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Published: August 28th 2009
The day after meeting my mother in Stockholm (I didn't have any sign with her name when I met her at the airport so instead held up a large chocolate bar, its a honing device in my family), we got on an overnight train to take us up to Abisko, a small town in a National Park that is the start of Sweden's Kungsleden trail. (On our partial day in Stockholm we walked around the old town, which was interesting, took a tour of the Parliament building, which was good, and collected lots of free cookie samples being handed out - my mom was quite good at grabbing them, but also almost snatched a baby that was in a stroller that looked like the cookie containers, which was bad.) I'd never been in an overnight train before and thought it was pretty interesting. When we first got on, around 8 in the evening, the compartment was set up with two rows of seats facing each other, three seats per row, and two bunk beds located high off the floor. There really isn't room to store 6 people's baggage in the compartment, but fortunately we travelled with someone who realized that the ski storage closet at the end of the car was available for luggage, so piled our big bags in there. When folks are ready to sleep (or later), you clear off the lowest row, take off the seat cushions, and pull out the middle bunk and secure it with pegs on the walls. A sheet and blanket are provided for each bunk, and the seat cushions convert into pillows. Fortunately, we had the bottom two bunks, as the guys on the top (it was a mixed gender compartment), had to climb up by balancing on the small table, the middle bunk and a few big leaps. (As we learned on the way back, there is a ladder stored in each compartment so that folks can climb up to the higher bunks, but these guys either didn't know this or liked the jungle-gym approach.) Even with a ladder, I prefer a lower bunk as the jolting of the train would make me worry about falling out of the top ones, technically, there are some straps to keep you in, but they don't seem like much! (I'm posting this having just travelled to Copenhagen by night train, guess which bunk I got?) As neat as the set-up is in the sleeping cars, I can't say that they are particularly conducive to sleeping.
After we switched trains, at around 10 in the morning the next day, we passed a sign noting that we had crossed over the Arctic Circle. As we learned by googling, the correct terminology for this is that we were thus hiking "in" the Arctic, "above" the Arctic Circle, in what also happens to be Sweden's Lappland. Despite being in the Arctic, the scenery was still very green as we passed hours of white birch forests (the amount of forested areas is amazing) and the mountains, which were only visible on the last few hours of the journey, only had small amounts of snow covering (not too surprising given that the highest in the country is just over 6,000 feet and it was close to the hottest time of year). The only other eventful part of the train ride were the several moments when a loud alarm in our car of the train was going off. The railway employees, who took about 10 minutes to show up, didn't "think" it was anything serious, which was good as the train never really bothered slowing down. Once the alarm stopped, the train did start going backwards a bit, one man noting that we were going back to the fire. (Most likely, it was that someone hit the alarm button in the bathroom when trying to find the light switch, but I swear, it wasn't I!!)
We got off the train at the Abisko Tourist Station, the second Abisko stop, which is just a few minutes walk from a hiking hotel/hostel. We were surprised to see that the place was jammed. It turned out that we had arrived at the end of a race, in which people do the first section of the Kungsleden trail as quickly as possible, gold medals for finishing in 3 days, silver for 4 and bronze for 5. The first section is close to 70 miles, what we were planning to do in a week. I'm really glad we didn't arrive during the race as walking with the 2,000+ racers might not have been as quiet. Given that we hadn't made a reservation, I think we were lucky to get beds for the night, and probably only did because I inadvertently said that "yes," we were there in connection with the race. As it was, we shared a house with four people, several of whom had just finished the race and gave us lots of info/scary stories about the trail and left over food. We had the "formal" dinner at the restaurant the night, figuring that one last good meal was good before more than a week of instant noodles (after eating the lentil patty, I'm not so sure "good" was the right work, but at least it was nutritious. Plus, it was just nice to eat, I learned on the train with my mother that her ideas about meals, a cracker with cream cheese for breakfast and half a banana for lunch, don't really match up with mine.)
Abisko to Abiskojuare: Not at One with our Bags
The trail starts off through a beautiful white birch forest with the river close to your side. It was light and airy in the woods, and on this day and the next, we saw several good habitats for fairies, elves, trolls and misplaced leprechauns. Today's walk was pretty flat, but the path was rocky at times, making fast walking impossible. Also slowing as down were our bags. In addition to carrying clothes, toiletries, etc., we had a tent (in case we didn't make it to a hut one night) and enough food (by my standards) for 10 days. Needless to say, the bags were heavy. My mother was carrying about 27 pounds (quite a start for someone who hasn't carried a large pack in several decades) and I somehow managed to pack 45 pounds worth of stuff. (On the plus side, you don't have to carry much water as you can drink the water from the streams, although they recommend not to take water near where the reindeer roam, as if we could tell where that was!) Needless to say, what would have been a relatively easy stroll without the packs, was a bit of a haul, and by the end of the 9.5 mile first day, I was ready to stop walking. We had dinner and were in bed by 6 p.m.
The huts are nice, usually with 4-12 bunk beds per rooms, a kitchen that has gas burners and pots and an outhouse within a few minutes of the hut. The price was a bit high $35-40 per night per person, and the prices were posted with a notice that you should help with bringing in water, sweeping the floors, cutting firewood, etc. It makes you a little tempted to ask why the high price, and what do the hut wardens do, but I was concerned that the question might lead to me learning how to pitch my tent in strong winds, so I kept it to myself. The outhouse the first day was actually quite nice - made of wood, several stalls, a styrofoam seat, a pitcher of flowers in the bathroom, toilet paper provided and pictures on the wall - what more could you ask for? Well, actually, some air freshener wouldn't hurt!
Abiskojuare to Alesjaure: Hoist the Flag!
Today was the longest trail section between huts, about 15 miles. And as you may remember from my first trek blog, it takes me at least 3 days to get accustomed to the big pack on each trip, so this wasn't promising to be a comfortable day! When we left the hut, we crossed back over the river to rejoin the trail and had a few hours walking through the woods again and then through large open fields, from where we got our first very good views from the path of the mountains ranging on both sides of us. There was some ascent in the first half of the day, but like the rest of the walk, the ascents were not particularly difficult, even with the bags. In fact, they were sometimes a nice alternative to the flat walking as a chance to feel different muscles scream out in pain. Our lunch spot was a nice field, with some boggy areas (lots of blueberry and boysenberry bushes along the way), and large rocks to sit on and against. The rocks were important as it was difficult to lift up my bag, so easier to put it on from a rock. A lot of people stopped here as it was slightly sheltered from the wind by a slight hill at the end of the field. Today, and every other day we would walk, there was a generally light rain off an on through out the day and some wind. Rarely did we get very wet and it was cool enough that walking with our raincoats on all the time wasn't uncomfortable. (After the first day, there was no time when we wanted to walk only in t-shirts as it would have been too chilly.) As we were sitting eating lunch, my mom, the former kindergarten teacher, watched a family walk into the area and settle down for lunch and noted that she "hates young kids - they have too much energy." I think Tina is rubbing off! (This impression was augmented by the fact that my mom started humming "Prop me Up by the Jukebox When I Die" after an episode where she nearly passed out.)
With about 6 or 8 kilometers to go, we came to the end of a large lake, at which there was a sign stating that, if you wished to take the ferry boat across part of the lake, cutting several miles off of the walk, you should hoist the flag so that the boat would come for you. While my mom started trying to figure out the flag hoisting mechanism (which was impressive given that she takes Dramamine on boats before they even leave dock), I heard Jaimee's voice in the back of my head saying "wouldn't you feel better about this if you walked the whole thing?" I listened to the voice, and we ended up walking the whole section, including a bit through a marsh with lots of mosquitoes - that was the only bad bug section that we had, and relatedly, the fastest that we ever walked. At the end of the day I told my mom that I was happy we'd walked it, and wasn't she? I got a dirty look and a "no," so Jaimee, you're 1 for 2 (although I admit, as we were slogging out those last kilometers, I was cursing your little voice in my head).
Alesjuare to Tjakta: Reindeer
We had seen two reindeer on the first day, dashing across the path, and on the second day saw a few in the distance, up on a ridge, too far for a photograph. We thought that might be all we would get, but today was great! We saw groups, sometimes up to 2 to 3 dozen reindeer at a time, grazing along the path. As one Swedish girl put it, "they are so not afraid of people," and stay pretty close to the path even when people are walking by, so we got some great views. We had distracted ourselves yesterday by trying to remember the names of all of Santa's reindeer (and the names of all the dwarfs in Snow White and the history of every woman and all her descendants ever associated, even by marriage or almost marriage, with Napoleon) so were able to call out to some of the animals we passed. Today's walk went through some great scenery. The hut where we started had great views down into two broad valleys. At the end of the day, we walked up a bit, passing a river with unmelted snow banks left from the river, to reach the hut right below the pass that marks the highest point on the trail (something to look forward to the next day). It rained overnight and we woke in the morning to find a light snow dusting on the mountains opposite the hut. Last night we had met a young woman, Jennifer, who has been traveling in Europe several months after finishing 5 years in the marines. We'd spend the rest of the walk meeting up with her on the trails and hanging out together in the huts, sharing books, playing cards, enviously eyeing each other's chocolate, etc. When she told us that some of the early forests reminded her of fairy tales, we knew we had found a kindred spirit!
Tjakta to Salka: The Nine
We started the day by walking up to the top of the Tjakta pass, where there was a refuge to sit and rest a few minutes while taking a few pictures of the view. On the way up, we passed a group of nine reindeer, obviously, Rudolph is now accepted into the grazing herd. After descending from the pass, we walked through a broad valley, with a river to our right, and saw several other groups of reindeer. At the hut that night, there were reindeer within 20 feet of the outhouse and people's tents; they must find leftover food in the area. This hut was great because it sold cookies and chocolate; our supplies were replenished!
Salka to Singi: Bits and Pieces
On many sections of the trail you walk on wooden planks (usually two boards next to each with a combined width of about a foot) to avoid boggy areas. Of course, the planks sometimes end right in the river, so they are clearly designed more to help the ecosystem than the walker. Today was one of several days that included fording streams, a few more than shallow, but we made it across them all without incident, albeit likely providing some entertainment for any watching walkers. (The best amusement that we provided, however, likely came on the second day. About 6 hours into that day's walking, we were sitting on a rock resting. A group of 3 came by and I asked if they knew about where they were. One said that we were likely about half way there, really it was farther, but I didn't say anything other than thank you. My mother, however, let out a loud groan of pain, which set the father in the other group into laughing.) Although we never found any reindeer antlers, we did find the leg, including full hoof, of a reindeer along the path, but decided that wasn't exactly what we wanted to bring home as a souvenir.
Somewhere in the Arctic: Oops
It turns out, I'm a great map reader; I can make the map support any path on which we are walking. It was thus that, despite not seeing any other walkers for several hours, we manged to go 6-7 kilometers in the wrong direction. We finally passed someone going the other way and that is when we realized we were heading further south down the trail, onto the second stage of the Kungsleden. While it was great to see part of this, we decided to head back to our original plan. By the time we got back to Singi, however, we had walked about 8 miles and didn't feel up to another 10, so spent a second night at this hut. Our hope originally was to say that we intentionally took a side trip, but it was hard to explain why we would have chosen to carry our huge bags for a day excursion. The warden at the hut met as on our return and politely asked, without laughing (which was impressive), what are next plans were. Upon hearing that we would be staying a second night, he told us to go on into the hut, make a fire, make ourselves comfortable, etc. Um . . . we're the hikers that just got lost on a well marked section of the trail, are we really the ones you want starting a fire? That evening he asked me, if we were going "again" to Kebnekaise the next day. I'd say that our explanation of being adventurous explorers didn't really convince anyone.
Singi to Kebnekaise (Take Two): Snow in August
Today's section of the trail was actually quite beautiful, but difficult, due in large part to the early morning snow and afternoon strong winds (and the fact that it was so cold that my mom refused to stop for lunch and I was hungry!) The locals told us that it was unseasonably cold for that time of year, as snow is not very common in August. You start the day walking up a bit before descending into a narrow valley encircled by some beautiful mountain ranges. We again saw many reindeer herds, and in fact followed one a bit too far taking pictures and ended up walking through a bog to refind the path. We were quite fortunate to get beds in the lodge as, it turns out, this is one of the few places where you can make reservations ahead, which apparently many people had done. This lodge was a bit more resort-ish than the hiking huts, and it was clear that many people had simply made a day trip there, so we were able to feel a tad superior, despite the previous day's mishap.
Kebnekaise to Nikhaluotha: Sprint
We decided that we would prefer to spend our extra day in Northern Sweden back in Abisko, where it is absolutely gorgeous, both from the lodge and in its surroundings. However, to do this, we had to reach Nikhaluotha, about 21.6 kilometers away, by noontime. The day would involve several stages. First, walking 8 kilometers to the start of a lake by 10:00 to catch the first ferry boat across the lake, which cuts 7 kilometers out of the walk. Then, after the 30 minute boatride, walking 5.6 kilometers to the busstop by noon. This required a MUCH faster pace than we had done previously. So, we set off around 6:45 in the morning (it was supposed to be 6, but I'm not so good at mornings). On the plus side, we had the trail to ourselves and enjoyed the quiet and a reindeer farewell; as we rounded one corner we were met by the largest stag we had seen, standing just about 15 feet from us, watching us walk by and then turning and disappearing into the woods. That was the last reindeer we saw, and no one else with whom we spoke saw any that day. We reached the boat dock by 9:45, so had accomplished the first stage. The boat ride was gentle, so much so that we even got grounded for a while due to the low water levels, and ended up taking 40 minutes, cutting down our time for the next bit of walking. Plus, to top it off, while all the other hikers bounded off the boat and started sprinting towards Nikhalustha, I insisted on first having a bathroom break. Despite this, we exited the path at pretty much precisely noon, only to find no trace of a bus station. Turns out, the bus stop is another several hundred meters from where the trail ends, but we made it with at least 30 seconds to spare, boarding the bus last but happily! (And quite relieved that you could buy tickets on board.) I should say, it was really impressive given that my mom did all this with a strained foot - she still doesn't have the diagnosis of why she is limping, but I figure several weeks of rest will be recommended, not walking at a 4 mile an hour pace with a 25+ pound pack. After the bus, we happily took the day's only train up to Abisko, had hot showers and M&Ms and hit the sack. (An update, turns out my mom has a broken bone in her foot and is now in a splint.)
After our rest day in Abisko, we took another overnight train back to Stockholm, arriving in the City at around 7 a.m. We couldn't check in to the hotel before 3 (and couldn't make them change their minds by hanging out in the lobby with our bags), so stowed the luggage and went to visit the Royal Palace. This is not a tour that I would recommend. The Royal Apartments themselves are interesting, although we spent much more time than I would have chosen in the portrait gallery, but the other attached museums were less than good. On our final day, we visited a viking museum, where they have rebuilt a 1600s ship that sank on its first sailing (after 20 minutes), the Pippi Longstocking Museum and an open air museum, similar to Sturbridge village but with a small zoo area as well. On our last day, my mother left for the airport early in the morning while my train to Copenhagen wasn't until 10 p.m. Before visiting the Nobel museum, I took revenge on the hotel for refusing to give me an extended check-out time and sat at their computer in the lobby with free internet for almost 5 hours - don't annoy a tired traveller!
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Bob Cammett
non-member comment
Hiking
Dear Aladdine, Well,now on to the Scandinvanian Countries. I spoke with your mother to-day: to find out how you were,and get the coordinates-Yes,I lost them again. Ahe had a wonderful time with you,and I told her how I admire your courage. Stay well. Your Friend, Bob Cammett