Ic.26    Section Umbukta - Kvitsteindalstunet 26 km

I had breakfast at the restaurant and left early before the other hikers got up. They were waiting for another one who had flown in to Mo-I-Rana and wanted to continue one day later. The trail climbs slowly up from Umbukta following a River. Soon I left the trees behind. Nordlandsruta is a well established trail here allowing for easy hiking. There are many rows of garages in Umbukta. I was told they are all full of snow mobiles to allow owners to reach their huts in winter. Seeing all these garages in such a small village looks weird. Towards lunch I had to cross a creek on a single small iron beam. This required some balancing as walking through the deep cold water was not an option. I stopped at Sauvasshytta for lunch. Getting the gas stove working took a while. The description for getting the gas running was in Norwegian only. Eventually i figured it out.

Moving on it became really rocky without a trail and only markings. Several times it was not easy to find the next marking so that I rather followed my GPS. Later I had to walk through a lower lying area of wet meadows and bogs. This meant slow hiking and really wet boots again. Finally up on Nordumfjellet today's goal could be seen. Getting there was following a long descent and eventually some wet spots again. Towards evening the sun came out. The hut was very new and well appointed. With the sunshine and it's huge windows the hut became quite warm. A Swedish and a Norwegian hiker staid already at the shelter. It has two floors with an inside balcony. As I arrived rather late I could not enjoy this place for a long time.

Umbukta with Lake Umbukta

Getting across River Sausvaskardet means balancing on single metal beam

Lake Kallvatnet with Storfjellet in back ground as seen from trail

Lake Kallvatnet with trail marking

Reindeer bull on Nordlandsruta / E1

Standard lock of all DNT huts