GB Day 5-6

GB Day 5-6:

Wednesday 14 July 2021 - Thursday 15 July 2021

*Unna Vuoskkojávrráš-West of Jorbačohkka*

We started the day by sleeping in. Then we followed the reindeer fence through wet willow across the bridge over Skihččejohka, where we had our first pause for the day. Except for the gnats it was really nice there.

After that we made our way through more willow, and by the bridge by Gorvvejohka we saw three fishermen. Here we took a shorter break again.

Then we went up, up over the mountain and here the terrain was better and the gnats slowly decreased a little.

The reindeer fence by Sinot Sinnukkavaara was a little bit hard to get through, otherwise it was all fine. Up on the mountain side we saw a renvaktarstuga and a bridge. So we kept following the path that took us west of the bridge. It wasn't too wet here, but overgrown. We lost the path, and had probably been able to walk across the water on the stones, because the cairns continued on the other side of the water. Unfortunately we didn't, so instead we fought our way towards the bridge that had marshlands on both sides of it. By renvaktarstugan we stopped following the map for a while, walked along the stones near the water before following some cairns again all the way to the winter trail.

We then walked for a long time along the winter trail. Here the terrain was fine again, but just before Kamasjaure it got bad again. More willow and the last plank was completely sunken into the ground. You could feel there was a plank there, but you couldn't see it. By Kamasjaure we paused for a few ours, ate, tried to sleep, but couldn't because it was insanely warm and crowded with mosquitoes.

After 10 PM we continued. Just after renvaktarstugorna we lost the path though, walked in the willow for a while, then made our way up on the little hill were there was another path. After this terrain was fine again and it was easy to walk on in a good pace. We had a lot of interesting conversations so the time passed quickly.

We passed the reindeer fence again and took some photos in the midnight sun with it's golden hour.

Just after passing the fence the winter trail separated from the summer trail. A little further ahead there is marshlands on the map. Here it's really wet and lots of willow. Kim happened to put her feet in the wrong place and get wet, and after that she didn't care anymore, just walked straight through it all.

Miakel and Lukas decided to stay dry, so they walked around along the mountain side. Up at the mountain pass the terrain was good again, and the trail followed an ATV road. Here we also passed an abandoned ATV. It looked nice, but was hoisted up the last bit. Up at the pass we also went past a lake. It was incredibly beautiful here in the midnight sun and had probably made a great camping spot.

We then went on downwards for a long time. At some points the trail and ATV tracks separated, but the ATV track was nice to walk on and they soon joined again.

We reached some houses, then followed a summer/winter trail down to some boat huts. On the way there we walk across a plank that was literally 20 cm under water. To find the trail to the bridge we took right from the boat huts and found one, what we thought was, a trustable ATV track. It lured us out across a marsh and far into the forest. Despite all of the wetness, Micke felt really good, while Kim on the other hand was completely exhausted. Both physically and ready to sleep.

We finally decided to just decide on a course and go west through the woods towards the bridge, because we realised that we just got further and further from the bridge. Finally we reached what was an ATV track just in front of the bridge. We made camp in the vicinity on a little hill beside the trail, around 4 in the morning and went straight to bed.

We slept on and off, and woke up around 4 PM. After waking up Lukas called his dad who turned 70 (Happy birthday Alexander)!

Kim woke up to a bloodbath, that one unfortunately has to endure as a woman no matter if you're at home or out in the nature, and had to fight with the mosquitoes when the problem had to be solved.

We then continued along the same ATV tracks that we finished by yesterday, and came out on the same way that Jonas (wayfaringinthewild.com) has described in his blog.

Later we came to the reindeer fence, passed through and followed it through the meadows, with it in our left side. We walked through a distinct gate, then we could simply follow the map and the signs as usual. The terrain here was good.

South of Jorbačohkka we stayed on 650 m with the help of Kim's GPS watch. A little later we tried getting down towards a path. There was two different groups of lakes on the map and we ended up by one of them, but we didn't know which one. So we started walking north on the ATV track, but soon we turned around and went back because it didn’t feel quite right. Since it was quite late (10:40 PM) we decided to make camp now when we had found a good spot.

Wednesday's and Thursday's:

Favourite: Experiencing the midnight sun

Distance: 48.0 km

Start time: Wednesday 09:48

End time: Thursday 22:38

Ascent: 893 m

Descent: 1001 m

Snickers eaten: 1

Totals (from Treriksröset)

Distance: 121.2 km

Ascent: 2676 m

Descent: 2565 m