ARCTIC CIRCLE TRAIL_2014
DAY 6: IKKATOOQ TO BEFORE INNAJUATTOQ
Woke up at 6am. Fan chose not to use his sleeping pad last night, so he was sore all over from sleeping on the hard wooden platform. Nevertheless it was nice to have had a roof over our heads and stayed warm inside. For breakfast we had oatmeal with powdered milk. Packed up, cleaned the hut, and headed out relatively early at 7:30am, with gradually clearing skies and calm winds.
A steep hike immediately after leaving the hut brought us to a high rocky area strewn with boulders and small lakes. We passed the tent of the young couple that hiked past our hut yesterday. Perhaps because we were on the trail early today, we saw several arctic hare this morning. They resembled snow-white basketballs bouncing on the bright yellow-green hills. Very cute and quite large.
The sun came out early in the morning and it remained sunny almost the entire day. As we started the descent towards Ole’s Lakseelv we were rewarded with views of a beautiful, flat, wide valley that separated us from tall rocky mountains on the opposite side. Before losing elevation we took a moment to identify the best route through the tall grassy valley floor and the most sensible location to ford across the river. Because we were making the river cross late in the summer, the water barely reached our knees at the deepest part of the ford. The cold, rapid water felt refreshing on our legs after the sunny and warm hike through the valley floor.
After the ford, route finding in the vast expanse of the dried out riverbed proved to be more challenging as the trail occasionally disappeared among the tall brush and dried mud. Eventually we found our way and after some more moderate terrain arrived at the Eqalugaarniarfik hut. We were met by six Czech hikers on a rest break who were headed in the opposite direction toward Kangerlussuaq. One of them had a full-size tripod and two of them had large roll-up solar panels. The Eqalugaarniarfik hut was much more spacious than the one we stayed at last night, but the creek nearby had dried out and the closest water source was far away (perhaps near the fjord in the distance?). It was only 1:15pm and we were not too tired, so we decided to push on to the next tent pitch. So far, we had covered 6.8 miles.
We left the Eqalugaarniarfik hut, crossed the dry creek bed, and began hiking north along a steep valley wall. A bulldozed track paralleled our trail nearby, probably used for accessing a nearby dam. Towering over the opposite side of the valley was a half-circle sheer cliff that resembled Yosemite’s Half Dome. Fan day-dreamed of returning to climb the wall one day. We passed the decomposing skeleton of a large reindeer near a tiny creek, and decided against drawing water despite being thirsty and running low on water. We eventually gained the top of another expanse of rocky lakes with great views, but soon began to descend again. Two hikers going in the opposite direction called out to us from the ridge line above us letting us know that we had gotten off trail, for which we were very appreciative. Even though we had already covered a lot of ground we were still relatively upbeat and not too tired. We ate some bars, trail mix, and jerky for lunch spread out over several rest stops.
The final descent to the lake where we intended to pitch our tent passed over a narrow strip of land at the base of a dark cliff in the shade. We discovered that the site we hope to camp at was already occupied by another party, but it wasn’t difficult to locate another relatively flat area to pitch our tent which was a little farther away from the lake. Tiny black bugs swarmed everywhere above the dry bog, but we managed to keep most of them away by placing our tarp in the tent vestibule. Per our usual routine, Jie set up the tent and unpacked our gear while Fan filtered water from the lake. We had either almost (Jie) or completely (Fan) run out of water by the time we arrived at the campsite around 5pm.
For dinner we ate Himalayan lentils with rice (by a brand called AlpineAire; it was not salty or spicy enough and too sweet), lasagna with meat sauce and cheese (by Mountain House; delicious), and dried seaweed soup (very comforting). The sky remained clear but temperatures began to dip quickly. We climbed into our sleeping bags around 8:45pm as the winds picked up. A satisfying end to a very long day.
Daily totals: 11.8 miles, 9.5 hours.