June 16: Day 46, Falun-Bollnäs
Today's ride is a bit longer than usual: 130km, expected to take more than 8h, so I'm keen to make an early start. So I arranged for breakfast at 8, showed up on time, ate in a restrained and polite manner because I was talking to the owner of the B&B. Who was very interested in my trip. It ended up taking 45 minutes, same as my unhurried breakfast yesterday, but I got on the road fairly early after all. I'd passed a massive Co-Op supermarket yesterday, it was only a few minutes away so I went back there to pick up lunch and more Powerade. After all that it was 0930.
The route went back through Falun, then did a bit of a warmup climb. Quite a bit of a warmup climb in fact. I glimpsed the cathedral and figured I was about on the same level as the tower, and then had thoughts about getting a fully loaded bike 40m high...
The appropriate thought probably was "get used to it" because the day started with a 140m climb, and there's about 1300m of climbing today altogether. But more on that later.
The first part was very nice; it went through a forested area and passed by a massive ski-jumping facility which was looking a bit barren without the snow. All on cyclepaths! I'm happy to have them.
I passed a gent cycling with a trailer, found out he's doing a three month cycling tour of Europe and it's all being livestreamed on Twitch. (I figured it wouldn't be too hard to find the channel this evening, but I can't find it. Sorry, nameless streamer.) Despite having a trailer he was making good speed on the flat, but I was faster on the uphills so I ended up going off ahead.
He overtook me a few minutes later when I had stopped to take a photo. So I tucked in behind him, kept a safe distance back and wondered which way his back camera was pointing - forward or backwards?
From left to right: love the brand name! Here’s the outside of the supermarket at 9am on a Friday. The forested area. Ski-jumps, with parabolic landing ramp.
The route went through a few small towns; I had thoughts about second breakfasts but the only options were kebab or pizza and I wasn't quite that hungry. After that the road went into the wilds, no more towns until the destination.
There was a 250m climb here but it was pretty gentle so it was a bit of a non-event. I was on a nice wide road, no cyclepath but traffic was light so there was enough space for everybody.
From left to right: three pictures from the day’s route. Sveden is a legit town in Sweden.
The road went up, and down, I ate lunch, got scouted by wasps, got driven off by wasps. And after a long downhill I arrived at a junction in a village called Svartnäs. When checking the map earlier I'd noticed there was another route to Bollnäs that I could take here. Maybe it was shorter?
When I arrived at the intersection there was a signpost pointing this new way, saying 71km to Bollnäs. Komoot said there was 72km to go on the original route. Hmmm. Both options look the same: good asphalt roads in either direction. I decided to stay with the original Komoot route: presumably it'll have less traffic and maybe it'll be more interesting.
Well, a few minutes down the road it turned off from the nice asphalt onto a gravel road. Regrets were had, but I figured it wasn't worth going back so I pushed on.
But a few minutes up the road, a moose appeared! It ambled across the road, with a very unhurried air. It went so slow I had time to take some photos. But there wasn't time to stop and zoom in.
From left to right: a picture of a very distant moose. I took more but I’m sparing your eyesight by just showing the highlights.
That was pretty much the high point, after that it was hours of gravel roads, surrounded by trees, and every time I stopped wasps showed up. There were some nice outlooks so I stopped to get some video of me driving past.
From left to right: various views of me cycling …
From left to right: A brown cylinder in the middle of nowhere, weirdness like this is probably what go Simon Stalenhag started. It was actually by a nice old bridge, this is it. Long straight road, too bad about the hills. Selfie to prove it’s legit. Winter is definitely the main season here; I’ve seen a lot of signs that only apply when everything is covered in snow.
The route joined a nice, wide, flat road with only light gravel; this was a great surface and I could make good time. So when Komoot tried to take me down some singletrack I was not really interested ... the road I was on joined up later, so I stayed on it.
There was an incident a bit later on. On some road with a lot of gravel, a car pulled up and the driver tried to have a conversation with me in Swedish. The gravel was pushed around by tyre tracks, so some parts were deep and others were shallow ... I was trying to keep to the shallow parts, and wrestling the bike to keep it upright through the deeper parts, and doing that while trying to keep alongside a car was too much so I slowed down.
I was nearly stopped when the front wheel went sideways - maybe because I was distracted and missed some gravel treachery? Well, the bike went down, I got unhooked and figured since I was stopped I should talk to the driver.
He was just wanting to share that the gravel was tricky, that it ended in a few miles, and there was a village up ahead. He was just trying to be friendly so I didn't ruin his day with my side of the story. Got a fistbump when he heard I was from New Zealand. And off he went.
If that happens again I'm going to stop on my own terms, I think that's safest...
I arrived in Bollnäs at 1800, so it was a pretty efficient day. Tomorrow is a shorter day, 7h, and then it's about time to take a rest day.
Midsommar is coming up in a week, on Friday the 23rd and Saturday the 24th. Apparently everything will close down those nights, so I want to be in a bigger city for it (it means more things will stay open) and get accommodation arranged early. Will need to figure that out soon....
What I’m listening to: Patience / Low Roar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVStfWZsdBc
An Icelandic electronica group, led by an American who sadly died last year at the age of 40.
