July 15, 2015
Wild camp west of Vaxholm to Norrtalje
Today's adventure was an adventure
After I packed up my wet tent and loaded my bike, I headed back to the road with the goal of reaching Norrtalje. Norrtalje is a town reasonably close to the ferry dock.
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I was tootling along, following Mr. Garmin, when he sent me up a dirt road. I had plotted the route and loaded it before I left my hotel in Stockholm. I suppose it wasn't Mr. Garmin, but really Mr. Open Street Maps, as I loaded the route from RideWithGPS.
At any rate, I happily followed the route up the dirt road, which quickly turned to challenging double track.
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Then signs started popping up saying (I think) private road. Hey, my GPS sent me there, so I kept going. Then I reached a junction. First I went left, and the GPS chirped to tell me "off route". I back-tracked, and went right, and the GPS chirped to tell me "off route". I decided the left way was heading the way I should be going, and went back and committed to that choice. Well, the double track got rough and muddy, and veered off so it headed in a different direction altogether. I figured it had to go somewhere, so I stuck with it. Well, it did go somewhere, a couple of miles to a field of cut hay. Uh, oh.
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Where is the exit from the field? I decided I wanted to head north, so went to that side where I glimpsed a road, and a golf course! The only problem was an electric fence separating the field from the golf course. There was a wooden structure set up over the fence at one spot. So I took my panniers off the bike and tossed them over the fence, and then precariously climbed with my heavy bike, so everything, including me, was on the golf course side. I reloaded my bike, and rode the path through the greens to get to the road. Now, there were a lot of people playing golf. Not one of them asked what I was doing, or offered to help, or paid me any attention at all! That is the way it has been here. If I ask for help, people are very responsive, but if I don't ask, they don't even acknowledge me.
But I was on the road, and shortly came to a good size town. And that town had a McDonald's, which meant Wi-Fi was available. I'll admit that I was hungry, and not proud, so I went into McD's and ate and used the Wi-Fi to answer the over arching question, "Where the hell am I?"
Well, I wasn't too badly off route, so I set off on my way, only regretting the lack of bike paths on my new improved route.
It started thundering in the distance, and I started to get nervous about the weather. I passed a B&B, not a common sight, and kept going. Then there was an especially loud clap of thunder, and lightening too. I turned around and went back to the B&B. I couldn't find anyone there. I talked with a woman in a car who had parked on the road nearby. She knew someone who knew someone, and suggested I just wait. I waited about 20 minutes and decided that I should really get to town before the downpour started, rather than wait and not have anyone show up. So I headed out, just 11 miles to Norrtalje. It started raining almost immediately. But I went on, stopped a bunch of times because I was tired and wet, but reached town and found a hostel, and that's where I am tonight.
By the way, Sweden is not flat! Maybe from the airplane view, but zoom in to a level appropriate for cycling, and you'll find it's always going up or down, with grades commonly reaching 7%. Thankfully those grades don't last too long, but there's always another ahead.
Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 171 km (106 miles)
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