TS Day 67-68

Via Valdalsbygget

And rest day (Tuesday)

Tuesday 14 September 2021 - Wednesday 15 September 2021

So now it's time to follow just my, Kim's, journey south through Sweden. I'll call it TS, which stands for “Thruhiking Sweden” or “Treriksröset-Smygehuk”. Mainly, I will follow the new trail Via Suecia but I won't follow that trail to 100% all the time.

Anyway, first day, Tuesday, started with a well-earned rest day. As usual, I was particularly slow in the morning, and a bit distracted, so everything took longer than it should have. Finally though, I managed to wash my hair so we could hurry away and meet Helena and Jonas. We knew they would finish today, and they'd put their tracker on so we could follow them. So we set off in Viktor's car and went up to the station to greet them. We filmed them, took some photos and talked a bit, before it was time for us to get going again.

We then went back to the house in Storsätern to repack. I needed to get a few things from Lukas before he left in the early afternoon together with Viktor. I was then alone in the house for a few hours, which was nice, doing not so much, while waiting for my parents to get back. When they were back we went for a walk past a little waterfall and then went to Renbiten's store and the supermarket to buy food for tonight and the upcoming days. When we got back home, we prepared and had dinner - Pasta Bolognese with a nice salad that I made. A few hours later, when we had melted the food, it was time for some dessert! Ice cream and mud cake. We then went to bed, I stayed up for quite a while as usual because my thoughts were spinning and it was hard for me to wind down.

On Wednesday it was time to get going. I had a slow nice morning and a loooong and hearty breakfast before I started packing all my stuff. Which went fast when I finally started, but I wasn't fast with starting, as usual.

Finally, mum and I got going. Mum was going to join me for today and a little bit tomorrow, and dad was going to pick her up in Flötningen.

We sat off, and at first it went super slow, stopping for photos here and there and saying hi to some reindeer behind a fence, but after passing Dyllen we picked up our pace. The trail was okay, but a little wet here and there, and no footbridges at all. We stopped for a short break in the first shelter after Valdalsbygget, then got going again. At the next shelter we had lunch. Mum wasn't a fan of her freeze-dried food so I had to eat both my own (some food I got from Agnes and a Billys) as well as the rest of mum's food. I wasn't exactly hungry for quite a while after that 😂

After this we walked first on a cozy forest road, that turned into a boring dirt road after a while. When we passed Guttudalskojan we stopped for a toilet break and I also wrote in the book there about where I'm going. The only trace I'm leaving 😏

We followed the dirt road for a loooong time. Passing something that looked like a fountain along the way? Very weird.

Here on the road I also almost stepped on a snake. A smaaaall, small snake, and a viper. Probably the cutest viper I've ever seen. I tried to take some photos, but my camera isn't the best, and even though the snake was small, I didn't dare go too close 😂

When the road finally stopped, we walked on a small cozy trail... Straight out into a bog that was more than 1 km in all directions. How nice. And still no footbridges.

I got wet early in the hike, but had dried up quite nice during the walk. Now I of course got even wetter, just before we reached our camp spot for the night. Isn't that the best? At Skärvagan shelter we found a decent flat spot where we pitched our tent, a little tricky because of all rocks, and then had dinner - from Agnes again (thanks again Agnes 🙌). We crawled into the tent in the dark, chatted for a bit, then fell fast asleep.

Tuesday's:

Favourite: The dinner together and dessert afterwards, also the nice walk during the day

Ice cream eaten: 1

Wednesday's:

Favourite: The big breakfast before going

Distance: 27.4 km

Start time: 10:23

End time: 19:02

Ascent: 377 m

Descent: 438 m

Totals (from Grövelsjön)

Distance: 33.5 km