My media storage here has run out of space, but I hired someone to move it where I can keep blasting you with more pics and vids in the future 🙂 It should be ready by next week!
This week was pretty great! Had an intro class for Pilates and loved it. Going to add some more pilates to my workouts! Also been doing the hot/cold therapy and finally managed to sit and breath somewhat normal for 20secs in 48 degree water! Next week I will try the cryo booth. I’m guessing I’ll walk in and be out before the door even closes LOL…
Was a bit stressed taking Hunter to the veterinarian for his teeth. He was a trooper obviously! Unfortunately they had to remove 2 teeth and one of them was his canine front tooth 🙁 His breath doesn’t smell like death anymore, so I guess his mouth health was lacking.
Shot a lot and I’m launching Puma’s Advent Calendar starting December 1st running until the 24th. It will be on the spicy site you all probably heard of (www.onlyfans.com/pumaswede). Just in case someone is looking to trade their chocolate calendar to something more fun. And healthier except if you have a heart condition maybe 😉 In short, you will get something spicy sent to you daily 🙂 Oh, if for some reason you don’t feel comfortable joining that site, message me and I can send an email for your daily surprises!
Also helped Angel shoot a couple of customs too. I’ll show you some fun pics next week 🙂
On the mention of chocolate… I’ve been without sugar for 2 weeks now. I only eat or make things sweetened with honey, vanilla extract, or maple syrup. No refined white sugar or cane sugar. It’s pretty crazy that almost everything contains sugar. Even most of the bacon in the store! And I obviously don’t eat or cook in seed oils. Only beef tallow, ghee, butter, olive or avocado oil. I’m patting myself on the shoulder writing this hahahaaa….
Went for a hike today in Calico Basin. Damn, it got cold here in Vegas and I even had to wear gloves. Got me in the Xmas spirit though, and going to find my lights and start decorating 🙂
Don’t have too many plans for this upcoming week. Work & play I guess 🙂 Fingers crossed that the change to the new page goes smoothly and that I can share it next week.
Didn’t really know a lot about Whitefish, but the pics online of the place looked inviting, so thought a birthday trip there would be an excellent idea! And it was!
I think I mentioned before that have slight fear of bears! I have watched and read plenty of educational material on how to act if you encounter a bear. Unfortunately I think all my rationality would blow out of my brain and I’d either freeze or run LOL…
Didn’t help that the first thing I see at the Kalispell airport is bear spray for rent!
The airport is small and it’s the nicest airport I’ve been to. The rental car desk was downstairs and the lot with the car was a 3 min walk away. Very convenient not having to take some shuttle bus to a place to pick it up after flying…
Checked in to the Airbnb right in the city and went eating and checking the town out. It’s small, but pretty. Plenty of places to choose from when it comes to eating. Decided on this food truck park called Thirty Eight with live music. Crab bowl with no lame imitation crab and tacos. Couldn’t decide and was fomo-ing. Then ice-cream for dessert at Sweet Peaks, but it was more icy than creamy 🙁
Went to a store to pick up some stuff for the hike the following day. Had to pick some new flavors of Maeve chocolate I’d never tried. If you see this chocolate, buy and try it. It’s the best! They even had Swedish ginger bread cookies!!!
I had booked a group hike with Glacier Guides Montana Raft since I was too freaked out by the idea of hiking alone in bear woods! Meet up time was at 7am and since I need coffee first thing in the morning, I bought this strong ass instant coffee the night before at the store! 300mg of caffeine should do the trick, right? And apparently formulated for NASA in 2018, so I thought it would be good enough for me too LOL!
It was dark and lonely on the streets when I left at 6.20AM…
I met at their office with the group. Got our lunchpacks and jumped in their van for a 2h drive to the Glacier Park. The start was from a hotel, which I don’t remember the name of, but they had beautiful mountain and lake views. We had a short talk about bears with both guides carrying bear spray. Basically they said a bears thoughts were not “look, a human, let me eat it”… And they had never needed to use their bear sprays. OK, felt pretty relaxed after hearing that!
The hike was about 15km in total there and back from the glacier. The nature was impressive!
We finally reached the glacier with super clear water. Surprisingly you were allowed to swim in it. Pretty hot after the hike I took a quick dip. Needed to show the rest of the group what we Finn’s are made of! Cold, but so refreshing! After lunch in the sun and drying up.
This was an awesome hike! My joints were hurting pretty bad after, but so worth it! Outdoors gives you an appetite and dinner was at this cute little restaurant called Piggyback Barbecue. Probably some of the best ribs I’ve ever had!
Since it was my birthday weekend, I couldn’t drive by Clydesdale Creamery without having this sugar bomb! WOW, it was almost too much. But only almost! They also have a Clydesdale (giant horse breed) farm that you can visit and stay at. If I had more time I would’ve gone there too…
Soaked in the hot tub which was under a giant tree in the back yard of my Airbnb after, and it was a perfect ending to the day!
Saturday was my birthday! Happy birthday to me 🙂 Started by getting coffee at Folklore and enjoying it in front of the fireplace…
Dressed to impress!
More coffee in town and some shopping. I’m good at treating myself 🙂 Spotted these cute doggos on the town too…
Then went to the City beach. I’m like a kid when it comes to water. Had to get in and do another quick dip 🙂
Dinner was at the Whitefish Lake Golf Club at their restaurant. The smoked trout for starter went down faster than I could take a picture of it. The steak was great even though the presentation could’ve used some creativity 🙂 They gave me an ice-cream dessert with a sparkler 🙂
Since it was still light out I checked out the neighboring downtown of Columbia Falls. Not much there and definitely happy I chose to stay in Whitefish instead. Beautiful sunset by the river and thankfully no bears 🙂
Finished in the hottub again and it was definitely the highlight of my Airbnb with the fireplace and heated floors 🙂
My flight wasn’t until the afternoon on Sunday so started with caffeine at Folklore. Great coffee spot!
Then a short hike at Swift Creek Loop Trail. But first – Rent bear Spray! Convenient station where you could rent bear spray per day.
I think I can admit it was probably not the most enjoyable hike in my life. I was just on a constant lookout for bears hahahaa… Luckily there were people on the trail, so I hoped the bears would go for quantity! Needles to say, no bears. But so many other animals. Big woodpecker, what I think was a chipmunk, some hairy larva and only had time to catch a pic of the snakes tail. Snakes don’t bother me at all!
Stopped for a coffee on the way back to town at Crema which was excellent and just next to the parking lot this deer was grazing 🙂
Hungry again and went back to Thirty Eight because they had a BBQ truck from Texas there on Sundays. Baked potato with brisket and some huge rib, both smoked to perfection!
Could’ve easily spent a couple more days here. Can really recommend Whitefish if you enjoy nature, hikes, skiing in the winter and perfect little cute town with everything you need! And bears….
Still good to come back and hug Hunter. Angel’s friend looked after him and from the pictures she sent me, he lived like a king while I was gone 🙂 Only the best for Hunter!
What I planned to look like for my birthday… But that didn’t happen! Maybe next year when I turn 50 🙂
Lots of other stuff to tell you about, but it will have to wait until Sunday 🙂
After a week in Sweden it was time to pack up for my annual hike with my sister. This is the 6th consecutive year we’ve went. This time we set out for the 160 km long Padjelanta Trail in the northern part of Sweden.
You feel every extra kilo in the backpack on your back! The weather forecast looked rainy so we both bought rain pants. Most of the huts sell food and snacks, but since you don’t know what or how much they’ll have, we brought food for every day.
We flew up to Gällivare early in the morning on a smaller propeller plane.
From there it was a 3h bus ride to Ritsem where you can start the trail from. Saw reindeer on the road and we had a pee break at a cool hotel on way. Had to take a pic of the stuffed bear since I have a slight bear phobia…
We spent the night at Ritsem since we arrived late. Most rooms have bunk beads and since I thought I might roll out of bed we made a barrier out of our slippers 🙂
There are 2 departures with a boat in the morning to shuttle you over to where the trail starts from. In very good spirits and ready to tackle the first 18km of the trail!
There was a small settlement where we started where the Sirkas Sámi have their summer stays. I loved this church ‘kåta’. ‘Kåta’, traditional Sámi housing back in the day.
After about an hour it started raining lightly. Then the wind picked up and it started raining even more. Luckily half-way to our first stop, there was a small shelter. We went inside to make some food, hot chocolate and put on long johns.
A Sámi guy also entered to have some shelter from the rain. He worked on the trails in the area during summer and otherwise hunts reindeer. He also happened to mention that there are bears in the area. I had a slight panic attack until he said that the bear will see us, but we’ll never see them. Puh!
Warm & full, we took on the last part of the trail. The weather switched between rain and no rain. Beautiful surroundings with a lot of waterfalls. Worth mentioning is that the water is so clean here, that you can always fill your water bottle up and have ice cold and fresh water. Yes, my rain poncho on top of my backpack makes me look something from the ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ character!
Our first night we spent at the Kutjaure Mountain cabin. All the cabins have one or two wardens that supervise the cabins. Everyone is asked to help bring in water in buckets, empty waste water buckets after doing dishes, chop up and bring in logs for the fireplace and clean up. The cabins have no running water or electricity. They have gas though so you can heat up water/food and pots, pans, plates, glasses and utensils to eat and cook your food from. Here is dinner with the fireplace going and us having our coffee the next morning before heading out.
2nd day was 19km. A bit of rain and most of the day was cloudy. We met a German lady who had taken a break and offered us some coffee. Most of the people you meet on the trail and in the huts are super friendly! Saw some reindeer too 🙂
2nd night was spent at Låddejåkka cabin. Dinner was a super tasty Bison Chili and a Blueberry Peach Crisp for dessert 🙂
The 3rd day was one of our longer days and it was 25k. We skipped one of the huts and it made the hike longer. The trail was pretty even and easy even though it started with a 4k long uphill climb. A lot of heavy fog when we reached the top, but so quiet and peaceful!
Since there was no rain we had some porridge with dried raspberries, coconut flakes and goji berries for lunch. Some chocolate chip cookies too for some sugar to help with the remaining kilometers 🙂
The 3rd night was spent at Staloluokta cabin. This was the only place along the trail that had a sauna. Us being Finns obviously we got very excited! I can’t describe how good and rewarding it felt after the long day! And to wash off properly too! 2 thumbs up for Staloluokta and their sauna!
Since we both prefer to eat outdoors, we always start our mornings with just black coffee. Then hike and find a good spot for breakfast. It’s a good thing we are so alike – wake up early, fine with starting the day with just coffee and pretty much keep the same speed on the trails.
The 4th day was an 18 km day. Very beautiful scenery and so green everywhere.
Found a nice spot by a waterfall to eat and rest. Right after we packed up we spotted a small group of reindeer. They say that if you spot a white reindeer, it brings you luck!
Most of the days so far had been cloudy and rainy. This afternoon we finally got some sunshine! Had to sit down and just enjoy the warmth. Probably our legs needed a break too 😉 See, the reindeer brought some luck right away 🙂
When we almost were finished, we come to this wide river. No way around, but through. Soaking wet feet, socks and shoes ! And 10 minutes later there was another river crossing just as wide, so we arrived with clean feet at Tuottar cabins 🙂
Here they had about 6 smaller cabins with 3 bunk beds in each. We shared our cabin with a solo hiker from Catalan. The water was down at the river where we just came from and kind of far. The guy was a gentleman and told us to chill and he’d walk down and fill the water buckets so we didn’t have to 🙂 Instead we went to see what the store had to offer. My sister got very happy to find that they had beer. Even though it cost like 3 times more than in the store 🙂 Oh, and there was a rainbow so more luck to us hopefully!
5th day was a 26km day again since we skipped a cabin and walked to the next one. Started with decent weather. A little pit stop by a river…
Right after we had to cross that river. Soaked again… I think from this point on, our shoes and socks never completely dried up for the rest of the trip!
Since my hiking shoes are made of leather they don’t let out the water. After each river crossing I had to stop and empty the water out of them and wring out my socks.
We were pretty exhausted by the end of this day. It rained on and off and the final stretch was downhill and the trail was wet, muddy and slippery. We had made reservations before for all of the cabins. They say you have to arrive before 6pm to be guaranteed to get your room. Otherwise it might be given to someone else without a reservation, since you might not show up. We got a bit stressed at the end of the hike since we didn’t arrive until 6.45pm. Our longest day so far. But we were lucky and got our own room at Såmmarlappa Mountain cabin 🙂
Our 6th day was a 19km stretch. It got more woodsy as we were on lower elevation. That also meant that the trail was even more wet, big pools of water and a lot of mud you tried to step around. Also the weather cooled down. Around 5°C in the morning and you could see some fresh snow on the mountain tops.
We could feel the kilometers in our legs by now and felt good when we finally arrived at the Njunjes Mountain cabin. All the cabins have a fire place, or a heater, in the common room, and in your room so you can dry stuff up. All my crusty socks went up 🙂
Last day was an easy 13km stretch which felt good. You mostly hiked in the woods. We both prefer the higher grounds with open landscape and where you get the views for miles.
Then you have to get on a boat to get a ride to the last mountain station which is Kvikkjokk.
Since there is only one bus which leaves 05.25am daily from Kvikkjokk, we had to spend the night there. Treated ourselves to a delicious 3 course dinner at their restaurant. My starter was smoked elk, fermented reindeer and first time trying reindeer tongue. I wasn’t going to eat that, but the waiter said it’s the best, so gave it a try and it tasted pretty damn good! Dinner was reindeer steak and for dessert we had vanilla ice cream with cloudberries. Cloudberries only grow up here in the north and are called ‘the gold of the forest’. If you ever get a chance to try them, do it! Soooo good!!!
Next morning we took the early bus for about 5h to reach Luleå where we caught a flight back to Stockholm.
What a hike! We both agreed that this was our hardest and most strenuous hike we’ve been on so far. The rainy weather played a huge part since we made fewer stops along the trail. We learned that we need to study the map before-hand if there are a lot of climbs and downhill parts before we decide to just skip a hut. This hike was recommended to be done in 9-10 days and we did it in 7. Even though it was hard at times, it was beautiful and me and my sister always have the best time together. It feels great that we pulled it off and tested our limits. Can’t wait to see what we plan for next year! Thanks for this year’s adventure sis!
More of my time in Sweden coming hopefully on Sunday. Giving jetlag and my sugar cravings a fight now hahahaa…
I like the weather in Vegas now. I usually join Hunter for his morning watch of our street and we catch some sun-rays before we start hustling 🙂
Since one of us has to bring in the dinero for this household (aka me), I put in some work hours. I finally used my backdrop in silver that I made and I think it looks pretty fancy!
This fun play date was also released on my OF page – www.onlyfans.com/pumaswede. It is with Sophie Marie, Brittany Andrews and Veronica Avluv. It was a Tupperware party with a twist 😉
It’s pretty remarkable how many people are out there trying to pull a scam! I learned to be aware and last week someone pretended to be a girl I knew from back in the day. She asked to shoot content together. I asked her to write me a DM on IG to verify it’s really her. The person suggested FaceTime, and I suggested to wear a Michael Myers mask LOL…. I wonder what these fakes want to get out of it?
Trained Body20 one last time with Angel last week because she took off to Europe 🙁 I played some pickleball too, but was overall bad at it so wasn’t any fun! But on a side note, I played today and I was pretty awesome 🙂 Also got a lesson booked for later this week!
Took a hike this weekend and I finally got to see some wild burros. Two different groups of them too. So cool and they were so cute! And one of them was pretty well endowed hahhaaaa….
I don’t think there was much else worth reporting about happening last week. This week I’m going to LA for one day to shoot and got a shoot planned for this weekend too. More pickleball and in the evenings I tried to get some reading done. Also started watching a series called ‘Utopia’ which is pretty awesome. Also watched a an episode of ‘Lonesome Dove’ and it’s pretty good. If you haven’t read the book, I can really recommend it if you like stories about the old old west, cowboys & Indians!
Leaving you with me looking pretty cool (I think), a rose outside my place, Settebello pizza yet again, and I spotted this cute dog outside the restaurant. Doggie obviously wanted pizza too!
This post took longer to write than I expected. It was supposed to be ready on New Years Eve, but I got sidetracked hahhaaa… But here is a little recap of 2024 🙂
Overall it was a great year with travel, moving, and feels like I got a good dose of adventure and experiences…
In January I went to Tepoztlán with some friends. It’s a small town about an hour from Mexico City. I love that place and they believe aliens made a visit there at some point. Never spotted any even though I wanted to 🙁
In February I visited La Paz which is the capital of Baja California Sur. A cute town and best part was snorkeling with whale sharks. And my giant Margarita 🙂
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Also got to go to the big yearly art show Zonamaco in Mexico City with my Swedish friend Sanna. I love art shows…
Apparently I became a carrothead too. Not a huge success if I look back at it hahhaaaa….
Changed back to blond pretty fast 🙂
In March I found a photography school and started taking lessons. So much fun and it’s rewarding practicing a semi new skill 🙂
Traveled to Japan for a wedding. I met Nick & Annie when living in Puerto Rico. It was one of the fanciest weddings I’ve been to 🙂
Stayed after the wedding in Japan visiting Kyoto and Hakone. Too crowded in Kyoto for my liking, but I can see the charm if you would visit when there are less tourists…
Really enjoyed Hakone. The hot spring spa and nature there…
I also booked a room at a love hotel in Tokyo and did a shoot, had some of the best sushi, a fun night at the Muscle girl bar and visited a pig cafe 🙂
One of the highlights this year was going back to Mycelia Retreat in Jamaica. Invited my writer/journalist friend Cyril from Sweden. It was my most powerful mushroom trip to this day and I went through every kind of emotion, but what a reset! I hope to revisit 2025…
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In June I decided 3 years in Mexico was amazing but it’s time to go back to the US. Having a bit of a hoarder mentality it took some time to get rid of almost everything and it was hard to say goodbye to friends… Also spent the last 2 nights sleeping on the floor since I got rid of all the furniture hahahahaa… But I see a visit back in 2025 to visit them all again 🙂
Hunter got prepped with his papers and practiced going outside in his carrier and then his flight carrier. He was such a champ handling the whole trip from Mexico to Utah!
July was spent in Utah. I missed the nature and clean air while in Mexico so took full advantage of Utah…
Utah is where I first encountered pickleball and now I’m hooked!
Flew to Vegas and got my hands full with Tyler Faith. Maybe that’s when the idea of living in Vegas was born?
Also flew to Sweden for my yearly hike with my sister. Longest hike we’ve done so far, 7 days, 6 nights AND we made it up Kebnekaise. Definitely top 3 of 2024!!!
2 of my best friends had their 50th birthdays too which got celebrated!
In August I packed the car and moved to Vegas…
September was spent exploring what Vegas has to offer. Reunited with friends from back in the day, found great hikes, celebrated my birthday and a gym with pickleball! I’m loving it here and Hunter is very happy too as long as the neighbors cat Ocean keeps a paws distance 🙂
Finished off October with Halloween…
In November I had a looooot of shoots with fun people 🙂 Even made it out to LA, Nelson’s Ghost Town twice and got taped for the first time which was really cool…
Tried new hikes. Happy I have friends who enjoy hiking as much as I do 🙂
My sister came to visit and we did Vegas and LA. I love that I’m so close to my extended family and wifey Sandy now that I love in Vegas 🙂
And Masha from Russia paid a short visit too. Met her when I lived in Puerto Rico 🙂
Finally December and there was some christmas prepping to be done as yo can see in the previous posts so I’m not going to bore you with those pics again 🙂 My holidays were great. I got some relaxation in, I guess I’ve been pretty good since I got a lot of presents hehheeee… Hunter got presents too obviously and he is spoiled year around whether he behaves or. not hahhaaaa…
Everyone here recommended the show ‘Absinthe’ and I finally got to see it. Wow, it was so good! Funny, incredible acts and now I’m looking into taking lessons in roller skating because this couple looked so cool doing their act with roller skates. It was so fast paced and that they manages to stay on stage without just impressed the shit out of me! If you get the chance, see the show!
Did a mushroom trip and it was great 🙂
Didn’t have any plans for New Years Eve other than wanting some outdoor access. Went hiking with Angel and it was an easy hike and I always feel so good after being in nature!
Ordered lobster & crab nachos for dinner and watched the movie Small Engine Repair. It was pretty good 🙂
How were your Holidays? Any goals/plans for 2025? I’ still figuring mine out and fine tuning them. But some things I’ve been thinking about and on my bucket list are:
-visit Vietnam and Iceland
-try a new experience every month, like rollerblading, shows in Vegas, rage room, grow shrooms, race car driving, new recipes and the list goes on.
-having eyelid surgery
-yearly hike with my sister
-add more mindfulness into my life like yoga and meditation… So far I’ve done short meditations every day, but it’s haaaaard with my brain being all over the place hahhaaaa…
I’ll probably be adding to the list, but this is some of it 🙂
I hope your year has been off to a fabulous start! I’m off to LA next week for work and see to see my wifey Sandy 🙂
OK, here is the post about our hike. Writing this and going through the photos again brings back so many fun memories from along the trail. This time we trekked the most northern part of the King’s Trail or Kungsleden as it’s called in Swedish.
We flew up to Kiruna at 8.25 am and it was a short flight.
From the airport we took a taxi to the Abisko Tourist Station where the trail starts. You can obviously hike it the other way around too, but we chose to start in Abisko. We had planned to eat lunch at the Tourist Station, but it was so packed and crowded with people finishing up the weeklong Fjällräven Classic. We bought a couple of sandwiches in the shop and took off…
You start by passing the Canyons which had this super clear turquoise water.
All along the trail there are meditation spots, and this one had a stone with a quote by Dag Hammarskjöld.
The sun came out and we took a short snack break. Our favorite – knäckebröd (crisp bread) with smoked reindeer spread and some salami.
Seeing the mountain cabin after a days hike is always rewarding. Even though it usually looks pretty close, it’s almost always at least an hours hike away.
This cabin had a store and even though they sold a lot of other stuff, they had a whole refrigerator dedicated to beer hahahaaa…
This mountain cabin is called Abiskojaure and us being Finns, we obviously appreciated them having a sauna! Usually the first hour is a mixed hour with men and women, then women, and lastly men. Almost everyone is naked and you chat about your day on the trail and where people are from. A lot of foreigners… They had a sandy beach and it’s perfect to cool off in between! Not a bad backdrop either…
After the sauna and dinner we pretty much crashed in bed. Great first day. First day’s stage Abisko – Abiskojaure, 15km.
Usually my sister and I are the first ones up. We usually awoke between 05.30 and 06.00. We prefer to just have a cup of coffee and then head out.
We usually hiked about 1,5 – 2 hours and then picked a spot to have breakfast at. I usually ate a porridge. You just need to boil water, pour it in the bag, let it sit for 8 min and then enjoy 🙂 It was pretty windy and sometimes a bit of a drizzle so this big boulder offered some shelter.
It was a long stretch in the valley next to this lake. The wind increased so I had to use my scarf as cover.
On this stage there is an option to take a boat on the final stretch. It cuts your hiking 4km shorter. When we reached the boat dock, it started raining pretty hard and about 6 people sat in the boat house waiting to take the boat. We decided that we’re here to hike, so that’s what we’ll do! We did question our decision a couple of times when it poured down and the wind was almost blowing us off the trail.
Here the rain and wind quieted down and we could snap a couple of beach pics hahhaaa…
Finally reached Alesjaure mountain cabin pretty soaked. But all the rooms usually have a furnace so we lit it and warmed up. Also great for drying your clothes.
This place also had a sauna by the lake- yeayyyyy! They had stairs going down to the stream below so you could go take a dip. Here we met a Japanese woman who never took a sauna before. Us Finn’s obviously gave her the run down and I took her skinny dipping in the stream too 🙂
The 2nd day’s stage was between Abiskojaure – Alesjaure, 21km. Pretty beat and hoped for better weather for the next day!
3rd day Alesjaure – Tjäktja – Sälka, 26km, We decided to do 2 stretches on our 3rd day and skip a night stay at Tjäktja. But first, quality coffee from Verve with a candle light 🙂
Beautiful morning to start our 3rd day…
It was a loooong day. We took breaks, snacked and drank coffee and hot chocolate. Finally saw some reindeers too 🙂
We passed the highest spot on Kungsleden – Tjäktjapasset, 1150 meter above sea level. It was a long stretch of stones and rocks and then a climb to get up there. We took a break at a small hut up on the top (if you look closely you can see a tiny hut in the ‘dip’ between the mountains) before hiking down to this valley that was so much prettier and greener…
I’m not going to lie, we were pretty exhausted and very happy when we finally spotted the Sälka mountain cabin!
To our surprise they had a sauna here too so we just threw in our backpacks and hit the sauna. Felt amazing after the long day.
Normally we book a room with 2 bunk beds. It was busy here so we had a bunk bed in a room with 6 bunk beds. Pretty tight, but everyone is respectful of the space, so it wasn’t a problem…
Per usual we enjoyed our coffee in the empty kitchen/common room by ourselves…
Luckily our 4th day was a shorter hike. From Sälka to Singi, 12km.
Beautiful morning and we found a great spot by the water to enjoy our breakfast at.
Even found some Cloudberries. I think I wrote about them before too. They only grow up in the north and are called ‘skogens guld’, the gold of the forest. They are so tasty and the jam made of these is expensive. Later we also found a spot with a lot of blueberries 🙂
Made it to Singi. No sauna here, but a lot of nice people that we met along the trail, so we spent the evening chatting while eating dinner and snacking,
The 5th day was also an easier day from Singi to Kebnekaise, 15km. Started our day with spotting some reindeers. Otherwise it was a pretty cold and foggy day.
We finally came down to a valley and the weather cleared up some. We found a spot and took a snack break. Pretty much had to throw our stuff back in the backpacks because 5 min after the picture was taken it rained. The weather changes fast up there…
The last stretched was mixed with some rain, wind and finally when reaching the Kebnekaise mountain cabin the sun decided to make an appearance.
Kebnekaise mountain cabin is a big place. Understandably since a lot of people come here to climb Kebnekaise. We booked dinner at the restaurant and had some wine and beer. It was a nice treat after eating freeze-dried food for five days 🙂 The risotto was delicious and I think I ate about half of a loaf of bread too hahahaa…
Checked the forecast for the next day. Some days you can’t go to the top of Kebnekaise since the weather is not permitting it. But luckily on that Tuesday when we planned to go up it looked good!
So finally on our 6th day it was time to do Kebnekaise, Sweden’s highest mountain. We were ready to head out at 6am. Wanted to have plenty of time. A few others headed out too. Beautiful morning! We opted for the southern peak via the western trail. If you do the northern peak, you needed to do it with a guide.
We had to start taking clothes off and soon as the climb started. It’s “only” 8 km to the top, but it’s almost all uphill you climb on loose rocks and boulders which makes it feel a lot longer.
Up, up and up. A lot of short breaks and pauses. After this mountain there was a steep descent down to ‘Kaffedalen’.
The weather rapidly changed and a thick fog came in. From ‘Kaffedalen’ it started to climb again. This is actually from where you start climbing Kebnekaise. The first mountain and climb is just a taste of what’s to come 🙂 We were so focused on climbing and making it up so we forgot to take pics going up here until we reached the old ‘topp stugan’ or the old safety/summit cabin. You can see how dense the fog was. We decided to pop our Champagne here 🙂
A Finnish lady entered the cabin so we got to chat some Finnish. She said it was another 20-30 min to the top, then another 50m with snow where you needed spikes for your shoes to be able to go. It was foggy up there too and no view she said. We decided this was high enough and started our descend. This was what we saw when we started our return.
But as we got further down it cleared up a bit. This here is ‘Kaffedalen’ and you’re officially down from Kebnekaise. From there you go uphill and it was pretty slow going at this point hahahaa…
But we were in good spirits and took one last break with apple crumble pie and hot chocolate to have energy for the last stretch.
It took us 5h to climb up and 7h to come down and back. It was a hard day and we’re happy we did it! We hit the sauna and showers after and then had dinner before crashing in bed. A tip might be to start the trail the other way around than we did, and be more rested before climbing Kebnekaise.
7th and last day. Hiking to Nikkaluokta, 19km. There was also an option to take a boat on this stretch too that would shorten your hike by 6km. We wanted to enjoy our last day outdoors so we hiked.
Guess how happy we wore when we found out that there was a cafe where the boat picked up and dropped off hikers? We went inside and I had a waffle with whipped cream and cloudberry jam. SOOOOO GOOOOD! The place is called Enoks and they also have reindeer and elk burgers which looked super tasty too.
The last part of the trail was super easy walking. It felt like fall was coming up in the north. It was beautiful and we finally arrived to Nikkaluokta.
From there we took the bus back to Kiruna airport and then a short flight back to Stockholm. I guess I was pretty tired hahahaaa…
A total of 128 km hikes with Kebnekaise included. My backpack weighted 10kg when we started. Most of it was food. The stores at the mountain cabins sell food, but I’m picky and want to eat good, so I brought all my food with me. I will remember this adventure with my sister forever. Thanks for the company and memories sis!
OK, that was that about the hike. And now to Vegas 🙂 I have been here for a week and one day today. Love it here so far. Hopefully I can get a post up during the week about the past week here. Hunter is very happy too 🙂 Met some friendly neighbors and signing up at a gym next week. Tomorrow I’m having coffee with a friend I knew in LA long time ago, but she also lives in Vegas now. Oh, and my birthday is on Friday too wohooo! Oh, I’ve been a week without smoking too 🙂
How was your week? Or/and got something fun happening this upcoming week?
One of my favorite things in Bariloche were the two overnight hikes. Our first hike was to Refugio Jakob. Also called Refugio General San Martín. Refugios as they call them are huts where you can spend the night.
The description of the hike lists it as a moderate hike during summer. We thought it was quite easy. Easy walking path and had some access points to the river where you could fill up your bottle with fresh water.
The only moderate part would’ve been the last part where you had to do some climbing. That part didn’t require any real rock climbing skills, just paying attention where you put your hands and feet.
When we started it was pretty sunny, but then it became cloudier with some rain. We were lucky to reach the hut right before it started to pour down. The people at the hut told us that they had closed the trail at noon since they feared it would get too slippery.
It’s always such a sweet feeling after hiking a few hours and then finally spotting the hut! This one was located beautifully by a lake. (I actually think almost all of the refugios in Bariloche area are located by a lake or water).
It was great to be able to order some hot chocolate on arrival and we also booked the 3 course dinner that was served at 8pm. You could bring your own food or cook with a camping stove if you had one. The use of the kitchen was not allowed. The pumpkin soup was really good and I ate it before I remembered to take a pic of it. Then it was a lentil stew with vegetables and the dessert was amazing!
We got our own room. I had to take a cat nap after the snacks and chocolate lol… Maybe too much fresh mountain air too…
Looks cold, but it actually got too hot and had to remove clothes. The only downside of this refugio I would say that the bathrooms were located a bit of a walk away from where you sleep. I had to go pee at night and half way up to the bathroom I started imagining pumas in the bushes. Too scared to scan around with the flashlight on my phone in case I’d spot two glowing eyes approaching me. I got half freaked out and just jumped off the trail and squatted and then made it back as fast as I could. Alive!
You could also buy breakfast which was toast and cereal. We skipped that and only had hot chocolate, tea, and some snacks we brought with us before hiking back.
Definitely recommend this hike and a stay at the refugio. It’s beautiful and it took us about 5h both ways with some breaks. Cost of the stay is 5000 ARS pesos/person. Dinner 4500 ARS pesos/person. Breakfast 2500 ARS.
The second overnight hike was to Refugio Laguna Negra. Also called Refugio Italia or Manfredo Segre. This trail is listed moderate/hard during summer months. It’s 10,5km and says it takes about 4-6h to hike it. Comfortable trail to hike on. The toughest part is the last 2-3 km in the end that is steep uphill. I loved this trail and it pretty much followed a river the whole way.
The weather was sunny and it was great to take breaks, eat snacks and listen to the river.
The uphill part was sweaty. When you start the climb there is a sign. Didn’t understand it first and had no wifi so I couldn’t use Google translate. I think it looks like the stick figure is holding a rolled up magazine. But then we started spotting piles with logs next to the trail and figured out they were asking you to bring a couple of logs with you…
I marked the trail in between the red lines snaking its way up.
The views when you are getting towards the top and the end are amazing!
The 2nd picture above is the last part of the trail before you finally get over the ridge and see the lake and hut. So beautiful!
This hut felt a bit more rustic. You went up the small ladder and there are mattresses lined up in bunk-beds. You pick your spot first come, first serve. Nice view from the bedroom window though 🙂
Since it was still sunny and and hot, we sat outside enjoying the lake view, catching some sun, and reading. I tried to befriend the bird too, but it was only interested in my muffin leftovers…
Also got 3 rounds of one of my favorite games, Yatzy. I’m a sore loser in games and take them way too seriously hahahaaa…
Here they also offered dinner. Pretty much the same options as at Jakob, but here you could also get pizza. Opted for pizza and it was so good!
The hut was only lit by candles at the table and it was great chatting with other hikers. Slept pretty good and the kitchen opened at 8am. Skipped breakfast and only ordered coffee. Since Argentina won the World Cup, you could pretty much buy anything with the football team on. One couple had this thermos for example 🙂 Beautiful lighting in the morning…
Beautiful day hiking back as well…
I loved this trail. There was so many great spots by the river where you could sit down and enjoy the nature. Cost of the stay is 5000 ARS pesos/person. Pizza 3500 ARS pesos.
If you plan to visit and hike in Bariloche, this is a great website with info about shorter or longer hikes. Also with links to the refugios since it is necessary to book your stay in advance – https://www.barilochetrekking.com/
The longer hikes also sometimes require you to fill out a form online. You tell them on who is hiking, where, when and the dates. This to make it easier to plan rescue missions in case it would be necessary. Apparently you have to pay for the rescue if you didn’t submit the form before hand.
Also as I mention in the previous post, hiking gear is expensive here and the selection is a bit limited. I would try to bring what I need from home.
I wish we would’ve had the time for one more overnight hike. Well well, next time 🙂 Will have more post about the rest of Bariloche and Buenos Aires coming 🙂
