Looking out of a rain-drenched hostel in the suburbs of Stockholm, I wondered how I’d find my wilderness. Sweden is 57% forest and everywhere was a potential hiking trail. But where to start?
I sought suggestions from Karin, a willowy waitress from Arvika, who peered at my voluminous map. “What about Värmland, where I’m from?” she shrugged. “Only three hours by train.”
Värmland boasts a long list of underwhelming records – Sweden’s longest stone bridge, Europe’s largest freshwater archipelago, the world’s longest ski tunnel. But statistics don’t do justice to Värmland’s principal draw: its beautiful, accessible woodland.
Right in the heart of Scandinavia, on the railway line between Oslo and Stockholm, Värmland is near total forest that stretches for days across the horizon, broken only by scores of whispering streams and lakes.
Pale, beautiful Stockholm with its pale, beautiful people was no place for a backpacker on a budget. Besides, two nights of akvavit had left me in dire need of a detox, and more than a little out of pocket. So I took a fast train west, and soon arrived in Värmland’s charming royal capital, Karlstad, in search of nature on the cheap. [...]