emergency overnight use only and it certainly wasn't an emergency. And it was more fun to camp outside. But it was nice knowing it was around. If the weather took an unexpected turn later in the evening, we would have somewhere we could get out of the rain and/or wind while cooking dinner. We didn't think that would happen, but it was an option. It's nice to have options. =)

Karolina was anxious for a campfire and started searching the barren terrain for firewood while I worked on setting up camp first. That's always the first thing I like doing upon reaching camp--setting up camp. Putting up the tarp, changing into my camp clothes and getting comfortable. I picked up a few pieces of small wood on our way to the campsite and after camp was set up, but Karolina brought in a surprising amount of wood from her forays into the bush. And really, that's all there were--bushes. It made wood, but not in much quantity so I was surprised at how much she managed to collect. I thought a campfire was a ridiculous idea given the conditions, but she proved me wrong!

We made dinner and waited for sunset, and eventually it started to sprinkle. Rain wasn't in the forecast at all so we weren't happy that development. It was just a light sprinkle--enough to discourage us from sitting outside in the open, but not so bad to drive us into the emergency hut. Surely we could wait out the sprinkle. It was just a random passing cloud, right?

Karolina joined me under my tarp to watch a Netflix show as we waited for the rain to stop and we could try to begin our campfire. I was a little worried that we might have trouble getting it started if the wood got too wet, though.

The light sprinkle never really stopped, however, and our campfire got rained out. As darkness descended, Karolina headed off to sleep. I stayed up a bit longer to read my Kindle before eventually falling asleep myself.

All-in-all, a fairly uneventful day.

Lots of frost in the morning!

 

Karolina does a morning stretch.

There's a troll under the suspension bridge!

We stopped here for a snack break. This is the waiting area by a boat dock, although we didn't have to take a boat to cross this lake. The trail followed alongside the lake and a boat really isn't necessary at all.

This was the emergency hut we camped near.