Bohusleden

I’m just back from a short adventure. Given that everyone is celebrating Easter, I thought I would get into the spirit and celebrate the arrival of Spring.

A four-day weekend and sunshine, I couldn’t help but abandon my studies and hop on the tram.

A recurring theme in my correspondence and blogging is my love of public transport…in Sweden when you discuss public transport you use the generic term ‘kommunication.’ How great is that? I like the idea of communication as mobility, as movement. And I’m sure it goes down to our common Germanic language roots. For example, when you read about the establishment of the border between MN and Canada, the phrase ‘line of water communication’ is noted (think canoes full of goods, news, new people…). Hmm, so we used this idea historically, but when was it dropped?

My 'expedition' was on the Bohusled, a Lake Superior Trail-like route through the West Coast region of Sweden. 370 km (~170 miles). I hiked about 25 km.

The trail is beautiful and equally great is its accessibility. I literally rode a tram 30 minutes from city center to a suburb (Angered) and then started walking.

After a few miles of ‘suburban hiking’ I was on the trail…at first, the trails are wide, have lights (remember Nov.-Jan.) and are seemingly well used.

Once you get beyond the first tier, the trail feels wild, i.e. feels like one is in the BWCA, Isle Royale or some other lovely wild spot.

I hiked all day and ended up in a town North of Göteborg; Kungsälv is a town noted for the old fortress ruins (can you see it in the far distance in this picture?).

I didn’t explore the fortress—too much road walking, instead I retreated back into the woods to find a good camping location. I camped high on a rock outcropping with the hope of taking advantage of both a setting and rising sun. Further, with moose droppings everywhere, it seemed like a good spot to spot a moose. No luck with the moose or the tjäder (a large grouse like bird I was hoping to see) but I was happy to see returning cranes—and hear that unmistakable crane call…’a low loud mystical cackle’

Camping solo can be a little lonely, especially when I am alone most of the time, thus I took my crime family with me and spent the evening hours on my rock reading from the Stieg Larsson Trilogy. OK, it is a little creepy to read a crime novel when alone in the woods at night, but no major nightmares to report…and actually, I was at that critical point in the story that I had to finish...thank goodness I had my headlamp with me. Note, fireworks are a big part of Easter Eve, thus while reading I could hear fireworks in the distance, sounding like guns, which proved to be fitting background noise to Luftslottet Som Sprängdes.

Anyhow, the real point of this trip was my ongoing interest in accessible green, accessible wild, accessible nature…I have a pretty strong sense of what it means to me, but what about to the people living in the suburb where I started? Angered is largely an immigrant suburb…do these new Swedes get into the woods? Is it important to them? Should it be? I can only imagine how different these woods are to the wilds of Iraq…