David and I left for the Øvre Pasvik National Park. We cycled along the Pasvik river, close to the Russian border. At one point we could see the fuming industrial exhausts of the Russian town of Никель (Nikel) on the far side of the river.
We rode about 92km to the village of Vaggetem, and then took a forest road for 10km. At its end the track to Finland starts. Unfortunately, there was no way to take the bikes on that track; it would have taken ages. Plan B: Hike the track to the Finnish border without bikes, then go back.
We walked only the first 4.4km to the Ellenkoia cabin, an ‘open wilderness hut’ at the Ellenvann (Ellen is the short Sámi form of Elias, so Ellenvann means Elias Lake). A Norwegian couple and their beautiful Alaskan Malamute Aiki were there already. David decided to sleep in the hut, I pitched my tent a few meters away.
