So the hike continues where I left off last week.. I walked from alby to Haninge last week, that you can read about here. As you can see from the pictures, the weather was fantastic! about -1 celcius and sunny. An absolutely lovely day to be out. I started in Haninge and ended in Lida – on my maps about 27 kilometers. My adventure started at the OK28 gas station in Haninge and really you can say it starts at Rudan as you can see from the pics below. I don’y know if I would dare go out on the ice right now, as it’s pretty thin, but that didn’t seem to bother these guys too much.
Thin ice around Rudan. When the itch comes to fish you just can’t help yourself…
I love winter hiking, or atleast real winter hiking. Here in Stockholm region we seem to be stuck in some kind of middle ground this year. It gets below freezing, snow for two days than everything melts away and we have shit grey weather for three weeks. In anycase the sun was finally out and I just couldn’t help myself, I had to get out.
There are few times during the year when I think boots are acceptable – This is the time of year I think it’s perfectly ok. Had I wore my usual running shoes I would have hated my life after this hike. From the very start because the ground is not completely frozen through, running shoes would have been drenched, and when it’s this cold, it would be pretty hard to keep the temperature up regardless of how much I move. However, to avoid blisters I don’t actually tie my boots so tight, in fact they are as loose as normal running shoes. I know this probably is blister warning for most people, but for me it works wonders – I don’t get blisters, unless of course I’m hiking for several days, then I start getting them.
This part of the trail is around Haninge, just as you start making your way into some real trails and away from the crowded areas around Rudan lake.
One of the many lakes along the way.. I have no idea which lake, or what is’t called.. Sweden is one of those places where there is so many lakes and forest that they just kind of all blend in and nobody really cares what their called. Unlike my hometown in California where we knew what all 3 lakes in the 500mile radius where called.
Again, there is a time and place for boots, and this kind of weather and trail is that time!
The wooden planks are hidden under about 5-10cm of very thin ice..
This little cottage can be found by Tre hörningen by Paradise. It’s a nice little park area along sörmlandsleden. Once I got to this little cottage to take my first break and lunch (about 14kilometers in) I got a call from a friend of mine Eric from friluftsmeny.se and that him and another hiker were also along the trail.. So I backtracked about 4kilometers to meet up with them and we walked together to Paradiset where him and the other backpacker decided to sleep for the night..
We got to the campground only to notice we weren’t alone on the trail Saturday.. The camp and cottage where already filled with happy campers.
Deciding I didn’t really want to crowd into a little shed like this with other hikers I decided to continue my trail to Lida which meant about 2 hours of night hiking.. which to me is always a lovely experience.
Anyway, last week I needed to get out and get my head in order after not being in nature for a while. This week I was just burning to get out again after such a great hike last time. Again I wasn’t disappointed, my hike and day was magical and I can’t wait until Saturday to do it all over again.
