バイクパックと一緒に走るための苦肉の策。

バイクパックと一緒に走るための苦肉の策。

I was alone in the Netherlands. It was pouring rain outside and my newly purchased home was leaking and getting mouldy. I was lost. All remained was the urge to see the world. I embarked on my journey from one of the flattest countries. Crossing Germany and Denmark I made my way into Sweden a land of breathtaking landscapes and rich culture. So today I’m going to start my 6 days bike packing trip named Swedish Safari 300 So it’s like a 300 kilometers loop The adventure kicks off from a cozy little RV park in Nyköping winding through charming villages and past majestic Swedish castles. With no long ascents to worry about I brushed off the fact that the route contains over 50 km of single tracks how tough could it really be? I was about to find out… okay time to go hopefully she’s gonna be here when i come back great Of course, my adventure companion for today is my beast of an enduro bike the Commencal Meta! the Commencal Meta! This is definitely not the bike for it but at least I’m wearing a half shell today. So I’m just leaving Stendörren nature reserve My bikepacking trip has begun. I guess I’m going in here the first day we are going along the coast and we will see a lot of castles. Beautiful! Swedish castle. What I’m most worried about is probably the weather. Right now it’s blue sky but as you can see there’s thick clouds Was there a path? oh, I guess it’s here, huh? I have reached the first section of the single track which is also a hiking trail… it’s quite bush at least there are markers so… this is a trail there are many rock slabs here and i can’t put my seat down so it’s very scary the line choice is the key i just don’t want to go to steep sections i guess this is impossible probably i shouldn’t think about riding on downhill because it’s just suicidal. if other singletracks are like this it’s gonna be tough. Ah, this is one of the lakes one of the many lakes I’m gonna go through. This trail is much nicer than the other kind of singletrack. I can still pedal. And downhill is not as scary. Oh, yohoy, ohoy, ohoy, yes. Oopsie. Yeah, scratching my backpack. You can’t really… shake the bike (Ride) as smooth as possible. I’m already getting tired of… seeing this sign “S” because I know it’s gonna be a bit shitshow. This bike is… a little heavier than my Santa Cruz. Definitely not the bike for a bike packing but this is the only bike I have so I have to make a peace with it. okay that’s the second lake a little bit smaller than the first one Now I realized that my big mistake I might schedule the trip a little bit wrong. I started the trip on Friday and planned to ride 70 kilometres on days one and two hoping to get there by 3 p.m. on Sunday. However, after 30 km in on day one I realized that I didn’t want to pedal 70 km per day. nice, the first time riding on the bike path in Sweden so this is the castle number two unfortunately it’s temporarily closed so now i’m going through a little town called Trosa it’s pretty Today’s campsite on the rock. So in Sweden you are free to roam. You can camp almost anywhere you like. My nest is done. So first day is over. I couldn’t make it, 70 kilometers. Right now it’s 58. tomorrow hopefully i can pedal a little bit more there is a great restaurant and they’re gonna do buffet on sunday so i want to join the buffet okay, day two nice morning The first encounter of a wild animal, deer still cool okay this is the third castle Tullgarns castle one of the Swedish king’s official summer castle. Beautiful castle! Take a trip around the castle. Oh okay. It’s okay to bike around the castle and go on the back side. Yeah. It’s very beautiful there. Oh sounds good. Ah nice! unfortunately the king is not here right now those guys said seldom he’s here but he likes to hunt deers I saw many deer on the otherside very peaceful I love it yes, falling tree! of course, that’s the most basic obstacle, yeah? and I’m going into deep inside the forest. The road is getting smaller and smaller and wilder and wilder and there’s a road. perfect! we go up on a gravel road to go down a gravel road I would call this unnecessary ups and downs but without ups and downs, there is no joy crossing one bridge okay i’m gonna take a ferry to close the little ocean okay, on the other side oops oh my god. that was a bad one my seat pack is getting ripped i’m not happy about it Ahh… now I’m in Södertälje This is the most northern point of the route. Soon the longest single track section will be begun. So hopefully that’s a good single track. Okay, this is the beginning of the singletrack. 65 kilometers in. Yeah, I’m tired. I don’t know how much I can go. But if I ride more today I don’t need to suffer tomorrow. Okay, the blue trail has started. And next couple days will be like this I guess. My backpack is getting ripped so I’m gonna do something about that so I can ride better. because the single section seems to be a bit tough so i rode 70 kilometers and… and this is my campsite i guess so it’s still like five o’clock. Yes it’s still early but I rode enough today so I just want to sit and drink coffee and read a book You know my biggest issue has been how to ride a single track with the setup and I might have figured it out. So yesterday the last 6km was a blue single track and as usual my seat pack started touching the rear tire. the seat pack is getting broken so I tried new some methods okay I’m gonna try like this let’s see if this is gonna bother me okay shall we? yes ,we shall I guess I can put… Lower the seat a little bit Ah…it’s not good already okay x2 I have another idea Okay this might be better I put this pack on top of the hip pack Okay let’s go Are we going up there? Oh f*ck I don’t think I can go up there Oh it fell doesn’t stay huh? if I can figure this out my life would be much much easier how about this? does it look good? okay, rock slaps yes oh I guess it’s working the pack is not moving I feel a little bit uncomfortable under my boobs yes but my bike is not scratching the pack anymore so I’m quite happy about it oh yeah Maybe next thing I have to worry about is this front pack it’s bouncing so much yes that’s what I… yeah I don’t want to do I still have to be gentle I I think this is working! I can ride almost normally. Oh my god. Oh yeah. This is getting steep. My pack is okay. We’ll see. Oh yeah. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do this with the pack because I really need to put my butt behind the seat. Oh yes. Oh yes. Yeah, that was a bit spicy. So my last solution was like this. You connect your pack with a waste pack. Use this strap to attach to myself under my boobs. Just like getting a precious baby. Choo choo! Okay. And today it seems like a lot of trails are single tracks and some red trails in it. So yes, it’s gonna be challenging but I’m ready for it. But I’m not ready for this. So now I got in a red trail. Okay, I needed to focus a little bit, sorry. It’s so low elevation. So it’s quite quick ups and downs. Yes, it’s quite demanding. Especially with those packs. I can’t imagine if I couldn’t solve that issue yesterday. Probably I couldn’t ride this trail at all. Can I ride it? Oh Akaran Lake It’s pretty warm actually Yeah, it’s very nice Okay… so this is the start of the black trail. Okay, rock slabs. Let’s see how hard it is. Yokkoisyo Hmm, actually pretty good. The uphill… Oh… Uphill wasn’t good Oh my god… This is fun. It’s very good. If it’s not the end of the day. Oh sh*t. It’s quite punchy ups and downs, huh? It’s a huge mosquitoe! I didn’t bring any mosquito repellent. I guess I should have, but … I thought that was a luxury. I think this is gonna be our camp tonight. Tonight, dinner is gonna be a little special. Matsutake mushroom soup Mmm, so good. Taste of Japan. So today I rode 38km total. You know, riding single tracks is hard and it takes much more time. I knew this section would be the hardest because I knew it’s going to be a lot of single tracks. and yeah that was tough so hopefully from tomorrow it’s gonna be less singletracks and I can progress a little bit faster yeah I couldn’t make it to the restaurant anyway it’s it’s too far Good morning. Day 4. Today we are going to go by a lot of lakes. And hopefully, you know, I can take a dip because I’m a bit dirty. This is so smooth. Another lake. So beautiful. Hmm, crossing a bridge. Oh, I cannot cross a bridge. What? I cannot cross the bridge? That’s not the good news. And I have to close over a hill. The mosquitos it’s so bad. This is just fighting against the mosquitoes. It’s a dead or alive, battle, between, us. This is not good. Oh my god, this is so steep. [GRUNTING] Oh, f*ck. F*ck off me. Oh my god. It just gives me a little panic, huh? And it’s quite painful. Oh, f*ck. Oh my god, I’m losing my battle A mosquito repellent is not a luxury it’s a necessity I learned it. I thought I learned it a long time ago but I learned it again. So this is the restaurant I wanted to come yesterday. Now it’s 12.30 so yeah it was impossible to make it here but still there will be a buffet in a castle coming that’s gonna be on the last day and that’s my reward for the suffer I’m really looking forward to that I wanted to swim but it’s getting cold Okay Oh yes, yes. Oh yes. I guess I’m going in this field. Okkoisyo-to I’m not gonna ride it. I don’t want to fall. Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. Oof. This one is so long. Probably if it’s under the good circumstance it’s pretty amazing to ride this long skinny plank bridge if there’s no mosquitoes but they are so this is just a torture and I’m not really enjoying it stay calm, stay calm yes, it’s just a mosquito Ouch! f*cking mosquitoes. So many footprints of animals, probably cow It’s just so bumpy. This is new A new way to torture me. The first, mosquitoes. Then second, cow’s footprints and if they come together oh that’s quite a hell. Tonight’s camping spot under the shelter. I have never done it but the probably it is good. And it’s next to the lake. So today I rode 55 kilometers and I think I’m getting tired. My legs don’t want to pedal anymore. That’s maybe because I’m eating ramen every night. So yes, I think I need better food. And pepperoni okay day five i hope i can get some nice food somewhere i need meat starting with the blue single track to a red single track those are the… supposed to be the last single tracks of the route so let’s enjoy it oh my god, it’s so nice weather again I thought it’s gonna rain last night but it didn’t Okay the last… probably the last single track the red one. Another wooden planks I don’t know… I don’t think I want to take the risk of falling right now oh sh*t… oh sh*t… I didn’t plan to ride it but there was… oh my god… yeah, one plank is falling off. I didn’t plan to ride it but I couldn’t stop at the bottom and the plank started right away so… oh! another plank but this one has a big gap in the middle I’m not gonna try. Ouch! okay another plank oh the gap in the middle is … was getting bigger but… oh sh*t oh sh*t oh that’s not good and…okay. okay try again yes, this is not so high and then the gap in the middle is not so big, i hope oh sh*t this one came up oh, no. i think i… i don’t know i don’t know. maybe this one. maybe the plank i have no idea but, uh, yes it’s not quite right, is it? okay okay almost the last bit of single track is over A little bit more… Yes… So the trail I’m supposed to take got logged, probably And there’s no trail so i’m gonna… uh, how do you say? bushwhack a little bit hopefully, i can find the trail, yeah? as you can see the walking in the open cut area is not fun but I guess I have to go I guess there’s some kind of trail people walking the single track issue was solved and the new problem occurs I’m kind of in the middle of nowhere so there is no any other way to get out hopefully I can find a decent trail at where the trees are okay I got out I didn’t disappear into the Swedish woods so that’s a good thing my feet are sore cinnamon bun from the Coop two days ago still good probably nice I think we can eat a little nice food now I’m ready to pedal but as you can see it’s gonna rain hard in two hours so I’m gonna pedal for one hour and look for a camping site okay it started to rain a little bit i guess it started to rain i’m so happy to have a shelter i don’t know how much it’s gonna rain i can’t predict the weather here so… oh hail! it’s hailing! yep. It’s pretty weird weather, right? (laughing) A thunder But the rain is getting weaker. Whew, that was exciting. I have puddles in the tent. So I guess I’m gonna move. After the storm, I peddled a little bit And I found a campsite for the day My last campsite has a lot of flies. Tomorrow it’s gonna be easy day with a buffet lunch. One thing I’m worried about tomorrow is that if they’re gonna let me in because… I’m so dirty. We’ll see, we’ll see. They should have a big open heart, right? Okay, day 6 This is my reward day! So excited. I guess this is the one last castle. but before the buffet, this is Swedish safari. I must see some animals. Oh, I guess this is a fake one. This is an alive one. Yes, it’s a bit far, but that’s a moose. They are beautiful creatures. Oh, two of them. Baby. They’re all running away from me. Come on, I’m very friendly. I’m very friendly human being. You don’t like me, do you? [laughs] Now I’m so full, I can’t eat anymore. The food was good and there were not many desserts, only cookies. But that’s alright because you know what I needed was meat. So from here I just need to pedal to the van and this is gonna be over. I am not sad about it because it was so tough. I really underestimated how difficult this route was. It’s quite bush. Just because there’s not many elevations that doesn’t equal to the difficulty. Probably I shouldn’t think about riding on downhill. Yes! definitely not the bike for a bike parking. This is new. Oh, Sh*t this one came up That was amazing i made a little mistake planning the trip And i didn’t bring a mosquito splay That was a huge mistake. That’s my campsite. Yes she is. Beautiful van. Home sweet home. Okay. I gotta go because do you know why? I need to have a shower. So thank you for watching. I hope you enjoyed the video and see you next time.

The Swedish Safari 300 turned out to be the toughest bikepacking trip I’ve ever done—not because of the climbs, but because of the relentless exhaustion. Even the descents were a challenge with all my gear strapped on. By the end, my body was completely drained, but a reward was waiting for me on the final day—and I pedaled hard to claim it.

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