May 1st is a red day (public holiday) in Sweden, and for the past couple of years I have used the day off to go hiking. It’s often too wet and muddy (and even sometimes still too icy) to go hiking earlier than this, so May Day often marks the start of the hiking season.
Last year I hiked Etapp 6 of the Bohusleden, which has a couple of short sections which overlap with this loop. That hike was only 17km though, and this loop is 25km long. To people who are use to walking only in urban areas, they might think “Okay, that’s a 5-hour walk, not a huge deal, and why not jog some or all of it?” But people thinking that haven’t been hiking through boggy ground or trying to descend steep hills whilst avoiding tree roots (and even, on occasion, large trees which have been blown down and are blocking the path) or potentially slipping on wet moss or granite rocks.
It took a while to get to the start of the loop, despite leaving the house quite early. I was lucky with tram connections, but then Västtrafik suggested I could take either the 75 or 76 from Angered, so I ran for the 76 which was leaving in 40 seconds. Once on the bus I saw that it was suggesting I hike 1.3km to get to the stop I actually was trying to get to. Even worse, the bus didn’t bother to stop at the place I was supposed to get off (I haven’t taken that bus before so didn’t know where it was) and the next stop was nearly 2km away, so I waited on a bus to take me back to Angered’s Centrum, and waited on the next 75 bus. Thankfully the driver of that bus was very cheery and actually spoke to me (most bus drivers don’t here) and I got to the right bus stop. From there, it was a 500 metre fairly steep climb to Vättlestugan, where the trail allegedly starts.
I’d been hoping to use the facilities (toilets) there. The canoe hire place doesn’t open for the season until 2nd May but Gemini was adamant that there was a dry toilet next to the yellow building. There was no yellow building, and no dry toilet. And the motionscentrum toilets were, as expected, locked. I decided to drink no water for the entire hike.
The next problem was that there were no signs on the board at Vättlestugan, so I had no idea where the trail started. Gemini insisted on giving directions using compass points rather than landmarks, which did not help. It then sent me in completely the wrong direction for a few hundred metres and I ended up in a housing estate. I retraced my steps, followed a few folk who were clearly hikers, and the first sign that I was on the right track was an orange dot painted alongside dots of 4 other colours on a tree trunk about 200 metres from the car park. I later saw at the end of the loop that the sign is on the path leading from the 2nd car park area, which is not somewhere you would think to go into if arriving by public transport. At least I know where it is now if I ever decide to do this hike again.
It was almost 11:00am by the time I found the correct trail, and I was expecting this to take about 8 hours or more including breaks. Thankfully it remains daylight here until around 9:00pm now, so there wasn’t the same time pressure as when I decided to hike a section of Bohusleden on one of the shortest days of the year, got lost in the moors, and almost didn’t make it out of the forest before dusk fell.
Vättlefjäll nature reserve is beautiful. It contains many lakes, some moors (which can be very boggy and there are lots of wooden paths over the worst bits, but some of the planks have lost some structural integrity so it can be an interesting experience in places), and lots of forest. So, typical Swedish scenery for the most part, but the moors are a nice addition to the usual forests and lakes. I’ve hiked and run around Surtesjön several times, and covered some other parts on the aforementioned Bohusleden section between Angered and Fontin in Kungälv. The reason I wanted to do this long loop though was that it takes you away from those more well-trodden sections and into the vast wilderness of the moors, which look more like Scottish highland scenery and feel more isolated. They actually were more isolated, too. In the most remote (if you can call anything which is so close to a major urban centre remote) sections I could go 30 minutes without seeing anyone. This compares favourably to the sections closest to the main lakes, where several groups of people were enjoying barbeques, sometimes with sound systems blasting, particularly when I arrived back at Surtesjön bathing area in the evening.
Due to the late start I ate a peanut butter sandwich whilst continuing to walk, and had a late(ish) lunch sitting on a rock next to Lyssevattnet. This was still in the forest, and I put my down jacket on because it was windy and a little chilly when not moving. Due to this, I did not apply sunscreen. This was a rookie mistake. When I got out into the more open moorlands, the sun was very hot and I kept thinking “I need to find somewhere suitable to stop and apply sunblock.” I eventually did this, but not soon enough to avoid getting somewhat pink in the face, neck, earlobes and wrists. It was less than 20 degrees and the UV index can’t have been very high. Being chronically deficient in melatonin is not helpful when you enjoy spending time outdoors.
I did the loop counter-clockwise, and I would recommend this as then you are finished with the more technical sections earlier in the loop and have an easier end to the walk when you are tired. Or at least you will do if you don’t lose the signs by taking a “shortcut” after the bathing place at Surtesjön to stay on the lake edge and end up having to clamber down some rather high rocks for ages to find your way back to the main path.
This was a lovely hike, and people coming the other way (or passing me) did acknowledge my existence, at least in the more sparsely populated sections. There are not really any benches or seats once you get away from the more popular areas in the first few kilometres, so you need to seek out suitable rocks. There are however picnic tables at Dammekärr, which is around halfway into the hike. If there is a match on then you probably won’t be able to use them though. I took the opportunity to have a seat, eat a peanut butter sandwich, and check my reflection in the window of one of the buildings. (I was worried that my sunscreen application in the middle of nowhere would have left me with white streaks and blobs of it, but it hadn’t, or I had sweated them off by that point.) If you have already done some of the shorter hikes, then it might be good to find a way to join the more remote part more directly, and then leave the trail at Jennylund if you can persuade someone to collect you from there. Then you could have a more relaxing 12km or so hike and visit the other, busier sections on other, shorter hikes.
The hike can be done in one day, but it is also possible to camp if you wish to do so. I bumped into a couple coming the other way who had added on an extra section in the northern part, and were looking to camp for the night. In Sweden we enjoy allemansrätten (freedom to roam) which allows for wild camping in most places. Hopefully they found somewhere before Surtesjön as it was very much lively rather than peaceful when I returned there in the early evening, with many groups of locals and visitors enjoying the sun and the grilling facilities.
I used hiking poles on this trek. They are Black Diamond FLZ carbon fibre poles, and I got them on sale for about 1,400 SEK (around £100 maybe). That may sound expensive, and I swithered over whether or not I needed hiking poles. If you’ve read my Götaleden post you may remember I picked up a random sturdy tree branch to negotiate the toughest section between Aspen and Lerum. But these were so worth it. They make it so much easier to avoid stepping in mud, to clamber over fallen trees, and to navigate steep, rocky downhill sections with confidence. They also help with hiking steep uphill sections. I am so happy I purchased them. My partner tells me that if I ever buy the related walking poles for use in town (they need different tips) he will not be seen walking anywhere with me. ☹
Things to bear in mind for this hike:
- If going via public transport, check your Västtrafik app settings to ensure it gives you directions to get to Kryddnejlikegatan bus stop by bus, not by walking part of it.
- Take plenty of food and water. There is nowhere to fill up your water bottle after you leave Vättlestugan as far as I could find.
- There are no toilet facilities on the route at all that I could find. Instead, I just dehydrated myself until I returned to Angered about 9 hours later. This is not healthy behaviour, and I got a bit light-headed in the final few kilometres in spite of eating plenty of food. There may be facilities at the start and end depending what time of day and time of year you visit.
- The trail is quite remote, so make sure your phone is fully charged in case something happens.
- The trail has some rather technical sections, so hiking poles are beneficial.
- Wear appropriate footwear. I wore trail running shoes, which are suitable for most hikes, but I think hiking boots would have been beneficial for the sections where the wood over the boggy sections is rather wet, and any weight makes the planks dip below water level. My feet inevitably got wet a couple of times, which probably wouldn’t have been the case in hiking boots, and the technical sections might have been more comfortable with firmer, thicker soled shoes.
