From Rogen to Femunden – Seven Days by Packraft

One of the best things about working as an adventure guide is that you get to meet some truly great people.

After buying packrafts and, with almost no experience, setting off on their first packrafting adventure in Sweden – which ended with an unpleasant, and I can say dangerous, swim – they realised they needed to start from the beginning.

They needed a whitewater course.

And that’s how they found me.

It was 2023 when we first met on the Tara River in Montenegro. With their positive spirit, kindness and honesty, it quickly became more of a friendship than a typical guide-client relationship.
This summer they invited me to visit them and join them on a small expedition.

Plan A was western Norway: a long hike into a river, followed by some class IV-V whitewater.

Ha ha ha.

You must be joking.

That was pretty much my answer.

I wanted an adventure without too much stress. No phone signal. Good fishing. A nice mix of action and doing absolutely nothing.

So we changed the plan.

Inspired by Norwegian adventurer Lars Monsen, we decided on a lesser-known route through Femundsmarka National Park.

The journey would connect two countries – Sweden and Norway – and a series of waterways from Lake Rogen all the way to Femunden, Norway’s second-largest natural lake. Our final destination would be the small village of Elga on the shore of Femunden.

Everything I needed for seven days of packrafting, fishing and camping fitted into a 35 kg backpack. To be fair, there was probably enough food and gear in there for 14 days. Maybe even 21.

Somehow, we also managed to pack the sun.

I brought it with me from Montenegro, where it had been shining for something like 45 days straight.

And it worked.

They told me it’s extremely rare to get seven straight days of sunshine in this part of Sweden and Norway.

Well, we did.

Even the wind only really showed itself for one day, while we were crossing Lake Rogen.
Apart from that, everything was almost perfect.

Days without phone signal or internet. Great fishing – plenty of grayling, perch and trout. Interesting rapids, mostly class II, with a few harder sections reaching class III, IV and even V.

Two sunsets I won’t forget.