ARCTIC CIRCLE TRAIL_2014
DAY 7: BEFORE INNAJUATTOQ TO INNAJUATTOQ
We woke up around 7:15am. Thick fog enveloped us, so dense that we couldn’t see the tent of the two hikers across the lake from us. Fan tried fishing again for 30 minutes without any luck. The cries of a loon on the lake pierced the morning fog and silence. Fan cooked Korean rice congee for breakfast and accidently burnt it, but the extra pork floss added was quite delicious. we also had instant coffee with powdered milk. The sun finally came out and quickly chased away the fog to reveal a gorgeous morning. We took our time packing up camp in order to let the tent dry as much as possible. Started hiking around 9:45am.
In the morning the trail weaved through relatively easy terrain next to a series of lakes in the valley. A Swiss couple passed us during our lunch break and it turns out they were the ones camping across the lake last night. Later on we meet them again and learn they are Debra and Dominic. They planned to camp after the lake next to the Innajuattoq huts.
After the trail turned west along the river we encountered a large expanse of very wet boggy terrain. When the trail began to grow faint and then disappear in the marshy plains, Fan decided we should go off trail to gain higher and hopefully drier ground. We never found an alternate trail, and after an hour of slow progress over wet spongy ground we rejoined the trail. Dominic and Debra chose to cut more directly across the boggy terrain and had passed us by this point.
We arrived at Innajuattoq I, the smaller hut on a hill, around 2:15pm but decided to not spend the night there because the water source was far away, at the bottom of the hill. We hiked down hill about 500 m and found the larger lake house, Innajuattoq II, by the water. This hut was even more luxurious (and newer?) than the Canoe Center from Day 3, with a bathroom (same plumbing-less system of thick black trash bags for waste), living area, kitchen, and dorm with bunk beds that sleep 10 people. We considered pushing on a little further but this place was too good to pass up, so we called it a day.
We perched on a large flat rock by the lake and washed laundry and filtered water. Choppy waves lapped at our feet, and tiny fish swam around our laundry. The wind picked up and dark clouds rolled overhead. Debra and Dominic attempted to cook lunch outside but the wind drove them inside. After they finished their meal and warmed up they decided to continue on to the next rocky plateau dotted with small lakes and make their camp there.
We made some tea and read the entertaining entries in the guest book. Taped to the wall was a multi-panel series of watercolor drawings with accompanying text that told the tale of a German couple that had hiked the ACT a couple months earlier in June. The female fell sick after drinking unfiltered water and could not continue the trek. The male waited with her for a few days but eventually forged ahead alone to find help. The female was eventually rescued by helicopter after staying at the hut for several days. After this sobering story, we took stock of our food, fuel, and toilet paper supplies and concluded that we had exactly the right amount of supplies left to allow us to finish the trek in three more days.
In the afternoon, several other groups of hikers passed the hut, with parties going in each direction. The only ones who chose to stay with us at the large hut were two young Danes in their early 30s wearing green t-shirts. One of them carried a large rifle that weighed 4 kg and said it was for protection against polar bears … The rifle initially worried us a little but the two fellows turned out to be friendly and easy going. One of them worked as a “prosecutor” (police?) in Nuuk, Greenland. They were going in the opposite direction as us, encountered severe problems with black flies during the previous days, but saw a few arctic char in the river near the Nerumaq hut, our stop for tomorrow night. They had hiked the Haute Route in Switzerland and hoped to hike the John Muir Trail some day. Like us, the ACT was their first experience with being self-sufficient in the backcountry for so many consecutive days.
For dinner , we had beef stroganoff (Backpackers’ Pantry, which was not as good as the version by Mountain House) with homemade dehydrated mushrooms and sicilian vegetable medley (also BP), along with seaweed soup. Dried mangos and raw almonds rounded out the meal. We filtered some more water, brought the laundry inside, and just relaxed in the hut. The slowly setting sun poked through the clouds occasionally, casting a soft golden light on the green valley across the lake. We went to sleep around 8:45pm. The two Danes went to bed a little later. Everyone slept very soundly.
Daily totals: 6.8 miles, 5 hours.