onsdag 12 juli 2017

Västra Vätterleden Walk #8: Hjo-Tibro (Tuesday 18/04-17)

Since I got busy with school it took almost one week before I returned to the next Västra Vätterleden walk. It was the last Västra Vätterleden walk during which my 30 day bus card for the Västra Götaland region was valid and it ended up taking a while before I returned to finish Västra Vätterleden. The main reason for this is that after Undenäs there are several segments which are difficult to travel to using public transport (it isn't available or it's quite complicated), I will go into more details about that in later blog posts. In any case as usual I traveled first to Skövde. And from here my intention was to travel to Tibro and then order local traffic to Stora Älgarås (which lies on the road between Tibro and Brevik, near where I ended Västra Vätterleden Walk #3 between Mölltorp and Mohemmet). However, when I tried ordering local traffic they required a specific address and I got the name wrong apparently (apparently the correct address was Stora Elgarås, which lies in Stora Älgarås, not Stora Älgarås itself). Long story short, I instead took a risk and traveled to the end point of the walk according to my initial plans, i.e. to Hjo. From there I walked 22.4km to Mohemmet (the first 0.4km were needed to get from the bus station in Hjo to the trail) and further walked 0.8km to reach the road which goes between Tibro and Brevik. Unlike how it went during Västra Vätterleden Walk #3 I did not get enough luck to hitchhike. The problem in general with this road is that there are very few cars going there. In fact only 4 or 5 cars passed by when it still was relevant to hitchhike (i.e. when I was far enough from Tibro). Hitchhiking relies to a large extent on the kindness of strangers and that is a quality which is lacking nowadays (for various reasons). In any case I walked 10.3km extra to reach the bus station in Tibro. Thus in total the walk was 33.5km and it took me 6h36min in total (I walked the last 10.3km in 1h35min (i.e. an average of 6.5km/h)). My average speed overall was 5.08km/h. Not only did I walk the last 10.3km extra fast but I walked quite fast in general (above 4km/h for many of the segments)).
In general this was a quite easy walk since most of it goes on gravel roads (the last 10.3km only on asphalt) and the terrain is quite flat for the most part. The walk went mostly through coniferous forests with instances of other trees such as birches. There were also some places with fine sand forests (moskog/tallmo). Other than the first 4.2km until Mullsjön (which I've already walked once during Västra Vätterleden Walk #2 between Hjo and Baståsen) there is not much interesting happening since the walk goes through mostly desolate regions (between Mullsjön and Mohemmet) and there aren't even any lakes (with the exception of Mullsjön) on the path. It was thus probably the least interesting Västra Vätterleden walk (not necessarily bad, just not as interesting as the others). The temperature was pretty low once again (a few degrees above zero) and in fact it started snowing a bit once I had almost reached Tibro. Either way, there are still plenty of photos to choose from and hopefully the selection below will show some of the more interesting parts. Enjoy!


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Certainly much greener than during Västra Vätterleden Walk #2 between Hjo and Baståsen. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Mallards

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Mullsjön. Used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky color. Also brightened the non-sky parts slightly using the levels tool. Finally I rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Mullsjödal

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Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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

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Whooper swans. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Skarpås
In the 1800s a saw dam was built here. The water reservoir and the flow in the stream turned out to be insufficient to make the business profitable. Next to the dam there was dwelling house built around the 1950s. It was burned down in 1962 in an insurance scam.
Used the hue restorer plug-in to reduce the cyan-ish sky color. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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The farm Lofallet was inhabited until the 1930s. At the remains of the old farm there is a stream and older deciduous trees, which give an oasis character to the area. Grazing ox were used to keep the landscape open at first but later forestry took over.
Darkened the photo slightly using the levels tool. Also rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Bergamossen
The simplest dwelling in the 1800s was the den. Johannes Jonsson lived here with his wife and four kids around 1838. Anders Petter, who lived in the den 1860-1891, made a living through daywork now and then. He lived on what nature gave him, for instance potatoes and cooked squirrel.

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Used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky color. Also rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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The desolated Bisshult farm was first mentioned in the real estate register of 1611. Despite the rocky terrain the land gave rich harvests. One notices the presence of stones when observing the unusually well-built and long stone fences which go across the pine-clad landscape (see the next photo). The farm was abandoned in the 1950s but the signs of settlement are still clearly visible.
Removed the cyan-ish sky color using the hue restorer plug-in. Then I rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also used the hue restorer plug-in to reduce the cyan-ish sky color.

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Getastenen (the goat stone) lies close to the road. This large glacial erratic got its' name because the goats would jump up on the stone.

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

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The road between Brevik and Tibro. Rotated the photo slightly and then cropped it.

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An old milestone. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also brightened the non-sky parts slightly using the levels tool.

måndag 10 juli 2017

Västra Vätterleden Walk #7: Forsvik-Undenäs (Wednesday 12/04-17)

The next walk took place once again after a day's break. This time I went to Skövde by train and then from there to Karlsborg by bus. Once again I booked local traffic, this time from Karlsborg to Forsvik. In total the travel in the morning took 4h37min. The walk itself was about 21.4km but in order to cover all parts of Västra Vätterleden I walked the 4.4km segment from Kalvöåsen to 1km northwest of Stora Kalven and then walked back to Kalvöåsen (see page 4 here, basically the walk went on the western side from Forsvik to Undenäs, during Västra Vätterleden walk #9 between Undenäs and Stora Djäknasjön I walked the eastern part from Undenäs). Thus in a sense I walked 4.4km extra. In any case the walk took me 5h49min and my average speed was therefore 3.68km/h. Once I reached the bus station Stråhlevägen in Undenäs I took the bus to Karlsborg and traveled the usual way home. The travel time home was actually slightly longer: 4h42min. The main reason for this was because I had to wait 1h7mins for the train in Skövde.
In any case I went on this walk despite the rainy weather. It didn't rain a lot but enough to make the terrain wet and I managed to get my shoes wet but I changed my socks twice to remedy the situation. Speaking of the terrain, the walk went mostly through mixed forests and through forestry regions. However, it goes through the Tiveden forest region which includes many nature reserves and even a national park. I also walked through Tiveden during Bergslagsleden walks #1 and #2 and during the final Västra Vätterleden walk between Undenäs and Stora Djäknasjön. In any case to my surprise I saw two hares, one deer and possibly an elk during the walk. There was also rich bird life. However, I didn't manage to photograph the hares, the deer or the elk since they quickly escaped (they noticed me before I noticed them). Once again I came across signs after boars but I didn't see any boar (nor have I to this day ever seen a boar in the wild). The walk went for the most part on footpaths rather than gravel roads which is usually good but considering the wet ground (especially in the semi deforested parts) it was to my disadvantage. Nonetheless it was still a pretty interesting walk and hopefully the photos below are also interesting. Enjoy!


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Bottensjön. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Forsvik bruk
"Forsvik is one of the oldest industrial sites in the country. For nearly 600 years people have milled flour, sawn wood and smithed iron here.
Bar iron and farming tools, lamp-posts, wood pulp for making paper, large industrial machines, grave crosses of iron, boats and water-pipes have been made here - in other words, everything from ploughs to frying pans!"
Rotated the photo slightly and then cropped it.

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Forsvik bruk
Rotated the photo slightly and then cropped it. Also increased the brightness for the non-sky parts using the levels tool.

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Forsvik bruk

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Tärnen. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also increased the brightness slightly for the non-sky parts using the levels tool.

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One of the farm cairns at Kalvöåsen. These farm cairns are remains after the two crofts which used to be here: Stora Kalvöjan and Lilla Kalvöjan.

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Lurn

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Gazebo at Grotteberget. Rotated and cropped the photo.

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Källebacken. Brightened the non-sky parts slightly using the levels tool.

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Used the hue restorer plug-in to remove the cyan-ish sky color.

lördag 8 juli 2017

Västra Vätterleden Walk #6: Hökensås-Baståsen (Monday 10/04-17)

After a day's break I returned to Västra Vätterleden. In the morning I traveled first by train to Skövde and from there by bus to Tidaholm. In Tidaholm I waited 15mins for the local traffic to Hökensås semesterby. From Hökensås I first walked 22.9km of the Västra Vätterleden trail to Baståsen. From there I walked 1km extra to get to the Rödåkra bus station. In total the walk was 23.9km long and it took me 5h45min. My average speed was thus 4.16km/h. In Rödåkra I hitchhiked and managed to get a ride to Tidaholm after 18mins. If I wouldn't have hitchhiked I would have needed to wait for more than 1h more for the bus. In any case I traveled from Tidaholm to Falköping by bus and from Falköping by train. The travel back home took me 3h6min (compared to 3h44min for the travel to Hökensås).
In any case the walk shares some of the characteristics of the previous walk between Fagerhult and Baståsen but it's not as beautiful and not as interesting. The first part of the walk is quite similar in character since it goes through Hökensås nature reserve. However, the second part of the walk has more forestry and more mixed forests (which doesn't look as interesting as fine sand forests, at least not when there are no leaves on the trees). The terrain was also more demanding, i.e. with more height variations (kuperad). The walk went a bit more on trails/paths in the woods than on gravel roads or tractor roads. Another thing to note is that I started off the walk in cloudy weather with some rain. However, later on the weather improved and the sky was clear. Despite these aspects it was still an interesting walk with some beautiful parts. In any case I present the photos below. Enjoy!


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Used unsharp mask to sharpen the photo slightly.

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Increased the contrast using the levels tool.

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Increased the contrast slightly.

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Store Grubben. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it. Also used the levels tool to increase brightness and contrast slightly for the non-sky parts.

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Kosjön. Increased the contrast for the non-sky parts using the levels tool.

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Lummenmossen. Increased the brightness and the contrast for the non-sky parts using the levels tool.

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The lower layer in this stream has brown mud because of the ferric terra rossa which commonly occurs in this area. A relatively unexplored part in our history is the small scale iron extraction by farmers. Terra rossa has also been used in the production of ruddle.

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Increased the contrast for the non-sky parts using the levels tool. Also sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask.

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Used the levels tool to slightly brighten the non-sky parts.

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Klockaremoröset has a crowned stone with the inscription "HÖKENSÅS ALMENINGH 1690". This stone is one of the 18 stones raised when Karl XI decided to spot the crown-owned and contentious common land at Hökensås.
Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Rännestenen is a large glacial erratic from the ice age. The stone is three meters high and has a circumference of 17m. It is unknown how much of the stone is below the surface but the estimated weight is between 100 and 200 tonnes. The stone's very round edges indicates that it rolled a long time below the ice mass.
Used the levels tool to slightly brighten the non-sky parts and also slightly increased the contrast for these parts.

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Used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky color. Then I rotated and cropped the photo. I also increased the contrast for the non-sky parts. Finally I sharpened the photo slightly using unsharp mask.

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Vitsjön
Vitsjön is a glacial kettle. The lake has only subterranean inflows, lacks surface outflows and has very clear water.
Used the hue restorer plug-in to get rid of the cyan-ish sky color. Also increased the contrast slightly.

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The path follows an unusually mighty boulder-ridge with an interesting plant- and wildlife. On both sides of the ridge there are several glacial kettles and on the east side there is also a wetland. Along the ridge there was a footpath already in the 1800s.
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. Also rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Stora Bremsahemmet
The relatively old farm is nowadays abandoned and is owned by Sveaskog. However, livestock is now used for pasture in order to preserve the grazing land landscape with its' special flora, which is roughly how it looked in the 1800s. At the grazing land one can also among other things observe an earth cellar and vague traces of an old dovetailed cabin.

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Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.

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Baståsen. Rotated the photo slightly and cropped it.