Training Log Archive: Bash

'Bent and I toured Stockholm today, including a visit to an orienteering shop where the clerk enjoyed our sheer amazement at seeing all that specialized gear in one place. In addition to the planned tourist sites, we unexpectedly happened on the Pride Parade, which added to the fun.

All the Swedish food has been excellent so far, VJ! :-)

Reporting from Stockholm... Beautiful place, even if I cannot figure out this computer keyboard! We spent a few hours walking around and got most of our necessary errands done (buying map, camp fuel, lighters, more food, etc. for our backpacking trip), so now we can just be tourists. Got caught in a heavy rainstorm, so I finally did some running this week! So far, the food has been excellent. Bent had herring for dinner!

This week flew by! Wrote a magazine article, cleaned up for house/dog sitter, caught up on on snail mail like bills and greeting cards, cleaned all the mucky gear from RockstAR - oh, and packed and shopped and packed some more. My backpack looks a little too full, so I foresee more unpacking and packing over the next few hours.

'Bent and I are off to Sweden later today! I spent one afternoon there in my university days, but otherwise it's our first trip. We'll spend this weekend in Stockholm, then we're taking an 18-hr train ride (my first-ever sleeper car!) to Abisko in Lapland, 200 km north of the Arctic Circle. Then we're backpacking for a week on the Kungsleden trail with the possibility of climbing Kebnekaise, Sweden's highest mountain, if the weather is good. (From what I can see online, the weather is seldom good.) Then we're spending a few days in Björkliden, a nearby ski resort where we can kayak on Lake Torneträsk or drive over to Norway to see a real live fjord.

Then we're doing the 2-day, 50-km Björkliden Arctic Mountain Marathon.

http://www.bamm.nu/index.php?lang=en&page=start

Hmm.... we'll be competing against Swedes in an orienteering event in Sweden. Yeah, good luck with that! My only goal is to not DNF, and seriously, I'm not at all confident that we'll achieve it! The format is about 25 km (as the crow flies) per day of navigation to 6 or 7 controls spread throughout the mountains. There's a cut-off time to reach a designated group campsite, and teams who arrive late are dropped to the recreational category for the next day. (Gulp.) There's a long list of mandatory gear including tent, sleeping bags, stove, etc. I think we'll be trekking, but apparently the Swedes will be running!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFEvgCb3V34

And then we return to Stockholm for my birthday dinner, then home to our pooches. I'm not sure how much Internet we'll find in Lapland, so I'll wish you all a fun first half of August, and we'll check in when/if we can. Take care!

Woo hoo - the forecast for our arrival day in Stockholm has just been upgraded from "Heavy Rain Shower" to "Light Rain Shower". It also seems to rain every day in the part of Lapland we're heading to, which is 200 km north of the Arctic Circle. I'm going to feel right at home after spending July in Ontario!