Gislavedsleden Walk #2: Gislaved-Isaberg-Hestra (Wednesday 21/09-16)

A week passed before I went on the next walk. I think the main reason it took a week was because I got busy with school. Either way, I took the train to Hestra and from there I took the bus to Gislaved. Actually according to the timetable I was supposed to wait for the bus in Hestra for almost an hour, however, I managed to get on the earlier bus, which enabled me to start the walk roughly one hour earlier (more specifically as early as 07:57). From Gislaved I walked first the 5km segment of Gislavedsleden which connects to the rest of the trail. But actually after leaving the bus stop I went in the wrong direction and lost about 18 minutes trying to find where this connecting segment starts. Either way, once I've walked the 5km and reached the rest of the Gislavedsleden trail I went in the northeast direction until I reached Isaberg where Gislavedsleden ends and Järnbärarleden begins. It was unclear where Gislavedsleden ends and Järnbärarleden begins so I probably went further when I should have. Also I then went in the wrong direction but I eventually found a way to get back to Hestra to get on time for the train back home. In fact I ran the last kilometer or so. I thought that a train ticket would be easy to buy in Hestra but it turned out that they don't sell train tickets there and that I needed to buy a ticket by phone, which I did. The only reason I managed to get on the train on time was because it was late by 5 minutes. Long story short: it was quite a messy situation but the alternative would mean I would be home 3 hours later than I was. Either way, the walk was in total roughly 27km and took 6h4mins. My average speed was thus 4.45km/h, which is relatively fast.
Although there was a bit of unplanned mess, this is my favorite Gislavedsleden walk and maybe even one of my overall favorites. It was the first walk in 2016 in which I really felt it was autumn. Although it was autumn, the weather was pretty good. The morning was a bit cool but it was pretty warm during the middle of the day when I was walking the last few kilometers. The character of the walk shifts a bit but two general characteristics is that it goes through idyllically located villages and it feels really "Småland" and that there are mostly coniferous forests full of common heather, blueberry and cowberry bushes.

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Hemgårdsgatan in Gislaved. Used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of a small part of the sky color that was cyan-ish. Also rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Used hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky color. Also brightened the non-sky parts slightly using the curves tool.

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Moasjön. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also increased the contrast slightly.

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In St. Båraryd. Used hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky color.

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Sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask.

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Nässjön. Used hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky color.

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Båraryd. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Kyrkesjön. Rotated and cropped the photo. Also increased the contrast slightly.

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Båraryds church. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Used hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky color.

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Sebjörnarp. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Slätteryd. Brightened the photo using the levels tool.

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Stenhestra

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Slowworm

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Flankabäcken

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Used hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky color. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Rotated and cropped the photo. Also used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky color.

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Used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky color. Slightly darkened the sky and the non-sky parts separately (using curves tool).

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The railway embankment between Hestra and Gislaved. Although this is a cycle path now, it used to be the railroad track. This line was frequented between 1915 and 1962.

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A beautiful meadow with a nice view, near Kyrkobol.

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Hestra church. Used hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky.

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At Isaberg Mountain Resort. The lake in the background is Algustorpasjön. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Algustorpasjön. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Isaberg. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Isaberg cabin village.

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Agnsjön. Rotated the photo slightly and then cropped it. Also used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky parts.

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Hestra. Rotated and cropped the photo.

Gislavedsleden Walk #1: Fegen-Kinnared (Wednesday 14/09-16)

Shortly/some time before finishing Sjuhäradsleden I began planning the next walks. While I could have focused on Västra Vätterleden, I instead decided to set my sights on Gislavedsleden. Gislavedsleden is the part of E6 European long-distance path which comes after Hallandsleden. Gislavedsleden starts in Kollabo (which I've passed through during Hallandsleden walk #13 between Ätran and Brännögården) near Kinnared where it joins with Hallandsleden and ends in Isaberg near Hestra where it joins with Järnbärarleden (which further on joins with Höglandsleden). In general Gislavedsleden has a character much more similar to Hallandsleden than to Vildmarksleden and Sjuhäradsleden (not to mention Bohusleden) (which makes sense among other things because Gislavedsleden is geographically closer to Hallandsleden). A large part of Gislavedsleden goes through the woods and some of it goes through small scale farm land. Except for Fegen, Gislaved and Hestra there are mostly only small villages on the way. At times Hallandsleden went through sparsely populated areas and this is even more the case for Gislavedsleden. Gislavedsleden goes mostly on gravel roads and tractor roads and only rarely on trails/paths. One thing I was hoping for before I started Gislavedsleden was that there would be no deer flies or at least less of them but instead I got the opposite. But enough about Gislavedsleden in general, lets get into the specifics of Gislavedsleden Walk #1.
Already on Wednesday I started off Gislavedsleden and I started by going to somewhat familiar territory. I went to Varberg by train, then by bus to Ullared and then I took the same bus as I've taken to reach Ätran before but I instead went further to reach Fegen. Fegen is actually both the name of a town and of a large lake near the town which is partially in Västra Götaland, partially in Halland and partially in Småland (analogously, Ätran is both the name of a town and of a river). From Fegen I first walked the 5km+ part of Gislavedsleden which joins up with the rest of Gislavedsleden and then walked the part of Gislavedsleden going to the south until finally reaching Kollabo. From Kollabo I went to Kinnared (a distance of 3km) to reach a bus station. In Kinnared I took the bus to Halmstad and then I took the train in Halmstad. In total the walk was 27km and took 6h55min. Thus my average speed was approximately 3.90km/h.
The walk went through the woods to a large extent but also through small scale farm land. Almost all of it went on gravel roads or tractor roads. The walk has a lot of similarities with Hallandsleden walk #13 between Ätran and Brännögården in terms of the general character (which makes sense since the walks go roughly in parallel) but also in the sense that parts of the trail is poorly maintained and in bad condition. For instance after passing road 153 there's a part which is overgrown and with signs in bad conditions or missing signs. Being attacked by many deer flies increased the frustration to the point where I was considering to give up this walk. But I decided to go around instead and thus continued onwards. The last part of the walk, which goes through Hylte municipality, is poorly marked (but at least it is stated that this is the case in the description for this part of the walk). Other than the annoying parts it was a quite interesting walk and it felt nice to join back with Hallandsleden. Back when I did Hallandsleden walk #13 I saw the sign for Gislavedsleden in Kollabo but I had no idea I would end up actually walking Gislavedsleden (my focus back then was on Hallandsleden and I didn't know anything about Gislavedsleden). Either way, without further ado I present some of the photos from the walk. Enjoy!

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Fegen

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Rotated and cropped the photo. Then I brightened the non-sky parts slightly using the levels tool.

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Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Hurven. Brightened the non-sky parts using the levels tool. Then I rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Shortly after passing road 153 the part is the trail is poorly maintained and poorly marked or not marked at all. I probably went around here for at least 10 minutes trying to find where to go and at the same I was attacked by countless deer flies, which was very frustrating. I was actually in the mood for giving up the walk (going back to Fegen) but instead I decided to go around. I went along road 153 and turned right onto a gravel road. I walked on the gravel road and joined back to the point where I was actually supposed to go (shown in the next photo).

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This is where the actual path joins back. Clearly it is overgrown and hard to access even from this side. Used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky.

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L. Garsjön. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Then I increased the brightness and contrast using the brightness-contrast tool. Finally I sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask.

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I suppose this could be a moose bone.

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Siggasjön. Rotated the photo slightly and then cropped it. I also increased the brightness and contrast for the non-sky parts using the brightness-contrast tool.

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Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Gryteryd church

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Hensjön. Rotated and cropped the photo. I also slightly increased the contrast for the non-sky parts.

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Hensjön

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Used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky.

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Västerån

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In Kollabo (where Gislavedsleden begins). Rotated the photo slightly and then cropped it. I also brightened the non-sky parts slightly using the levels tool.

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Kinnareds church. Rotated and cropped the photo. Then I increased the brightness using the levels tool.

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In Kinnared. Rotated and cropped the photo. Also increased the contrast using the curves tool.