intothesticks.life

On the 15th of May, our first Sweden 2025 trip kicked off.
Full of apprehension about how this trip would go — being the first time I had offered this to anybody wanting to visit this beautiful place — I got myself packed up.

The adventurers on this trip were Christine, Jo, and Rachel. By chance, all three had opted to fly to Stockholm the day before the trip started — and even better than that, they were all staying in the same hotel, also by chance. This already made my job much easier. They would have an opportunity to meet each other and get a good night’s rest before the trip. Even more conveniently, the hotel they were staying at was right next to where I collected the hire car. Within an hour of being in Sweden, I had collected the car, the adventurers, and we were on the road.

If you’ve read any previous blog posts from past trips, you’ll know the drill — the following is made up of excerpts from my own journal, plus additional information to clarify what I may be waffling on about.

And yes, it will probably be quite long and wordy, but I’ll include some lovely pictures to break it all up.

15th May 2025

Day 1: Thursday

Who knew all of this hard work and dedication would lead to a trip like this one? I have returned to one of my absolute favourite places. This time though, I’m doing it as a job — leading three fantastic people around the beautiful Skuleskogen National Park and giving them a taste of what this wonderful place has to offer.


Fortunately, I knew Rachel and Christine already, as they had attended some of my NNAS Navigation courses. I hadn’t met Jo in person yet, only via an online presentation about the trip. Jo is one of Christine’s friends, so they know each other, but she had never met Rachel. Fortunately, they immediately hit it off and we were all howling with laughter at one point or another — from the moment we struggled to get our bags in the car, to the moment we arrived at the national park.

We made the journey in good time and quickly got ourselves ready to start our adventure for the next few days. Today’s trek wasn’t a long one, just far enough to get to our first overnight spot. Tomorrow is one of the long days, and even that isn’t far! On the way to our overnight spot for tonight we stopped at the viewing platform, not too far from the beginning of the trail. This platform gives you the first glimpse of wonder and scale of the park, overlooking the first of many lakes, nestled amongst the forests, then the hills and Gulf of Bothnia beyond.

From the platform it’s a short 45 minute trek through the forest to the cabin for our first night’s stay. We have the place to ourselves tonight, which is always good. To give them some privacy, I’ve decided to camp this evening and have set myself up in the lean to shelter outside. The team are incredibly happy so far and are absolutely loving the surroundings. Therefore, I’m happy too. It’s hard not to be happy in such a beautiful place. If they’re loving it so far, I can’t wait to see their reactions over the next few days as it just continues to get better and better.

The largest of our routes is tomorrow. It’s not long, just around 11km, however we do need to go up and over the hill. Stunning views await, but there are a couple of technical areas which might just require a bit of concentration as this isn’t a place where we want to be having any accidents, especially this early on in the trip.

It’s getting on for midnight and it’s still nice and bright out. I’ve got a nice fire going and am enjoying a cup of tea before I try and get some sleep.

16th May 2025

Day 2: Friday

Today was, as expected, a big day. But immensely enjoyable.

The joy of this trip and the long daylight hours is that there is no rush to do anything. We started the day slowly, just as well because I didn’t sleep that well last night. The others, on the other hand, had a lovely sleep in the cabin.

We left camp at about 09:15am.

I love walking these routes, I’ve mentioned it previously on other trips, but there is definitely magic in the air here. The trails look very different to my last visit here though when they were totally buried in snow. Equally as beautiful nonetheless.

It wasn’t long before we reached the next cabin, not tonight’s accommodation, but where we will return to for the last evening in the park. The first time I came to the park some year’s ago, there was nothing but the burned remains where a cabin once stood. It’s since been replaced with a spectacular multi-room cabin which will make a very welcome stay for Sunday night.

Skirting around the second of the great lakes in the park, we immediately started our climb up the hill. A rocky plateau, with views for miles over the sea and remaining stretch of park, which we will cover over the next couple of days.

The climb isn’t massive; after all, Sweden is quite a flat country. It’s enough to make the stunning views absolutely worth it, though.

We stopped for a break to enjoy the view and get some food in. I had made a humungous bag of trail mix, in which I added a great mix of nuts, dried apricots as well as some skittles. My skittles had melted though and my nuts were incredibly sticky – delicious, but sticky. It brought some great hilarity when I declared I now had really sticky nuts. God bless the Great British humour and the power of innuendo.

During our break, we were joined briefly by an Australian couple. They were on a huge trip which included covering the whole of the UK, then Europe, up into Scandinavia and beyond. He described Skuleskogen National Park and its well-maintained trails as ‘the duck’s guts’, which apparently is a very good thing, and also a phrase I enjoyed immensely.

After finishing our break, we made the descent off the hill. When we did this in the snow a couple of years ago, it was quite treacherous and involved jumping from one tree down to the next and hoping we didn’t fall through the snow and get stuck in the boulders. This time, however, in the glorious sunshine, it was smooth sailing and not long until we had to make another climb which took us through the Trollporten (Troll’s Door) and then to the ever-impressive Slåttdalsskrevan—the great crevasse cut through the rocks, one of the main geological highlights of the park.

On our way up through the Trollporten, towards Slåttdalsskrevan, a nice older German couple stopped me and needed some help as they weren’t quite sure where they were on their route or how to get to one of the car parks. I was able to assist them and give them directions with thanks to my incredibly below-par GCSE German. They even told me my German was good, but whether I was actually saying the right German words is another thing entirely. Whatever I told them in German, though, was apparently very good. Haven’t seen them since, so I’m going to assume they are OK.

Slåttdalsskrevan is now chained off entirely. We were able to walk straight through the middle of it before, but it’s now incredibly apparent that the walls are crumbling and falling down. Huge slabs of rock have now collapsed into the crevasse which weren’t there before, and I didn’t fancy taking the risk and coming out without a head. You still get a perfect view through it, and, luckily, they have created a new route which takes you around it and presents you with even more views of the spectacular Swedish High Coast.

The path then dropped us down at lake number three of our trip. This is still a considerable height above sea level, but halfway down from the top. It’s a quiet, secluded little spot with a little cabin on the shore. Possibly the smallest cabin of the selection in the park, with room for two sleeping on the bunks. This wasn’t our final destination, though. At the cabin, we met a friendly couple with a three-year-old daughter called Freya who was absolutely loving life. They invited us to join them, but we passed up the invitation and continued our descent off the ‘mountain’.

I’m going to point out that at this point we had now met 6 people. This is already 6 more than we usually see in the park. I’ve never known it to be so busy.

The final descent takes you down a considerably steep section, through a small canyon-like section in the hills. The group did an amazing job carefully picking their way down the boulders, and as this is the most technical section we’re facing for the whole trip, the rest should be an absolute breeze.

Not long after that, we hit our cabin for the evening. A spot on the beach, just at the base of the peninsula. Since my last visit, the log store has been removed, which meant a small walk across to what is known as ‘the islands’ to collect some wood from the next available store. This cabin is one of the larger ones, with space to sleep about 6 people, plus a large table, log burner, and ‘bar’ kind of area. Outside is the large fire pit, and this is where I’ve based myself for the afternoon. Again, to give them some privacy, I’ve set my hammock up.

As we were making ourselves at home, a man arrived with his young daughter of about 8. They were incredibly nice and we had a good chat and they will be staying the night in the cabin too.

Tomorrow is beach day!

17th May 2025

Day 3: Beach Day (aka Saturday)

Today was a good day. Super chilled and there was a dog.

Woke up after a really good sleep to find Christine already getting the fire going, ready to make the morning brews and breakfast! Result.

Today was beach day on the itinerary, so there was nothing really planned but to take it easy and enjoy this stunning section of coast. This morning we took it super slow, chilled on the beach for a while, took some photos and then we left our bags safely in the cabin as we went off to explore the peninsula.

The peninsula which sticks out of the north east corner of the park holds lots of geological wonders for those interested in that kind of thing (like me). Firstly, the peninsula was actually two individual islands. Skuleskogen is one of the few places in the world which is still undergoing ‘post-glacial rebound’, meaning the land is still raising just under half an inch a year now that the weight of the last ice age’s glaciers has been lifted. The shallow spits of land which now connects those islands and forms the peninsular are great evidence of this. Also, the rocks that form the coast line of this spit of land are deeply carved with striations, essentially scars on the rock caused by the abrasions of the glacier. If you’re like me, you’ll find this super cool. If not, then it’s a very pretty part of the coastline nonetheless.

‘The islands’ have lots of tiny tracks weaving all over the place which are used, if not created, by the moose. There is evidence of moose all over the place, but sadly we are yet to spot one!

We were exploring the islands and small tracks for a couple of hours before heading back to the cabin for some lunch and to get ready to move on to the next overnight spot. We said goodbye to our new Swedish friend and his daughter, who apparently was brave enough to have a swim, then moved on.

Along the route there is a small loop which takes you past a rather well preserved bronze age tumulus (burial mound). The High Coast of Sweden is covered in bronze age relics like this.

When we got to tonight’s camp, it looked like we had the place to ourselves again, but as we entered the cabin we saw that one of the bunks had already been taken. It later turned out that the couple we met at the lake with their young daughter were staying here. They’re really nice, so it was great to be able to spend some time talking with them. He’s Swedish and she’s Austrian. Freya, their 3 year old has mastered both languages and it’s amazing hearing her flick between them effortlessly.

Christine took one of the remaining bunks and Rachel and Jo decided to take this opportunity to camp out on the beach. This place still remains my most favorite in the whole area. It’s absolutely stunning where the dense pine forests meet the sandy beaches. I’ve set my hammock up in the trees right on the beach.

I helped the man (Sebastian I think) get a fire going and as I was doing this we were joined by Florina and her beautiful Golden Retriever, Lyra. She took the last remaining bunk in the cabin.

We had all got settled in when a group of women arrived, apparently on a hen do, which was incredibly surprising to everybody involved. Unfortunately, they were quite rude to Florina and Lyra, and were very quickly sent on their way. They’ve gone in the direction of last night’s cabin when the man and his daughter should be staying a second night. I hope they don’t stay there.

The rest of the day was spent having a big fire in the pit on the beach, chatting with everybody who was staying. Trail stories and tales from adventures past. Lyra seemed to like me very much and as I was trying to take some photographs she stole my hat straight off my head, begging for attention.

The sun has dropped behind the forest now and it’s getting quite chilly, so I’m going to get into my hammock and call it a night. It’s about 23:00 and still nice and bright out.

18th May 2025

Day 4: Sunday

Such a great way to finish the trip.

I was quite chilly last night but the sun came back around at about 05:00am and very quickly warmed me up, so much so I had to get out of the hammock.

At about 08:00am, the man with his daughter from the previous cabin arrived in camp looking quite bemused. The hen do group did turn up at his cabin and proceeded with their festivities until about 03:00am this morning. Poor guy. He was so confused. You never get anything like that in the park.

We all hung out this morning, ‘we’ being:

  • The four of us
  • Swedish man and his daughter
  • Couple with their daughter
  • Lyra and Florina

Even though I’m not used to seeing anybody in the park, it was so great to sit and talk about cool adventures and share out stories. Lyra and Florina are doing an epic adventure all over Scandinavia before heading down to Greece and beyond. It’s also amazing to see the kids absolutely loving their lives in the wilderness. We were a group of a few different nationalities too:

  • The four of us: British
  • Swedish man and daughter: Swedish
  • Couple with daughter: Austrian and Swedish
  • Lyra and Florina: Swiss

Eventually we all parted ways and we started our journey to the last cabin of our trip. It’s the fancy one!

We took the path which followed the coast line, right to the edge of the park’s boundaries to the south. We took a short break there and watched the loons in the small beachy bay. I had always thought loons were North-American, but apparently not.

Then we continued along the path which follows the river north west. This route takes you around the back of the ‘mountain’ and gives you a far easier climb. Along the way we found a beautiful, fairy-glen looking spot in the trees where the river winds through. It was a perfect spot for lunch before our final push to the end.

We arrived at the cabin and found the place empty, and we have remained the sole inhabitants ever since. As soon as we arrived, I made a large fire in the pit outside and we prepared our final meal of the trip. This cabin is set in a small forest clearing overlooking a lake just below and it makes for the ideal spot for a bit of post-trip reflection. It also made for the perfect spot for a bit of sunbathing next the fire and a fantastic nap. I’m pretty sure I woke myself up snoring, but I don’t think the others noticed.

After dinner, Rachel, Jo and I went for a walk to try to see a moose as it was getting to that time of day where they would be active. In typical intothesticks.life fashion, we saw no moose. However, we did find a lovely elevated spot in the forest to just sit and appreciate the absolute silence and peace of Skuleskogen.

Everybody has gone to bed now and tomorrow we need to be up and out of here by 08:00am to make the drive back to Stockholm in time for flights.

I’m going to finish my final cup of pine needle tea and get to bed.

And that was it. We were done.

I don’t know what I was so apprehensive about. I do it all the time, I get so nervous right up to the last minute, then, yet again, come to the realisation that everything is fine.

I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to bring here for our first Sweden 2025 trip. Christine, Jo and Rachel have thrown themselves into this trip and placed their trust in me from the moment we set off and seemed to have absolutely loved every second of the experience. For that, and for them, I am forever grateful.

‘The people in the forest are good people.’

Swedish Man and His Daughter

If you are interested in taking one of the remaining places in our Sweden 2025 – September trip, please head over to Sweden 2025 for more info!