From Gäddede I wanted to take a different route again, one that is described in Jörgen Johansson‘s book as well and would let me connect to Lapplandsleden some 20-30km earlier than the stretches I already know. I didn’t give that route a closer look and so it came as quite a surprise to me, it wasn’t that easy as anticipated after all. A lot of elevation had to be covered. Trail was marked but otherwise inexistent to a large extent. Mostly following winter trail until I reached the actual Lapplandsled. And then near Slipsikstugan I was greeted by my good friend Melanie. We’ve both done Vita Bandet last year and skied quite some stretches together. She would join me for the rest of the trail until Hemavan.

We camped at an abandoned sameviste just before Klimpfjäll because we had to wait until the supermarket would open. A nice spot by the river, where we took a quick bird bath before the rain would set in. Next morning we learned, that the supermarket now is open around the clock, like most others in this region it has a self-service checkout counter now.
Just when we leave the little store, we notice two more hikers, who - except for their comically large gloves - look like actual thruhikers. Turns out, they are on Gröna Bandet too, a couple from Australia, the first to do GB from their country, and have both hiked the PCT. They’d stick around until almost the end of my hike and we’d tag along on and off from then on.

#lapplandsleden #grönaBandet #fjällvandring #thruhike #longDistanceHiking