Author: Paul

I had one full day in Sisimiut after having arrived the evening before. My flight back to Kangerlussuaq was only the next morning, so I had enough time to check out the town, eat, sleep, scratch my Greenland Fly bite and just do nothing.

First things first, I went to the café, only to found it very full. There were no seats free, neither I thought they were making fried eggs, mostly there were sandwiches and basic bakery.

So I headed down to ‘The Seaman’s Home”, the other hotel in the town. Its canteen felt luxurious.

I ordered a couple of fried eggs with bacon, poured myself a cup of filter coffee and sat down on a sun-lit table beside the window.

The lady on the counter brought out the fried eggs and disappeared in the kitchen. It was quiet, as the guests must have had breakfast already, – this quiet sleepy time after early morning hustle.

I couldn’t muster neither much intelligent thought, nor an ambitious plan for the day, so after an hour I got up and went to the Museum.

Usually, visiting museums is the last thing on my check-list. But what else?

• Going up the Nasaasaaq mountain (784m)
  That would have taken a better part of the day, but for the first time in history of me I bailed on a mountain hike as the first choice for the daily activity 😀
  My legs were still sore, and the shoes still felt small
• Going up the Palasip Qaqqaa mountain (544m)
  Same reasoning. I just wanted to do anything BUT walking
• Taking a ship tour to visit Assaqutaq – the abandoned fishing village
  I think I just woke up too late for this that day, otherwise that might have been a good idea
• Sisimiut Museum – yeah!
  Also, as I approached the town yesterday, I’ve exchanged a few words with a woman walking in the same direction. She would have come from Iceland for a museum project in Sisimiut. So I took her recommendation, and that was a good one.

The “old town” of Sisimiut was comprised by about dozen wood buildings, all painted in cheerful, bright colors. I was there alone.

One of the buildings was the inuit way of building things – the turf house.

In general, from those glimpses of native population’s culture, I understood they have always been quite practical people.

I didn’t do much that day, other than shopping for souvenirs (like seal’s skin gloves, forbidden elsewhere) and checking out local supermarkets, so I returned home early and went to bed.

Next day late morning I got to the Sisimiut airport, which consisted of one small building with a tower, and boarded the plane back to Kangerlussuaq.

Waking up at the hut around 08:00, I discovered the Norwegian lady already gone and others still soundly asleep. I did my best to quietly take my stuff out and to start off without breakfast. After hugging the lake’s shore for a while, the path turned leftwards and went up. It was the last ascent – of about 400m – on the trail.

After the ascent it went for may be 6 km on the plateau (which was surprisingly wet and swampy – there were still patches of snow in the nooks and crannies above) and then started to descend.

It was hard to walk, and despite almost feeling my goal nearby and rejoicing because of that, I still felt really tired.

I had way too much battery power left so I took headphones out and turned on Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged, which was one of very few albums that happened to be stored offline on my smartphone (this logic here probably needs an explanation…so let me digress)

Batteries and electronics

I was carrying my Samsung Galaxy S8 with offline OSM Greenland maps loaded previously and accessible over an OsmAnd app as my main cartography tool (which by the way has worked out beautifully!). As reserve I had the GPS watch, Garmin Instinct, with the trail loaded on it with huts as waypoints, primarily to use if smartphone dies or if I lose path under rain or snow etc, if its not possible to take the smartphone out and use it. I didn’t have any paper maps this time, as they proved quite useless last time I needed them – the moment I took the map out its paper disintegrated under the rain and turned into a colorful mash. The paper map’s level of detail was too small to be actually useful to find a trail.

I also used the same smartphone to take pictures.

Clearly there are no electricity outlets along the trail, so I used one 22000mAh powerbank and one 11000mAh as a reserve.

I put the smartphone in the airplane mode, which deactivates WiFi, cellular and Bluetooth connectivity, thus eliminating a lot of energy usage. I made a lot of pictures and longer videos, and not that often, may be once per hour, checked out the position and the map – not because I needed this information – path was clearly marked most of the times – but more as a civilization’s urge to fiddle with a smartphone just now and then.

The built-in battery charge on Galaxy S8 managed to hold for almost 3 days in this mode, so I had to recharge it (only) twice from the powerbank. I used the smartwatch to track routes – primarily to track the distance walked – setting a pace – so it had to be recharged nightly. The watch aint big deal, its battery is tiny.

I also carried a rental Iridium satellite phone along with its own reserve battery. Beyond a dozen texts home and a few calls – when I stopped being too cautious about the charge – I haven’t used it that much. Iridium phone ended the trip with most of its battery unconsumed.

Plateau

Anyways, on the last day I decided there’s no point to be very cautious about charging anymore and so I turned the music on.

Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged held me strong for the plateau stretch.

Many hands began to scan around for the next plateau

Some said it was Greenland and some say Mexico

A reddish AirGreenland propeller plane passed overhead. I smiled at it and waved a hand.

About 20km onto the day’s hike, I made another pause with Sisimiut already ahead of me, but still in some distance. I put the backpack down and disabled the Airplane mode on the smartphone. As if I were back in Germany, it found 3G at once and went on to get emails. Wilderness ends, officially.

Around 19:00 I sat on the rock terrace and ate a bucket of blueberries, looking mindlessly to the sea against the blinding Greenland sun and feeling quite happy, until the chilly, sea-scented wind forced me back inside.

Waking up in the morning, I was in a good mood – it was going to be the penultimate day on the trail. By the end of tomorrow I would finish in Sisimiut and hopefully get a warm shower. And drink a can of Coke. And have fried eggs for breakfast..

The trail went along a broad, quiet valley, hugging the stream, which later turned into a river – and it would do so for almost the whole day. It wasn’t a hard walk – a long, light descent on mostly dry paths.

About noon I reached the next hut (NERUMAK) and met – of course – the polish guy. This time he just arrived.

We exchanged our emails and I moved on.

Another river on the way, this time of the year I just crossed it over stones on its bed – that wouldn’t have worked in the spring.

While crossing the river I was surprised to see quick, big, pink-bellied and rather fat, tasty-looking fish darting to and fro in one small pocket of deeper water on that lake. The fish didn’t seem to be able to escape; may be they were actually trapped in there. Based on quick Wikipedia search later on I determined this fish to be the ‘arctic char’.

I stopped on the shore by those arctic chars for lunch, wishing I would have gear to catch at least one char and check the char’s meat out. There was fishing gear in one of the huts! But of course nothing on me. Instead I ate two fish tins, SO YUMMY!!

Then I moved on and left the chars untouched.

As I went up the hill beyond the lake, I discovered a few things:

• The hut right on the top looks proper, but on closer inspection it was closed. Building materials and tools inside, it wasn’t ready yet
• Another hut on the right beyond the hill is livable, but – according to travelers – firefighters occupied it for the time being – first week August 2019
• The GPS mark for the second hut on the hill, a few hundred meters from the closed hut is wrong: there is nothing there (wherever I got that GPX track from, I don’t remember anymore)
• The actual fires – several clearly visible smoke columns raising from the burned land – looked fairly harmless. It was more of a smoldering situation than an open fire

After about 40 minutes I reached the last hut before Sisimiut, having wasted some time to go down to the closed hut and find the way back.

Expecting the hut to be empty – after all, I left the polish guy behind – to my great surprise I found it occupied by three women. I don’t think I was very presentable at that time of the day (around 20:00), but they were kind enough to let me in and take the lower bunk.

I was quite glad because I was really, really tired and didn’t want to mess with the tent at all.

I really don’t remember how I started the day, but I think it started well.

The weather became more cloudy and mornings were fresh.

In general, the surroundings became progressively more interesting and varied as I moved on towards Sisimiut.

Looking at all those half-dried lake beds, dried out vegetation, small streams in lieu of powerful and water-rich rivers I kind of wished I’d go earlier, in the middle of the spring’s natural beauty and it’s rapid change. Yes, there would be mosquitoes, and swamps, and knee-deep snow, and probably the nights would have been much colder, and it would have taken more time, but that would be – I thought – a much more exciting trek.

Or may be autumn? That’d probably be September. As I walked, I somehow wished the weather wouldn’t be that perfect and that dry.

I almost enjoyed walking now, my backpack being at least 4kg lighter.

About 8km from my camp I reached the next hut. There were actually two of them, a few hundred meters apart. I first went to the hut on the hill. It was empty, and boasted the craziest views.

At the hut I made a short pause, and familiarized myself with the book that somehow caught my attention.

Gurus

Uncharacteristically, I read the book’s foreword. The idea of the book was intriguing. With all those ‘gurus’, cult leaders and spiritual ‘masters’ around, how do you separate the wheat from the chaff?

Answer: let us examine these gurus’ lives and actions, and the beliefs they teach and see if these two actually overlap? Do they do as they preach? Walk the talk? MUST BE FUN 😀

Now, personally I can’t really make up my mind. Viewing most religions with utmost skepticism for as long as I remember, I think a cult exists for very pragmatical and down-to-earth reason that have nothing to do with supernatural, for it simply gives people what they need most: identification and need to belong. The substance of the ‘teaching’ is immaterial, because it’s not the product.

You pay – to be part of it.

On the other hand, the Unknown is immensely captivating. What if it IS a genuine discovery? It’s not that it has never happened before. Electricity and magnetism would be a complete quackery to a Middle Age man, but it indeed does very much exist.

Anyways..

The book examines lives of dozens ‘saints’, ‘gurus’ and similarly shrewd individuals and arrives to a conclusion which I will omit here.

After a short rest, I moved down the hill to the second hut – INNAJUATTOQ II – it was right on the lake shore.

There I met, as usual, the polish guy, the french couple and three Swedish guys who decided to take a day of rest and relax at the hut. This thought crossed my mind too – the hut was large, equipped and clean, located on a beautiful shore with surreal mountains floating on the lake’s waters.

But it was only early afternoon, so I pressed on.

The path went upwards and smoke became very visible.

Having walked for about 7 or 8km from the hut, and reached the watershed, I decided to call it a day.

If there is a fire ahead, I better face it in the morning.

I had a nice talk with the polish guy – his actual name was Karol – and his daily routine was quite an eye-opener. So Karol would wake up at about 4:00 in the morning (he would stay at the huts only), shortly afterwards he would start on the trail and walk briskly almost without pause, reaching the next hut by late morning – whereas I was dragging myself there around 19:00.
THATS SO CRAZY, I thought, may be he is weight-saving genius, or has some really sophisticated gear? He has a tiny foldable scooter? He can fly? I was trying to find an explanation. ANY EXPLANATION.

Nope.. similar equipment as myself, no scooter 😀 I think he also had more supplies to carry too.

I made a mental note to myself to train harder. And whine less.

…

The day started pleasantly. I ate breakfast in the hut and departed around 08:00 in the cool morning air, the early sun finding its way through thick, gray clouds.

For the first time, I enjoyed walking.

I remembered what Karol told me about other people on the trail that were walking semi-synchronously with us – some were half-a-day ahead, some were not far behind – where they go, what gear they have, where they stop and all kind of trivia regarding the route ahead and beyond. Interesting? You bet!

Was it the environment, or the absence of communication otherwise, but I was happy to meet anyone either from opposite direction (only 4 people during the whole course) or at the huts. It seemed it belonged to some unwritten but strictly followed code to stop, introduce oneself and engage in a mutually pleasant conversation about the trivialities outlined above. Were there mosquitoes? And did they bite? Oh, that’s the creme you used? Sure, Id like to try!

It was very endearing.

So that was the party that moved roughly in the same batch over the course:

• The polish guy
• A French couple – reticent, but with quick, elegant pace
• Three strong Swedish guys – the empty 1L whiskey glass bottle converted to a flower vase at the hut was theirs
• One Norwegian lady – at first I heard rumors from the polish guy about one female traveler who would reach the hut, and first thing CLEAN it 😀 Then the same from Swedish guys. These stories were told with warmest regards and kindest feelings to her service. And the best – indeed, she existed!
• Two German ladies that found each other over reisepartner-gesucht.de for this trek, something that I failed to do (but I didn’t know about reisepartner-gesucht.de)
• and myself

All went with different speeds and different schedules. Of all, I probably was the one who got up latest, and ended up latest as well – so most of the days I passed by either the polish guy or the french couple as they were setting up camp and we’ve never failed to exchanged the latest news and events of the day.

…

The path became more varied and about an hour a majestic perspective on the broad river valley opened from above.

WELCOME, – that were mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes

The ongoing drought made the valley just about as dry as it gets. A lot of grass patches were dust-dry. Circular, dried out lake beds with moist mud patches instead of water.

Despite the dryness, the mosquitoes appeared out of nowhere and followed me diligently through most of the valley. Their behavior was weird: they followed mostly the face and were more of a nuisance than a biting force. They ignored open legs and arms and were mostly trying to get in the eyes and ears.
Anyways, the mosquito net was very effective against them.

In retrospect, this patch of the trail was the only one where I needed the mosquito net at all. Some people just went straight through without the net.

This experience must be specific to this very, very dry period with no rainfall for a month or so, that happened in July and August 2019. If its wet, it should be horrible: the river valley turns in one massive swamp, mosquitoes bite viciously, and you walk a lot in water.

This time I just walked over on a dry, sometimes moist, and in very few cases ankle-deep surface.

After a few hours walking along the river the path turned to the right and an majestic panorama opened.

This is, by the way, is where Mayaq was about to be picked up by the boat from Sisimiut, I figured.

I was waiting for this my whole life: finally there it is, a word that doesn’t have a “U” after the “Q”. The hut was based right there after the turn.

At the hut I met the polish guy (I can just reuse this sentence), I was quite happy to see him.
He went on to stay there for the night, but I continued after a pause for the lunch.

Despite prior warnings, this hut did have access to fresh water. The canyon nearby being completely dry, about 200 or 300 meters further down there was a tiny stream of clear, cold water.

DONT FOLLOW THE BULLDOZED TRACKS TO THE RIGHT, – with this advice from the polish guy we parted.

Of course I didn’t follow the bulldozed tracks to the right (they descended to the lake while the actual path turned left), but I managed to lose the trail anyways. I think it wasn’t clearly marked where I deviated, so I went downwards instead of upwards to the left. What followed , was an intriguing and quite exciting hike by the lakes.. After about 4 hours I found the trail again.

Utterly exhausted, I made tent as soon as I found a good spot, ate and fell soundly asleep.

Yesterday I managed to walk around 26km, so my expectations were high. I’m gonna finish the trail in 6 days! No, in 5!

A recipe for disaster.

After about 30min of walking I sat and put the backpack down, completely and utterly exhausted (this expression will be heavily used in my writing). My feet ached as if I were about to stop for the day – and I just started!

I sat down on the beach and stared absentmindedly toward the water.

I don’t remember the path further on, other than it went upwards and that it was awfully hot – it was the first big ascent out of three on the trail.

Mostly I just tried not to think.

At first my goal for the day was to make to the next hut (IKKATTOOQ) and then walk for additional 7km. Then I reduced it to 3km past the hut.
After lunch I said to myself I’m just gonna reach the hut.

WHERE THE HELL IS THIS GODDAMN HUT?! Last 5 km were hard. I was walking the slowest pace and was resting every half hour.

The path went on a plateau from there on, there was enough water, the surroundings became more varied and interesting vs walking along the lake.

More to the evening I met a couple travelling eastwards, who confirmed the reports of the fire, but also confirmed that it had so far been safe to pass despite of the smoke.

Finally around 17:00 I caught a glimpse of the hut.

In the hut I met the polish guy – he told me he’s been resting at the hut since about 11:00. He overtook my camp while I was still snoring.

This has been the hardest day so far, and, in retrospect, the hardest day of the whole trip. Other people found the second leg – along the long lake – the most taxing.

I got up at 7:00, boiled water and poured in a bag with oatmeal, my legs and, strangely, toes were hurting. Only then I felt the blisters: ankles, thumbs, toes, and one on the downward surface of the heel that was quite painful. WTF IS THIS, – I never had many issues with blisters, so I didn’t expect any this time. Same shoes, same socks. Moreover, on putting the shoes, they felt curiously narrow. Feet ached at the broadest part as if shoes suddenly became one size smaller.

Its probably your feet that became one size larger, I joked to myself – but this later has proven to be true. When I got back, I put on dress shoes that started to feel small too. Unexplained phenomenon, or was it the foot-flattening backpack?

Anyways, I progressed slowly.

Last night I ate 300g tin of fat beef mixed in 200g potato flour with added water, as well as 200gr oatmeal breakfast and 150gr dried figs, so I consoled myself that however hard it may be, its easier to carry now than its been the day before.

In general I was making my backpack lighter at a rate of approx. 1kg/day.

Around 09:00 I reached the first hut. It was empty and clean.
One traveler wrote in 2014 that the surroundings were thoroughly spoiled with garbage and defecation. I can’t confirm – it wasn’t THAT bad. A couple of turds now and then around the hut, but mostly just white napkins (.. ladies?..) that indicated toilet grounds, but in general I expected worse.

Somebody must have cleaned up and even the huts were all since then freshly painted.

“This is the hut which name in Greenlandic means “The house of lovers”, so some couples go here to marry” – I remembered Majaq’s words. I just hope they go up from Kangerlussuaq and not the other direction. Imagine a bride arriving to ceremony after 7 days of hiking. Real pretty! On the other hand, if that doesn’t dissuade.. that marriage will hold!

I got carried away imagining the trekking bride, rucksack on, white dress and stuff. Careful with walking sticks or you’d trip over, the gown all over the place. But comes in handy during mosquito season – just use the veil!

Then I remembered myself after an 8-day trek in Iceland: I looked – and felt – quite like a bum (I’ll try to find a good photo one day, but my lip has swollen gigantically and I burned parts of my shoes while trying to dry them up on a stove, so I wore Crocs with 2 pairs of socks on, ragged, blackened shoes dangling behind on a backpack; this all must have looked REALLY shabby).

The KATIFFIK hut was empty, and the canoes were not there. Neither there were any traces of them on the small brown-sanded beach nearby, so they must have been not there for a while..

Canoes
One of the ACT’s highlights, as advertised, are canoes, supposedly freely available, a repose for a tired walker and a pleasant change of transport overall.

Alas, the dream of dumping the backpack and floating on tranquil and transparent waters of the long lake for about 7 hours, making more than one day’s distance while meditating and relaxing one’s feet didn’t quite materialize.

The problem, as always, were all those people (like myself) that go in the wrong direction!

The hike of about 25km along the lake’s southern border was not technically challenging, but monotonous. It was very hot.

OH, I thought not once, looking longingly at quiet, inviting waters, WHERE ARE THOSE BLOODY CANOES?!

I found out the reason when I reached the west end of the lake next day in the morning – they were all there, waiting for east-bound travelers to take them over the long lake.

Shortly after KATIFFIK I caught on with a couple of young women that spoke English with french accent. They’ve felt a bit vexed.

“We are turning back because of the fire”, one of them said. It took me a while to understand. “So there’s a tundra fire in 5 or 6 days of travel, and if it gets worse, you’ll be asked to return or to detour“. I reasoned that in 5 days’ time the fire must be surely gone, to which they replied it’s been ongoing since July.

OKAY… I imagined walking for 6 days, eating supplies out, to be told to turn back for another week’s walk – and with a tastier tins and oatmeal gone! MAY BE THAT’S THE RIGHT DECISION..

Nobody came from the other side with news, nor there were canoes, so either they all have burned down (a bad joke) or there just were none so far.

Anyways, I decided to march on, having at least 3 days more to clarify the situation and turn back if needed.

As a reached Canoe Center, which turned out to be a large hut with at least 20 beds, I met a couple from Switzerland who were walking in the opposite direction (they have brought the only canoe available at the Canoe Center with them from the west). They confirmed the fire, but said it was only smoke for the time being. The fire would be on the other side of the lake and shouldn’t be very dangerous. No smoke without a fire

A friendly man near the hut spoke up and invited to the hut. This proved to be THE POLISH GUY himself (more on that later).

Past about 1 km from Canoe Center the earth was burned, apparently there’s been a fire here as well, and then I saw one big, horned reindeer.

At about 20:00, past 3 km from Canoe Center I made camp for the night.

Around noon I was at the Arctic Circle Trail start, preparing to enjoy Greenland and myself.

The surroundings were very serene – total windstill. Perfectly blue sky, sun shining from above.

Total silence beyond the sounds of oneself.

Crazy carousel of thoughts in my head, chasing each other, never stopping. One idiotic, out-of-place, uncompleted thought replaced by another even more so. Stale emotions, fears, social missteps, hopes, women, men, wins and past pleasures – all this was running through like a mad video clip.

A part of me was looking at this from aside and sighing: Its happening again. CHAOS PRESERVATION LAW. The quieter it is outside, the crazier inside.

Multiverse
The environment looked like the wood between the worlds from The Magician’s Nephew: you walk through this landscape of tranquil, unperturbed lakes, each very similar but yet somehow different, and there’s no end to it. You pass may be 20 or 30 lakes on the first day – I lost count.

I jumped into one lake to cool off, but there was no another world.

In one lake I found these creepy guys:

After walking in a military (MILITARY, CARL!) style for about 5 hours – 50min walking, 10 min pause – totally exhausted and dragging my feet, I was startled by a loud “Hello!” from behind.

I almost jumped, because its been complete silence so far.

It was the guy from the magazine.

A story from the crazy guy, condensed
Majaq landed in Kangerlussuaq returning from his vacation in Austria. Since his transfer plane to Sisimiut was cancelled, around 16:00 he decided to jog home. About half way a friend would pick him up with a boat, so its just 80km over hilly tundra, right? Pragmatic decision. I think he also had a bag of potato chips, so clearly well equipped too.

Its all in the head, said Majaq, disappearing ahead of me.

I repeated this mantra, gathered my dwindling powers and moved on.

The last kilometer I was shouting 100m intervals left (“Good boy Paul, only 500m left! Good boy!“) and entrusting it all to my head.

At 20.00 km mark I dropped the rucksack in complete exhaustion and put up the tent.

My legs and toes were hurting as never before. I was rolling left and right and stretching them out for better part of the night, with running Majaq appearing sporadically in what otherwise had been a circular dreamy nightmare of running, and running, and running… and running..

My prior hopes of seeing a clear, pristine starry sky were not to materialize: it never went dark enough. And in general it was the last thing on my mind. Mostly I just wanted to just lie down and rest.