The magic world of forests and moors that have submerged my reality hides many hazards; and one of them is to get lured by the ghosts of the thicket attracting a tired wayfarer with a shorter route...
In the very beginning of the second day of my hike I could never predict that I would get lost in the forest some hours between the start. Though I did.
The travel began quite nice: beautiful tall pines scratching the blue sky, stones covered with moss and silence, the sacred silence of the thick forest. No people = no problems (I am not a misanthrope though I get tired of people and such hikes become my only asylum from "human" problems). I was left alone with my thoughts, my feelings, earlier suppressed emotions and wishes.
The forest is a market of freedom and the commodities offered cost nothing but your time, a couple of bruises and lactic acid in the acid. That is the price.
And so I followed the small path and the orange marks on the trees - to the South, to the freedom, to the car road cutting the thicket. I was going quite fast: I had about an hour and a half before the Sun would turn blind and the world will merge with darkness letting the ghousts and spirits out. I simply followed the route when I realized that I would be late if I follow Upplandsleden. And so - the nearest crossing and I leave the civilized Upplandleden with its orange marks and nice bridges over deadly moors, and follow a new path rapidly getting smaller and smaller... Untill invisible.
And the only marks showing that I was moving in the right direction were some red marks on the trees - one mark in 100 metres - and every time I saw a new mark I got absolutely happy.
The problem with getting lost in the forest in another country was that I didn't have any connection to the Internet and couldn't even give a call to a friend of mine. Alone. Meanwhile it was getting darker and darker...
You can hardly realize what happy I was when I heard a remote bleating - a house! It was there. And there was a car road. I managed to find the way and creeped to the road almost dead. The ghosts of the forest were favourable to me this time and I didn't have to spend a night on a log. Still, I manages to take a couple of pics of a wonderful moon landscape.
Have a nice hike, guys!
Anastasia