 A little wind and rain overnight but I am up at 7 and away at 8.30. Back over the wide but shallow Ansattan the summer trail is marked by a myriad of trail blazes. In the main old winter marking (high red crosses) obscured in the bush. Consequently, I lose the track pretty quickly and spend around forty minutes thrashing through mire. At one point I end up waist high in a marsh. I'm not pleased, not least as I know only half a kilometer away a forest road should start. My way out to the village of Rotviken. But to my relief I find a footpath which leads up to the road. I'm delighted. Soon I notice more foot paths and I follow one back down to the river to discover a viewing platform. In a number of kilometers the river I've camped by has morphed into a deep canyon with some high waterfalls. The river travels through at some speed. It's impressive.  What follows is less impressive and now numbingly familiar. A day on forest track and then highway. But it's the last day of this, in some sense the end of stage 2 as the route to Gaddede itself takes me over high fells. Of some compensation is a lunch time stop at Rotviken. I emerge from the rough forest road and onto the highway. Within a short while I meander into Rotviken, a small village on the shores of Hotagen. It's attractive, a small campsite with huts and pitches on the shores of the lake and the first shop for over a week! In I go and emerge clutching several cans of coke and a large packet of OL Chips. I demolish these as I watch Norwegian families park up and wander around, the border nearby. I pinch myself and decide I am feeling thin. I go back in for some more food! And then it's the last tramp down a highway for a while. The roads dull and my right ankle throbs but the views are not half bad. First the shoreline of Hotagen and then it's attractive wooden church. Next Valsjon itself. Some distraction at least from a twenty kilometer road day!  But there is much else of interest too. This is fishing country clearly. I greet two mature ladies dressed for fly fishing heading to the shore of Stor-Gruveln. Signs along the road advertise fishing licences and tell of small mountain lakes rich with char. Of most interest though are the fortifications at Skansen Klintaberg. Along border roads I'm to note second world war fortifications, there to defend Sweden from Nazi attack where cross border roads would have made an obvious route into the Kingdom from occupied Norway. Sweden has an underlying confidence that she could have resisted Nazi occupation. Whose to say really, but the belief in the Swedish Tiger is important to some. In any event these fortifications would be worth a visit (pictures here). The road into Valsjobyn feels long. Cross-border traffic screams past but within a few hours I pass another shop. Resisting the idea of a night in lodging I find my way on a quiet forest road again that heads up into the fells and the Sami settlement of Vinklumpen. For me it's another night I scratch camping. I find a culvert (ditch really!) with water and head into the forest a little above it. In a clearing allowing the passage of power lines up to Vinklumpen I find my pitch. Midgey and damp but I'm used to it now. I'm looking forward to heading up into the hills again tomorrow. Comments are closed.
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July 2017
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