Happy trails

Growing up, our family would use Sundays for hikes or skitrips, depending on the season. At least once a summer, we would take this hike up to a fire warning tower. As I am in a 'revisiting the past' mode at the moment, I decided to take the trip again, almost 30 years later.

I did not remember much about the trail, but what I did remember was the root filled trails.

This is a trail that has been in use for almost 100 years, as long as the tower has been up. It is amazing to see the root systems of the trees and how they don't care at all about being stepped on and lying out in the open.

As kids we would trundle and climb up to the tower, and then run like the wind back down, jumping and skipping from root to stone to trail. It is a miracle we did not stumble and fall. I guess we were feet-nimble:) At this time in my life though, I realised I were more careful as to where I placed my feets:)
This troll were a new thing, though. Turned out a frequent hiker kept seeing a troll in this stone and decided to give it a clearer face.

Halfway through the hike we get to this lovely, quiet lake in the woods. I remember we never rested here as the consensus was that if we stopped, we would never get ourselfs going for the last part - the hardest climb.

But then suddenly you are up, up at the tower. If you have the guts and are not suffering from fear of heights, you can climb all the way up and get the most incredible view of a huge enormous area of forests. Every summer for 100 years someone lives here for three months, looking out for forest fires. The current watcher has been there for 8 summers. The record is 32 summers, and I think he wants to beat it:)

I think it said somewhere that this is now the only manned fire warning tower in northern Europe.

The view up there is magnificent. The forest in the horizon is Sweden, by the way.

Along the way I saw a few of these, trees that had fallen over because of the wind. As children we were told that we should not go under the roots of these trees, because they could sudden turn up again. Hmh... I wonder how that came around.... I think the only time it would happen it would be around five minutes after it fell:)

I moved away from this area at 19, and am close to have lived for the same amount of years in my current area. Walking through these 'childhood forests' I was amazed to find how more comfortable I felt here. I wonder why it still feels like I am trespassing when walking in the forests around my current home. Strange.