Days 5 & 6: The Mountains

The original plan was to head up to the Arctic Circle and do some "camping" (ie: in a cabin) up there...but after we found out that it was another 10 or so hours by car north of Östersund, and the unenthusiasm of our hosts, we decided to scrap that idea in favor of heading west. There are mountains in the western portion of Sweden to the Norway border...and that would do just fine.

We "researched" a hiking trail (well, sort of) that we thought looked fun - from Graftvällen to Höglekardalen which appeared to be about 6 miles over the top of a mountain...um, okay. That should be fine. (what was I thinking?).

By time we got to the mountains (about a 45 min to 1 hour drive from Östersund, and found where we were going it was about 2:30pm. And we then found out that the trail was 10+ miles, not the 6 that we had estimated. I decided immediately that we needed more food and purchased a few more snacks.

10+ miles is a long hike for me. It is especially long the more pregnant I get and the higher in altitude that I am...but not wanting to appear "wimpish" we decided we'd give it a shot.

Bertil & Maud drove us to the trailhead and we made the plan that if in a couple of miles or so we didn't want to continue they'd come back and pick us up. Otherwise we'd meet them on the other side of the mountain (literally!). We had their cell phone and got kick ass coverage up there!!

We hiked up the ski trail to the beginning of our trail and immediately knew this wasn't going to be that fun. It was very wet, there were no trees (well, duh, above the tree line, idiot). It was going to be a long hike. Now it was after 3pm. I didn't think we'd make it to the other side for about 9 hours....which put us at midnight. Not that it got DARK but seriously a 9 hour mountain hike is too much for me. At least now in my delicate condition.

So, we turned around. We wimped out. We called Bertil & Maud, they picked us up. C'est la vie. We hiked about 2-3 miles that day - at least it was something.

We drove over to Höglekardalen and were going to check out the other side of the trail...while there we saw they had cute cabins (ski resort) and decided that we'd like to stay. We (just Steve & I) rented a cute little cabin for 1 night. We picked up a few essential grocery items at the store and Bertil & Maud took off and we were on our own.


I must admit, it was really nice. Bertil & Maud were excellent hosts, but it was quite different to just have time to be alone together. That night we walked to the restaurant and had dinner (very yummy pasta) and took a short walk - it was too mosquitoey though to go too far. Then we watched some television (Project Runway, I think?) and then went to bed. We slept great because in our "bunks" it was DARK! No window - which was great.

The next day we lounged around, had breakfast, took showers (the showers are weird...they drain right onto the floor which results in the entire bathroom floor being wet...especially if the floor's not sloped correctly - which ours wasn't. Hmph) and decided to go for a hike.

(We called Bertil & Maud to tell them we'd be staying another night)...

The office gave us a map of some circuit hikes and we picked on. 12k, around a mountain top.

It was an experience. It took over 1 hour to get to the top of the "hill" (you have to first hike up under the ski lifts to get to the actual trail). We missed a turn and ended going further up than needed, it started to rain (we had our picnic lunch in the pouring rain) and then finally it cleared a bit and we found our trail.

It was really beautiful - especially on the first side of the mountain...scrubby trees, rugged trails, beautiful mountain views. The trail was in great shape and it was very fun. Oh and it wasn't rainy. It was very mosquitoey but we were prepared with some Swedish bug dope which worked very well.

By about 3 hours into our hike (or so) we were on the "backside" of the mountain...things started to, shall we say...get all wet? It was raining again (yes we had raingear but my feet were SOAKED and my raincoat was wet all the way through. There were no trees on that side (higher elevation) and the trail kept going through wetlands! It was not very fun. We were making our own trail a lot of the time because we couldn't walk through ponds!

The vistas were grand. We could see "forever" and it was very cool - but I couldn't believe HOW FAR we had to go!!
We kept trekking and my spirits kept sinking. I was tired, wet, crabby, wet, hungry, ornery and not having that much fun. Did I mention I was wet? I had to leave my hood on even during the breaks in the rain because the mosquitos were so bad. We finally reached a sign which pointed us in different directions - so far to that resort, to that one, etc. Ours said 5.3k! I almost died! WHAT? We had over 3 miles to go? I could've just laid down right there and surrendered.

At long (wet) last...we got to the top of the mountain and could see our little mountain village below. THANK GOD. I was getting concerned as the restaurant closed at 7pm and it was after 5pm. How long would it take us to walk down? Well, about 1 1/2 hours. My knees were killing me on the way down (oh, aging is so not fun) but my spirits were lighter since I could at least now SEE where we were heading. Finally we reached the bottom. Steve went back to our cabin to change shoes/socks but I could not walk any further. I went directly to the restaurant wherre I got the same table as the night before.


Steve brought me dry shoes/socks. He's so good like that.

I got there at about 6:20pm. Steve rejoined me at about 6:50pm. NO ONE had come to our table in this time. I was getting frustrated, hungry, thirsty, etc. Everyone else was getting fabulous service, no one even bothered to see if we wanted something to drink!!

We tried flagging the waiters down (this is a small operation - I think they had 3 waiters that night...maybe 4) - and we'd been around for over a day now - so they had to recognize us, right?!? FINALLY Steve flagged someone down and we asked if we could get some food. She had to leave, go back into the kitchen and when she returned she said - yes, you can order some food, but it's going to take a long time. WHAT? (at this point I was in tears which I was fighting to keep within my eyeballs - my exhausted self + extra-sensitive pregnant self was really feeling the stress of this implied discrimination (seriously EVERYONE was getting fabulous service, but us). I think the waitress felt bad because she brough us a little dish of cut up sausage stick pieces (?!).

We finally ordered and didn't care if it would take 45 minutes (to make waffles!!). Whatever. The food was hot it was good when it finally arrived and we decided we wouldn't be eating any more meals there. We also canceled tenative plans to rent a canoe. No more $ was going to be spent here.

No one came back to check on us. To refill drinks or get Steve another beer. No one checked to see if we wanted coffee or dessert (although the coffees & desserts were streaming to tables around us). They didn't even bring us our bill. We finally had to go up to the counter and offer to pay. It was weird. And unsettling. I didn't like it.

We returned to our cabin to get some gingerbread cookies & watch bad American television (some "super storm" miniseries was on in English) and go to bed.

Mostly our time in the mountains was good - too bad the wankers at the resort had to ruin our last evening meal there. Hmph.