Blogs from Jämtland County, Sweden, Europe

A blog entry in which Wild River isn't a river at all In a previous blog entry we mentioned that there are plenty of rivers and rapids in northern Sweden. We have quite a few of those represented here in this blog entry. But we also want to point out that hiking also is a big thing in Sweden. There are many interesting hiking trails ready to explore for anyone who wish to do so. Below we will write about four of the hikes we made during our vacation. Three of them are along rivers, and one is along a former river. All three hikes are short and can be walked without bringing anything other than perhaps a bottle of water and some sunscreen. Vindel River Nature Centre The first hike we'd like to write about ... read more

On Thursday, 27 June 2019 I went for a 4 day hike starting from Vålådalen, a beautiful valley in Jämtland mountains. These are pretty much the closest mountains to Uppsala, but, because Sweden is big and flat, it takes around 6 hours by car to reach them. After the arrival I spent the night at a very nice mountain hostel: bathroom in the room was a very welcome surprise. It was already raining when I arrived there and it would not stop for the next 4 days. The weather was positively awful, clouds hanging very low with no visibility. I could only see in my imagination the views of mountains as high as 1700m. During the next 4 days I made a small loop, spending 3 nights in mountain huts. Everything looked very much similar to ... read more

Hello again Nun ist es soweit, die Schwedenferienzeit hat begonnen und wir wurden erstmals, ausser in Deutschland beim Drachenfest, an einem kleinen Campingplatz abgewiesen. Nun haben wir uns entschieden von der geplanten Route, entlang der Küste, in das schwedische Zentralland auszuweichen. Die Fahrt führte uns durch eine der Schweiz ähnliche Landschaft. Hier gab es wieder Kühe, Pferde und Weizenfelder. In dieser Gegend, Seen hat es in Hülle und Fülle, fanden wir wunderschöne Campingplätze wo wir jeweils 2 - 3 Tage verbracht haben. Ein Versuch mit einem Elektro-Boot die Fische in unseren Besitz zu bringen war nicht von Glück beschieden. Petrus verweigerte uns seine Gunst und die Angel blieb leer. Das Nachtessen wurde dann im Restaurant des Campingplatzes eingenommen. Elchhamburger und paniertes Schnitzel (auch gesund). Der Campingplatz selbst lag in der Nähe der Waldbrände und wurde ... read more

My best efforts to get away a little early were foiled. I had hoped to avoid as much traffic as I could by departing before 8:00 am even though this leg was only about 2.5 hours of walking. Suffice to say I did a complete unpack and repack of my backpack before departing. There were magnificent views across the Medstugusjön to the mountains on the border. My guidebook suggests the taller peak is in Norway, and without any way of confirming this on a map, I accepted that. Later I found a good topographic map in the hallway where I stayed, and confirmed that all the mountains on the horizon were in Norway. It was interesting to see that there were still a fair number of lakeside cottages. I'm not sure that i was expecting that. ... read more

I was starting to get into a nice walking cadence when it occurred to me that it had been a little while since I had last seen a marker. The little while that is the spacing between markers can vary considerably. In some places there were markers on every power pole along a stretch of road which offered no option but to keep going in any case. More often there were prominant markers at road and track junctions to confirm to keep going, or to turn onto a new path or road. In any case, I turned to check, and spotted a road a few hundred metres back that I hadn't paid any attention to as I passed it. Sure enough, I had missed a turn onto a delightfully shaded section of road and track. The ... read more