Sixth day

Grundsjön - a few km north of Våle on the lakeshore

106 km

17.7 km/h average speed

Exciting weather, lots of sun, big clouds, thunderstorms later, gray in the evening, looks rainy

A lot of tailwind (see average speed), actually wanted to bike more but I found a great place to stay overnight

Since I 'overslept' yesterday, I set my alarm for 4:30 today. But it turned out to be a bit ambitious and I turned around for another half an hour. Getting up and packing went pretty quickly, especially since there was no dew. That surprised me a lot. So close to the lake and the ground was wet. For the first time, I let my copter fly, but the shots are not very spectacular. The last thing I do before I start is to start the GPS on my phone and set the odometer to zero. Although I waited a long time and tried all possible settings, my GPS on my phone didn't work. I tried again and again all day long - nothing. I'm afraid that the GPS module in my phone is broken. I think that's a shame because I had the route recorded and now I also have some more difficulties orientating myself on the phone map.

Unlike yesterday, I started really early today. I was on the bike at 7 o'clock. Instead of cars, I met a deer, a fox and two rabbits (unfortunately no moose) in the first few kilometers. I had already seen on the map that I had to go down from 400 to 200m. Accordingly, the first 20km were fast. Here it never goes uphill or downhill for long stretches. There are 1000 small hills with descents slightly longer than ascents. Still very cool to ride so fast.

Then I was down in the wide valley at Erikslund. Here I was back on a busier road (1 car every 10 seconds) and I enjoyed riding on asphalt again. I quickly covered the next 15km to Ånge. In Ånge I wanted to do three things. Buy a new tube (I had found my second spare tube in one of my panniers, but you never know), get a map for the route between Ånge and Östersund, and replenish supplies. Since it was before 10 o'clock, I went to the supermarket first and treated myself to a pack of Schokobollen (chocolate balls) among other things. Outside, I threw away the packaging right away and realized that it was not Schokobollen but marshmallow kisses (is that the politically correct term nowadays?). Of course, I couldn't transport them. But 10 marshmallow kisses for breakfast? You know me and when it comes to sweets, I'm pretty excessive, but I couldn't eat more than 6. I didn't feel sick afterwards, but I didn't feel like having breakfast either (I can't just throw away food). Next stop, sports store. Got a new tube. I feel much better with two spare tubes. Then to the bookstore and got two 100 000 maps of Ånge and Östersund. Unfortunately, they don't overlap completely. I have to rely on the phone map for about 40-50km.

Shortly after Ånge, I passed a lonely bathing spot (just before that, I passed the 500km mark). Here I enjoyed the sun, bathing (even without soap you feel super fresh afterwards), second breakfast (this time savory), and just lying in the sun and doing nothing. Well, okay, I enjoyed it for 20 minutes then I wanted to continue.

My path led me away from the main road again to the northwest, past Byberget into the wilderness. Of course, the path here was gravel again, which made progress a bit slower. Besides, it went uphill. Over the next 35km, I encountered 1(!) car. For a long time, I rode along a lake and watched the weather. Very dark clouds appeared on the horizon and it rained a little. The other clouds rumbled and thundered audibly. After the short rain, the next kilometers were particularly difficult. The moisture had soaked the gravel-sand mixture and my bike was literally getting stuck. Luckily, it was only a few kilometers. At the north end of the lake, at Hunge, I came back to a paved country road. With tailwind, I was going at an incredible 25-30km/h. I felt like I could keep going like this forever. And I had already almost 100km. But then I saw a dirt road to the lake, which had a 3m sandy beach at that spot. I couldn't hope for a better camping spot. Of course, it's infested with mosquitoes, but the view and location are incredible. By far the best spot so far. And the sand even leads into the water, perfect conditions for washing again :)

When unloading, I had to realize that I had lost both the bike lock and the fishing rod. Man, how many fishing rods I've already left in Sweden. But tomorrow I'm coming through Östersund. Then there will be a new fishing rod (wasn't mine either) and also a new lock (wasn't mine either). The mean thing is that the fish jump out of the water about 15m from the shore. Like the perch back then, and they were tasty. Lucky me, fish!