Lapland!

Hello! We are back from Lapland. I might have to cut it into two or three sections of story though, because it was so long! I got a whole sleeve knit on the newest baby sweater, plus the last baby diaper sewn with flannel.  We listened to hours of folk music that I rented from the library last minute and ate lots of baked goods. Here’s a picture of me packing our cute rental car.

 Lapland was great! It’s such a strange landscape though. There are plenty of indicators of how harsh the climate is: stunted growth, areas with nothing at all, rocks, trees with all kinds of funny forms. There are areas called fells where most things drop out altogether. The birches aren’t taller than your calf, and there’s only lichen and moss. 

Beginning of our hike

 We left Thursday around noon to get up north of Roveniemi around 8pm. Nicola, the Canadian girl who came with us, and I knit on the way up. She and John talked a lot of forestry and how things are in Canada. We had an amazing sunset! And with the suns angle the sunset last for about 3 hours. We caught sight of a bull moose while driving. We weren’t able to stop quickly though, so all I got was a glipse. We also say caribou or reindeer, and thought we should pull over sometime for a picture, because we might not see them that close again. But we saw plenty later! 

Our first night was in a rental, but we got moved from the cabin without electricity and heat to an apartment with electricity, heat, and connected sauna. It was nice, except it meant no fire and the lake was far enough that we didn’t want to walk there in order to swim after the sauna. But we had a good sauna and went outside in between each session to look for the Northern Lights. We went to Lapland at the height of a full moon. I think it might have been full when we left and was waning. 

 

Nicola taking a picture in the morning.

We left fairly immediately the next morning so that we could start hiking that afternoon. We hiked in the east most national park, Urho Kekkonen. Again, the hiking experience has been surprising, sometimes frustrating, sometimes good. We went to the information center and bought a map and talked to a lady. She contradicted what the national park website had said, telling us that the huts on the map were for day use. That there were no huts for overnight sleeping that were on the trails. You needed a compass to get to those. But then she showed us a picture of the day huts, and kind of said that if no one else is there then we could spend the night. It was odd. So we set off thinking that we would just stay in the hut. Hopefully no one else would be there. 

We had a good hike. It was cold but you worked up enough heat to strip off layers. We saw plenty of caribou. Saw some pretty impressive racks on the males. Saw a large range of colors. Saw some with collars. 

They were curious.

We thought we saw Russia too, but we can’t be sure. 

Is that Russia in the background?

We got to our shelter/cabin/hut at about 4:30pm.

  We started chopping and sawing wood. 

Nicola and I sawing the same piece in thirds.

The hut was so cozy with its benches, wood stove, hooks to hang clothes by the stove and on the walls, and a little gas stove too. 

There were pots and cooking utensils, tea kettle, dippers and buckets for water. Nicola had made cookies for the trip. Two batches actually. So we snacked on some once we were satisfied with the wood situation, but before it was time to start cooking dinner. 

We cooked outside over the fire and had boiled potatoes and, what we dubbed, giant hotdogs. We were trying to get some good sausages, but it’s really hard to know what you are getting in that casing. We got organic, but it ended up being the texture of hotdog. Someday we’ll figure it out. 

By the time we had started cooking, another group arrived at the hut. They didn’t come talk to us at all and they spent a long time in the hut without making a fire, etc. We kept going in to retrieve things and make room for them, but no one talked. Eventually when I went in after dinner, they were starting to cook food. We all went in before it got too late to talk about sleeping arrangements for the eight of us. We figured that out quickly, and we went back to the fire. The group was made up of Russians and Czechs, who were surprisingly pretty wimpy about being cold. The kept the fire stoked most of the night and it was hot in the little hut. I didn’t get good sleep. 

The next day we were definitely up and moving before they were. We ate some eggs and raisen bread and butter and tea.

We got out and started hiking into a group of caribou, which just happened to be the only ones we really saw all day. The second day was marked by stream crossings. Over and over again, and often with less and less of an obvious place to cross. At one point John and I added rocks on which to cross. 

Exciting moss. There are lots more of these pictures...

This was around noon.

Yum... Trailside Bars! And my cheeks are so red from the wind and cold.

Once we got back we headed straight to Inari. We got to the Siida, the Sami and Lapland Natural History Museum, to pick up our cabin rental key, then headed there to crash for a little while. We again, gathered some wood first thing and moved our food, etc, inside. Then we had down time again before dinner where we had cookies and tea. John and I took a little nap while Nicola went on a walk and took pictures. We didn’t fire up the sauna that night. John and I played cribbage. 

And the next day we went to the Siida....