Mekicevica's Crew North of the Arctic Circle. 8. Back to Civilization.

Sadly, the last day of this trip. On the other hand, there is a lot to be said for running water and clean underwear...
Today we just have to get down to Røkland, a small town on the E6 and railway. Mostly, we followed a forest path, at times narrow and steep. We repeatedly crossed fresh traces of an elk, bit unfortunately we never saw him. As we got lower, we passed more and more private cabins. Finally, with Røkland already in view, there was no more snow. We had to walk the last 2 km.

Røkland is a really small place, but it has a petrol station and a garden centre! Both irrelevant to us! More important, it has a supermarket, a fast-food joint, and even bathrooms with a shower!
Anyway, it is rather too small to spend the eight hours to our train back south, so after scoffing a huge kebab, we decided to take the train to Bodø. There we will probably find better places to wait for the train. Such as Peppes Pizza, where we stuffed ourselves with pizza and beer (or the watery, yellow, fizzy drink they call beer in Norway).
But the best was not the pizza or the beer; it was the wiew of the fjord during the train journey.

Eventually we rolled our full bellies the short distance from Peppes Pizza to the train station and collapsed in the very confortable night train to start our long but uneventful journey back to rainy, miserable, West Europe.

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Mekicevica's Crew North of the Arctic Circle. 7. Day Tour to Kvitberg.

On this trip, we were so fortunate with the weather that we are reaching the end and still have one reserve day. So we are going to use it to do a short day tour to the base of Kvitberg, about 6 km up the valley. We are now at low altitude, around the 450m. No more of the nice powdery snow we had in previous days. Here we have icy conditions in the morning and slush in the afternoon. Going slighly up through the forest on icy snow was hard work, but our destination was well worth the effort.
We found a few nicely kept cabins, grouped around a small river, just where it flows from a mountain lake. Over the river, there is a pretty bridge and on the background, beautiful mountain scenery.

After a break on the porch of one of the houses we skied by cabin where there was an elderly couple chatting to two other tourers. From previous tours, we know that on the Norwegian mountains it is good manners to stop and exchange a few words whenever you meet someone.
For the return, we decided to follow the summer path on th other side of the valley. We were rewarded with another encounter with reindeer, and the perfect stone for a break: conveniently shaped, warmed-up by the sun, and covered with a carpet of soft and dry moss.

The only problem was that the river is already flowing nicely, and finding a place where there was enough snow over it to cross was not easy. Eventually we managed and made our way back to Jordbruhytta, which felt much warmer that the day before.

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Mekicevica's Crew North of the Arctic Circle. 6. A Well Hidden Cabin.

In the morning it was snowing lightly, but a hazy sun and a few patches of blue sky promised better weather to come. We climbed out of the lake by the way Sandra had spotted the day before, the "Turconi pass" and then continued a mild ascent to a huge cairn marking our highest point for the day.
Both the weather and the landscape were a bit dull. Even the reindeer we met looked a bit bored and totally uninterested in us. At least we start feeling more in control of these skis on the descents, even enjoying the effortless downhill progress.
After a break on the porch of a private cabin, we continued the somewhat tricky navigation to find the way down to the Russåga valley where our destination, Jordbruhytta is situated.
By then the sun came out in full force, and as we were getting lower, many snow free patches started to appear. The game was then to see how far we could go before we would be forced to walk. Shortly after another encounter with reindeer, we really reached the end of the snow, 2 km south of the cabin.

We were lucky that we only had to walk a few hundred meters and then reached terrain that was less exposed to the sun and we could ski again.
After several days above the tree line, it was pleasant to ski in the forest. Especially as it was not very dense and let the sun shine through.

However, it was dense enough to hide Jordbruhytta. The GPS was telling us that it was less than 300m away and we still could see it. We had to go around until we found where to cross the river and found a forest path. The distance decreased to less than 100m and still no sign of the cabin. Finally we almost bumped into it!

Jordbruhytta (or Jarbruhytta in some maps) is small and charming. It is also rarely used; the previous visitors had been there in March. It was really cold inside, and took a strong fire in the stove and a lot of time to warm-up!

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Mekicevica's Crew North of the Arctic Circle. 5. A Great Day.

In the morning the storm had passed and there were even a few sunny spells. A herd of reindeer were really close to the cabin.

When we started the visibility was poor and we were grateful for the traces of the reindeer that provided some contrast on the snow allowing us at least to see if we were going up or downhill.
The weather kept improving and it turned to a brilliant tour: sunshine, rolling hills, beautiful landscape, and reindeer and ptarmigans for company.
Than came the loooooong crossing of Bjøllåvatnet: six kilometers of skiing over a lake.

Luckily there is an old hoise that serves as emmergency shelter half-way. This offered a place for a midday break.

As we were approaching Bjøllåvasstua on the North end of the lake, the sky suddenly became overcast creat, the wind completelly died down and it became very warm. The diffuse light, the muffled but clear sound of our skis cutting through the snow and the stiffling temperature created a surreal atmosphere.
All this lasted but a moment. By the time we were in front of tha cabin it had become very sunny again. So much so, that we decided to make a small tour to check the route for the next day.
On the return to the hut, the Skipper demonstrated the Kamikaze technique to take a steep slope on skinny skis: press the skis into snow-plough and take a straight like. Banzai!

During the evening we had the visit of a couple from Bodø (i.e., locals) but they decided to stay in the other cabin. Once again we had the whole cabin for ourselves.

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