The highlight of the weekend

During the night we woke up to rain, but we didn't get any inside the tent at least. The rain itself didn't last that long, instead the birches above the tent dripped for a while. That is, the sky was quite clear in the morning.

This morning we rose just after the morning weather report and therefore we were able to start the hiking around nine (even though we took a quick dip in the water first). The small "house" is where we bathed. As can be seen in the other picture, there are hardly any traces of the tent since last night.


Tavelsjöberget mountain far away, the sign was on the other side of the road.








View over Lake Tavelsjön. This stretch of the part was sometimes like a rock field.








Before lunch the hike was going both up- and downhill, past some smaller lakes with traces of beaver activity. The last stretch was mostly uphill to the goal of the weekend - the Tavelsjöberget mountain. Our legs were quite tired at this point.


An enjoyable stop was made at Vallberget mountain, where we climbed up the watchtower to get a nice view over the surrounding landscape.






We then walked on to the resting area at Tavelsjöberget for a sought after lunch break. Nice to remove the sweaty shirts and get the feet some air. We had lunch and relaxed for a while, well needed, but the break passed oh so fast. We chose path number two downhill the mountain, number one was too steep for heavy backpacks.









The road down the mountain took some time too. We took a (cold) bath in Lake Tavelsjön at Sand. The sign depicts the Lake Tavelsjö creature, that has been told to be seen in the lake.
While we were waiting for the buss that should bring us back to Umeå, we just relaxed after the weekends hardship in the evening sun. You can really feel that the autumn is coming, when the sun hid behind the clouds it got cold.
Back in the apartment we had to hang up the tent for drying, as well as airing the other equipment that had been packed during the raw air in the morning.

Continuing north

We woke up to the morning weather report on the radio at 7, but stayed in the sleeping bags for another while. We slept quite good, it is always different to sleep in a sleeping bag than in a bed. It was warm enough that we didn't freeze. Breakfast, then repacking of the tent and the other stuff that we brought. Around 10 we started today's hike.

During three hours we walked along, with a couple of shorter breaks. Partly brushy, sometimes the trail was just a small path, other times an old gravel road. The surrounding nature was varied; sometimes young forest with less sight. We met three happy girls who were also hiking, but they were the only hikers beside us that we saw during the entire weekend.
After hiking on a sandy ridge for a while, we arrived at Lake Hissjön where we enjoyed our basic lunch. We took our time for one hour rest, even if we weren't drawn to the water for a swim, since the sun hid behind the clouds.

The afternoon hiking stretch was shorter, but took a while since it was going through pebble stone fields now and then. We had to take breaks more often since our legs started to get tired, and besides that, who can not stop when you pass a large field of ripe blueberries?

Part of the trail was quite swampy. Interesting rock formations at Offerstensberget (Sacrifice Mountain).









Finally we arrived at an isthmus by Lake Tavelsjön where we camped for the night. When the tent was up, we had a well tasting dinner (we were quite hungry at this point). After that we relaxed about one hour while we had our Saturday candy - fresh blueberries. Mosquitoes and gnats joined us. Supper before we crawled into the sleeping bags, even earlier than yesterday.

Hiking the Tavelsjö path

Maria came home from work earlier than usual, which made it possible for us to leave the apartment before 4 pm. Since pavement is not so fun to walk on, we took the bus the 4 km stretch downtown. From there we walked to the starting point for the Tavelsjö path, which we had decided to walk during this weekend.





The path meandered through the forest, lingonberry and blueberry lined the path most of the time.






Our first stop, about 5 km later, was Hamptjärnsstugan, from which you had a nice view over Umeå. Right now the cabin wasn't open, but the place was prepared also for winter activities. On the bare rock there were some rest cabins spread out. Since the water access didn't exist, the south east wind was whining and the cliffs were quite hard to put a tent on, we continued.
Next to Hamptjärnen on another path, we decided to camp for the night. We could hear that we still were quite close to civilization; propeller-driven aircraft and the ice cream truck was not far away.
We unfolded our newly purchased tent, at the same time finding out how to do it the right way since it was the first time.It was perhaps not the best of camp grounds; a couple of evening strollers passed by quite close. The three person tent was roomy for two persons, we put our backpacks in the apse.
After that, it was time to try cooking on the also new kitchen. Quite spartan, but okay. Dish-washing followed and then dessert, consisting of forest raspberries. When dusk closed in and the mosquitoes were to pushy we crawled into our sleeping bags around nine pm.

Ventilation is back

After a while without ventilation in the apartment, the landlord seems to have fixed it now. We have not enjoyed knowing what food the neighbors have prepared, but most annoying was smelling cigarette smoke several times a day. We're glad to get rid of that again.

Testing our equipment

Probably we will take a weekend long hike sometime in the nearest future, so today we decided to test carrying our new hiking backpacks.
We filled them with tent, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, as well as clothes and food for a weekend. The ordered hiking kitchen has not arrived yet.

We drove northwest of Umeå and hiked next to Vindelälven.
The paths were a mix of broad roads and smaller woodland paths.




Next to many fields up here in the North, you can find an old shed. These were used to store hay harvested during the summer, sometimes a long distance from the farm houses. Then during the winters the farmers used horse and sledge to transport the food closer to the animals. The sheds are much more common here in northern Sweden, compared to the southern parts.

The Långforsen do have some rapids, so the water sounds followed us during the day.








Some of the beaches were rich with stone, other with sand.








The path went through the neighboring forest and sometimes next to the river.











After the walk, we checked the forest for blueberries. Within an hour we had collected more than a liter to enjoy. We had for example blueberry pie in the evening.

Work week on the island

Olle stayed for another week in southern Sweden. While he was there, he helped out with some work. The pool had to be cleaned before it was put away for the year and some electronics in the boat was taken care of. His aunt was there too for a work week.
There was also some time for relaxing in the nice weather.

Long bikerides for berries

This weekend was forecasted with sunny weather, so Maria decided not to sit inside. She looked at the map and opted to bike some smaller roads, probably with less car traffic. On her way on the bumpy gravel road she stopped to see if there were some blueberries in the forest, and luckily no one had passed there the last days. She was mostly alone, if you don’t count the mosquitoes. A few hours later she continued her bike ride, now with around three liters of blueberries in boxes.
She passed some areas "typical" for north of Sweden - the bogs. Further on she stopped next to a lake and found a small sand beach to rest for a while. The water was nicely warm (like 20 C) with some waves, the wind increased during the afternoon. Maria didn’t want to leave the beach, so she decided it would be a nice place to pick for cleaning the blueberries so that that would be done when she came home in the evening. The bike ride home of 20 km wasn’t too fun, with the wind against her.


On Sunday she biked back the same way she took home yesterday, since she saw some nice bushes with raspberries next to the road. After an hour of biking and three hours of raspberry picking, she continued to the same lake as yesterday. Also this day she had a relaxing afternoon, partly swimming in the lake. Living next to a lake would not be totally wrong, so you easily could go for a swim (not to a crowded beach).

In total this was a nice weekend spent outdoors, including both exercise and relaxing time. Not to mention the nice taste of fresh berries, not wrong at all with blueberries on the sour milk in the following mornings.

Sorry for the bad photos, but the camera is still in the south of Sweden and my cell phone is not good at all.

Biking evening

This week has delivered nice summer weather, a pain to sit inside the whole days. At least Maria didn't stay late at work, to be able to sit in the sun with the laptop for example.

After work today Maria decided to bike to Brännland, following Umeälven upstream. Part of the way we biked in June, but the last part was new for her. The sounds from the river, including some smaller rapids, are just relaxing.
After one and half hour on mainly paved roads, she stopped to see the the giant kettles in the rocks, but she saw only smaller ones. Before biking home again, she enjoyed a brick-oven-baked pizza.

Back at work

After a night on the train Maria arrived in Umeå, an hour later than scheduled. A shower later she biked to work, where she noticed that a lot of people still were on vacation. Not that much were done during Monday, but emails were at least checked. Being away from internet over all for a whole week, meant a lot of websites to check. In the evening she went grocery shopping, by bike of course.

Hopefully Maria will be more productive at work in the nearest days, after updating her science brain what she did before leaving for the three weeks of vacation.

Time for vacation at the coast

Monday morning we packed for the third week of vacation, which we had decided to spend at the cottage house of Olle’s parents. Some food shopping on the way and then we met Maria’s parents and the two children of her sister, before taking the short boat ride to the island in the outer archipelago in Östergötland. We spent almost three days together, enjoying the outdoor life a lot. We had barbecue one evening, the next we went for swimming since the sun was shining so nicely. Not so warm in the water (17C anyway), but some stayed in the water for a longer time (read: Maria is usually late into the water, but even more late up).
During the days we went picking blueberries to lunch (the other lunch we had raspberries) and took a rowing tour to a neighboring island, when the weather was on the better half. The days were partly sunny and partly cloudy, with some rain as well – just standard Swedish summer weather.
Each evening we went to a nearby small hill to look at the three light houses visible from there, a relaxing end of the day before going to bed. We and the children slept in the same small house (more of a lot of smaller buildings there, then a big house with several rooms), and fell asleep at the same time as the kids.

On Wednesday our guests went home and we had a few hours (to clean up) before Olle’s parents came.

Thursday lunch we joined some friends to take a boat tour to the light house Häradskär. It took over an hour to go there since they had an open fishing boat not going so fast. We walked around on the island and had lunch on the cliffs. Before we went home our friend asked one of the few year-round locals if there was possible to enter the closed lighthouse – he was on a good mood and toured us. During an hour he told a lot of old stories both about the light house and how it was to grow up on an island in the outer archipelago. Except being really warm in the light house with the lamp on, it was really nice. A rare opportunity. The boat ride back home was dramatic, with over meter high waves, as well as more and more clouds.







Friday evening we went to the mainland to listen to the singer Lill Lindfors together with musicians.

Saturday showed up with really nice weather, so Maria would get a good ending of her vacation. Unfortunately, the wind had changed to west, so all warmer surface water disappeared from our normal swimming place (cold 13C) and you more washed yourself than took a swim tour.



Sunday afternoon we drove to the train station an hour away, since it was time for Maria to go back to Umeå. She took the night train to the north, this time in a sleeping car. Olle will stay for a while longer on the island.