We did a bit of replanning at this point and added a detour for some food shopping, and shortened some of our planned stages. Us old folks need to take things easy!
Today's trail was nice & varied. There was quite a bit of time on tracks & roads, but also stretches through pine forests, knee high scrub, tracks full of roots & stones as well as some easy sandy trails.
Lunch was on a park bench implausible plonked on the verge of a cinder road, just before the trail swang up into the forest. A place to sit with views over a lake. Who's complaining?
The stage end at Stjernfors was disappointing. It was quite pretty, but the cafe there has closed down and we couldn't find a waterpoint. There's a carpark and an information sign and that's it.
Just as the trail restarts there's a small beach with a picnic table, and just beyond on the shore is a wind shelter. It is in a small clump of scrubby trees and near to a row of houses. Functional, but not very vildmark. We stopped there for a snack break but it was so unremarkable there's no photo.
The end for the day was Stora Myggsjön. The last part of the trail runs by the water and as you reach an open grassy area the wind shelter is up in the woods behind your right shoulder. We got there just in time to miss a big shower. 🙂
Being off the track the wind shelter has a nice secluded feeling and it has a broad bench around the inside so you don't need to sleep on the floor. There are fire circles both by the shelter and down by the water. There's plenty of room by the water for camping.
This is not one of the official wind shelters for the trail - that's a few kilometers further on.
Having missed out on water at Stjernfors we stopped about a kilometer before the wind shelter and filtered water from a running beck that crossed under the trail.
Day 4 : Stora Myggsjön to Nyberget.
Our goal for day 4 was Nyberget. After a rainy night we rang ahead to book a room at the youth hostel. There is a shelter there too but it is nice to take the chance of a shower & a bed.
The terrain for the day was hilly, starting with a hill up from the lake shore. After the rain many areas were very quaggy. For 50 meters or more a stream ran down the path - or maybe the path rain in a stream. In places we had waist high grass and bracken. It was a soggy day.
We stopped and lunched at the wind shelter at Rasbacktjärn. This has a great position on the lake shore and all the usual amenities. Surprisingly after seeing almost no one for days two groups arrived while we were eating. You can tell it was the weekend!
The afternoon hiking by Kroktjärnen was very scenic.. a steep gorge following a fast flowing beck and whenyou get there the area around Nyberget is pretty and pastoral.
There was no-one around when we got to the hostel (an hour after we'd predicted). We know it would only be us there, so after not getting through on the phone, but finding it open, we went in and settled in. The hostel has two rooms with multiple beds and a kitchen on the upper floor and a small shower room and toilet on the ground floor.
Not 5 star but more than enough for two weary hikers. The host popped in when they got back from poppy training and we had a long chat, amongst other things on the bears and wolves that live hereabouts.
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