NPL Day 22: Saturday 8 July 2023

Pitsusjärvi-Saarijärvi via Meekonjärvi hut, Kuonjarjoki hut

Didn't sleep so great, and early in the morning the reindeer woke us up again when they were running and grunting around the tent. We didn't have any alarm, so after falling asleep again we woke up really late, probably tired after the day before.

Then we started to walk but soon put on a podcast again - it was that kind of day. With podcasts on most of the day.

We met some people, more people than any other day on trail so far.

Suddenly Kim realised that the trail markers (sticks with orange colour on) were gone, even though we were obviously walking on a trail. Kim then checked the map - yes, there was a trail here but not the one we were supposed to walk on, we should have passed the water we were following already 1,5 km before.

So we decided to cross the river

The first part didn't look hard, but the second part, just the last few meters looked harder.

And they were.

It reached Lukas up on his knee and Kim up to her hip, just below the hip belt. The force was strong, especially on one part (took like 3-4 steps to pass it) and Kim could barely hold the trekking points down. But we made it across, nothing wet than our shoes (without insoles), our shorts and Kim's underwear.

Phew!

We then continued until we reached the next hut (which felt like an eternity away) where we had decided to eat breakfast. Those 10 km took more than 3 hours, so it was going really slow. We ate whatever was left of it except some milk powder, and now food was starting to become scarce. We had some rest there and tried to find a geocache that was supposed to be there, but with no luck.

Then we got going again.

At the next cabin, we had another rest. Here we met some field biologists (?) and one of them was Swedish! So we talked to her for quite some time. She was from Vittinge, so very close to home which was such a weird coincidence.

We also found out that Kilpis is open on Sundays - yessss!

The last bit we kept going without a podcast but we had lots of interesting conversations going so time passed rather quickly. In the distance we saw Saana mountain just beside Kilpisjärvi at the top of a pass. We stopped at the next huts by Saarajärvi and took a look inside them. They were super new, but we decided to sleep in the tent. We also had phone reception again so Kim stayed up way too late...

Today's

Distance: 29.35 km

Start time: 11:32 (Finnish time)

End time: 23:11 (Finnish time)

Ascent: 614 m

Descent: 677 m

Tent nights: 20/23