Northern Europe: Southern Kungsleden 2

Orange trail marker in a confusing boulder field

So far I had been following the European long-distance trail E1 which continues all the way to the North Cape. But around Grövelsjön the E1 veers into Norway, whereas I stayed on the Southern Kungsleden for two reasons: Sweden is a lot cheaper than Norway and because the Kungsleden is still a relatively popular trail it is well maintained and has a good infrastructure. But coming out of Grövelsjön I first had to master a very rocky stretch full of large boulder fields. I was so happy about my new trekking poles because balancing over and around these huge rocks without them would have been even more stressful.

Two British paddlers in the Rogen lake area

Weather was still not great and therefore I was shooting for one of the wind shelters for my first night after Grövelsjön. But when I arrived there late in the evening camp fire smoke indicated me even from far away that the shelter had already been taken. My first indignation changed to enthusiasm when I met the people in the shelter: two young British doctors who were out for a two week long paddling trip! Over several cups of tea in the evening and morning we traded "war stories" of emergency rooms and outdoor adventures. Alas, as doctors they were not overly impressed by my dog bite! They had seen much worse in their short professional career and I was told to be thankful that I had not been bitten by a human. Human bites, for example in pub brawls are much more widespread than I had thought and are a lot more dangerous than dog bites ...

My cold weather sleeping attire

Now the weather changed for the worse. High winds and a temperature drop down to freezing end of June made me hike alternate routes in the valley instead of high up in the exposed mountains. Because of the wind I set up my tent inside shelters and I put on all my clothes at night. Still, I wondered how I would survive all this if the weather did not improve ... Luckily this turned out to be the only really bad spell of weather during this 4 months long hike!
Unfortunately, from now on I could no longer rely on the huts and shelters along the trail. Hiking season had started by now and the Northern part of the Southern Kungsleden is far more popular than the Northern end. I met several hikers per day and when I arrived at a rest shelter in the evening on a really windy and rainy day it was already taken by a German couple.

Bad luck - but this incident made me realise that I had to change my camping strategy. Instead of heading for the numerous shelters from now on I tried to end the day at a sheltered and low lying area suitable for camping. I became a specialist for finding sheltered sites even in the most impossible areas. For example on this evening I grumpily hiked on in the wind and rain and found this wonderful campsite next to a little stream which was cut into the landscape and provided perfect shelter from the wind. Despite the rather soggy ground I slept like a baby ...

Blahammaren Fjell Station in the fog

Along the Southern Kungsleden there are also several mountain stations. Although very comfortable they were way too expensive for me on the long run! Still I was very glad they existed because they are all equipped with a cell phone tower and free wifi ....
Despite the bad weather I enjoyed the Southern Kungsleden - are at least what I saw through the fog ... I can especially recommend it for novice hikers because the trail is well marked, there are plenty of shelters and huts along it and it is not as overrun as its more popular Northern counterpart. There are bridges over most rivers and board walks in the swamps so it is technically not too difficult - a very nice introduction to hiking in Scandinavia.

Summer bridge on the Kungsleden

This section ended in Storlien, the terminus of the Southern Kungsleden - and for me with a big shock! I had ordered a new GPS from Amazon with delivery at the post office in the big supermarket in Storlien, but when I got there there was no package waiting for me. On the contrary, the post master told me that this office does not accept general deliveries at all .... He also couldn't tell me where my package had gone instead! This was a huge problem for me: The Kungsleden had been marked very well so I hadn't really had to use a GPS but next was a difficult section on the Norwegian side. I still had my smartphone as a back up for navigation but I really needed a new GPS now.

Nidaros cathedral in Trondheim

I took the train to Trondheim in Norway where I checked into the youth hostel and immediately started research on outdoor shops. Downtown outdoor stores did not stock GPS devices but finally I found one in a big sports chain store in the suburbs. I nearly kissed the sales guy when he handed me the new GPS and it worked with my micro SD card containing all the maps and tracks for this hike! After I had solved this problem I had a relaxing stay in sunny, but expensive Trondheim and even treated myself to an AYCE sushi buffet. And of course I visited the world famous Nidaros cathedral! You have to pay to get in - except when you are pilgrim!

Northern Europe: Southern Kungsleden 1

Youth camp along the Southern Kungsleden

As soon as I started on the Southern Kungsleden in Sälen the landscape changed dramatically! Now I was in the "fjäll", the mountains and tree line here is at 800 metres above sea level. Above that altitude there were no more trees whatsoever - and therefore not much shelter from the elements.... The Southern Kungsleden is by far not as popular as its Northern counterpart but on day two I came across a big youth camp with dozens of tents. It was already late in the evening when I walked by and loud snoring came out of one of the tents. Poor kids, apparently they had to put up with a snoring teacher ... I found a secluded spot next to the river and had a quiet night.

Eating lunch inside a rest shelter

The weather had been incredibly good during almost the entire hike so far - very hot and unusual for Sweden. But now it changed for a few days and showed me that hiking without tree cover can be very exposed. Luckily there is a good system of shelters along the Southern Kungsleden. After one long rainy and windy day I was incredibly happy to be able to sleep inside and out of the weather. I just watched the rain on the windows ... Next morning the rain had stopped but the wind had increased. It got so strong that it made hiking really hard. I had lunch in a rest shelter along the way. Getting into it had been a bit of problem because due to the wind it had been difficult to open the door ....
 

Idyllic hut on the Southern Kungsleden

I really liked the different shelters along the Southern Kungsleden that I had all to myself because it was still early in the season (end of June). Some were old farmhouses and I even slept in an old school building!

Expensive resupply in Flötningen

In the small village of Flötningen I had to do a big resupply. According to google maps there is a supermarket right at the Swedish Norwegian border which is open 7 days per week. But when I reached the main road on a Sunday afternoon there was hardly any traffic and my hopes of food dwindled. But to my big surprise there really was a rather big supermarket with a decent selection - but the highest prices I had seen in Sweden so far. I paid 80 EUR for the food shown on the picture. Sweden is generally around 20% more expensive than Germany, but here I paid nearly double German prices! But I had no choice because there is no alternative except hitchiking to a bigger city ....

AYCE buffet in Grövelsjön

My next rest day took place in Grövelsjön Fjell Station, the Southernmost mountain station in Sweden - and unfortunately there is no supermarket or other shops there. You can buy some hiker food at the station but at even higher prices. Grövelsjön was very expensive but worth it! I had a small but nice single room and booked breakfast and dinner. Both meals are served as an AYCE buffet and the food was excellent! You are seated at specific tables which means that you are not sitting alone but you are placed next to other people which led to interesting conversations. I was sitting next to a retired dentist who told me interesting "war stories" of her long career. I enjoyed the free sauna and wifi and was able to wash my clothes in a washing machine. Grövelsjön even has an outdoor shop where I bought new trekking poles. I had bent my old ones when I fell a couple of days earlier. Nothing had happend to me but one pole bent so badly that it would break sooner or later.

Central Sweden: Conclusion

Typical forest in Central Sweden

When I started this hike I had really been looking forward to this section in Central Sweden because I do like to walk in forest: it gives me protection against wind, rain and sun! But I have to admit that all the forest got a bit boring in the end. The terrain is flat, the forest consists of thin spruce trees and the trail is often overgrown and/or difficult to walk. Large-scale logging activities complicated hiking as well because of missig markers and trail damage caused by vehicles. There are very few view points along the trail and because Sweden is sparsely populated there is not much in the way of cultural sights like wayside crosses or chapels.

One of the many nice lakes along the trail

But there were two highlights, too: Every day I came across at least one lake. In summer this is perfect for swimming and I was a very clean hiker on this section! This has been an unusually hot summer but I had few water problems because of all these lakes. I guess fishing would be an option, too. To make things even better there are free shelters beside many of these lakes! And typical for Sweden there are fire places and even free fire wood is provided! I encountered very few other hikers and mostly had the shelters for myself. Because of the shelters it is very feasible to hike here year round. Bring a free standing tent so that you can set it up inside the shelter for bug protection!

A very happy hiker in one of the shelters

My two favourite trails were the Bergslagsleden and the Vasaloppsleden - mainly because these two trails have the best shelter system. I can happily recommend these trails for stressed out hikers who are looking for a relaxing one- or two-week long trip in relative wilderness. Compared to the more popular trails like the Kungsleden you will hardly met any other hikers here but you feel still far away from civilisation. And because of all the forest you can still have a relatively good time even if the weather turns bad. For the long-distance hiker this is still a nice section but it gets a bit dull after a while.

Northern Europe: Vasaloppsleden

Mora was my next rest day which I spent in a nice AirBnB place. Although the infection in my leg had disappeared the wound itself took a long time to heal. It was very deep and animal bites never get stitches. Whenever I squatted down the wound opened up again - and it was still festering. When I left Mora I decided to buy hydrogen peroxide in order to clean the wound daily. Of course by the time I wanted to leave town almost all pharmacies had closed and I had to hike a three kilometre detour to find one in a big shopping mall. And to my utter surprise I had to learn that hydrogen peroxide is not available in Sweden at all! I bought another desinfectant which did the trick eventually.
 

Idyllic location in the forest

The Vasaloppsleden is only 90 kilometres long and can be used by hikers, cyclist and skiers - sometimes on different route variants. The world famous Vasoloppet ski race takes place here in winter and there are summer races as well. I saw very few other hikers there which meant that I had all the wonderful huts to myself! And this is the biggest advantage of this sweet little trail: There are huts every 10 - 15 kilometres which only cost as little as five EUR per night! Plus there are plenty of shelters along the trail for rest breaks. The huts are located at some really idyllic spots and are equipped with beds, stove and fire wood! I just loved them - and their prices!

Inside one of the huts

It rained cats and dogs on day two on the Vasaloppsleden. Unfortunately water got into my Garmin GPS and after drying the "joystick" stopped working. Although this was bad news it did not come as a big surprise: I had been using the GPS for years now! But how to get a replacement? I ordered one from Amazon to a postoffice in Storlien which was about 2 weeks ahead. The rainy day though had a wonderful ending: I reached one of the huts which was located right next to a lake, took an evening swim and dried all my clothes overnight inside. Altough the huts are well equipped most of them don't have electricity - therefore it came as a nice surprise that right before the end of the Vasaloppsleden I came across a "race centre" which is used in winter time by the organizers. There was electricity and even a water kettle and a kitchen! Nice place for an early lunch and recharging my phone!

Wonderful hut location right next to a lake

Northern Europa: Smeleden and the dog bite

I, Sif and Sophie

After the Berglagsleden the E1 follows some rather obscure local hiking trails that are not very well or even non-existant. The landscape isn't that fascinating either so this was a good time to make some kilometres - despite the heat. The little town of Smedjebacken was my next rest day. There I encountered not only a supermarket but also a very charming and incredibly cheap (for Swedish standards!) guesthouse: Lotta's Krog. To my even bigger surprise I met two Danish girls there who turned out to be E1 hikers, too! Because of the high amount of snow they had not started at the North Cape but further South in Sweden. They were definitely not ultralight, but very interested in my equipment, so I ended up doing another private ultralight hiking workshop. We were hiking in opposite directions so we had to say good bye the next morning. 

The fresh bite

 I left Smedjebacken around noon in wonderful sunny weather - and had no clue what bad surprise was waiting for me. I was passing a big farm outside Smedjebacken when all of a sudden a pack of dogs came running towards me barking aggressively. First I was not afraid too much: I have had so many dog encounters during my hiking career that I just reacted as I always do. Stand still, tell them in a loud voice to back off and use my trekking poles to keep them at a distance. But these rather big dogs came closer and closer circling around me. Still I was not too worried because I could hear the owner rushing towards us. But the five dogs did not react at all to their owner's commands. The started jumping up on me and became more and more excited - until one of them bit me in the leg. I started screaming - not because the bite was so painful but because I was now really scared! The dog owner, a woman my age finally got control over the situation. Excusing herself profusely she took my arm and led me to the stables where she locked up the dogs immediately - who behave perfectly well by now! Only then did I take a look at the bite and was shocked! I did not feel much pain, but the bite was deep!

One of the culprits - a Rhodesian ridgeback

Lotta, the owner, was shaking more than me. She explained that she had been training the dogs and had just been bringing them back to their kennel when I passed by her property - and the situation got out of control. She was breeding the dogs: Rhodesian Ridgebacks - they were bred for lion hunting in South Africa! I started to think the bite could have been much worse considering what kind of dogs they were ....
Lotto who had been living on farms all her life  long was used to all sorts of emergencies and immediately took care of the situation. She gave me pain killers, cleaned and desinfected the wound and dressed it up with sterile bandages. And she gave me her contact data offering any help I would need.

First Aid in Lotta's stable

Later I was asked many times why I did not report this incident to the police. I really had the impression that this had just been a very unlucky coincidence - I had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. And Lotta will never ever have her five dogs running around free so close to the public foot path again. Also she had immediately taken responsiblity for the incident and had even offered financial compensation - which I refused. I think that shit happens - and now it had hit me but I did not want to take advantage of it. I just hiked on half an hour after the incident. The pain was tolerable and luckily I still had an active Tetanus vaccination. But unfortunately this was not the end of it....

At Falun hospital emergency room

My best German friend and trail manager Wulf has a medical background and when I consulted him via phone he also advised to hike on - but keep a close eye on the wound. I sent him photos of my leg every day and unfortunately on day two after the bite he told me to go to hospital soon. The entire leg was red and swollen. Apparently the wound had gotten infected. By then I was in the middle of nowhere and it was Saturday - and all doctors closed. I walked to the next road and decided to hitchhike into Falun, the next big city with a big hospital. I was incredibly lucky because the young couple that picked me took pity on me and made a big detour to bring me directly to the emergency room! There blood tests and samples were taken and a very friendly doctor prescribed antibiotics to treat the infection.

The antibiotics prescription

Whether I liked it or not I now needed a rest. The antibiotics and the infection made me weak and the summer heat did not improve my situation. There was no cheap hostel available so I had to stay in a rather posh and expensive hotel - but what the heck! Already after 24 hours the swelling had disappeared and after two nights in Falun I decided to hike on. The hospital doctor even called me on day three to tell me the result of the samples: I had had the classical dog bite infection with a bacteria called Pasteurella which grows in animals' mouth. He then officially allowed me to hike on - although I was already on the trail again .... 10 days I had to take antibiotics - but the wound would cause my trouble for much longer ....

Northern Europe: Vätterleden and Bergslagsleden

As you can deduce from its name the Västra Vätterleden leads you around the Western side of Lake Vättern. For me this was a trip back in time because it also brought me back to the Göta canal which I had paddled some years before. I even remembered getting water at this lock which I did again on this trip. I had paddled here in October in rather cold temperatures whereas now I had not seen a single day of rain on this trip! I recharged my phone in the public toilet and had to seek shadow for my lunch break because it was so hot!

Apart from this short stretch along the canal I was constantly hiking in forest now. Open shelters are located at regular intervals along the trail mostly situated at really idyllic lakes.

 And because of the continous hot weather I was soon able to take a swim several times a day without freezing. Because of several public holidays in May there were lots of people out on the trail - very few other hikers but fishermen and even a big religious youth group with a huge tipi. When I encountered them in the evening right at the shelter where I had intended to sleep that night I had some rather unreligious feelings. I had to hike on to find another suitable campsite. I also came across several Christian-run campsites along the trail one of which turned out to be a fantastic place for an extended lunch break in the shade!

But not only other people where occupying the free shelters: Several times wasps had built their nests right in the wooden shelter. I usually set up my tent inside the shelter anyways to protect myself from mosquitoes but hearing the loud buzzing of wasps and hornets made me nervous at night. I also encountered a surprising amount of snakes on the trail: adders and slow worms.  I had not expected them so far North. Because it was so dry luckily mosquitoes were not a big problem.

Because the ultralight hiking world is small and well connected I even had a date on the Bergslagsleden. Stefan whom I had so far only virtually met on a German outdoor forum was hiking the trail in the other direction and we made an appointment to meet in a shelter for lunch. This lunch break turned into one of the longest on this entire trip because of course we could not stop talking ....
I also had a full rest day in a nice AirBnB place in Örebro which is only a short bus ride away from the trail. Buses run every half hour along the motorway making it easy to go resupplying there.

Both trails are marked pretty well and there were even English trail brochures with maps on the internet. But in areas with recent logging activities hiking was no fun: no markings and sometimes badly overgrown trail. I must also admit that I started to get fed up with all the trees especially since the Bergslagsleden does several long twists and turns which can be short cut - which I did .... Still the Bergslagsleden was a real highlight of this trip with all the wonderful lakes and shelters. Beside Stefan I did not see many other hikers on it. Here you are not far away from civilisation but you definitely don't feel much of it!

Northern Europe: Sjuhäradsleden

with Jörgen Johanson

My trip started with work! Jonas Hallen and Jörgen Johanson, both Swedish ultralight hikers, had invited me to do a workshop on long-distance hiking. Very easy task - I just showed and explained the equipment that I had brought for my upcoming hike! When Jörgen and a friend picked me up from Stockholm airport they told me that I had arrived at the first day of spring after a long winter. Perfect timing! After this prelude I took the train to Gothenborg and started hiking the E1 northbound from there on May 7th. The E1 uses existing trails - some of them well known, but also some local trails. This brought me to the Sjuhäradsleden.

Knut

Although it was nice to be out in the woods again, the Sjuhäradsleden is definitely nothing to write home about. It is mostly within earshot of a major motorway which made finding a quiet camp site at night rather difficult for me. But as a nice surprise I got company! Knut, a veteran E1 hiker who had already completed most of the trail in Italy and Norway, camped with me one night. As I prefer to hike alone we split up again but I met Knut again at the end of the Sjuhäradsleden in Mullsjö where he took the train home to Oslo for a short holiday from the holiday. Knut had managed to get a shower before boarding the train whereas I was still dirty and smelly after my first week of hiking.

View from a shelter along the trail

Therefore I was a bit reluctant to give him a good bye hug. But Knut just smiled and said: "You don't smell bad. You just smell like a real hiker!" I guess he is right .... And I managed to get clean very soon as well because Mullsjö was my first rest day on this trip which I spent in a rather posh hotel.