Day 13: Ljusdal to Ramsjo

July 14, 2024

Hilly, rainy and wild flowers

“Do you need a place to stay?” the car slowed, the man rolled down the window and asks Rachel. She stops cycling and smiles, “I think we have a place at a hostel, did you see Anders post on FB?” "yes we did."

After turning onto a quieter road and a food break, we just took off cycling again. Patrick cycles up and says, “yes, we have a place at the hostel.” They know of it and tell us there is a shortcut across the lake avoiding the town. “We need to go to Ramsjo first to shop for supplies, Patrick explains." The lady says, “it’s Sunday the store is closed,” and the man confirms. Oh well, we have enough food and lucky that we didn’t ride the extra distances unnecessarily.

Anders returns to the apartment about 0900. He has been sending out messages to all the people he knows in the direction we are going. He has been exceptionally helpful and fun to reconnect with him. We load the bikes and go down in the elevator, take a group photo and we are off around 1000. As we start to cycle off, Anders takes a picture and says he’s going to send out requests on FB. We hope to see Anders again sometime in Boise to help us drink all Patrick’s homebrew.

"Do you need a place to stay?" they ask. They also were helpful in letting us know the store is Ramjso is closed today, saving us going into the town. Instead we take the shortcut to the hostel saving us distance.

The rain is threatening so for the first time we ride off in rain gear. We have a nice bike path out of the town, then on road that is not too busy and where the bus stalls are back. We stop at one after about an hour and check messages. Anders has found us a “free hostel room” outside Ramsjo. This is great news as we’ve just had the start of sprinkles. The road has long inclines a bit steeper than they look from a distance. This is the first day of really long hills. We follow two long stretched lakes.

About here, Rachel hears Barb's voice from spin class...let's go, you can do better than this.

At Backan, another spot on the road with a name, we turn off the main road onto a side road that looks like at one time it had been paved but now unsealed. As we gain elevation, the road is lined with wild flowers; especially the lupines are still blooming and some just starting to fade. Through the trees to our right, we get glimpses of the lake. During the last bit of the ride, a misty rain is brief.

When we reach the cut-off that crosses the lake Patrick calls Anders, the hostel host to let him know we are about 20-30 minutes out, the time is 1500. He will meet us there. A very nice couple arrive to show us into the apartment #4 that Anders given us the address in his message. “The chain is on,” they say. “I may have something in Ostersund,” she says. We find out Anders sent out a request for accommodations not only for Ramsjo but also Ånge and Östersund. When we set off this morning, Patrick says “we’ll have people waving at us now.” Just as we had mentioned to Anders that people didn’t seem to approach us to talk.

The hostel we think is the bigger building with a Vandrathem sign. We get a nice apartment with two beds, a living room, kitchen and very hot shower. There is WiFi and a TV, hopefully Patrick can watch the Euro24 final tonight.

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Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 536 km (333 miles)

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