Abisko - Hikes and Animal Encounters

The mountains to the west of Abisko cast an extreme rain-shadow effect on the valley, causing a very arid environment. Abisko only gets about 10 inches of rain a year. Strangely enough, it's been pouring for the last few days.

This doesn't make collecting leaves very easy, or living in a tent very fun, but it does mean that I spend most of my day in the mountain lodge (which isn't terrible):

Being in the mountain lodge also gave me the opportunity to have my first hot meal since leaving home:

I know it looks like I got a ton of fish soup, but the crème fraiche (which you had to get with a huge ladle so it was impossible to get a small amount) sunk down, and displacement happened, etc... I was super hungry too. There's another huge slice of bread underneath the one you can see. It was all very good. And that's lingonberry juice. The Swedes love their lingonberries...

The rain has also given me plenty of time to catch up on my blog! Let's check out some hikes I've done in the area:

This first one is along the Abiskojåkka river, going towards the lake.

It's like nature's (cold) jacuzzi. Don't fall down there.

Cool rock colors:

I saw these same (or similar) dogwood flowers in Michigan:

Doesn't that look refreshing?

Living driftwood:

They have the most amazing rocks here. They even look cool dry. I wish I could bring some home, but that's not very practical.

There's a storm a brewin'

Oh! And look how Sweden blazes their trails:

I mean really Sweden, could you be any cuter?

Check out that detail. Texture and everything:

This rock is amazing. I think it's granite, but I'm not sure.

I call these guys Shrek Ear Fungus:

Next hike: Up to Paddustievva (off the map, to the southeast). Paddustievva is an ancient Sami (the native people of Lappland) sacrifice site.

Going up (looking back on the town):

This was off the trail on the way there. People had built some ladders up onto a boulder. It was neat. I tried it out.

So many HUGE mushrooms!

A lake out of nowhere

Another huge mushroom:

Almost all the trails are made with these duckboards. It must have taken a lot of work, but it sure saves the ground (and your boats from getting muddy).

The forest limit:

I got a bad sunburn that day

Cloudberries. They love these things in Finland. An interesting thing about them is that they are red when the are unripe, and turn light yellow as they ripen. I got some cloudberry jam in Finland, but I thought it was a little bland. I do like my fruit tart though.

Lapporten filled with a cloud:

And there it is, Paddustievva:

Totally Pride Rock:

They had a little log book at the top for people to sign:

I totally screwed it up. I didn't leave a space between the person above me and my name. I started way to far over to the right. I wasn't sure what I was going to put for my country (USA? United States? America? The States? The US?) so to be safe I went with the whole United States of America, which sounds kind of pretentious and didn't fit. And it was just in pencil, but there was no eraser. So there it was: my chance to leave my name in history, and this is what I left:

(Also, check out those European 1's the people from Austria, Switzerland (Suisse), and Hungary (Ungarn) left. Those still confuse me. That and using commas in place of decimal points, and vice versa. But the person from Norway (Norge) made regular 1's. They're probably not really Norwegian. Or maybe they just got overwhelmed with the pressure and screwed theirs up too). 

Lets move on to a different subject, and talk about my tent situation. 

So my first night in that lovely (yet swampy) lakeside spot, I woke up at 2:30 in the morning to this guy's head inside the vestibule of my tent, trying to get the food I had foolishly left in there:

He was a cute little guy. So European with that white face. He looked liked he was straight out of Narnia or Beatrix Potter or something. (By the way, can you believe that is 2:30 in the morning?!)

After that I kept my food here instead:

But it was too late. He wouldn't leave me alone. I also realized I was camped pretty close to his den, so I figured it would be polite if I moved. 

So I hiked for a ways down the train tracks.

I found a spot that looked good and started setting my tent up, but I saw something that I thought was just a plastic shopping bag. For some reason I felt the need to go check it out, and I'm sure glad I did:

It was still bloody! I don't know what it was, or what had been eating it, but either way, I didn't want to be sleeping anywhere close to it. So I kept on down the tracks -

- and chose this spot since it was very well hidden, fairly accessible (it was still about a 2 mile hike down the tracks to get anywhere. For such a small town, everything I need to get to is annoyingly far apart), and a clear patch of non-swampy, bone-free, level ground:

But is was also in some sort of rubbish heap of partially constructed railroad infrastructure. And the train full of iron ore went by very loudly every 40 minutes or so. Still, I stayed here until just last night.

The night before last a feral cat sprayed my tent. Apparently I'm having trouble staying out of animals personal spaces. It was actually on the mesh of my tent, inside the rainfly. It's REALLY gross. I figured I should probably move my tent to a new location so it didn't happen again, but it has been raining so much I wanted to wait until things dried out. 

I was at the research station all day yesterday, and didn't get back to my tent until after eleven. But when I got there I saw that some people had been brush-hogging and clearing out what looked to be a road straight through the rubbish of partially constructed railroad infrastructure, and had gotten right to the point where my tent was and had to stop because there was a tent there. And it was a Saturday so it probably wasn't their job, they were probably just trying to clear their land. And it had been pouring all day but they had still done it, so they had probably rented the machine (which was parked right in front of my tent) and were trying to get it all done in a day, but they couldn't because my tent was there. Oopsy daisy. I needed to move it THAT NIGHT. So, in the rain, and the (almost) dark, and covered with cat pee, I packed up and went to a different spot. This one was on the side of someone's driveway, and also right by the railroad track:

What with all this moving, and the rain, and the wind, and the cat pee, and the fact that I'd been living out of a tent for a week and a half now, and the chance of snow tonight, I though, "Forget this. I'm going to give in and go stay in the hostel." So I went to the only hostel in town:

(I like how they actually have sweat coming off the little guy in the sauna symbol)

But they're doing renovations and are full until next week at the earliest. 

So it's back to the tent for me. I did move it to yet another place though. And I think this one's going to be pretty good. 

Now I just have to go deal with the chance of snow tonight. In August! Hopefully it will at least knock the mosquitoes back some.  

But to end on a positive note: This rainbow was in the same spot in the sky today, consistently, for a good 5 hours. How crazy is that?!

And one more:

Baby on board!