Ski and Paddle Norway 2009

Distance 27km | Time 6hrs | Ascent 170m | Descent 510m

I slept well in the cabin and woke with the sun streaming through the large windows at 0630. I got up soon after. I still had the blog to finish from yesterday as I was just too tired to write it last night. I let the dehydrated chicken curry simmer for breakfast while I made a start on the blog. The fire still had some embers so I put on a couple more logs and within five minutes it was roaring.

There was no great hurry today, which was just as well because by the time I had finished the blog, had breakfast, packed my stuff and tidied the cabin it was nearly 1030. I had to ski down to the Savnjajavri lakes, cross them and then ski some 10 km along an official scooter route; a total of 27 km.

It was an short ascent back to the plateau from the cabin. The weather was fair but there was a chilly north wind. After crossing a small lake I climbed slightly and then started a glorious easy descent to another lake. The new snow lay on the firm base and to give great conditions. My skis quietly slide over the snow with all the stealth of a of a snake crossing silk. When I got to this second lake the sun was warm and the wind had disappeared. I was now in the birch forest again.

I found some old scooter tracks buried under the new snow and followed them. They snaked through the birch trees and across marshes and small tarns until they reached a stream coming down from the south east. This stream was open in places and I stopped for a drink. Where this stream met the Stiipanjohka just a half km further down it grew considerably and there was a lot open deep holes in the ice. I was cautious crossing it.

The old scooter tracks now followed the west side of a reindeer fence down for about 5 km until they reached the most southerly Savnjajavri lake. This was again a nice pleasant quiet ski across new snow.

The Savnjajavri lakes were essentially two main lakes and were about 4 km long. There was a cold wind blowing down the lake into me and I had to wrap up again. I was off the map I bought from Per at Nedre Mollesjohka lodge now so hoped the scooter tracks I was following joined the end of the official scooter track at the north end of the lakes.

When I reached the northern end I was surprised to see a hamlet appear. There seemed to be about 15 houses and cabins. Most of these were in an unkempt state with collapsing sheds and rickety a lean-to or three on the house. Surrounding the houses were large scooter sleds, old machinery, old upturned boats, piles of raw fence posts and other rural detritus.

I assumed the hamlet was called Savnjajavri. It was a Lapp community. Half of it looked like it would be a working community in the summer with net fishing on the lakes and reindeer herding on the surrounding hills while and the other half of the houses looked quite sad and neglected with the owners dulling their boredom with vodka.

While I dithered about which way to go a heavy snow shower swept over the area. I sheltered on the balcony of an unoccupied house while it passed. After 15 minutes it had passed and I skied over to another part of the hamlet where I could see a house which was occupied. I asked here for the best way to Skoganvarre. Apparently there was a road which was now a scooter track. It was 10 km and was the only way as the alternative had many bare patches.

I set of along the road. Occasionally it was sparsely covered but 99 percent of it was well covered. There were a number of recent tracks obviously from those who lived at the hamlet. The road climbed slightly for the best part of 4 km through birch woods. There was a great view to the west towards Beiggevatgaise, which was a steep group of mountains rising up from the flat plateau. It was surprising to see them here. They looked like sedimentary mountains.

Indeed the landscape was changing considerably here. The plateau descended into a gnarly terrain of small deep valleys and crags knolls and hillocks. Above it rose the mentioned mountains.

From this high point in the the road I now had a long descent down to the gnarlly lowlands. I could see from here they were covered in the luxuriant greenness of pine trees. I had just seen birch trees since Dividalen about 2 weeks ago so was looking forward to ski down to them. I could also see another heavy snow shower was arriving and wanted to be in the trees before it reached me.

I sped off down the road which was quite steep in places. It didn’t take long to reach the comfort of the pines. I was now in the main Lakselvdal valley and it was an easy ski along the final stretch of this gravel road until I reached a bridge over the Lakselv river to the main road. The Skoganvarre campsite was a half km down the road.

Skoganvarre camping was a dreadful place. It was a collection of some 50 static caravans and numerous small cabins. The owner was a nice helpful person, but his wife was a shaky legged drunk. They were both Finnish. Most of the customers here were also Finnish over here to ice fish in the winter and river fish in the summer. I retired to my cabin to write, emerging to eat the worst meal this year which luckily was extremely bland. The campsite was also in the middle of the vodka belt.

The Finnish owner had various maps and there was a customer who was extremely knowledgeable about the route I wanted to take, and gave me good advice as to how to cross the mountains to Ifjord. He said it would be winter up there for another month. I seemed I could stay in a rustic hut one night and then camp for 2 nights if all went well.

Ideally I should go from here at Skoganvarre onto this mountain massive but I had to resupply, buy a few more maps, replace a ski stick basket and other chores which I could only do in Lakselv. I had a rule not to take cars buses etc on my tour otherwise I could have nipped down to Lakselv the day after tomorrow to buy things and return.

It had been a good day. The skiing was great and the weather was generally fine with the odd heavy shower. The cultural void at Savnjajavri and then the cultural shock of Skoganvarre campsite was a definite disappointment, especially the latter.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.