It's Gravel Day On The EUROPEAN DIVIDE TRAIL!
I'm riding the European Divide Trail from the trail head up in the frozen shores of Northern Norway through the vast wilderness of Finland and down to the deep forests around the Arctic Circle in Sweden It's a pretty interesting this trail, just have a look at this [Music] [Music] Well, good morning and welcome to day six of my tour here along the European Divide Trail, and it looks like we're having a great day today as well. We have blue skies and only a few small clouds on the sky here. The goal of today is to make it to the town of of Jokkmokk and that's about 125 km away from here. The goal is also to make it there before 6:00 p.m. when most of
the stores close. Especially the Systembolaget. This day is also characterized by a lot of gravel, I think it's the most gravel intense day of this whole trip. The first objective now is to get me and my bike over to the road over there, and that's quite a difficult task because it's it's really gnarly to get over there. As soon as I get there I'll start making my way to Jokkmokk
[Music] [Music] And we're on the road again! And it seems like we have the the same nasty headwind as we had all day yesterday, so it's going to be a tough one today as well [Music] Right off the bat I was joined by three reindeer, that seemed to be going in the same direction as I was The gravel roads picked up right after I left the supermarket back there in Nattavaara. I was fortunate enough to fill up my water bottles there. That was really lucky because out here I haven't seen a a small brook or any water for at least a half an hour now. So make sure to fill up your water bottles back in Nattavaara before you go through this. Now
I have about 93 km of car free gravel roads ahead of me until I'm in Jokkmokk [Applause] [Music] o [Music] [Applause] [Music] This marks the highest point of the journey so far. I'm at about 450 m above sea level and now I've got a really big nice descent coming up here for the next couple of kilometers. So just sit back and relax Mike, you got this! [Applause] [Applause] While I was riding up on the plateau I couldn't help noticing all the pretty, almost azur blue lakes that line up the road I was riding on. There were tons of incredible places to put up your tent there at the end of the day. But unfortunately my day had just begun so it was time for me to move on [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I dropped basically 250 m in the last 10 minutes or so to get down to this hydro power dam. A really big one. Of course once I get over on the other side it's going to probably be climbing all the way up again. This is the first of two hydro
power dams that we're going to pass today. If I if I've checked the map correctly we're just going to go over and we're going to follow the River on the other side a bit. Then we turn up and go to the next one, and that will lead me all the way to Jokkmokk later on It's quite windy up here, to say the least.
I'm almost over the dam now, so think I'll head into more calmer areas up ahead here. What a nasty headwind, I hope we get into the to the woods soon, so I can have some more relax cycling ahead [Applause] Notice the two raindeee by the wooden house? [Applause] Well things certainly got a bit interesting now. This seems to be the trail moving forward. You can see some tire tracks here, so this must be it. I'm guessing we're going to have a bit of slower pace coming up here Seems like we have a bit of a hike-a-bike here for a little while. Hope the trail improves here further on
Just checked the map and it seems like it's like this for about 3-400 m. It's pretty interesting this trail. Have a look at this I think my idea of being in Jokkmokk at 6:00 PM before for Systembolaget closes is going down the drain as we speak [Music] Fresh tire marks Oo, whoa Okay, I think we're through the worst of the mud. I'm just thankful that I didn't come here in July, going through that bog with all the mosquitoes was would have been like total nightmare. Still have some problems here Like I said today, this is where the adventure really starts! Whoa! You know when you get back home again after doing a trip like this, these are the times you remember. You're not going to remember when you're sitting on a boring paved road and just putting in the miles. These kind of things are what makes the adventure
Whoops! Look at that tire mark. I've got to say I'm pretty pleased with my 3 inch tires going down this this road Strange looking forest 285 m elevation gain in 6 km. You've got to be kidding me! The hills never end, do they? Once you're up a hill then there's the next one coming I'm following some very recent tire tracks from a bike. This has by far been the toughest climb of of this whole trip. I have about a third left, which is about 100 m in elevation difference, and seems like it's never going to end. But I'm guessing it's because we're right in the middle of two river systems, so we have to get up over a mountain pass that splits these two valleys. I'm guessing after we hit the top here
we're just going to go down a pretty steep mountain on the other side, down to the next river 9 freaking percent! [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Woohoo! Climb complete. Only took me 34 minutes I'm stopping right about now. Here's an open place, so I don't have to fight the mosquitoes We made it! Promised you I would do a little dance Look at my bags! They're a bit dusty. These were basically clean this morning. You can see the difference between the clean part and the exposed part here. So look what I have in here,
we have a chocolate protein milkshake. That'll do just about fine right now. It says to make sure to shake it well. You think all the rattling around in my bike bags have done the job? I think so Oh, that's good! The sign back there says "Enskild väg". That kind of means private road in English. But you are still
allowed to drive or to ride on it with a bike. It can be a bit tricky with a car, but according to the Swedish Allemansrätten or the right to roam, cars... I'm sorry, my head is so, I'm so tired. According to the Swedish Allemansrätten bikes are allowed on all roads in Sweden, even private ones [Music] [Applause] Now we're just basically following the the dam here on our left side, all the way up to Jokkmokk, that's about 30 km away. We should have a pretty pretty relaxed ride over there, because it's just sloping a bit upwards all the time. But no major climbs or anything. I checked the Garmin as well, and the next major climb is well south of Jokkmokk, so it's going to be a lot of these roads coming up in the next one or two hours And since the route today is anything but straight, we're basically going criss crossing all over the place today. So we have now turned, and for the first time today I have
the wind in my back. So I have a nice tailed wind carrying me all the way up to Jokkmokk [Applause] I've been on this pretty straight and flat road, compared to to earlier today, now for the last hour or so. I'm getting close to Jokkmokk, I think I have about 5 km left or so. It's pretty nice riding, I've had a tailwind now for the last hour or so and
the trees are just high enough to block out most of the Sun. So, it's been a pretty pretty cool ride here as well. I feel pretty fresh when I now enter Jokkmokk in a couple of minutes [Music] I made it! I made it to Jokkmokk, and I have some time to spare. About a half an hour so. I just went by the gas station first to fill up my water bottles. I'll
head into town now and see if I can find the supermarket and the Systembolaget [Music] I just visited the Ica supermarket and Systembolaget, and now I'm pretty set for the rest of the trip. I think I've food that will last me the final two days. So now I'm just going to ride about half an hour out of town, and there's a nice spot there by the Arctic Circle line. I'm either going to camp there or a place that I know a bit further on. So let's hit the road again Wow, it's strange to see signs of your neighbor towns. Those two back there on the sign are kind of neighbor towns to my hometown, and Arvidsjaur is where I'm planning on getting off the European Divide Trail and should be there in about 2 days. It said 153 km,
but that's if you take the highway straight, and I'm going the long way around on the gravel roads instead. It was pretty busy at the Systembolaget, because tomorrow is Sweden's national day. So everyone's off from work tomorrow, and since it's a Thursday a lot of people take Friday off as well. So they they make it a four
day weekend, so people stock up on liquor and alcohol in front of a holiday like that one [Applause] We're almost at the Artic Circle, just a few kilometers left and then we will have no more Midnight Sun. But it's still going to be bright throughout the nights. Even where I live down in Skellefteå, which is about 200 km south of the Arctic Circle, we have bright nights all through June and July. It never gets really dark, so even though it's technically not the Midnight Sun, it's still bright all throughout the night. Just happened to stumble upon this place, maybe 2 kilometers before the Arctic Circle campsite. If that's crowded I think I might get
back to this place, because this was really nice. The view, almost a panorama view over the lake, and there's also a pretty flat spot over there, where I can pitch my tent. Take a look at this! I'll definitely keep this in mind. I just had my appetizer for dinner, I swallowed a mosquito. You always get so course in your throat, you have to clear it. 6 years ago I was passing through this exact place and I camped way up on that hill over there. I dragged my bike all the way up there,
with four paniers and all, just to be able to see the Midnight Sun dance over the mountains. But on this trip I think I've seen the Midnight Sun quite a few times, so I think I'll settle for a easier campsite than dragging everything up on that hill there. Even though it was a fantastic campsite, and I'll leave a link down to that video in down in the description below if you want to check that one out. Okay, let's head on to the E45 highway again for just maybe a kilometer, until we make it to the Arctic Circle I'm sitting here contemplating on what to do. This place by the Arctic Circle,
I should have remembered that, because this is not a place where you want to pitch your tent. There are camper vans staying here, but you have to pay like 250 Swedish Crowns, which is about um $25 or so. There's also spot down there by the lake, but it's like 10 m away from the highway, so I don't want to stay there either. If I go back to the place I just found, that's about 4 km away, and I need to be moving in that direction. I just checked the map and there are two lakes coming up
here. One after 7 km and one after 15. I've passed through this area six years ago, so I kind of know those places. I think I'm going to take my chances on one of those. I'm going to continue on here along the highway and see if I can find a nice spot further on. The EDT actually goes basically
over this mountain. It just go goes past this Arctic Circle sign, just to take your snapshot or selfie, and back over over this big mountain. I'm not going to go that way, I have seen videos, namely Ryan's video from last year when he went over that mountain. And the trails were horrible over there, so I'm going to skip out on that part and I'm going to just follow the highway for a bit and then hop onto the Divide Trail further on. Probably tomorrow after I've camped tonight. See how my bags look like after a day out on very sandy gravel Trails. Looks like I've had these for
about 5 years or so, and I've basically owned them for a week. So I've taken the obligatory photo by the Arctic Circle sign back there and I've also taken on my jacket. Both because the sun has gone behind some clouds here, so it's getting a bit chilly. But mostly as a precaution, because I'm
going on this quite heavy trafficed road. There aren't many cars, but there are quite a few trucks that drive on this road, so I want to be visible for for the cars and trucks that drive on the road Let's check out place number one! I'm kind of torn here. This place, I mean it's okay, it'll do for the night. But I've been getting kind of spoiled with these great campsites with a shelter and so on. But I've checked the map, so I have the option of either going with this one or going about 8 km further on and that's more of a rest stop. And I think it's probably going to be a lot more people there with camper vans. The benefit of staying here is that I'm 100% totally alone here, which I like. I thought it was going to be a lot of mosquitoes here, but it's pretty open and it's
very windy tonight. So far no mosquitoes. So I think I'll just pitch my tent over here. I think I'll manage with this one. It is a bit close to the highway, it's only about 100 m away from the highway. But I sleep with air plugs and I usually sleep quite well, so yeah, let's go for this one
You know what? My ad hoc solution of using duct tape to fix the hole in my sleeping pad actually worked. Last night I didn't have to wake up and pump all throughout the night. I slept like a baby and still had air, lots of it when I woke up in the morning. So I'm looking forward to two more nights of good sleep here in the woods of Sweden. And then
when I get home again I'm going to do a proper fix on on the leaking holes in the air mattress [Music] I was actually thinking about saving this for tomorrow, since that's a tradition of mine, to have a glass of wine or two to celebrate that the bike packing trip is over. Plus the fact that it's Sweden's national day tomorrow, that would have been another reason to celebrate. But I just checked the weather forecast and it looks like it might be be raining tomorrow. So
I don't want to be crammed up in my tent and drinking a half a bottle of wine. This turned out to be a pretty nice evening after all, so I think I'm going to enjoy this tonight instead and celebrate that we have two days left of the bike packing trip instead of one. Cheers! Skål as we say in Sweden Checking the weather forecast and deciding on which night I was going to enjoy this small bottle of wine also influenced which type of dinner I was going for. I have one fancy dinner, this is some sort of beef stew. And I have one more ordinary pasta carbonara left, so I thought this would fit the red wine better. The the beef stew should go pretty well with with a glass of red wine Today was a quite tough day. I know I say that after every day, but those climbs between the
hydro power dams were taking its toll on me. I felt like I wasn't going anywhere, I just checked the Garmin all the time and I was barely moving on the map. Once I got over that very big hill or Mountain Pass, and got down to the second hydro power dam, things started moving. I kind of knew that, going along one of those power dams is pretty flat, so I was able to make up some distance. A lot of gravel today and my bike, and especially my bags seem like they've been out for definitely more than a week, because it was so dusty and dry, the surface. So as soon as
I met a car I was covered with a cloud of very fine dust, and I also think my tires dusted down the bags as well. Tomorrow is going to start by me cheating a little bit. I'm going to carry on on this highway for a little bit, until I get to the town of Kåbdalis. The European Divide Trail actually goes sort of from where I stopped by the Arctic Circle sign, goes over a mountain and continues over there somewhere. But it's really gnarly tracks and so on. I know from last year, when my friend Ryan rode through that area and he got stuck all the time, and didn't make any distance. He eventually opted to go out to the highway and ride the highway down to Arvidsjaur. My plan instead is to ride to Kåbdalis, I'm very familiar with that town, we go there every year to ski with the family. So my plan is to go down to Kåbdalis and then
join up with the European Divide Trail again from that place and ride the last 140 kilometers along the trail instead. That should put me in Arvidsjaur in about two days, where I'll catch a bus back home to my town of Skellefteå again. So that's the plan. I think what's great about this trail, is that you're able to go on the highway, which when I say highway, don't get me wrong, it's a big road but there aren't many cars going on it. While I sit here there's probably a car passing every 3 or 4 minutes or so. So it's not that crowded. But you are able to choose that option
instead if you want to make up some time. Or if it's been raining all day, you might want to go on the paved road instead. I can guarantee you that kind of the roads that I've been on today, if they were rained upon the bike and the bags wouldn't look as clean as they do right now. It would be a
just a mudfest on these types of roads. So you are able to sort of choose your way as you go, which is nice I think. Even though I'm cheating a bit, tomorrow I'm still going to have a lot of gravel ahead of me. Just in the morning, I think I have about 40 km or so to Kåbdalis, and from there on it's gravel all the way down to Arvidsjaur. I hope you join me next time when the adventure continues
here in Lapland. And if you want to watch why I chose not to go on that route back there you can watch Ryan's video from last year, when he went the exact same route and find out how it went for him, by clicking the link up in the corner here. Otherwise, until next time have a good one!
2024-09-01 08:12
