Wilderness adventures in Sweden's Abisko National Park

Abisko, Sweden - The blackish-blue river gurgled its way to the valley. Birch leaves shone bright green, and crimson lichen clung to a granite boulder. The evening sun still hung high in an azure sky as a campfire crackled. A resting hiker, wreathed in smoke, poked at his baking potato.

The wilderness in Abisko National Park, 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, is idyllic. Sweden established the park in 1909, the year it became the first European country to enact nature conservation laws. To mark the centennial, Sweden has declared 2009 the Year of Nature.

The smoke from the campfire kept away the mosquitoes, of which there were definitely a few million too many. Culex vulgaris, as the common mosquito is known to science, buzzes through the northern summer in huge swarms. Other winged tormentors that are out and about include flies, horseflies and blackflies.

Hikers familiar with conditions in the Swedish province of Lapland come properly equipped - with clothing impermeable to insect bites, insect sprays and a trekking hat with fine-mesh netting to protect the face and head from bugs.

There is a very good chance of seeing elk and reindeer in Abisko National Park, and, with a little luck, arctic fox, wood grouse, lynx and wolverine. Bears and wolves roam the park too.

A Lapland tour provides enough adventure even without encounters with wild animals, though: wading through icy rivers, lugging 15 kilograms of gear in a backpack, drinking from natural springs and tramping in steady rain across wilderness devoid of humans.

The Kungsleden, 440 kilometres long and probably Sweden's best- known hiking trail, starts in Abisko. Aside from some Sami reindeer herders, hardly anyone lives in the Fjallen, the mountainous area of northwestern Sweden that includes the park. But the trail is well marked, timber trackways lie over otherwise barely passable bogs, and bridges span rapid streams.

What is more, there are managed huts along the way, always a day's hike apart. They offer a dry place to sleep, warm soup, cold beer and trail provisions.

Abisko is also the starting point for shorter hiking trails, and a chairlift there goes to the top of Mount Nuolja. The summit, above the timberline at an elevation of 900 metres, provides a panorama of Lapland's vast mountains. Amid the peaks lie swamps, bogs, rivers, pine forests and birch groves. Lake Tornetrask can be seen stretching eastward.

Many of the region's people still live by reindeer herding. But nowadays they round up the animals with helicopters and snowmobiles instead of on skis and sleds. And their yurts of reindeer skins have given way to electrically heated blockhouses with flat-screen TV sets.

Hikers itching for truly wild wilderness can go from Abisko to Vadvetjakka, Sweden's northernmost national park. Covering just 25 square kilometres in high mountains on the Norwegian border, it lacks paths, bridges and huts. Few visitors venture to the park, which can be reached only by hiking six kilometres through unmarked, swampy terrain.

At the campfire, meanwhile, the potato en papillote was done. There was elk salami and a river-cooled can of beer to go with it. The mosquito net was rolled down, the sun still shining, the sleeping bag already rolled out. It was time to rest for another adventure- filled day in the wilderness of Sweden's Lapland.

Information: Visit Sweden, Stortorget 2-4, SE-83130 Ostersund, Sweden (Tel.: 069/22 22 34 96, Internet: www. visitsweden. com); www. abisko-naturum. nu; www. lappland. se, www. fjallen. nu.