Åre Wild Camp Part 3 [Disaster] (Sept 1-5)

As we slept that night mother nature decided to give us a nice surprise. She decided it would be a great idea for it to start raining on us which wouldn't have been a problem if our tents would have been waterproof and not resilient. So needless to say when I awake the inside of our tent was getting a little wet. The executive decision was then made that we would hike back in the rain to the cabin, so after breakfast and the taking down of the tents we were almost ready to go. I took this time to go the sauna one last time and double check that I had everything. Before we left the campsite we also had to take photos of the group for the Rotarians and us of course. The hike back to the house was absolutely miserable we were cold, wet, and tired and had hike back 6km in mud. Needless to say, we weren't some happy campers. Everyone was really grumpy when we got back to the house, but after showers and dry clothes everyone was much more hospitable. The day was fished with playing games, talking, and eating dinner.

Åre Wild Camp Part 2 [First Day of Hiking] (Sept 1-5)

After breakfast and the dishes were done everyone was informed that we had to make our lunch for the day because we would be stopping mid-hike to eat. Once that was done everyone unloaded any unnecessary items out of their bags, to leave at the cabin, and we were off to the wilderness. The first part of the walk was quite pleasant and was on the road. I'm sure we had more than our share of stares from bewildered Swedish drivers. 

Preparing to leave

Photo with my later to be
best friend Niamh ft.
Sandrigo's Middle Finger

Eventually, we made it to the edge of the forest, and this was where the really gorgeous scenery started. About a quarter of the way to camp we came across a small stream and everyone, of course, had to taste the fresh water after the Rotarians had said it was okay to do so. To be honest, it was they best, freshest, and cleanest tasting water I have ever had in my life. We then continued to walk probably another 2km uphill, the whole walk has been up hill. At this point, I was hanging with friends in the back of the group when we came up on a turn. The Rotarian informed us that a large majority of the group missed the turn, so they were going to stay there and wait for the rest of the group to come back so they wouldn't miss the turn a second time. We, however, we more than welcome to continue on the right path to get to the lunch location. This turned out to be a bad decision on our part because somehow we managed to miss the very obvious lunch point and continued to hike to almost the spot where we were setting camp. We then had to turn back around so we could go back and eat lunch with the others. After lunch, we finished the last part of the hike through very swampy terrain, so if anyone didn't have hiking boots their shoes and socks got soaked and their feet cold. The total of the hike was around 6km I think.

At the head of the trail

The amazing water

When we went way too far

Lunch

Rest of the hike to camp

Once at the campsite, each group, which was assigned by the Rotarians, had to set up their tent. (The tents were more canopies because they didn't have floors. Following that, my group was informed that we had dinner duty that meant we couldn't screw around because we had to make dinner soon, but I still managed to go exploring for a little bit and have a nice bro talk with Pete (West Virginia) and Chris (California). While we were doing that some of the kids were getting waste deep in mud or experiencing the Swedish way of the sauna, a la nude.

As the day got later and later, the temperature got colder and colder. By the time I went to bed me and one of the oldies were the last ones by the fire. We both decided to go to our tents and then a couple minutes later her head was poking into my group's tent asking if she could sleep there because hers was crowded. I said it wasn't a problem and I was sure the others wouldn't mind because they were already fast asleep. It was also good for me because there were a couple extra sleepers in the tent already without sleeping mats, so I was barely on my mat because someone else was taking most of it. Once she laid down we both tried to sleep, but that was when Hunter (New Mexico) decided to serenade us in his sympathy of snores. That wasn't a problem for us though because we just decided to move closer together to stay warm in the unheated tents in the north of Sweden and shared stories in hushed tones in order not to wake the others and subject them to the bombardment of Hunter's snores. Eventually we fell asleep.

Åre Wild Camp Part 1 [Arriving to the House] (Sept 1-5)

There are two ways to get to Åre from Stockholm. The first is by train and the second is by plane. You would assume that the train would obviously be the cheapest. That is not the case. It was cheaper for us to fly there, so Val (MX), Jade (FR), and Amy (CA). We all met at Arlanda Airport quite early in the morning to meet up and go through security, which surprisingly went fast for an airport that size. We then flew for a couple hours and then had about another hour drive to the cabin we were staying at. Since we fly we were some of the first ones to arrive. 

Once arriving at the house it became a slow and steady stream of more people arriving. This was really exciting for the most of us because it was the first time meeting each other, but it felt like we had known each other for forever. This could be contributed to the wonders of social media and instant messaging (at this point we had all been messaging for around 3+ months).

That night we had a very traditional Swedish Fall dinner (will be in explained in a later post) of crayfish and cheese cake. After eating, cleaning, and listening to the rules/schedule a few of us decided to go exploring.