GB Day 61:

Vålåstugorna - Östra Helagsskaftet

Via Ljungan, Helags

Wednesday 8 September 2021

We woke to an early alarm, but stayed in the bed because it was very cozy. Especially since we slept in a "queen size bed".

We had breakfast a bit later with the other guests, packed, cleaned and got going. It was still windy, not as extreme as yesterday, but still quite annoying to walk in.

After about 3 km, we had to cross our first river - Härjängsån. It was interesting to do a river crossing now because the last proper one was so long ago, and we had heard that this one is really deep early in the season. Luckily for us, it wasn't as deep right now, as it "just" reached up on Kim's thigh, and just below Lukas' knee. But Kim just marched through, and we continued quickly onwards, to get rid off some water and become warm again.

Here, the weather got a little bit better and we had a "hole" in the sky above us, where the sky was blue. At some points the sun even came forth, and the drizzle faded away. The trail got easier to walk on too, less stones, less muddy and more footbridges. Really nice.

So we made progress quite fast, and we stopped in Ljungan to have lunch. After the lunch in Ljungan we had another river crossing right away. This one was fairly shallow - just shin-deep, but instead it was wider and colder. So our feet hurt quite a lot when we got up. But we kept the pace up, and soon it felt better again.

Other than that the rest of the hike to Helags was quite uneventful. The weather kept changing its mind back and forth, and we didn't meet a single person. When we started to get closer, it felt really good, so we increased the speed even more. Soon, we rounded the next mountain side and saw Helags mountain station down below. Right in front of us was the mighty Helags massive, unfortunately shrouded in clouds so we didn't see much of it at all.

We got inside the main building and stripped off our wet and muddy clothes. Then, Lukas found out that there was two seats left at the dinner, and that we could have some of the vegetarian food. And who can say no to fresh food!? So we took the chance. Normally you have to both pre-book and stay the night there, so we were indeed lucky 😏

We got a table beside an older couple (senior citizens). We ate and talked with them, and when we revealed we had walked from Treriksröset, they were immediately impressed by us, and even wanted to take a picture of us after the dinner!

Just as we had finished the dinner, Lukas pointed to the window and said something along the lines of "Look who's over there! Helena and Jonas", and Kim rose right away and headed over to the door to say hello to them. It was funny, because when they weren't at Vålåstugorna yesterday, we thought we'd never see them again due to the little detour they took past Gåsen.

Before leaving, we bought some more snacks at the mountain station. Lukas bought soda and crisps, while Kim bought a Delicato ball and "Cool Cola Skulls". They were reeeaaally nice.

After this, it was late again, and we'd said we would walk a few more km today before pitching our tent, so we got going. But after just over 1,5 km, we decided to stop and pitch our tent anyway. We had found a pretty good tent spot, and here it was less windy as well. We had a feeling that it would be way more windy on the other side of the mountain.

Today's:

Favourite: The dinner

Distance: 25.5 km

Start time: 09:45

End time: 20:01

Ascent: 936 m

Descent: 766 m

Snickers eaten: 2 (Kim) + 1 (Lukas)

Totals (from Treriksröset)

Distance: 1,303.7 km

Ascent: 30,093 m

Descent: 29,438 m

Tent nights: 38/61

Gröna Bandare spotted: 23 + 2 🐶

Via Suecia-hikers spotted: 2/4

Snickers eaten: 37 + 2 (Kim)

Ice cream eaten: 21