Day 11: Unna Allakas – Abiskojaure

Today we hike through the Gámavuopmi from Unna Allakas to Abiskojaure. It is by far the most colourful stage on our tour. The autumn colours are the absolute highlight, the mountain birches shine in all colours from yellow to red, the Fjäll is also autumnally colourful. Once again we are very lucky with the weather, sun and light clouds provide a great atmosphere.

Our alarm clock goes just before 7 o’clock, but since 3:30 o’clock it already rumbles in the hut. When we get up Hannah is already gone, she wants to go to Abisko today, because the STF huts are too expensive for her – but with about 38 km this is quite a long stage. We have breakfast in peace – well almost – at least we get a lot of information about Swiss ski resorts and the VIP ski pass of the narrator. Afterwards the usual hut ritual, cleaning room and hut, refilling water and wood and at 9 o’clock we leave.

Nevertheless it is quite cool, clouds and fog hang low, but the sun is already flashing through. Promising! Today’s stage varies in length depending on the signpost and route description. The old signs (picture above) state 24 km, the new ones only 21 km. Our GPS track at the end of the day measured 24,5 km.

The way is easy and we are making good progress. The terrain is open and leads past small lakes and rivers. Wherever you look, the landscape is incredible. The bright autumn colours, single gnarled birches, extensive birch forests, swamps and mountains still half in the clouds. But see for yourself!

We walk about 3 hours to the first bridge, the bridge over the Válffojohka and have a longer break with dried beef and Twix.

This is only the first of a total of four bridges. We reach the second bridge (via Čorvvošjohka) about two hours later, the third bridge (via Hoiganjohka) another 1 3/4 hours later. The path now leads through birch forest much more often, again and again there are swampy places, but mostly with a plank path. Between the two bridges lies the Sami settlement of Rovvidievvá – also abandoned at this time of year – and from there we can already see Ábeskojávri, at the southern end of which the Abiskojaure huts are located, today’s destination. Quite some kilometers go!

Towards the end of the hike we walk more and more in the dense birch forest, which is very humid and partly the path is under water at all. However, we are not the only ones on the way, we met a small hiker 😉

At the end of the day things happen fast. We walk in the dense birch forest and have accordingly few orientation possibilities, an all in a sudden we arrive at a clearing: Abiskojaure! Arrival time 17:30 o’clock.
Last year we skipped Abiskojaure and camped up at the second meditation place and this year it turns out that was a wise decision. We end up in a room for 16 hikers, the bunk beds are close to each other, you hardly have room for your things, no privacy at all. After all, there is a nice sauna – we go separately again, firstly the mixed sauna is late and secondly we don’t want to leave the photo equipment unattended at this crowded place – and afterwards (only for me) an ice-cold cooling in the lake.

The large common room in the hut is quite full, rather cool despite fire in the oven and above all quite impersonal. After such enchanting huts like Unna Allakas, Vistas or Nallo, this is a real culture shock. Our dinner consists of chili con carne with lots of crispbread and salami, all from the local shop. Our table neighbor is Angie, a Dutch woman with Egyptian roots who goes from Vakkotavare to Abisko, with whom we chat for a long time. Later in the evening there are some weak northern lights, but the sky is rather cloudy and you don’t see much. We go to sleep early, today’s hike was exhausting and against our fears we sleep well, nobody snores.