Yeah, that was pretty great! Hiking with a light pack is always a pleasure, but I can only attain that particular level of light (and especially small) with a cottage tour which isn't too long. I've made quite a few of those during springtime, but nearly none without skis, so it was nice to get another one under my belt.

Specifically I wanted to do it during autumn, to get all the nice colors – and lack of mosquitos, and low water levels. I was therefore a bit surprised to find the greyed-out nature of... well, nature in the western parts of the reserve, but everything got more leafy and thereby more saturated as I progressed eastwards, so all in all the goal was met.

Speaking of progressing eastwards, that walk atop the ridge above Vålån on day 2 was really something, and, I daresay, the high point of the tour. In fact, this is the first time that I've walked the Vålåvalen–Lunndörren stage in its entirety – I've covered sections of it before in summer (2004, 2008, 2017), and fully several times on skis (2008, 2010, 2016 – for certain values of "on skis"), but never all at once on foot. And it really is a great stage, basically following the tree line of the southern edge of the Vålådalen basin, offering a perfect mixture of heights and lowlands, fjelds and woods, both path-wise and view-wise.

It was also particularly nice to visit Lunndörren's sauna again, for the first time in quite a while; during my last visit it was still shut due to the pandemic. And boy, did it live up to the hype I had assigned to it – that was hot! Another first was the visit to Pyramiderna, which I have passed on multiple occasions before (2004, 2010, 2017, 2021), but never actually up close (or as close as one is allowed to get nowadays).

Turning to (slight) negatives, the shoes didn't quite hold up. They felt mostly fine for the first two days, but then that heel ache bothered me quite a bit during the last one. The problem is, I think, that they're a bit too stiff, and can't really handle the total length I subjected them to, so it was a good thing I hadn't planned a longer tour. At least they went well with the light theme of the hike, and due to the mostly dry conditions I didn't miss the boots – not even at that Tvärån passage...

Another source of discomfort was the camera batteries, the first of which gave up on me already at the frosty grass on day 1, having been in the cam for a while already by that point, and the only spare I had brought was depleting at a worrisome rate already later that day. It was therefore a relief to reach Lunndörren with a reasonable bit of juice left, and I was more picky about taking the camera out on day 3, but it held out until I was back home – albeit just barely. Whew.

The rain at the end was also a bit of a bummer, but it was accommodating enough to hold off until I was down in the forest, and since there was no wind it wasn't that bad – although I wouldn't have complained if I could have avoided the wait in the downpour in Vallbo...

Alrighty then, two shorter tours in the Jämtland fjelds this summer/autumn rather than a single far-away one. I'll gladly take that trade, especially considering what a great finale of the season this one turned out to be.