River Walking

We arrived at the bridge crossing the Pite River (Piteälven) at the E45, parked our car and started walking. Crossing the bridge was quite easy as the snow wasn't too deep. On the bridge we had a lovely view over the Pite River Valley.

Due to cold temperatures of below -20°C throughout the last weeks the entire bridge is coated with a layer of ice. It hasn't been snowing considerably for many weeks. But the air is so clean that the snow is still white even at the side of the roads.

We walked a few kilometers upstream where the river is more calm. To our surprise we saw that the river was already entirely covered with ice and a thin layer of snow. It was thick enough to walk on. We were walking on the river, which was pretty nice and less exhausting due to less snow. River walking is not unusual to do in January/February but in the beginning of December?

The entire way we had the river for ourselves. It was just us and a few moose tracks. This will change soon though when people will park their snowmobiles on the river to go ice fishing - most likely in March when days are longer again. That'll be fun!

Here is another photo of the streams further down the river.