I found some mountain avens growing by the road in Ljusnedal. That’s not the right place for shooting them though, you have to go to the tundra instead! Which is what I did, I drove to Hamrafjället and walked through the flower meadows (which didn’t have any flowers yet) and up to the pass between Hamrafjället and Lill-Hamrafjället. Alas, no mountain avens here either, barely no flowers apart from trailing azalea. I sat down to drink coffee anyway and as I was sitting there, admiring the mountains around me, I came to think that this is probably the happiest I have ever been. A perfectly normal Saturday, and I’m on the tundra drinking coffee in the sunshine. Just because I can. Awesomeness defined!
It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny and just enough wind to keep it from being too hot. So I decided to walk up to the peak of Hamrafjället, took a roundabout way to get there and didn’t even stop to take my bearings when I was on top. Found a trail and followed it down the mountain and kept thinking that something’s wrong – it shouldn’t take this long, and it’s not steep enough. It’s been a few years since I was on top of Hamrafjället the last time but I remember the trail was so steep at places that I needed to use my hands to help me up/down at some spots. But the good news was that when I was getting close to the forest, I found mountain avens! They are only beginning to bloom here so it will be another week or two before they’re everywhere.
But by now I was sure that I was not where I was supposed to be. I didn’t have a map with me (because I know this place so well that I don’t need a map, right?) but the phone was working, and I discovered to my horror that I was way off. I mean, there’s ”off” and then there’s where I was. Oh well, it was a nice day for walking, I had plenty of water and a reserve energy bar and my new hiking boots (lightweight summer boots) were not chafing. A blister would have made this unintentional de-tour pure misery, but as it was, all the extra walking had earned me an ice cream. Awesome!
