Exploration time

Managed to sneak off a few moments early from work to try to catch the fleeting daylight. Days are rapidly getting shorter here in the north. Darkness closing in. Also the cold is setting in which means more clothes, heavier bike and the summer springiness quickly evaporating from your legs. To put it short: You ride slower. But that is not all bad. Since your not fast, you might as well do some exploring.

On one of my regular routes there is a road leading off that has always peeked my intrest, but I've always been in a group with a a target as I've past it. (If you follow the route on the map clockwise, you'll find the junction below the little lake at the most northern point on the loop.) On this ride that road was pretty much the whole purpose of the ride. And what a gem it turned out to be.

Starting as a gentle tarmaced upphill for the first 3 km finding its way along the eastern slopes of the Vättlefjäll hill. After that the tarmac is replaced by an almost perfect gravel road. Still rising and meandering under beech, birch and spruce until you reach Rellsjön near the top of Vättlefjäll.

Downhill is equally great. Once back on the flat you hit tarmac for a short stint, before the road goes rural on you again and you find yourself on a small dirt road, complete with a grass crest in the middle. I can't help feeling rather disappointed when spat out onto the busy main road between Gråbo and Göteborg

I turned left off the rush hour madness of Gråbovägen, ready for the next bit of exploration. I had plotted a really adventurous route through the woods. As I approched the junction where I would pretty much go singletrack for 5km I passed no less than three hunters on stand. It's
the time of the annual swedish moose hunt and the woods are full of trigger-happy hobby hunters. The allure of speeding along a wooden path in dark clothes on a CX bike is somwhat lessened when you realise you might be mistaken for a moose and shot. I kept to the slightly bigger roads to Lexby instead. As planned the last bit of the loop was completed with a sween tailwind.

Season is ending but there are still miles left in my legs. Let's go explore!