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So back during the first week of October, my friend Philip came up with the idea to hike the 60 km Isälvsleden Trail the following weekend. We all said “Sure, Why not?” sounded like fun. The plan was to bus up to Vindeln Saturday morning, then catch the bus in Åmsele back on Monday. So we thought 3 days hiking, 20 km a day, no prob. Saturday morning we met at ICA (the local grocery store and usual meeting location) and then biked to the center of town and caught the bus. We arrived in Vindeln around 9:30 ish… and started our hike. It wasn’t too long along the trail til we came to a road with a man getting out of his car with a gun and a dog. At that moment it was like SHIT! it’s hunting season (moose hunting.. so much like Newfoundland)! For a brief moment I was like.. hum this might not be good, but then I realized my backpack is bright orange, so I have nothing to worry about!  However, I will say later that day while hiking we could hear the hunting dogs barking and getting closer and it was kind of scary.

Anywho, the trail was actually quite good and well marked, except for the odd intersection here or there. But at least with a large group if one person (Cough*Philip* Cough) didn’t notice the turn someone else would. Overall the trail was great, and there were some really pretty scenes. Interestingly enough the trail information tells you about the 5 nature reserves and one conservation area (link) however, what the trail information fails to tell you is how many clear cuts the trail passes through. Lots and lots of beautiful clearcuts! The bonus to clearcuts is that they provide a fantastic view. In one clearcut they marked the stumps for the trail cause they had cut down the trail markers.

Walking through another beautiful clearcut!

So at around 4 pm we had made it to Hällnäs, maybe like 17 km along the trail, ish.. By this point one of our friend was not feeling well and did not want to continue, so we spent the next hour trying to figure out how to get her back to Umeå, because we couldn’t just leave her there. Eventually this old couple drove by and stopped, they said there was a train, but were unsure what time it leaves at. They were so nice, they drove to the train station and came back and told us it left at 7 or something like that, so she still had time to catch the train. By the time we had that all sorted it was starting to get dark. We still had a way to go to stay on track. We also were all pretty much out of water, and we knew there was probably no where near along the trail we could get any. So we gave our water bottles to Vera and Eva, and they knocked on some random persons door and asked to fill them, which they did. Continuing on, we probably hiked another km or so, when we came across a fire pit and we all agreed this was probably the best we were going to find. It wasn’t the most ideal spot as there was a massive green house and soccer field right next to it, but whatever.

Day two was fun, but long. We had came to the realization that on Monday it would be almost impossible to hike 20 km because we had to catch the bus at 2pm. Thus, we need to hike around 30 km to give us enough time on Monday. This section of the hike was much prettier. We a lot of the trail was on the top of a ridge where you could see everything on both sides. We passed through a forest fire area which was pretty cool, and we came across this random house with these weird rock people.

Trees Burned From Forest Fire

Rock People?

One thing that was really nice about the trail is that there are several shelters along the way for cooking, and campfires. The second night we came to one just as it was getting dark, again. It was situated between two lakes which was quite beautiful, yet windy. Thus, we moved into the woods to set up the tents. It was funny, the next morning we woke up and realized we were camping right next to the road, so much for getting out in nature…

Now, Monday morning, the push is on to get to the bus on time. One thing we didn’t factor in, in our time calculation was the boat crossing. At one point you have to row across, then get the other row boat bring it back, and then cross again to ensure there is always a row boat on each side. And on top of that, there was a hole in the boat and the plug was missing! So I made a make shift plug out of a stick and a plastic bag and it worked. I must say, the row boat was the highlight of the trip for me. Tom and I were rowing together, and needless to say, he is much stronger than me, so it took a little while to match strokes… But by the last trip across we were pro!

As we are walking, we notice how quickly time is passing, and how we still haven’t made it there yet. We decided since the trail ends at the far end of town it would be best to leave the trail somewhere along the beginning, then walk into town from there and then find the bus stop (yes, we did not know where the bus stop was, but in Sweden their are bus stops all along the main roads, and are little blue shacks). At around 1:30 ish… we came to some houses and realized that the main road was only 100 m off. So we left the trail, and walked up the road. Eventually we came to a bus stop with only 10 minutes to spare! Definitely a close call, and I’m sure if we had kept on the trail we would have missed it for sure!

Waiting for the Bus

It was funny on the bus ride home to see all the places we had walked past in reverse, and in such a short period of time. We also saw a mommy moose and her two calfs from the bus, which was quite exciting! When we got to Vindeln we had to wait and switch buses. As it was Tom’s birthday, we(By we I mean Cloe) got him a cake to celebrate! A great way to end the trip!