TS Day 95

Alebacken shelter - Björklången shelter

Via Tivedstorp, Ösjönäs

Tuesday 12 October 2021

Despite the weird night, I think I managed to squeeze in a fair amount of total sleep anyway, and continued on as usual in the morning. Through St Y-kullen I decided to take the dirt road instead of Bergslagsleden, since it looked faster. If it really was? Probably not. First, a car stopped as I was walking on the road. The driver warned me about the elk hunt, which I of course knew about. It's been elk hunting everywhere I've passed for the past 1,5 months! He then proceeded with the regular questions, where I am from, how far I've walked, where I'm going etc. By the way he spoke, I figured he thought I was crazy. But don't they all?

Before leaving, he wished me good luck, and I continued hiking. At the end of the road, I had a short walk along a path in the forest until I would reach Bergslagsleden again. Here they had cut down a lot of trees, and I didn't see the path at first. But there was a forest worker there, and he told me how to find it.

After a little while I reached Tivedstorp. I found a toilet (not a privy, a real toilet!) here and a tap so I could refill my water bottle. I also took a longer break. I then continued along a dirt road for a long time, while using my phone. While walking I thought it was weird that so many cars passed me by - since at the end of the road there was a dead end. But it made sense when I got there. It was one of the entryways to Tiveden National Park!

I was taking my time here, enjoying the sun, reading signs and just strolling through. Unfortunately I had a female photographer just behind me, keeping basically the exact same pace as me which made me feel followed. When I stopped, she stopped etc... So when I wanted to look for a geocache I found a rock which I sat down on, and took another break and had some Ballerina biscuits. Again, she stopped close by to take a lot of photos, and when she left, I was deeeep in my phone 😂 So I sat there for quite some time. But I finally found the geocache and could keep on moving. I realised though, that all of these breaks would mean I would have to walk a long time in the dark tonight. And with almost 10 km left, the sun began to set. Not a lot more of interest happened while I walked on and on along dirt roads towards my goal along Björklången. Not until I had about 500 meters left!

Suddenly I see two eyes staring at me in the dark. They are close to the ground so I'm guessing they belong to a small animal. Maybe a fox? I freeze, trying to listen to figure out what it is. I can hear it move, which makes me scared for some reason. Finally, as the eyes aren't moving, I decide to carefully take a few more steps forward. That's when I see two human shapes sitting there. What? My first thought is that they are hunters, but as I come closer I see that they are wearing military uniforms. My mind starts spinning, I know that this was some military area because it was painted on the map, but I didn't find out anything about it earlier today when I googled it. I'm wondering whether I'm inside a forbidden area, or what's going on. At the same time I said "Hi" a bit shyly, and a guy answered me back. Apparently they had thought I was their commander, and when I said they'd scared me, they said I had scared them too 😂 They were a small group of maybe 6-7 guys - definitely younger than me. I told them I was going to a shelter nearby, and they wished me good luck. They also told me I might meet another group, and I was glad they warned me, so I wouldn't be scared again 😂 I didn't walk far until I reached the other group, and I told them as well that I was going to a shelter. Then I continued along the road, but as I opened my phone I saw I had taken the wrong way and had to turn back. Apparently they were standing right where the path I was going to take was.

When at the shelter, I decided to pitch my tent because I really didn't want to sleep with the spiders tonight, and I had missed sleeping in my tent anyway. Tonight I just ate my bananas I had left, then went to sleep.

Today's:

Distance: 32.5 km

Start time: 09:54

End time: 20:07

Ascent: 404 m

Descent: 442 m

Snickers eaten: 1

Totals (from Grövelsjön)

Distance: 701.1 km

Ascent: 9,940 m

Descent: 10,626 m

Tent nights: 9

Shelter nights: 5

Ice cream eaten: 12

Snickers eaten: 24

Totals (from Treriksröset)

Distance: 2,133.3 km

Ascent: 43,067 m

Descent: 43,200 m

Tent nights: 51/95

Snickers eaten: 67

Ice cream eaten: 35