Q&A Thruhiking Sweden: Others

Others

• What did it cost?

  Honestly, we don’t know. We have not had time to go through all our expenses from the hike yet, and I seriously don’t know if we ever will. But lots of lots of money spent to just be able to eat whatever food we felt like, and we also bought a lot of new gear prior to the hike. I’m sure you could do it for a lot less if you really tried to.

  Edit 18th Sep 2022: We do have a document with all the expenses now! It can be found here.

• How did you sleep?

  In a tent, in shelters or indoors. If you want to know more specifically, you can check out the statistics or the blog posts.

• Did you carry a tent or a hammock?

  I carried a tent.

• How long did it take?

  113 days. You can check out the stats here.

• Do you think you could do it with a dog?

  I don’t know. I neither own a dog or have experience hiking with one. We had friends and family members who had a dog hike with us at times, so I think that as long as you have experience hiking with your dog, I don’t see how it would be a problem. Lots of people have hiked Gröna Bandet with their dogs! Why shouldn’t you be able to hike through all of Sweden with your companion? But, I’m guessing it will take a lot more planning since you’d have to carry more stuff and also perhaps send boxes to different places with your dog’s food. But I really think it is possible, if you really want to!

• Do you have a Lighterpack?

  Yes! This list is what I started with and this is what I had when I arrived in Smygehuk. During the way my packing changed a lot.

• Do you have an Instagram?

  Yes! @lk.mayers

• Did you stretch, do yoga, or warm-up, and if so, how?

  No, I feel a little guilty admitting it, because I was told by a lot of people that perhaps I should! But I didn’t.

• How did you go to the toilet?

  In nature? There are lot of articles on it, here is one, and here is another one. In short: I dig a hole (I did this mostly with stones I found in nature) or find a natural one, OR find a huuuge stone that I can barely move because it’s heavy and it would be really weird to move this particular stone, I poop in the hole and then I bring (especially in the mountains) as much paper with me in my trash bag as possible to not leave so much trace (toilet paper takes time to break down, especially in the mountains) and then I cover the hole. With leaves, sticks, stones - basically anything I can. And then I wash my hands with soap and water, or use hand disinfectant!

• Why did you do it? Did anything happen in your life that made you walk?

  Because why not? Basically just because I read about it and the idea felt challenging. It felt like one of these things that sound really impossible when you first think about them, but at the same time sound doable. Until you think about them a bit more… But by then, you’re already so smitten that you just have to try it.

• Did you ever cheat (hitch-hike, take the train…)?

  No! Neverrr. Sometimes I got picked up by car, and once I took the train to get to a certain place for my rest day and to spend it with company. But once done with my rest day, I always continued my hike from the exact same spot I had left.

• Did you walk alone or with company?

  Both! You can see my stats here.