Day 65 – to Lierne National Park (entrance)

Even seen through curtains of cloudy rain Klimpfjäll looked a town of mixed fortunes. It may consider its claim to fame as its name being used for an Ikea dining table, but prior to that, it was for the Stekenjokk copper mine, which had a brief existence, from the mid-1970s until it’s closure in 1989. It’s employees were housed in Klimpfjäll, for whom more than a hundred houses were built. Those buildings are still in the process of being replaced by smart glass-fronted holiday homes overlooking the lake.

The wind and rain wasn’t forecast to clear until early evening today, so it was with hesitation that Roja got his morning exercise; that, and the fact that the Swedish horror I was reading didn’t hold my attention.

I was driving a section, or more mathematically accurate an arc, of the Vildmarksvägen, or Wilderness Road, Sweden’s equivalent of Scotland’s North Coast 500.

It’s a circular route that encompasses the highest through road in the country, at 900 metres, and the area with the greatest number of bears in Sweden. There is a 30 kilometre plateau on its west-most section that is all above 850 metres. It is closed in winter, and gets on average 7 metres of snow for four months.

This is where the Stekenjokk mine is.

If the weather had been more favourable I certainly would have stayed up here for a night or two, but today it was not so welcoming. We opted for a couple of short hiking escapades, 40 minutes or so, timed supposedly when the rain was lighter.

At the town of Gaddede, a pleasant tourist attraction, I completed my arc, and headed west, just a few kilometres back into Norway. My destination was the Lierne National Park, to which, just in the last year, a new access road has been constructed, so new, that it doesn’t show on any maps yet.

Fortunately there was a signpost for the 5 kilometre gravel track which ends in a car park with the usual facilities, a shelter with fire pit, toilets and car park. At 600 metres asl, it is a perfect overnight park-up. The rain cleared as forecast just after 5 pm, giving us an hour of daylight for a quick walk.

There’s a cabin also, that is being rented by four hunters and their dogs, all very friendly, and we chatted for a while. The moose hunting season opened last weekend.