Friday 1/8 – part two

My first order of business was taking down the signage saying the place was unmanned, and then retrieve the key from its top seekrit hiding place. Second was transferring my fresh food to the little earth cellar, which wasn't a moment too soon as the butter was feeling very soft from the heat. By then the other hiker was outside again, in the form of a German man (with a vaguely Australian accent, I thought) who would be staying the night, and inside was a Swedish woman who had stayed one already as she hadn't been feeling too well. As no one was in immediate need of my services I went down to the stream to have a wash; the water was shallow and riddled with large rocks, as I remembered from my last visit, and although cold it was nowhere near Eidevatnet/Muorkkejávrre the day before.

Warden's cottage

Guest cottage

Bathing place

The wind was now fairly strong but the weather was mostly nice, with clouds covering the sun on and off. I had a somewhat late lunch inside, where it was much cooler, and then did a precursory round of the site to see that everything seemed to be in order. All the tech also appeared to be working, so I could open the shop up to the German, who was quite happy that this was now the case as he had heard along the trail that Pieskehaure was unmanned. I spoke for a good while with both him and the Swede inside the guest cottage, and then sent a message to STF confirming my arrival and the reopening of the place. Next up was retrieving and unpacking all the stuff I had sent up during the preceding winter, taking a break in the middle to go through the more important papers, leaving a full perusal to later.

After I had finished moving things around I went to fire up the sauna at the German's behest, noting that another two people were approaching from the north. These two turned out to be a couple of women from Östersund, and they too wanted to stay, so my premiere guest tally was now up to a whopping four. I spoke some with them while also tending to the sauna, and as the German started his session I started dinner myself. By now the sky had darkened behind the heights both to the west and the east, and there was the rumble of thunder in the distance, but the only thing that came of it where I was was some drops in the wind.

Resting place

Fresh arrivals

Darker

Even darker

The evening was mostly cloudy, but high enough that visibility remained full. A sudden shower was followed by still but cool air which brought out the mosquitos at once, and now both Suliskongen and Nuortta Sávllo were just hitting the ceiling again. Having had a light evening snack and finished going through what I felt I needed to go through I went to bed at 22:30 with an open net-covered window, noting that the mattress had definitely seen better/thicker/softer days.