Summer vacation: July 19 2017

Lake Femunden, day 3

Peaks visited:

Peak Height PF Location
Stor-Svuku (Svahke) 1420m 450m Engerdal

Continued from July 18

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A great day by lake Femunden

The goal for the day was Stor-Svuku – one of the higher peaks surrounding lake Femunden, and previously the highest peak in the Femundsmarka national park.

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Stor-Svuku

The starting point was Elgå. Approx. half-way is the Svukuriset hut, owned by DNT (the Norwegian Trekking Association) One can get to Svukuriset on foot or on bike on a gravel road – 11,3km from Elgå or 9,2km from the the gate. Or – one can take the boat (M/S Fæmund II) 7km from Elgå to Revlingen, leaving one with only 4,6km up to Svukuriset.

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M/S Fæmund II

We chose to take the boat, bike up to Svukuriset, hike from there and bike back to Elgå.

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Trip tracks: green – boat, blue – bike, orange – hike

Starting a hike with a boat trip always brings an extra dimension to the trip. I haven’t done that since I hiked Kebnekaise (Sweden high point) many years ago, and looked very much forward it.

The boat crew boarded passengers and gear (lots of backpacks!) with routine and by 12:30pm, we were on our way.

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Passengers boarding, Karma watching

The cafeteria on board server (a.o.) waffles and cacao. A great way to start any hike…

At 1pm, we arrived at Revlingen and started our bike trip up to Svukuriset. Well, we didn’t go to Svukuriset, but biked 0,8km past it – 4,6km altogether from Revlingen.

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On bike from Revlingen

At 1:40pm we were on foot, 4km southwest of the summit, but the actual distance to the top was approx. 5,2km.

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On our way to Stor-Svuku, entering Femundsmarka national park

The first part of the hike went through an open birch forest, then we got on a long and seemingly flat meadow before we eventually started to climb up the mountain.

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A long march towards Stor-Svuku

We could see reindeer in the horizon, and we expected that we would run into them, sooner or later.

The trail was good and easy to follow. We topped out on the large summit plateau and aimed for the highest point – measuring at least 1420m. There is a cairn 0,3km to the southwest, but that is the 1416m trig. point. The time was 3:10pm when we reached the high point.

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Karma and me on Stor-Svuku

From the top, we could see almost all of lake Femunden, in addition to unknown territory across the Swedish border.

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Lake Femunden

After lunch on top, we headed towards the viewpoint cairn and had a quick chat with a couple of other hikers, which we had passed on the way up.

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At the viewpoint cairn

We took the same route down, and noticed – to our delight – that the weather got better an better.

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Running into reindeer (tame) on our way down

Back at the bikes, we biked down to Svukuriset and enjoyed sour cream porridge. Big yum! Afterwards, we started on our 11,3km bike trip back to Elgå.

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Sour creme porridge at Svukuriset

It was a really hot day by now, and Karma didn’t pass a single creek without getting her thirst satisfied.

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Karma has just had a nice swim…

The time was 6:52pm when we were back at Elgå. We drove back to our cabin by lake Femunden, had dinner, did my regular FB update and enjoyed the beautiful evening. Another great day by Femunden!

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Enjoying the evening in our cabin at Femundtunet

Pictures from the trip: 

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