Jokkmokkguiderna – Dog sledding adventures, canoeing and other wilderness adventures in Lapland Sweden.

Every year the staff at Saltoluokta Mountain Station do something fun together for a few days to celebrate the breaking-up for the season.
Just as last spring we did a breaking-up tour together. This year they were quite many so some had to go with skis. So with dog teams and skis we went up to the Swedish Tourist Organizations cabin in Sitasjaure.
Enjoyable days, tasty food, nice people and good weather. The snow conditions were fantastic with a hard crust and we could go with the dogsleds everywhere not depending of trails.
/ Matti

After the first night spent at Saltoluokta Mountain Station we loaded the dogs in the car trailer and drove up to Ritsem. On the tour this week were Richard and Jacob from US.
During the week we got changing weather with everything from wind and snow flurries to bright sunshine and heating sun.
From Sitasjaure we steered our dog sleds up to the Norwegian border and then drove east towards the mountains of Kebnekaise. We spent two nights in the cabins in Sälka with the pleasure to get sauna with snow rolls and music from an Ipod. One of the days in Sälka we went up with the dog teams in Unna Räitasvagge, with an altitude of more than 1200 meters over sea level.
In the end of the season it always feels sad that the summer is around the corner. Normally we just want to keep on dog sledding just as we have done since November. And meet interesting people and experience the adventure in the wilderness with all what it includes. Snow storms, boiling cowboy coffee over the fire, fire in the cabin stoves and pull up the snow hook from the snow and give the dogs the starting commando…
/ Matti and Stina

After the first dog sledding course it was time for course number 2.
We are very happy that the Swedish Tourist Organization managed to book two fully booked groups.
Like the last week we began the course with a day tour down to Björkudden where we ate lunch at Camp Björkudden. The next day we drove south along the Kings Trail on an overnight tour to the Sitojaure cabin.
Saltoluokta offered as always on a cozy atmosphere and delicious food!

Thank you Anna, Mona, Eva, Katarina, Anneli and Helena! Hope to see you again!

/ Matti och Stina

For many years we have been the organizer of a Dog sledding course run by the Swedish Tourist Organization.
This year we did not only have human participants on the course. Puppy “Yra” 10 week old, daughter of Lisa also learned about dog sledding. She was born in February and travelled in Mattis sled. Sometimes she were protesting and sometimes she was satisfied and there came snoring sounds from the inside of the sled.

Here are some pictures from the course and we hope to meet Lina, Gunnar, Per, Susanne and Martha again.
Our neighbor from Jokkmokk, Rianne, also came along and her will we definitely see more of when we get back home from the mountains.
/ Matti & Stina

This week we had several previous guests coming back. Ulla (Sweden) who followed us on the tour The northern Kings Trail with huskies in 2009 and Paula and Franco (Italy) which followed on the tour The gate to Sarek National Park in 2010. We also got two new guests, Dorothea (Netherlands) and Terje (Norway). We are happy to get new acquaintances and it’s very nice to have “old celebrities” back.
With sleds loaded with dog food and food for our self for 6 days we commanded our leader dogs northeast from Saltoluokta Mountain Station. Our destination for the first day was Tjuonajokk Fishing Camp. Some parts of the trail follow parts of Sjaunja Nature reserve with vast bogs and forest areas. Sjaunja is a part of Laponia World Heritage. In Tjuonajokk we were served delicious mashed potatoes with a creamy reindeer stew in their cozy restaurant.
The next day we headed out west along the Kaitum rivers glen with some parts of windswept spots and sometimes surfaces with clear ice. On the clear ice Fenris (one of our huskies) strained a back leg and had to hike in Stinas sled for the rest of the tour.
After a night in the cabin in Kaitumjaure we travelled along to Hukejaure, Sälka, Teusajaure and then via Stora Sjöfallet back to Saltoluokta Mountain Station.

A lovely sunny week!
/ Matti & Stina

With our sight fixed towards Sarek National Park we drove our fully loaded dogsleds west from Saltoluokta. This year Siergas Sami group had almost no reindeers in the area and we were relatively free to choose the route without interfering in their work with the reindeers.
On this year’s Explore Sarek tour we had two men, Tommy and Krister both from Sweden. Both of them have great experience of outdoor life and travels in the mountains. Unfortunately Krister fell with his sled already the first day and hit his already week knee pretty bad. More bad than he first wanted to realize. Me and Tommy who works as a nurse wrapped his knee and continued the tour in to Sarek, Bielavalta in the upper part of the Rapavalley (Swedish:Rapadalen) also called Predators market and the heart of Sarek National Park where we spent our second night. The day after we continued down through the valley. The leader dogs made an impressive work and found an old snow-covered snowmobile trail.
The third night Kristers knee gave up. It didn’t work at all. We stayed in the camp for an extra 24 hours and talked to a doctor via the satellite phone and were thinking about different options. Finally the mountain rescue was our only solution and the day after Lasse, Leif, Bobbo and Janne came with snow mobiles from Kvikkjokk. They got Krister and some of his equipment. And there we stood Tommy and me with 22 sled dogs. Tommy got a powerful 8 dog team and I had 14 huskies in front of my sled. We drove down along the mountain rescuers trail and reached the cabin in Aktse in the evening. The rest of the tour went well with exciting dog sledding and finished in Saltoluokta.
We met Krister again in Saltoluokta. He had been very well taken care of by the mountain rescue guys. All three of us agreed that Sweden is a fantastic country where we have such a good rescue system.
Another exciting and eventful week has passed!
/Matti

During the years going by we have had many returning guests on our tours. Ewald and Laura are two of them. Ewald joined on the tour The gate to Sarek National Park 2009 and Laura has been on a shorter tour. Since 2009 they have also bought a house outside Jokkmokk which they visit very often and they also rent it out when they are not here. Visit their website for more info if you are interested in renting a holiday house above the polar.
This winter we did a enjoyable overnight tour with dog sled in the woodlands of Jokkmokk.
/ Matti & Stina

After spending two nights at Saltoluokta Mountain Station after the last tour me, 20 huskies and Lotta and Maria two gusts from Uppsala headed out with three teams south along the Kings Trail. During the first days it was cloudy and a bit windy. The third night when we were in PÃ¥rte cabin we got a magnificent northern light show. Sometimes it lay still up on the sky and slowly faded away before it flared up again like a fire coming to life. I took some photo shots before I went back in to the warm cabin. Lotta and Maria were more persistent northern light watchers than me but finally came in to sleep. The northern light was active for several hours that night.
The day after we got very delayed to start because we got an offer it was hard to say no to. Berta the caretaker of the cabin invited us for pancakes and cowboy coffee. We there for had to go the last part to the Aktse cabin in the dark with our headlights. Between Aktse and Sitojaure it was really bad visibility. The wind took the snow up in the air and it was so thick that we couldn’t see between the trail markers. The leader dogs made a really good job. Not only the leaders of my team but also the ones in the teams behind who faithfully followed my dogteam. Maria and Lotta handled it very well even if we sometimes couldn’t see each other’s sleds.
Another nice week with pleasant guests. Welcome back!
/Matti

Time for one of my favorite tours! Crossing Lapland with dog sled, starting at the kennel in Jokkmokk and goes southeast to Saltoluokta up in the mountains. Thomas and Elin joined on the tour this year. For Thomas this was his second time dog sledding with us. His first time was a short 3 hour tour. Elin have more experience and have been with us on The Northern Kings Trail with huskies tour in 2008 and Explore Sarek 2009. We travelled along snowmobile trails the first couple of days and spent the nights in small timber huts. The evening we spent in Laxholmen we got a nice northern light. The day after we drove 50 km on approx. 3,5 hours which I think is pretty good for three dog teams with heavy sleds.
On day three we arrived to Ã…rrenjarka where a really nice cabin awaited us. We got a hot shower in our cabin and were served a tasteful dinner in the restaurant. Maybe it’s more proper to call it a house instead of cabin, heater in the floor and everything… In Ã…rrenjarka you are always warmth welcomed! The day after we got company by Tor-Henrik and his dogs over to the PÃ¥rte cabin. He showed us a trail over the mountain from Ã…rrenjarka to Stuor Tata. A new trail for me and an area I really like to go to again.
To arrive to Saltoluokta Saltoluokta is a little bit like coming home for me. During the last 15 years I have started out on many tours from here. I never get enough of the superb food served in their restaurant and never get tired of the panorama sauna and there is always happy and helpful staff.
/Matti

This season we offered a new tour called Dog sledding adventure and northern lights . We have some fixed dates on our website but sometimes we get requests for other dates. This was the case for Bart and Stijn from the Netherlands.

We had very nice weather these four days even if it was cold. We spent two nights in different cabins and the last night in a tipi tent. Bart and Stijn was looking forward to tell all their friends that they had slept in a tent in -38 C. In the tipi we had a wood stove and we slept on reindeer skins and had warm sleeping bags with fleece inlets so we had it really comfortable in the night.
/Stina