Grodkällan is a spring in the Slengmyren bog in the municipality of Arvidsjaur in Norrbotten. According to Pernilla Lindblom it lies about 30 km north of Arvidsjaur. Its Sami name is Tsuobbuoája, the Swedish name is its translation and means frog spring. According to Älvsby News the name probably comes from Sami who rested at the spring on their way to Arvidsjaur and saw frogs wintering there. According to the same paper the spring served as a boundary mark between two Lapland districts, as court records from 1823 show. We were there on 25 May 2021, as a stop on the drive from Jokkmokk to Arvidsjaur. The path is short, it runs on boardwalks across the bog to the edge of the spring-fed lake.
From Jokkmokk it is about 140 km for us to get there. According to sistaminutenallinclusive.se you drive north from Arvidsjaur on the E45 towards Jokkmokk, turn off after Auktsjaur towards Lomträsk and then follow the signs. The last part of the route runs on piled-up gravel straight through a forest. In OpenStreetMap this is Häggsjövägen, Älvsby News call it Häggsjölidvägen. It had only just rained when we came, and again and again there were larger potholes and ruts left by other vehicles. We switch on the 4WD on our car, which makes driving much more pleasant. After 8 km on this stretch, with more and more potholes, we reach the “car park”, a gravel hollow where we park. According to Pernilla Lindblom there is room for about 3 to 4 cars.
According to Älvsby News, a sign at the car park shows 0.6 km to Grodkällan. From there a path leads across the bog to the spring. In 2017 Älvsby News described it as partly laid with boardwalks, give 600 m and 20 minutes and rate it as easy. According to Swedish Passport, in July 2021 a new boardwalk ran along the whole way, before that they had read that crossing the bog was a bit awkward. On our track it is 623 m each way, so about 1.25 km there and back. The path is level. The spring lies about 17 m lower than the car park, the way back climbs barely noticeably. We did not record our own walking time.
Luckily there are not too many mosquitoes yet when we are there. Still, we rub ourselves with a mosquito repellent that is sold locally. To the left and right of the boardwalk everything is under water, though there are also some drier spots, and trees grow out of the water.
At the end of the boardwalk lies the spring-fed lake. The water is light blue and crystal clear and reflects the trees all around. On the bottom you can see springs everywhere, from which fresh water flows out. According to Älvsby News, Grodkällan is a cold spring 15 m across and at least 3 m deep, Swedish Passport give about 15 m across and 3 m deep. The water is under high pressure and pushes up from the bottom, in Swedish this is called an artesian or “kokande källa”, a boiling spring. According to Pernilla Lindblom this makes the bottom look as if it were boiling, but the water itself is cold.
According to OpenStreetMap there is a shelter, a fireplace, an information board and a pit toilet at the spring. Swimming is not allowed, as Pernilla Lindblom and sistaminutenallinclusive.se write. It is also best to keep away from the edge (sistaminutenallinclusive.se). According to Swedish Passport the water otherwise turns cloudy, which in the long run can destroy the spring. According to sistaminutenallinclusive.se dogs must be kept on a lead from 1 March to 20 August, and you take your rubbish back with you.
At the spring it starts to rain for us. We walk back out of the bog on the same boardwalk while it is not yet raining too hard, otherwise it gets muddy. With 4WD switched on, even Annina, as an “off-road beginner”, then gets back over the gravel road to normal roads without any problem, and we drive on to Arvidsjaur.
