Arctic Circle Trail Diary - Day 6 (Hundesø)
Rain, Wind and Canoes
On Thursday we began the next leg of our trek a little beyond the Hundesø hut where we had camped the night before, and set out towards our next waypoint, the Katifik hut. I had a porridge mix for breakfast before we started to pack away the tents.
We were both referring to the excellent ‘Trekking in Greenland - The Arctic Circle Trail’ book written by Paddy Dillon and published by Cicerone. We would loosely base each day’s hiking on the legs defined in this guidebook, studying it both in camp and while underway. It was small and lightweight enough to be easily carried while on the trail.
Walking today would take us on an undulating route with two significant climbs and descents along the edges of several lakes. We would follow a very faint trail, keeping an eye out for way marker cairns and checking in with the map and compass every so often. As we set off, there was a steady but light rain drizzle which lasted most of the morning. At one point, we turned back to catch sight of the distant ice-cap on the horizon where we had begun the trek several days earlier.
We made good progress and arrived at the Katiffik hut around two o’clock in the afternoon. This hut was rather small and dark. This was the first ‘official’ ACT hut, as the caravan from yesterday wasn’t technically one of them. Like the last, this hut had several donated partially filled camping gas cylinders. In addition to not necessarily needing to carry tents, it was also becoming apparent we may have been able to avoid buying expensive gas at Kangerlussuaq by using gas from huts.
Another ACT hiker we met travelling in the opposite direction advised us they had left a metal canoe at the next lake and if we found it we could use it to expedite our onward journey. We continued on, leaving the Katiffik hut behind. About half an hour later, we came across the canoe. It was in good condition but the weather was not conducive to making use of it - it was simply too windy and choppy on the water.
Further along the Amitsorsuaq lake, we made camp on a small sandy beach. Rice with curry sauce was today’s dehydrated ‘pouch de jour’. Today we had travelled 24km including 530 meters of climbing in around 8 hours and 45 minutes. The cumulative running total for the expedition was now 90.5km and 1650m of ascent.
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