Skaite 07

The big day of our trip to Skaite began with the arrival of "The Ukulele Man" Thomas Allander, an old friend of Lena's who now lives in Stockholm.  Thomas came with his hiking pack ready

The rest of us loaded up and piled into two cars for the first leg of our journey...

We were heading up into the mountains to celebrate the birthdays of four guys, one of whom was Lena's brother, Doug.  But first we had to drive north and west for about 45 minutes to a lake.  Once there we were ported across the lake in an open boat

Once across the lake we began our 12K (just shy of 7 ½ miles)...

At the half way point we stop and fika.  The terrain here is marshy bog and we follow a two plank trail over the wet land.  In the second half of the trek, we follow some snow mobile trails from the winter and the way is wide enough for two people to walk together in many places and I get to walk and talk with Hugo - this was a very pleasant part of the trip and we had some fun conversation...

Lena had phoned ahead to the camp to let them know were only about an hour away and request the 2nd boat come to pick us up.

Victor arrives with the boat and we all pile in - this is an old wooden boat and as we cross another lake I notice a substantial amount of bailing going on the rear of the boat - we are low in the water.  We reach a delta where two rivers empty into the lake and head up one of them...this delta is where we will camp but further along - we go up river for another 15  minutes...bailing all the way.

When we arrive there is another short hike to a large double meadow... this is Skaite and where we will celebrate both Midsummer and the four birthdays!

The lower meadow                                     The Upper Meadow

We camp in the upper meadow near the trees (in case we need to pee in the woods at night)   We are welcomed by our host Ingvar Segerstrom - the patriarch of a large clan of gorgeous men and pretty women.

Ingvar is the driving force behind making this area we are in a preserve - The Pearl River Nature Reserve.

We pitch our tents and have fika with some of our fellow campers

Songs are sung and flasks of whiskey are passed around against the cold.

We wash up down by the river and get ready for bed - we should sleep well after our long hike and it is going on midnight - we need our rest because tomorrow we will do some major partying and we need to be ready.

Midsummer 2007

The longest day of the year in the land of the Midnight Sun!  We got up fairly early - 8:30 AM - made coffee and some breakfast.  My dear friends had been doing a lot of translating for me and I felt they needed a break so I took my watercolor pencils and paper out into the meadow to draw.  Before long Hugo joined me and then some of the kids.  Anton who was camping next to us spoke great English and wanted to practice it a bit - in return he gave me some lessons in Swedish.  In addition to Anton, there came his brother Oskar and cousin, Christopher.  Buel joined us along with her son, adopted from Ethiopia, Esubalew and even Hannes painted a bit.  None of us were Picasso, but the sun was out and the day was warming up and it was nice to sit and draw.

Esubalew. Buel and Oskar and some of our art work

Later in the day we were joined by Isabelle and we sketched the Midsummer pole which had been erected while we were drawing

Here are Isabelle and my Swedish teacher, Anton

Christopher thought he couldn't draw, but managed to produce a great picture once he got started

While I had been busy with the kids the guys had cut the pole and decorated it with help from the girls... who were now working on making garlands for the 4 birthday guys.

Soon the musicians began to gather by the pole and play and the dancing around it began

Now it was time for the birthday party - 4 old friends were turning 40 Jasper, Lars, Jonas and Doug.  I have known Doug since he was 10 years old...he is Lena's brother and a very cool guy.  The guys had provided the food and drinks for the party.  As they gathered to wish us come and eat, the girls gave them the garlands to wear and of course we all sang that we wished they would live for 100 years.

The check shirt is Jonas, the suspenders are Lars, the Cubs ball cap is Doug and the black t-shirt is Jasper.

Here we all are - various families or clans supporting the four birthday guys on a lovely midsummer day in the mountains

After the feast there were various entertainments - some soccer was played, kites flown, acrobatic performed...

Soon the musicians began to gather again and eventually some of the guest began to dance

Did I mention the Arctic Mosquito?  Well these critters are about double the size of our mosquitoes and 20 times a thick up in the mountains...I should have taken photos of them... So when the dancing started we moved inside of one of the old houses to dance.  The kids hung out in the loft and ate potato chips and the old folks watched and the young or young at hears danced and danced!!!

We danced until the wee hours and it was light outside the whole time, here is a photo shot about 3:30 am when everyone in the meadow was in their tents except me... I had the whole of it to myself... the sun was coming over the tops of the tallest treed, but it hadn't really set, just dipped down to the horizon only to rise again without slipping out of sight... this much daylight gives you the energy to stay up and party - the strong coffee helps too... We would leave the next day and retrace our steps out ...but now the world was silent and mine.

So now we are leaving

And so ended a most wonderful little adventure for me...  But it was not to be the end of my hiking because after a day of rest at home, we decided to take another hike to see the beautiful Muddus Falls...

So on to Muddusfalin