SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2024
Midsummer Kayaking 
We had fairly good weather—it could have been better, but it also could have been so much worse. The only rain we had was the first evening when we ate a delicious mushroom bao dinner in the rain. The weather cleared for two beautifully sunny days, but it was chilly and we had down jackets on at every break. The last two days were also dry and chilly but unfortunately cloudy—the archipelago just doesn’t sparkle in the same way when it’s overcast. The chilly weather didn’t stop us from getting one swim in, and we still spent hours every evening sitting out on the living rock, watching the sun sink ever so slowly to the horizon.
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| Thank you Ulrika for the photo! |
The first couple of paddle days were also a bit windy. While it luckily didn’t blow storm-strength winds, it was blowing enough to make the long, open-water crossings challenging. We stopped short on the first day because it was feeling just a bit too crazy to attempt the last 2.5-kilometer-wide crossing to the outer islands. We managed the crossing the next morning, but the wind was still blowing and wave after wave crashed over the top of our bows. Carl and my rented kayak skirts were not very waterproof, and by the end of the crossing I had about 6 inches of water in my cockpit. We don’t usually have much use for the hand pump that we always bring just in case, but this time the pump came in handy.
Once we started winding through the islands of the Brand group, the winds died down significantly and we could calmly meander through the islets.
The
crossing over to the Söder island group was easy and uneventful and we
enjoyed criss-crossing through those islands, keeping an eye out for the
perfect place to camp. Both island groups were quite pretty and I
really enjoyed our time out there in the outer archipelago—I really do
love paddling so far out that we leave the last island behind and have
nothing but blue on the horizon
—but I do have to say that these islands just weren’t quite as amazing as last year’s adventure at Myggskär (see "Myggskär (Mosquito Island) and the Gate to Paradise" here.)
Even so, we did find absolutely beautiful camp spots each night.
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| Camp 1 (Ulrika's photo on the right) |
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| Camp 2 |
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| Camp 3 |
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| Camp 4 |
We
spent hours gazing at the water and scenery while chatting, sipping
wine, and enjoying delicious meals. Camping with a kayak sure is a
hugely more luxurious and gourmet experience than camping with a
backpack! As usual much of our evening conversation centered around the
topic of “when will we be able to do such adventures full time?”
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| Despite being so exposed, the islands are covered with verdant wildflowers at this time of year. |
One particularly memorable evening hangout was on a wide step in the middle of a vertical cliff. We sat with our backs against the cliff face and stared out at the water. Patrick was in charge of dinner that night and he climbed down to the step below, using our hang-out step as a kitchen counter and provided us with cooking-show entertainment.
Staying up long enough to watch the sunset at this time of year takes dedication, but the effort was worth it and we were rewarded with gorgeously painted skies.
There wasn’t much of a sunset the first evening but we were treated to an almost full moon glowing over the water instead.
Carl and I slept without the rainfly both clear evenings. We rarely do so and it was so lovely to feel the breeze while snuggling into all of the down fluffiness and to be able to see the sky. It doesn’t get totally dark at this time of year and sleeping without the rainfly meant that we had sun shining in our eyes at 4am, but we managed to turn over and keep snoozing.
Just as our evenings followed a predictable, enjoyable pattern, so did our days. After breakfast and breaking camp, we paddled for an hour or so before stopping on an island for a fika break. We paddled for another hour or so, then stopped for lunch.
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| Lunch harbor and route decisions. |
Many
of our lunches were followed by a waterside snooze, but we eventually
got back into the kayaks for another hour or so of paddling before
finding the perfect campsite, setting up camp, and settling into our
evening routine.
Although Midsummer Eve followed the same pattern, our lunch was extra luxurious: Patrik and Ulrika treated us to a traditional Midsummer feast complete with Swedish meatballs, new potatoes, pickled herring, and even fresh chives! We chilled the beer in the sea before fishing it up to enjoy with our Midsummer feast.
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| Midsummer lunch and Midsummer beer cooling in the sea |
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2024
Relaxing on Hjälmö 
We took the ferry out on Thursday evening
and
with the help of satellite photos found an amazing tent site on a cliff
overlooking the water. There’s a scattering of houses on the island,
but our cliff was well away from them. We were very lucky that the
cliff was on the windy side of the island because we were attacked by
swarms of hungry mosquitoes as soon as we stepped out of the wind.
We also lucked out with relatively good weather, though it was a bit on the chilly side, with only a bit of rain, which meant that we were able to realize my vision of just hanging out by the water. We ate leisurely meals up on our cliff while enjoying the view,
The sun sets late at this time of year but we managed to stay awake to witness fabulously gorgeous sunsets. I slept better than usual while camping, probably mostly due to the fact that I was using two sleeping pads. Luxury!
We did manage to stop lazing about long enough to take a couple of walks on the island, rambling all of the island’s roads as well as the majority of its trails. Hjälmö doesn’t have cars so the roads are only big enough to accommodate four wheelers and smaller tractors, making them so very quaint as they wind through the island’s meadows and pastures.
Hjälmö has historically been a farm, and this farming history has created the island’s characteristic pastoral landscape.
Meadows
and pastures are interspersed with hummocks of leafy, broad oaks and
patches of forests with ancient pines. Hjälmö is a nature reserve and
the farm is kept active in order to keep the historic landscape open.
The main farmhouse is super cute and beautifully situated under the
oaks. The farm with its house is in fact up for long-term lease, too
bad we don’t know a thing about agriculture!
In addition to the farm, there are a number of smaller summer cottages on the island too. As usual, I was quite covetous of a few of them.
Hjälmö was lovely, our campsite was gorgeous, it was a fantastically relaxing weekend, and I was once again reminded of the archipelago’s quiet beauty. The archipelago is so accessible and so beautiful, we really should take advantage of it more often!
THURSDAY, JUNE 06, 2024
Visiting Friends in Östersund 
The
exodus of our friends from Stockholm continues as more of our adventure
buddies escape to a more affordable, more nature-oriented lifestyle.
Johan and Jessica moved to Östersund with their two young daughters
earlier this year. Östersund is about 6 hours north of Stockholm by car
and about 5 hours by train. It’s the largest city in the inland,
mountainous region of Sweden, though Östersund is an hour’s drive to the
nearest actual mountains. While Östersund isn’t situated exactly in
the mountains, it is located on the cusp and an endless variety of
mountain adventures awaits within easy weekend distance from the town.
And for weekends when even an hour’s drive is too far, Östersund has its
own ski hill, a huge lake, and endless forest trails to explore. Real
estate in Östersund is something like 50% or even less than in
Stockholm, but salaries are only marginally lower than the big city,
making for an extremely affordable life (in Swedish terms anyway).
Carl and I took the train up on Friday evening, arriving late. After a house and garden tour (Johan and Jessica’s new house is so much larger than their 1.5 bedroom apartment in Stockholm!), we all went to bed. Carl and I woke up the next morning to a pancake breakfast, and then we all took the bus to downtown to explore the city and its city-wide garage sale. We didn’t end up finding anything we couldn’t live without, but we loved the hammock swings lining one of the main streets and we enjoyed our first ice cream of the summer season. The day ended with wine on Johan and Jessica’s back patio as we soaked up the last rays of warm summer sun at around 10pm.
On Sunday, we went for a little hike. Johan and Jessica’s house is in a suburban kid’s paradise crisscrossed with walking and biking trails leading both into the city and into the woods. There is at least one nature reserve with lots of wooded trails and a lake or two within easy walking distance of their house. Given that we were hiking with two little kids, we didn’t go far, but it was still lovely to get into the woods.
After a couple of miles, we stopped at a wind shelter to grill a sausage lunch.
We returned back to the house and spent the sunny afternoon lounging in the backyard under the shade of an umbrella.
All too soon it was time to get on the train and return to Stockholm. Thank you Johan and Jessica for a great weekend and a glimpse into your new life!
SATURDAY, MAY 18, 2024
Spring on Gotland
Carl
and I spent the long weekend at Ascencion Day with his parents on
Gotland. I never cease to revel in Gotland’s beauty and this trip was
no exception. The trip started with rainy cold and we even had
pre-dinner drinks in front of the fire when we arrived. But by the next
afternoon, the sun came out in full force and suddenly it was warm and
decidedly spring; the following evenings we had pre-dinner drinks out
on the sunny deck.
Carl’s dad volunteers at a historic wooden boat association and cares for Lisa, a historic wooden fishing boat. We spent the first day sailing Lisa. There wasn’t a ton of wind, but the sun came out in the middle of our outing making for a lazy, languid afternoon.
The sun then continued to shine more or less the entire rest of our trip. The next day, Carl’s parents dropped us off about 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of their house, and Carl and I hiked along the Klintkustleden or Cliff Coast Trail back to the house.
The trail even went past a couple of different historic sites. First, a lookout bunker from the WWII era.
In celebration of Carl’s dad’s birthday, we surprised his parents with a winetasting at the Långmyre winery. The tasting was incredibly informative and I learned a lot. Better yet, their white wine was really tasty. It’s only with global warming and some new, hardy grape varietals that Sweden can produce grapes for wine, so I guess there’s some silver lining to the tragedy of climate change?
Our trip to the island corresponded with the annual Open Atelier weekend and we stopped in five different galleries over the course of two days. We saw watercolor and oil paintings, pottery, sculpture, and different forms of handcraft including furniture making. The art was interesting but the best part was getting to see the artists’ homes and gardens, many of which were quirky and cozy.
A weekend on Gotland wouldn’t be complete without at least one medieval church and this time we stopped at Fide Kyrka
because
it has Sweden’s oldest image of a cog vessel. This almost 800-hundred
year old graffiti was pressed into the wet stucco when the church was
built in the mid 1200’s.
As usual, Carl’s mom produced tasty gourmet dinner after tasty gourmet dinner. I never cease to be amazed or cease to enjoy the feasts! We ate lunch out at a farm café on our last day before hopping on the ferry home. The weather was warm and sunny enough to eat outside without a jacket on—pure summer luxury—and it was so, so lovely after a relatively long, cold winter. I do love winter but summer sure is nice too!
Spring wouldn’t be spring without some foraging, and we collected some delicious ramson (ramslök) in the vast sea of it near Carl’s parents’ house. We’ve been eating ramson soup since we came home and haven’t tired of it yet! So tasty.
All too soon it was time to return home to Stockholm. The warm, sunny weather continued for our ferry crossing home and we enjoyed sitting out on deck, reading, and gazing at the sparkling water. Thank you Ylva and Anders for a lovely, lovely weekend!
MONDAY, MAY 13, 2024
Tour Skiing from Grövelsjön to Tänndalen
Carl
and I spent the week over Easter on touring skis with backpacks and our
tent. We chose the route from Grövelsjön to Tänndalen because this
very well may be the last winter that a key strategic cabin selling food
will be open. This cabin in the middle of the wilderness route makes
it possible to ski between the two villages without needing a sled.
While we discovered last year that pulling a loaded sled is possible and
that there are even some benefits to using a sled, sleds make for
somewhat more complicated trip logistics.
The fact that we spent Christmas at the route’s start in Grövelsjön (see
“Playing in the Snow in Grövelsjön” below) and that we even spent a
week skiing in nearby Sälen (see “Skiing Sälen and The Wall (Väggen)”
below) also made this route feel extra appropriate this year. Winter
2023-2024 turned out to be our “Dalarna winter.”
Our packs were heavy without a sled, but they’ve actually been significantly heavier on other trips. This year my starting weight was only 44 pounds / 20 kilos and Carl’s starting weight was 52 pounds / 23.5 kilos, both without water.
The direct route between Grövelsjön and Tänndalen is only about 70 kilometers (43 miles), a relatively short distance for an 8-day trip. We used the extra time to do a bit of extra exploring on the side and to generally take it pretty easy: the total distance for our trip was 92 kilometers (57 miles).
Our packs were heavy without a sled, but they’ve actually been significantly heavier on other trips. This year my starting weight was only 44 pounds / 20 kilos and Carl’s starting weight was 52 pounds / 23.5 kilos, both without water.
The direct route between Grövelsjön and Tänndalen is only about 70 kilometers (43 miles), a relatively short distance for an 8-day trip. We used the extra time to do a bit of extra exploring on the side and to generally take it pretty easy: the total distance for our trip was 92 kilometers (57 miles).
The relaxed pace as well as the relatively gentle terrain ended up being really, really good for me since my left arm was still hurting and basically unusable after my ski accident in Sälen two weeks before. I was only able to use my right ski pole and I was generally being very cautious, meaning that I was never moving terribly fast. It was not our most athletic ski touring trip ever, but that’s ok—I was thankful to be able to be out on skis at all!
We never had scary, stormy weather during the week, but most of the week was grey, sometimes with snowfall, and with limited views.
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| lots of white |
We did get lucky with two beautiful, sunny days with incredible views and took advantage to the max, both skiing and exploring and enjoying the views and also lounging in the sun.
Our
first sunny day corresponded with a side trip into Tofsingdalens
National Park. Unreachable by road, the park is in the middle of the
wilderness and doesn’t even have any marked hiking or ski trails.
Because of its endless stone block terrain, the park is known to be more
or less impossible to hike through. But in the winter, the snow covers
all but the biggest boulders and we had a lovely day making our own
tracks and gliding through the sun-sparkling wilderness.
Even when we weren’t in the national park, we were in very remote terrain. The road ends at Grövelsjön and Långfjället Nature Reserve takes over. At the border with Härjedalen which is the next province north of Dalarna, Långfjället gives way to Rogen Nature Reserve. This region is on the border to Norway and the Norwegian Femunden National Park abuts the Swedish reserves, making the wilderness area even larger. South to north there’s about 70 kilometers of wilderness between roads, but there are marked and signed hiking and skiing trails in both Långfjället and Rogen. There are also a few manned cabins, one of which has a very small store selling supplies, so there is a bit of civilization in the wilderness.
Grövelsjön is the landmark at the southern end of Sweden’s chain of mountains. Here, the mountains are relatively low and aren’t dramatic or jagged in profile. However, much of the terrain is at or above treeline: temperatures can be crazy cold and winter storms can be fierce; the relatively gentle terrain cannot be taken for granted.
When we spent Christmas in Grövelsjön, Carl and I ventured into Långfjället Nature Reserve on a day trip and skied up to the top of Storvätteshågna (temperature: -30 degrees C, -22 F!). We didn’t climb this peak again on this trip, but we did enjoy seeing “our” mountaintop from a distance. 4
Lakes fill the valleys between the mountains, and we spent a number of hours during the trip traversing frozen lakes.
In
addition to lakes, the terrain varied from pine forest in the valleys
to birches at tree line to open, white landscapes above treeline.
A geologic phenomenon is named after the Rogen area: Rogen moraine has a distinct pattern that is easily discernable on maps. The moraine makes for a seemingly endless maze of lakes and ridges composed of boulders.
Skiing
through Rogen moraine is a long slog of short but steep ups and downs
punctuated by flat lake crossings. After a long crossing through the
Rogen moraine, we climbed up to the next peak and looked down on the
maze. It was really cool because we could clearly discern the Rogen
moraine pattern from above.
One highlight of the trip was visiting a petrograph site located on the point of a peninsula jutting out into the gigantic Rogen Lake. It takes a little imagination to discern the figures on the exposed cliff face, but consensus is that there is at least one moose and a couple of reindeer. The petrographs aren’t scientifically dated but they are assumed to be from the late stone age like the other petrographs in the region.
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| a moose and 2 reindeer! |
We
followed marked ski trails for most of the trip, but we did go
“off-roading” for a couple of days. We left an easy lake traverse and
instead climbed up and around a mountain mastiff. It was much tougher
skiing but the terrain was beautiful and the sense of true wilderness
far from the nearest trail or human was quite evocative.
Our last full day on the trail ended up being another sunny day and we used the day for a last side trip and skied up to the top of a couple of nearby peaks. It was of course really cool to see the terrain that we had spent the last week crossing through, and it was also really cool to see some of the mountains to the north that we have skied and hiked through in previous years.
This was our first ski touring trip without seeing any reindeer at all. The terrain felt a little empty without them, but we did enjoy seeing a number of ptarmigans. Question: If you could freeze-frame flight take-off, what would it look like? Answer:
We tented throughout the trip
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| tent with a mountain view, tent with a (snowy) lake view |
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| Setting
up a tent on the snow requires making a solid, flat surface first.
First we post-hole through the snow down to a more solid layer. Then we
even out the loose snow with our skis and a shovel. |
Despite
the grey, snowy weather, we thankfully didn’t have too much trouble
with wet clothing, boots, or gear on this trip. Things do, however, get
progressively damper and damper over the week, so we were thankful for
any chance at drying things out.
On our last day of skiing, however, we got sopping wet due to the wet snow/rainstorm, and we were so thankful that we didn’t have to tent that last, soggy night—instead we ended the trip with a comparatively luxurious night’s stay at Skarvruets Fjällhotel, a small, extremely cozy hotel. After much needed showers, we spent the afternoon lounging in the cozy lobby/living room by the crackling fire and then enjoyed a lovely three course dinner in the hotel’s dining room. Such a lovely way to round off an adventure and to say goodbye to winter!
SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2024
Skiing Sälen and The Wall (Väggen) 
We chose Sälen because it is one of the few larger Swedish ski resorts within reasonable range from Stockholm that we hadn’t yet skied. We went the week after Swedish spring break and rented a car instead of taking the train and bus in order to be able to take our cat Gordon. Gordon doesn’t like the car but he does love cabining with us—long evenings spent relaxing in front of the fire are his favorite! We took him outside on a leash to explore the snow a bit, and while he grew quickly bored with the wet, cold snow, he did enjoy lounging on the sunny, wind-protected doorstep.
Several of our days in Sälen were cloudy and foggy with limited visibility and although we still enjoyed the skiing, we couldn’t really see where we were going or what the landscape looked like. We didn’t bother taking any photos on these days. But other days were brilliantly beautiful,
and we spent a lot of time just looking and enjoying in addition to swooshing down the slopes.
Sälen had a good snow year this winter and a ton of snow had accumulated by the middle of March. However, the weather had warmed and Sälen received a good bit of rain the week before we arrived. It was colder while we were there but the rain had coated the slopes in ice, and while the grooming staff did an amazing job of making the slopes as skiable as possible, many slopes consisted of ice balls and all the slopes were quite icy by the end of the day. On the steeper slopes, the surface layer of groomed snow disappeared just a few runs after opening, so we generally concentrated on the black runs before lunch.
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| Carl on the left. He spent a couple of afternoons on his telemark skis instead of downhill skis. Me on the right. |
Sälen consists of three different medium-sized ski areas plus a fourth, small ski area that is connected to the larger Lindvallen by several transport runs. We skied two days at each of the larger areas. Our cabin
was
ski-in/ski-out in Lindvallen, a ski area with runs cascading down a
long, straight ridge. These slopes vary in steepness but don’t offer a
ton of variety, though we did have lots of fun skiing there anyway.
Tandådalen has slopes wrapping three sides of a mountain.
Hundfjället
has slopes wrapping the inside of a bowl. Hundfjällets slopes are
relatively varied and give tantalizing views to each other.
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| The Wall from the bottom... |
On the approach to the Väggen Wall, several signs warn that the slope is icy and that it is only for advanced skiers.
There’s
even an escape run from the top of The Wall so that anyone that
chickens out has an easy out. The Wall is aptly named: perched at the
top, the slope seems to drop vertically into the valley below. The view
made my stomach clench and it took me a while to gather up my nerves
and drop into the run. But once I got going, I did really well and had a
lot of fun. It was a total rush to safely reach the bottom after the
incredibly steep run, and we repeated the run several times, even doing
the neighboring, almost as steep runs a couple of times, too.
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| The Wall from the top. Left, me dropping into Sweden's steepest ski run. |
Högfjället is a very small ski area that is connected to Lindvallen with a couple of transport runs and lifts. Because it gets fewer skiers, the snow was actually better at Högfjället than at the larger areas. The run down from Lindvallen toward Högfjället is a slow, winding run through the forest and feels more like a nature experience than a ski resort run.
While
I love an adrenaline-pumping steep run, I also love calmer runs winding
through the trees. Carl and I spent a couple of afternoons when the
slopes had gotten icy doing “ski safaris” where we followed the various
transport runs criss-crossing across the mountainsides. So much fun to
just cruise around!
While our focus on this trip was downhill skiing, we did take our cross-country skis, too, and we enjoyed two spectacular afternoons in the cross-country tracks. Being the start of the Vasaloppet (Sweden’s equivalent to the Marathon or to the Iditarod, except on skis), Sälen is well known for its cross-country tracks. Two newer additions to Sälen’s cross-country portfolio are loops on top of two of the ski areas connecting the top of several lifts.
We first tried the 6.5km (4 mile) loop along the top of the bowl at Hundfjället. The views were miles wide, the wind was still, the sun was shining, and the tracks were perfectly crisp. The skiing was so perfect that we completed two loops without feeling much exertion. It was a beautiful, memorable cross-country experience highlighted by a long fika break when we skied off the trail and sat on the side of the mountain looking out at the valley below while enjoying tea and coffee from our thermoses and a sweet treat. Heaven!
We
also tried the 6km loop at the top of Lindvallen. We had lovely views
from this loop too, but it wasn’t as well-balanced of an experience.
The loop on Hundfjället did have its ups and downs, but the terrain was
never steep and the hills weren’t overwhelmingly long. Lindvallen’s
loop, however, features a long uphill followed by a very long, very
steep downhill that just keeps going and going for several kilometers.
It is fun to woosh down and down and down, but the fun is tempered by
the knowledge that you’re going to have to climb back out again. We
only made it around this loop once.
Riding the chairlifts with cross-country skis was a new experience for me but it went well; we managed to ski off the lifts without crashing.
The Sälen area has a number of other tempting cross-country trails and even a few waffle cabins to ski to. I would love to return to the area someday for a week of cross-country.
My fun came to an end on our last full day of skiing. I wasn’t feeling 100% enthusiastic but I didn’t want my last experience of The Wall to be chickening out, so I forced myself to drop into the run. It was later in the morning and the slope had already gotten really icy, and my skis slipped out from under me and I fell on my first turn. It wasn’t a terrible, tumbling fall, but because of the hill’s steepness, I just kept sliding and sliding down the mountainside at alarming speed. Eventually I managed to dig my skis in enough to slow and stop. I sat there leaning on the mountainside and took stock: I was pretty much ok, but despite landing on my right side, my left upper arm was killing me. I sat there for a while but eventually came to the conclusion that I just had to ski down even though my left arm was really painful. I stood up and managed to slowly but smoothly ski down the rest of the slope to where Carl was waiting for me.
At the bottom, we took the transport lift back toward the central area of the ski area and our car. By the time we arrived, I was in tears because my arm hurt so badly. I could move it, and I didn’t really think my arm was broken, but I decided that this level of pain warranted an x-ray just to make sure—otherwise I’d just be worried about it. Being a ski town and in total contrast to Stockholm, Sälen’s doctor’s office has an x-ray machine, welcomes walk-ins, and is even open on the weekends. Carl drove me the 30 minutes into town and within an hour of arriving, I had been seen by a nurse, a doctor, had an x-ray, and talked to the doctor again. My arm wasn’t broken, but because of the swelling, the doctor suspected that I had pulled my triceps. Rest and IB proffen were the doctor’s orders. Carl drove me back to our cabin and after a late lunch, he strapped his skis on for more slopeside fun while I napped on the couch with the cat.
A month later, my arm is still not up to snuff. I can’t put much weight on it and it hurts with certain movements. A trip to the physical therapist seems to be in order now that it is not painful to touch.
As usual, this vacation wasn’t long enough, and we were sad to leave our cozy cabin and drive back to Stockholm and to the daily grind. Our consolation was that we already had new adventures lined up….
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2024
Cross-Country Skiing based in Dala-Husby 
Stockholm’s
winter was really promising in the beginning of the season—we enjoyed a
record-early start to the cross-country skiing season and were able to
ski three weekends before Christmas break. Since then, we’ve had a good
bit of snow, but only enough snow for cross-country skiing one
weekend. We of course took advantage of that weekend and skied on both
Saturday and Sunday, but it has been better conditions for long-distance
ice skating thank skiing since then.
A couple of weekends ago, there was too much snow in Stockholm for good ice skating but not enough for cross-country skiing, so we decided at the very last minute to head up to Dalarna where there was a bit more snow, even if the conditions weren’t perfect up there, either. We borrowed Carl’s parents’ car and rented a friend of a friend’s very cute guest cottage in the riverside village of Dala-Husby. After work on Friday, we drove 2.5 hours to the cabin, settled in, made our traditional ski cabin dinner of pannbiff with mashed potatoes, and headed to bed.
Early Saturday morning, we set off to ski a cross-country trail called Knutsbo fäbodar. This trail starts out on a medieval road through the forest, crosses a river,
tops out in some more open bog landscapes,
We were just about to give up and turn around when we got to a more open section of trail on the forestry roads. Here, the snow wasn’t as icy and there wasn’t nearly as much debris covering the tracks. Finally, we could actually ski! All in all, we skied about 15 kilometers (close to 10 miles) on Saturday.
Since the forestry road was the more enjoyable part of Saturday’s trail, we headed to another system of cross-country ski trails on more forestry roads, this time at Djupdalsvägen. These tracks were also reasonably good and we skied about 20 kilometers (about 12.5 miles) on Sunday. The scenery was a bit monotonous (pine trees in a row, pine trees in a row, spruce trees in a row, spruce trees in a row)
but
we did have a fantastic, sunny lunch break on the edge of a lake. We
sat drowsily in the sun for a long while and would have gladly drowsed
even longer, but we eventually needed to get going in order to get back
to Stockholm and our cat at a reasonable time.
Our mini-adventure to Dala-Husby did not result in the best skiing ever, but it was still a cozy, enjoyable weekend and we have discovered several new-to-us cross-country trails within a short drive of the city that would be incredibly fun given better snow conditions. Next time!
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 06, 2024
Playing in the Snow in Grövelsjön 
Over
Christmas and New Year’s, Carl and I rented a cabin in Grövelsjön which
is in the northwest corner of Dalarna right on the border to Norway.
Grövelsjön has been on our radar because it’s known to be snow safe and
because it has an extensive network of beautiful cross-country ski
trails. Grövelsjön did not disappoint!
We
were joined by our architect friends Alison and Christian and their
daughter over Christmas week. They rented the cabin next to us and we
had a lovely, relaxed week together. We spent the long evenings
cooking, enjoying good meals, doing wine tastings,
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| It was Christian’s genius idea to order a bunch of half bottles, allowing for a much broader range of tasting. Some of the tasting trios that we tried over the week. |
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| Random photos: snow covered lichen covered trees, and snow enshrouded trees. |
We also downhill skied together a couple of times. First, we caravaned to Idre, one of Sweden’s larger ski resorts which was about an hour’s drive away. It was fairly windy and snowy, but the conditions were just good enough to allow for some visibility and some pretty good skiing. Idre Fjäll’s runs aren’t the longest ever, but there were a couple of black runs that were pretty darn steep and super fun! A number of Idre Fjäll’s runs are well lit at night, and we stayed for a couple of hours of evening skiing—a definite bonus considering that it was pitch dark by 3pm in at that darkest time of year.
On another day we all tried out the local, family-run ski hill at Grövelfjäll and enjoyed the surprisingly good skiing there, again despite so-so weather conditions. There was a surprising amount of drop, the trails were surprisingly well groomed, and there were several super fun, super cozy trails whipping and winding their way through the trees on narrow, perfectly banked trails.
After our friends journeyed back home, Carl’s Aunt Eva joined us for New Year’s week. It was another absolutely lovely week filled with beautiful adventures during the day and long, cozy evenings in front of the fire. Eva spoiled us with gourmet meals and we played a number of boardgames as well as cards. One evening we ventured to the nearby fancy hotel for a gourmet dinner of different wild dishes. The meal started with several small appetizers with local fish and reindeer, continued with a wild boar stew, kept going with more reindeer and moose dishes, and then finished with a cheesecake topped with local berries. I was absolutely stuffed to the gills after that delicious meal!
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| Igloo-lantern welcoming guests by the restaurant's front door |
The cross-country skiing in Grövelsjön was divine and lived up to our high expectations. The snow was fluffy but the trails were well prepared, though sometimes the prep seemed a bit tardy after a snowfall or a windy night (Carl and I really are spoiled!). Several trails went up into the mountains just at treeline and provided sweeping views, while others stayed down in enchanted forests drenched in snow.
We
generally took snacks and lunch with us as well as inflatable sit pads
and extra warm down jackets so that we could spend all day out on the
trail, stopping for fika and lunch in scenic spots along the way. It
was SO very lovely to be outdoors all day every day!
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| Saffron bun fika and fika view |
The trail system crosses over to Norway in a couple of spots, and it was fun to cross a national border on skis!
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| Valdalsbygget |
Many of the trails feel quite remote, but you’re never really that far from a road or a little village. We generally try to avoid civilization as much as possible, but one day we decided to embrace the non-wildernessness of the trails and skied a waffle safari. We skied about 6 kilometers, stopped at a cabin for waffles with whipped cream and cloudberry jam and hot chocolate, skied for another 6 kilometers before stopping at the Grövelsjön mountain station for more waffles and hot chocolate, and then skied about 5 kilometers back to the cabin. It was both a beautiful and yummy day of skiing!
In Grövelsjön, nothing’s far from a cross-country ski trail, but we really lucked out that we had a ski trail literally just behind our cabin and that our cabin was situated in the middle of the network, meaning that we had easy access to the whole system. We chose the cabin more because of the relatively inexpensive rate, because we were allowed to take Gordon, and because of its ammenities like the fireplace and dishwasher than because of the location, but we now appreciate just how awesome the cabin's location really was.
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| Adventure
car! Snowshoes, touring skis, and downhill skis. I should have taken
the picture when our cross country skis and poles were in the car, too! |
In addition to the cross-country skiing on prepared trails, Carl and I also ventured out into the backcountry on our ski touring / telemark skis a few times. The visibility wasn’t great the first time, so we just put our skins on and climbed up the peak directly behind our cabin (Blåkläppen) and then enjoyed a number of telemark runs on the way down.
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| On the way up and down from Blåkläppen |
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| On the way up to Sjöhöjden |
Our biggest backcountry skiing adventure, however, was a long, tough loop summiting Svealand’s (Svealand is middle Sweden, north of Skåne and Götaland and south of Norrland) highest point, Storvätteshågna. The loop was about 24 km (15 miles) long, there were no previous tracks to follow for much of the journey so we were constantly breaking through new snow, and it was -30 degrees Celsius (-22 F), my personal record for lowest temperature ever. It was a bit of a crazy challenge to undertake in such low temperatures and with so little daylight considering the distance, but the day was almost completely windstill which made the crazy low temperatures bearable, and we actually didn’t realize just how long the loop was before we set out.
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| Loooong shaddows at sunrise. Blåkläppen, the little peak we had summited a few days before, is in the distance. |
Just as we rose above treeline, the sun rose and colored the peaks around us a warm, rosy pink. It was probably the most breathtakingly beautiful sunrise I have ever experienced.
 |
| approaching the last uphill to the top of Storvätteshågna. |
We
knew that we were running late by the time we summited the peak, so we
didn’t linger, but we did stop for a few minutes to enjoy the endless
view and to take a number of photos.
 |
| View from the top of Storvätteshågna! The higher mountains are in Norway. |
I
really wish that we had had more time to sit and enjoy the view, but
alas, we needed to get down and head back before darkness descended.
Once again I was thankful for our skins which breaked our decent.
 |
| Descending Storvätteshågna |
We also enjoyed a couple more days of downhill skiing, once at the local Grövelsjön ski hill
 |
| One of the lifts and runs at Grövelfjällen |
and
another journey out to Idre, but this time to Fjätervålen. Fjätervålen
isn’t Sweden’s biggest ski mountain, but it has really high and long
runs (for Sweden anyway). I think that Fjätervålen is probably a really
fun ski resort, but we had unfortunate timing with zero visibility. We
were literally skiing in the clouds and not only could we not see
through the milky fog, but our goggles completely iced over every few
minutes. We had to stop several times during the longer runs to wipe
the ice off our goggles. Even with de-iced goggles, however, the going
was really slow because we had to ski from one pole marking the side of
the run to the next—we could barely, barely see the next pole ahead and
didn’t want to lose the trail.
Daylight at the winter solstice in Stockholm is scarce; in northern Dalarna the days were even shorter. Sunrise was at about 9 am and it was completely dark by 3pm. The sun barely rises above the horizon, so you need a long, clear sightline to the horizon to have any hopes of seeing the sun. Even so, six hours of daylight is more than sufficient to exhaust yourself when playing in the snow, and it’s not very often that you’re up and about to enjoy both the sunrise and the sunset. We enjoyed some very colorful shows during our trip!
One of the reasons that we wanted to stay in Sweden over Christmas was because we wanted to spend the vacation with our cat. While he didn’t exactly enjoy the car ride, Gordon is getting more and more used to the car and doesn’t spend the entire journey shaking any more. He didn’t shed like crazy, either, and he was relaxed enough to lay down, even if he wasn’t relaxed enough to snooze. Once at the cabin, Gordon relished the short days and long evenings in front of the fire when he was able to snuggle on our laps and lap up all the attention. Gordon was almost insatiably playful at the cabin, a big change from his everyday attitude where he’s generally too lazy to play. So super cozy to spend the holidays with our cat!
We have introduced Gordon to the “jungle” on a previous summer trip, which he loved, so we were curious to see what he would think of the snowy “artic.” We put on his harness and took him outside, and at first Gordon was curious and sniffed around at the snow, but then he got cold. He laid down in the snow to curl up into a ball, but then he discovered that the ground was cold and that his fur was getting wet, which he liked even less than the cold air. At this point, he started meowing pitifully and even hissing. We have literally never heard Gordon hiss before, so we knew that he was NOT amused. We picked him up and took him back inside the warm cabin, and he seemed to get over his traumatic experience relatively quickly, curling up and snoozing in front of the fire.
Thank
you to Alison, Christian, Audrey, and Eva for making our weeks in
Grövelsjön even more magical! I can't WAIT until next time!
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2023
Skiing by Moonlight
Winter
came unusually early this year, even for up in the mountains. It’s
been snowing off and on for the last couple of weeks in Stockholm, but
nothing has stuck until this weekend. But last week while we were
looking into something else entirely, Carl and I got sidetracked and saw
that the cross-country trails near our friends Patrik and Ulrika had
already opened. We’re rarely this spontaneous, but none of us had plans
for the weekend, so we hopped into a rental car on Friday afternoon and
drove the 5.5 hours up to Sysslebäck to inaugurate winter and hang out
with our friends, arriving just in time for dinner and catching up over a
bottle of wine in front of the fire.
We’ve visited P&U up in Sysslebäck a couple of times now, and it’s been a blast every time; this time was no exception. Not only was there enough snow for cross-country skiing which is quite unusual for November, but we even lucked out with crystal clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine, even enough sunshine to require sunglasses—completely unheard of for November weather in our part of Sweden! The snow was sparkling a million diamonds, the ski tracks were perfect, there were hardly any other people out skiing, we had the company of our good friends and their cute dog Kurt, winter had finally arrived, and we were outside in the beautiful snowy landscape doing what we love. And in the evenings, we hung out in front of the fire with our friends. Life really doesn’t get any better.
Being the beginning of the season, none of us expected to cover a great many miles but the skiing was so good and we were so eager that we did end up skiing about 15km (about 9.5 miles) before stopping for lunch. After eating, we all fell asleep in front of the fire. There is nothing so cozy as snoozing to the sounds of fireplace crackle and to the warmth of the blaze.
Although it had gotten dark by the time we roused ourselves, the night sky was crystal clear with a full moon, so we headed back up to the cross-country trails at Långberget and skied by moonlight. The moon was so bright that we didn’t need our headlamps. The snow glittered in the moonlight and the entire moonlit landscape was indescribably peaceful and beautiful. It was an unforgettable experience.
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| Thank you for the photos Ulrika! |
It felt like the evening couldn’t possibly get any better, but it did! We helped P&U prepare an amazing dinner of moose roast, a chanterelle mushroom sauce, and roasted root vegetables which we enjoyed to the accompaniment of a fancy, fantastic wine. What a gourmet experience to top of a fantastic day!
On Sunday, we woke up with sore muscles after skiing a total of about 20km (12.5 miles) the day before. Even so, we couldn’t resist getting back out onto Långberget’s beautiful cross-country trails, and we skied another 13ish km (8 miles). Our bodies were pretty worn out by the time we got back into the car for the drive back to Stockholm, and our muscles were SO sore Monday morning, but the fabulous skiing was SO worth the muscle pain.
What a glorious, memorable weekend! I certainly won’t forget the
moonlight skiing! Thank you for yet another underbar weekend Patrik and
Ulrika!
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 07, 2023
All Saint's on Gotland 
I
had an official half day at work on Friday for All Saint’s Day, but I
comped out the rest of the day and enjoyed a three day weekend. Carl
and I took the ferry to Gotland to visit his parents over the long
weekend. While Sweden didn’t experience the full brunt of the hurricane
that hit Europe last week, we did have a lot of wind which resulted in a
rolling passage. It actually wasn’t the worst sea that we’ve
experienced on the ferry to and from Gotland, but I did have to look up
from my book and concentrate on the horizon fairly often to keep my
seasickness at bay.
As usual, Carl’s mom outdid herself preparing excellent gourmet dinners during our stay. Deer saddle one evening and saffron fish soup the next. We tried two different restaurants for lunch, one of which was in a purpose-built greenhouse out on a farm. Everything the restaurant serves comes from the farm, and the dishes were supurb. We always eat so well on Gotland!
As usual, Carl’s mom outdid herself preparing excellent gourmet dinners during our stay. Deer saddle one evening and saffron fish soup the next. We tried two different restaurants for lunch, one of which was in a purpose-built greenhouse out on a farm. Everything the restaurant serves comes from the farm, and the dishes were supurb. We always eat so well on Gotland!
Saturday’s weather was chilly, wet, and windy, so we went to Gotland’s museum. Carl and I have been there before, but it was several years before we even moved to Sweden, so it was defiitely time for another visit. Just like my 2006 visit, however, I was especially taken with the exhibit of picture stones. While parts of mainland Sweden are covered in runestones, picture stones are unique to Gotland and generally pre-date runestones. Some of the picture stones seem to tell a story and are interpreted as scenes from Norse mythology. Other stones are more symbolic. Many of the round symbolic figures are interpreted as suns, though we of course don’t really know.
One aspect of the picture stones that I noticed on this visit is that while many of the pictures are carved into the stones just like runestones, a few of the pictures are actually done in relief. This reminded me of the Pictish stones that Carl and I saw in Scotland a few years ago, and once I started to think about it, I realized that the two cultures even used somewhat similar symbols and have a similar ”Celtic” graphic look about them. Interestingly, Gotland’s picture stones are roughly contemporary with Scotland’s Pictish stones—their similarities are surely not a coincidence.
On the drive back home, we made a quick stop at Visby’s mideval gallows which Carl and I had never visited despite being just outside the city wall. The three limestone pillars were connected on top by wood beams from which the accused were hung. The hanged were then left to sway in the wind coming in off the sea, serving as a visible, macaber warning to the city’s residents to behave themselves.
Sunday dawned with slightly better weather and after a bit of ping-pong in the garage, we headed out to see a Gotland’s largest remaining stone ship setting which was 45m (148ft) long, 7m (23m) wide, and with stones up to 1.3m (4ft) tall (height above ground). According to the information sign at the site, there are 350 known remaining stone ship settings on Gotland. Carl and I have seen a good number of them but clearly we have a long way to go!
A trip to Gotland wouldn’t be complete without stopping by a mideival church and this time we saw Mästerby, a relatively untouched Romanesque church that was built in the beginning of the 1200’s.
The
church is known for its well-preserved murals which were painted in the
1200’s. Particularly eye-catching was a mural with devils trying to
weigh down the scales of justice at the Last Judgement.
We were glad to have a smoother ferry ride back to the mainland. Of all the 1604 passengers on board, we definitely had the best dinner—deer saddle with Ylva’s famous sauce, yum! Thank you for a wonderful weekend Ylva and Anders!
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 02, 2023
A Weekend in Florarna Nature Reserve 
There had been a couple of substantial snow flurries in Stockholm a few days before we drove up to Florarna. The snow did not stick in Stockholm so we were surprised to see large chunks of snow leftover from snowplows on the side of the highway on our drive northward. Once in the nature reserve, there were several patches of snow remaining, especially on the bog bridges making them extra slippery.
We had learned about the nature reserve through the outdoors magazine that we subscribe to, and the reserve was described as Norrland (northern Sweden) in a mini, more accessible format. One aspect of the reserve that is like Norrland is its size. Florarna is relatively large and is bigger than about half of Sweden’s national parks. We hiked about 25 kilometers over the weekend and there’s still a number of trails that we didn’t get to. And much of the reserve is trailless and is only accessible in the winter when the bogs have frozen over.
The other main similarity to Norrland is that Florarna is a network of large, open bogs interconnected with streams and lakes and interspersed with forests.
A number of the trails skirt the bogs, but a couple of them cut straight across the bogs on bog bridges. I just love bog bridges, as well as open landscapes, making hiking through this nature reserve extra fun for me.
Florarna is relatively untouched but not entirely. There were a couple of farms in the area when the nature reserve was created. The pastures are still used for livestock but many of the original farm buildings are rented out to guests at incredibly cheap prices.
There
are also a number of smaller, more primitive cabins dotted through the
reserve. These are free to use but you can’t reserve them.
We rented one of the small farmhouses for the weekend and were surprised to learn that it has been modernized with electricity, plumbing, and electric radiators. The Västergärde farmhouse does still retain its older charm with an iron stove in the kitchen and a tile stove in the bedroom. Needless to say, we relied more on the old-fashioned heat sources than on the modern radiators, and it was so cozy to spend our evenings listening to the crackle pop of pine and spruce in the wood stove. We even cooked our meals (including lots of mushrooms that we picked in the reserve) on the wood stove.
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| Our cabin, Västergärde |
It has generally been an exceptionally good year for mushrooms, and the bounty of mushrooms in Florarna was exceptionally exceptional. I’ve never seen such copious quantities or such large mushrooms so close to the trail. Closer to Stockholm, you have to bushwhack a good ways from the trail in order to find mushrooms, and you almost never find large specimens. But in Florarna, the mushrooms were just everywhere and we hardly even left the trail. The majority of the mushrooms that we picked were autumn chanterelles, but there were also a lot of yellow foot mushrooms and a surprising number of yellow chanterelles given the lateness of the season. We picked so many mushrooms that we spent much of the next week processing them, including an evening of cleaning mushrooms in front of the fire.
We also picked a number of cranberries in the bog.
We had a really, really great weekend in Florarna. Even though it wasn’t a big or exotic adventure, I had looked forward to this weekend trip more than usual and enjoyed myself even more than usual. I was present in the moment and just felt joyous about being out in nature for a couple of days. I definitely recommend Florarna to my Stockholm and Uppsala friends!
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| Random photo: sooo much moss! |
MONDAY, OCTOBER 09, 2023
One of Each + More Than One Whisky in Scotland 
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| Oban Distillery |
one ruin,
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| Kilchurn Castle |
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| Glasgow Cathedral |
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| Kilmartin Glen |
one castle,
 |
| Blair
Castle's original tower dates from 1269 and the castle was added onto
again and again through the centuries. Most of the interior today dates
to remodels in the 1700's and 1800's. |
one city,
 |
| We
didn't find a lot to love in Glasgow (maybe with more time?), but there
were a couple of lovely Georgian developments and the University was
beautiful |
one dayhike,
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| Climb up Beinn Dubh + the Glen Striddle horseshoe |
one seafood feast,
Our base of operations was a cozy inn on a sea loch in Trossachs and Loch Lomond National Park. From there we drove to our various daytrip destinations, returning to the inn’s cozy pub at the end of the day for a dram.
One of our friends did a lot of restaurant research and one of the trip’s highlights was food. Carl and I have generally found Scotland’s food, especially its seafood, to be very tasty and this trip was no exception. On the pub grub end of the spectrum, our group consumed a lot of haggis in various forms, fish and chips, steak and venison pie, lamb shank, and sticky toffee pudding. We started our seafood feast with fresh oysters and continued with fresh fish, langoustines, and scallops. The scallops were especially good. The gastropub feast consisted of cullen skink (a smoked fish chowder), gnocchi with a basil and leek sauce with a dollop of mushroom mascarpone, steak frites, and moules frites. Another culinary highlight was a fun street food lunch in a converted industrial shed.
Being in the middle of a mountainous national park, we didn’t have to go far from our inn for a good hike. We did a loop up a very steep mountainside to a medium-high peak, along an incredibly windy ridge to another peak, and then down another steep mountainside back into the village. The forecast had been for a relatively dry day, but alas, it turned out to be a quite wet day with some intermittent dry spells. Once we got high above the valleys, the wind was crazy—it was just about as strong as it could get without forcing us to our knees, though the wind did push me over on a couple of occasions. The views were a bit misty but we could actually see down to Loch Lommond and its islands as well as most of the surrounding mountains. Between the rain and the wind it wasn’t a relaxing hike, but it was invigorating and I just loved being up in the open landscape and the raw (but not too raw) weather.
The other major highlight of the trip for me was just getting to hang out with friends, to share new experiences together, and to chat over whiskies and meals. Thank you to Veronica, Karl, Dorota, and Mats (and Carl of course!) for your lovely company.
Over our various Scotland trips, Carl and I have seen and experienced a lot of the country, but each trip just whets the appetite for more Scotland!
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