Diary of an ACT thru-hiker. Day 6.

Kieran joined us in September 2023 on our inaugural Greenland Arctic Circle Trail trek from the ice-sheet to the sea. He kept a written and photographic journal of his adventure, which he has kindly allowed us to share with you. Check our main blog page for Days 0-5 and daily entries following this one!

13/9/23 Wednesday. Day 6.

In camp.

Woke up tired and stiff. The wind is up, and I was slow getting out of the sleeping bag. Ronan says to pack up as much as we can, take down the inner tent and we’ll have breakfast in the outer to shelter from the wind.

Scenery changed some over the day since we left camp and we approached another big lake, this one more round than long and narrow. We passed it to the left then started uphill. Boggy of course. My abiding memory of the trail will be searching throughout. It’s a bad state of affairs when you have wet ground right by the vegetation, beautiful but bad woody twiggy low bushes good because their branches and roots will keep you out of most of it. Bright green grass, wedge, essentially a paddy field.

Steep climb of about 100 meters after seven or eight kilometers of walking – tough going at the time. Shortly afterwards we stopped for lunch by a boggy stream.  A solitary female passed by, she was probably a bit shocked to see a group of 10 out here.

Rocky and undulating after that. At one point there was a marker on a slight ridge to the right. Everyone else kept going, “we must stay on the track”, but I scooted up to see what there was to see.  It was breathtaking! Probably the best view I’ve seen since we started on the trail.  Snow covered mountains, rocky valleys, lakes and it all seemed to open up from this vantage point. After a few photos I hurried back down and caught up with the group at another viewing point, this one facing towards the direction we were heading while the one I just left was looking back to the right of where we came from. 

Time for bed. Tomorrow is the halfway stage, and the infamous bridge!