Catching a break… (and an annoying detour)

Ok, after all that rain we had sun forecast for about 1 1/2 days, so I grabbed Yogi, looked at the map for something new to discover and took off. My destination was Mjällådalen Naturreservat, which is about 90 minutes away, so an easy drive. Added bonus is that the Västanåfallet Naturreservat (waterfall) is right next door.

To my surprise, there are actually two dedicated spots for motorhomes on the carpark of the nature reserve, and since I was there very early (there was only one other car on the entire carpark - when I came back the carpark was full) I got one of the two spots and didn’t have to look for a park-up for the night. By the way, this is the Entré Tunbodarna, which is the main entrance to the reserve.

Two spaces for motorhomes = park-up for the night is sorted

So, off I went, starting with the 12km Norra Mjällånslingan (north loop). From the carpark it goes down into the valley to the riverbank, and I did the trail in counterclockwise direction. Overall, it is a pretty easy walk along the river, but only about 2.5km in you are hit with a closed trail and a detour - the trail is closed due to erosion. No problem, I thought, easy…. The trail goes steep uphill, past a few cottages and then reaches a sign that says “private - do not proceed”. I must have missed the exit to the left, so I went back down, but couldn’t find a detour trail. So, all the way back down to have another look at the map on the tree:

The detour is marked in orange

I took the above photo of the map and made my way up the hill again, until I hit the “private - do not proceed” sign again. Ok, I thought, maybe they made an exception for the temporary detour, so I walked past it and ended up on the main road - still no sign of a detour trail! I started walking down again, getting a bit peeved. Halfway down I knew I must be past the detour trail, so I had another look at the map and decided that I try to follow the powerlines - that way I would hit the trail again. Haha, nice try! It is a steep ravine, so that wouldn’t work either… or would it? Well, at the powerlines I went beyond the tall grasses to check if there is a way down at all. And, to my surprise, there is the detour trail! A few trees down that extremely steep path was even a red marker on a tree! Well, I was annoyed: a) the detour starts right at the powerlines, and the map shows it much further down the trail; b) I went up and down that steep trail a few times; c) You cannot see that detour from the trail - you need to make your way through hip-high grass to the top of the ravine to finally spot it.

Slightly annoyed, I stumbled down that detour, and back up on the other side, and then back down again to the riverbank to join the original trail.

And will you believe it? Just a few hundred meters after that I hit a dead end. In this case, my outdooractive GPS helped me: I missed an exit and went too far. So this one is on me, but it frustrated the heck out of me!

You will be pleased to know that from here on it went all well. No more (involuntary) detours, no more mistakes. The hike is beautiful, and roughly follows the river. However, quite unexpectedly it went up the mountain again, away from the river, and along a very narrow ridge, with steep drops at both sies. The top/trail is just about 1-2 meters wide here. These ridges were formed by rivers and the Swedes have a specific name for these: Getryggar - A Goat’s Back. At the end of this goat’s back I came to the highlight of this trail (at least for me): the Himlatrappan (Stairway to Heaven). Funny though, since I went counterclockwise, I reached the staircase at the top part, so I was in Heaven already. Did I go down to Hell now? Or just back to Earth?

The Himlatrappan (Stairway to Heaven)

I went up and down a bit for filming, but I forgot to count the steps. I couldn’t find any info about that online either - does anybody know? If so, leave a comment below :-)

Not long after the Himlatrappan I reached the northernmost point of the Norra Mjällåslingan, which is the bridge across the river. The trail returns on the other side right along the river, but I wanted to add a small detour: I followed the “Anslutning mellan Mjällådalenand och Västanå”, i.e. the connection between these two nature reserves. This connection is to be finished some time this year, but the first few hundred meters I walked it were well established. Shortly after I turned left onto another goat’s back. I wanted to do this because it is noted as a “trail of geological interest”. That might well be, but it is just another “goat’s back”, with 7 interpretive signs, such as this:

Interpretive sign

These are all in Swedish only, so I needed my trusted Google Translate to help out with my very rudimentary Swedish ;-)

Anyway, the trail was pleasant, and while nothing special I was happy to have done this small detour. This little detour ends on top of that goat’s back, and you have to crawl down a very steep “trail” to meet the original Norra Mjällåslingan at the river level again. From here, the trail leads all the way south along the river, over some wooden bridges, with minor ups and downs, until you reach the southernmost point at the very newly constructed Petter Norberg’s bro (Petter Norberg’s bridge).

Petter Norberg’s bridge

From here, it is just a short way back along the river and up the hill you came down initially, back to the carpark. Including the (involuntary) two detours and the (voluntary) addition of the geological goat’s back, this hike was a total of 13.1 kilometers.

I injured my knee during this trail, and was hardly able to walk at all after I arrived back at Yogi. So, I had a rest and some lunch, but I just couldn’t sit there all afternoon, so I decided that with the help of my hiking poles I should be able to also do the Södra Mjällåslingan (the south loop). After all it is advertised as easy, suitable for children, and only 5km. So, I limped along the way, at times hardly able to make the next step, and being eaten by mosquitos the moment I stopped for a second. Sounds all horrible, but this trail is indeed a nice trail, with very little ups and downs (except the initial down and final up from/to the carpark again). My GPS tracker clocked in at 4.7 kilometers for this one, and I am glad I did it.

When I get back to the reserve at some stage, I will do the Skogssligan, which is the southernmost loop in the reserve, about 10 kilometers in length. Below is a map of the Mjällådalen Naturreservat with its trails. At the very top you can see the Västanåfallets Naturreservat, which I visited the next morning before the forecast 10am rain set in again. This will be my next blog, so come back and check it out. If you don’t want to miss it, enter your email address at the bottom of the landing page and you will get a notification once it is online.

Mjällådalen Naturreservat: Norra Mjällåslingan (12km) in red, Södra Mjällåslingan (5km) in blue, Skogsslingan (10km) in yellow, Anslutning mellan Mjällådalenand och Västanå (3km) in orange.