If you want to hike a long distance it's pretty basic that you need to be able to get to the start, and you need to be able to make it home from the finish. Even if you have a car it's not so straightforward to drive somewhere and then, two weeks later find yourself hundreds of kilometers from your vehicle.
Bergslagsleden starts and finishes in Kloten and Stenkällegården. What they have in common is that they're both out in the sticks and are not so easy to get to by public transport. If you have someone that can drop you off and pick you up, great - but what works otherwise?
Kloten in practice was not so hard. The trail starts at an activity centre/canoe hire place. They have hostel and cottage accommodation and a camp site near by. More importantly they provide a collection and drop off service from nearby railway stations (and it also says they can arrange travel from Stockholm!). You can book directly on their website which worked smoothly. We went by train from Stockholm to Kopparberg and when we got there there was a minibus waiting for us with a cheery welcome from one of the canoe center staff. We stayed overnight self catering in a room in one of the cottages - a nice relaxing way to kick off the trip. There's no real food shopping on site (just snacks) but if you get a transfer there is an option to stop on the way at a supermarket. They do offer breakfast though so we didn't need that with us. All in all, well set up, nice accommodation and friendly staff.
Stenkällegården was a bit more of a challenge. Checking in advance there was no obvious public transport but how hard can it be to get a taxi to the nearest station? When I got near the end of the trail I rang ahead and booked a room (it classed as a stuga or cottage, but was a one room flat with bunk beds, a kitchenette and it's own entrance. I could have pushed to be there sooner, but that was for a Sunday night as I thought travel back to Stockholm would be easier on a weekday.
When I got there I could confirm there was no public transport - but also found that the local taxi firm only did work for the health services (according to the campsite). And no service from Uber either..... Oh. Sugar.
Then I found there was actually a summer bus from Karlsborg to Tiveden National Park that stopped there once a day. But now at the tail of season it was only running weekends - and the Sunday I was there was the last bus of the year.... and I'd missed it :(. This bus is potentially useful if you are there over June, July and early August but bear in mind that the booking details say you can only take luggage you can have with you in your seat. Not so very helpful if you're hiking long distance.
So Stenkällegården... no bus, no taxi, no Uber. What's left are two options. Hike out to somewhere else (for me around 16km to get to a station), or ask kindly for a lift. I opted to stay another night to be able to take up the second option. It was a bit more ad-hoc than at Kloten but there's someone there that can ferry you to nearby station if you cover the cost. Ring ahead and ask is my advice - they were really helpful in trying to solve my logistics problem.
In the meantime, the shop at Stenkällegården does have a rather nice bottled beer.... And the sun was shining too... It's a hard life.
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