It’s almost been one year, but I finally managed to get all 4 reports ready of last year’s early-season hiking / packrafting trip to Scandinavia:
Footage of some highlights of this year’s 8 day, 140 km solo hiking and packrafting trip through the Långfjället, Rogen and Femundsmarka wilderness areas in the Swedish & Norwegian borderlands.
The first video covers about 2.5 days of the Swedish part of the trip. In order to give a feel of the serene atmosphere and solitude of the trip, I deliberately kept the original sound and did not overlay it with music.
The second video was taken during a paddle under windless conditions at 10:30 pm on remote lake Krokathåen, in Norway’s Femundsmarka NP:
Bear in mind that on a trip such as this, I unfortunately never give a lot of priority to shooting video footage, since there is also nagivation, taking pictures, paddling and hiking to be taken care of… The videos are therefore not a comprehensive nor accurate representation.
Another memorable Scandinavia experience at the end of June and beginning of July:
Full-blown reports including pictures will follow in due time, here is however a sneak preview:
My Scandinavia experience in June 2016 started with a 124 km trek on foot and by packraft through a region that is sometimes referred to as “Grenselandet”, as it sits on the border between Sweden and Norway. The core of Grenselandet is made up of a 2000 km² conglomerate of national parks and nature reserves that includes the following areas:
In June 2015 I respectively traveled through Femundslia, Femundsmarka and Rogen. In 2016 on the other hand I crossed Långfjället, Rogen, Femundsmarka and Grøvelsjøen. Focus was mainly on Rogen.
The beauty of Grenselandet is in its remoteness and ruggedness, as one will not find any spectacular fjords, glaciers nor jagged peaks in this area. Grenselandet is to be experienced by being immersed into it, rather than by some superficial sight-seeing.
I spent 8 days in the area and enjoyed lots of dry and sunny weather. Temperature-wise there was a strange contrast between warm days at the beginning and at the end, and a cold snap in the middle where temperature suddenly dropped to 0 – 5 °C.
I crossed the entire Käringsjön lake system by packraft and intended to do the same for the Røa river depression. However, due to cold weather and high winds, I only accomplished part of the latter.
Grövelsjön – Hävlingen – Slagusjön – Storrödtjärnstugan – Tandsjövålen – Käringsjön – Kråksjön – Källsjön – Uthussjön – Öster-Rödsjön – Väster-Rödsjön – Skedbrostugan – Skedbrofjället – Reva – Møllerbua – Litlbuddhåen – Storrundhåen – Kløfthåbua – Røabua – Grøtådalen – Sylen – Grövelsjön
Pictures > Sweden 2016-06: Rogen
Admiring sunsets over placid lakes, to be explored under glorious sunlight by packraft the next day, miles away from any signs of civilization: isn’t that any nature and adventure enthusiast’s dream?
I have just returned from a solo hiking and packrafting trip that took me some 280 km through the Långfjället and Rogen nature reserves on the Swedish side of the border, and to Femundsmarka, Trollheimen and Rondane on the Norwegian side. As rather typical for this time of year pleasantly warm days were mixed with rather cold ones. However, sunshine was abundant, and out of a total of 16 days, there was only half a day of rain.
As usual the full picture sets and reports will follow later. For the time being you can already enjoy the pictures below from the Käringsjön lake system in Rogen.
Filip H.A. Claeys 