TS Day 90

St. Gårdsjön - Lillsjön shelter

Via St Axsjön, Holmsjön

Thursday 7 October 2021

Today I had slept rather okay, and when I went out for a toilet break around 7, the people on the other side of the lake was already awake. I wondered how little they must have slept, since they were still up when I went to sleep - and I didn't even sleep for 8 hours.

I had breakfast and got ready to go. After a few hundred metres I passed another building quite similar to this, but named "Viken". Apparently, that is a cabin with beds that you can rent if you book it at least 5 days prior. Sleeping there could've been nice I guess!

Then, when I was walking, I suddenly got the urge to make a short film clip, like Ruth, the other woman currently hiking Via Suecia, does every day. So I found a rock and a tree stump, balanced my phone and filmed myself when walking past it 😄

Then I thought about things you can do while walking when you have no phone coverage:

- Sing a song

- Catch leaves on your pole tips

- Have a conversation with yourself

Eh... Then I ran out of ideas.

Not long after, I reached Villingsbergs shooting area, the military area I mentioned yesterday. With the help of Lukas, I had been able to see if I could walk on some roads here today, which I could, because they weren't doing any training for today. When I reached the border, there was a sign with the dates the area was closed off because of shooting. Yesterday it had been! Lucky me I decided to camp where I did and that it was accessible today.

I then only walked for a few hundred metres until I saw three SUV cars and one SUV police car parked by the side of the road. Beside them a group of people - some dressed in police uniforms and some in black, were engaged in a conversation. None of them said hello, and I didn't want to be rude or disturb them, so I just passed by.

The rest of the day passed by without much of interest happening, except for the occasional BOOM from Bofors military shooting area some distance away that made me jump every time.

Or well, nothing of interest happened until I realised I would have to cross E18 - which is a really big road with lots of traffic, and you're not meant to cross it by foot. I followed a forest road that would lead me across E18 and to a dirt road on the other side, but as I got closer I suddenly realised that I would need to cross a fence first. I hoped it wouldn't be locked, but of course it was! But when I pushed the gate, it separated enough so that I could squeeze through without my backpack on, and then pull it through after me. Next up, I put my backpack on... And managed to lose my hair tie! I tried to find it on the ground, but I couldn't, and it was brown so that didn't exactly help.

After a few minutes I gave up, and instead just waited for the right moment to cross the road. When it finally came - no cars coming from either direction, I hurried across, and breathed out when I reached the other side, my pulse really high, beating hard in my chest. I made it!

Now I just had to walk again and reach Lillsjön. I did, but the last 4 km were really tough and my feet were hurting a lot.

I actually wanted to sleep in my tent, but around the shelter there was nowhere to pitch my tent, just uneven ground and rock surfaces everywhere, so I finally gave in and slept in the shelter anyway. It was actually a cozy shelter, but there was a puddle of water in front of the opening which made it somewhat tricky getting in and out. That was all. I tried my hardest not to look too closely for spiders...

Today's:

Favourite: That nice feeling of "yay, it's soon weekend".

Distance: 30.0 km

Start time: 08:57

End time: 18:15

Ascent: 330 m

Descent: 393 m

Totals (from Grövelsjön)

Distance: 600.1 km

Ascent: 8,785 m

Descent: 9,445 m

Tent nights: 8

Shelter nights: 3

Ice cream eaten: 11

Snickers eaten: 21

Totals (from Treriksröset)

Distance: 2,032.3 km

Ascent: 41,912 m

Descent: 42,019 m

Tent nights: 50/90

Snickers eaten: 64

Ice cream eaten: 34