The Quiet Picture

Having done quite a lot of ravine exploration this summer and autumn, I can finally present my big ravine project! It is currently accessible from the Messlingen link above right, and then follow the link on the page. Or go from here. The page menu system doesn’t really work in this blog template so I have to use some workarounds, but I have a feeling that I would have to find a completely new design to improve it so a workaround is my best friend…

The sun sets pleasantly early in September, giving me nice opportunities to try to catch a nice sunset. I mean, go out for the sunset and come back for the evening tea… works perfect for me. But there’s a lot more to sunsets than just finding the right spot for shooting it!

Attempt 1

I was looking towards west but the sky was almost clear so there was nothing to shoot, but in the south there was this one cloud that looked perfect in relation to the trail, so I was in a hurry to set up the gear and shoot it before the light faded.

Attempt 2

Nothing. Zero. Zilch.

Attempt 3

It was a clear and sunny day which tempted me to drive out to make use of the evening light. I got the light, but what I really need is some nice clouds instead because the lack of autumn colours are not doing any favours to the light.

Attempt 4

Now we’re talking! I was really happy that my efforts were finally paying off, but then when I saw the pictures on the screen they just didn’t feel as nice as the sunset was when I was looking at it happening. I need more clouds.

Attempt 5

I got too much clouds. Above the horizon it was just right, but those clouds at the horizon obscured the sun so the sunset was so colourless that it was almost black and white anyway.

Attempt 6

Another nice evening that was looking very promising for the sunset, but then the light faded behind a bank of clouds in the western horizon.

Attempt 7

I would’ve converted this to B&W but I’ve already used that trick.

Attempt 8

I was out on the road and didn’t have time to find any nice sunset spot. Not that it mattered anyway, because once again the sun set behind some clouds in the horizon. But in the north, the high clouds were catching the last rays.

Attempt 9

I gave up. No matter how nice the day was, in the evening those pesky clouds in the horizon made the sunset a non-event again.

And that was it. If I didn’t catch a great sunset, it sure wasn’t because I wasn’t even trying!

I didn’t have any hikes planned for today, just prepared the cabin for winter and then left. But I did drive via Funäsdalen instead of taking the gravel road to Hede, because I was hoping to see some snowcapped mountains along the Mittådalen road. What took me by surprise was to see that the lakes were mirror calm, even though the morning was late. We’ve had a lot of these calm days on this vacation, it seems like either the wind is blowing very hard or then it’s totally calm; there weren’t many days when it was something in between. Would it be too much to ask to get these calm days next year when we hopefully have proper autumn colours in the mountains?

This is the last “real” day of my vacation, meaning that it’s my last chance for a hike. I was going to go to the Lövörgraven ravine at Kappruskaftet that I was my original plan yesterday before I got the call from the camera club, but now when I parked the car I saw a lot of other cars arrive with people wearing hunting clothes and I realised that the moose hunting season had just begun. But no worries, I knew another ravine with no risk for me being shot so I drove towards Flatruet instead and hiked to the Öjegraven ravine that I thought I had found in the summer. It’s a little bit confusing and you can’t really blame me that I got my ravines mixed up, I mean what kind of logic is it that Öjebäcken runs through Storbäckengraven and Storbäcken runs through Öjegraven? But that’s the way it seems to be, I finally realised that this week when I was studying the ravine descriptions in detail. There are three ravines close to each other in this place, Öjegraven is the biggest and furthest in the west, Storbäckengraven is the next one to the east and Torrgraven very close behind it. I could’ve reached Öjegraven in the summer if I’d just followed the brook downstream instead of crossing it and then going over the field of strange diagonal rock slabs. Those diagonal rock slabs are a precursor to the ravine, it was my initial reaction when I saw them so I should’ve trusted my instinct. But I had dismissed my instinct because I couldn’t see anything further down that even hinted of any vertical cliff walls and now that I reached Öjegraven, I found out why. The ravine starts somewhat abrubtly, so if you’re approaching it from the top you really can’t see it until you’re there. Other ravines like Svartmorgraven and Fiskhålsgraven have rock formations that continue way out, just gradually getting smaller.

Öjegraven is a fair sized ravine, right up there with Svartmorgraven and Evagraven. It has a friendlier profile though, with a broad and flat bottom where birches thrive and more vegetation on the edges of the ravine. If there’s any drama happening, it’s on the eastern side of the ravine. The western side is somewhat tame with no cliff walls at all in some places, and birch forest growing at the edge. This actually played a trick on me when I arrived at the ravine. One moment I was walking in birch forest, and the next there was nothing – the ground just disappeared ahead of me! I had to stop for a moment and let my pulse calm down while I processed the information. Through the birches I had seen that the ravine was down to my right, so I was just aiming for that, without realising that the ravine makes a turn so that it was right in front of me where I was. But when I got over the initial surprise, I had a pleasant walk up and down the ravine. If I would have to describe it with one word, I would say “nice”.

A nice place and a nice way to finish my holiday!

I was going to hike to one of the ravines today but then I got a call from some members of the camera club who are on an annual excursion in Funäsdalen. Since I’ve been alone for over a week, I was only too happy to get some company so I abandoned the ravine and drove to Funäs to join the club (pun intended, even if I’m already a member). We then headed to Norway, the plan was to see the Syldammen dam and Nedalshytta. Unfortunately the weather turned to the worse almost as soon as we were in Norway, but something else happened as well – the birches had leaves! Unbelievable. As we were driving towards Nedalshytta, the colours were a little bit on and off. Some forests were bare but some still had some colour.

It was very windy and drizzly at Syldammen, not very easy to shoot with the Tokina wideangle with a protruding front element which is impossible to protect from the water drops flying around so I wasn’t getting anything done. Then we drove to Nedalshytta and sat down for coffee and waffles. Coffee was excellent, I drank too much of it… waffles were ok, but can’t hold a candle to the ones at Djupdalsvallen. It was nice to sit there anyway, talking about cameras and waiting for the weather to turn, which it should’ve done according to the forecast. But there wasn’t even a hint of the sun so we headed out anyway and followed a creek upstream where we had seen a big waterfall from the road. Turns out that we were on the wrong side of the creek so our hike was cut short when we came across another creek that was flowing into the one we were following, impossible to cross. Note to self: follow the creek on the left side to get to the waterfall…

I had an “off” day today. I thought I would get a delivery today but I didn’t, so that was morning wasted. In the afternoon I took some of the garbage left by the builders to the recycling station in Ljusnedal, which then left me the rest of the afternoon free with no plans for it. I decided to explore the area around the viewpoint on the road between Funäsdalen and Mittådalen and try to spend enough time doing it so I could catch the sunset there. This turned out to be a great decision, because I found a lot of nice spots. A part of this area is spoiled by the powerlines and snowmobile trail markings but I found a few spots where those could be hidden from the composition, and then when I continued further north (not venturing very far from the road) I got away from those distractions and compositions were even easier. Not that I took very many pictures for obvious reasons, but I did make a note to come back here under some other circumstances.

So sometimes it helps not to have a plan and just aimlessly walk around. This is one of my favourite roads in Sweden and I’ve driven it countless of times and I’ve stopped at the viewpoint almost half the time and taken a lot of pictures from it. But never before have I actually explored the area… shame on me!

And the sunset? Didn’t happen. Sun disappeared behind the clouds long before and didn’t show up again. More time for me to have my evening tea then.

It’s been a week and I only have one waterfall picture. That must be a record… I was going to fix that issue today, the idea was to locate and shoot Kvarnbäcksfallet which is south from the lake Storsjön. Finding it was easy in the end, it’s signposted from the road and the hike is given as 1 km. I could hear the water falling nearby already, so this sounded like a very promising trip. Empty promises, as it turned out – I have never seen so many waterfalls with so little to shoot. The main fall is at 1 km just like the sign said, but the hike up there is steep uphill so the the water is constantly falling. And upstream from the main falls, it’s the same thing for about 1 km until it starts to level out. So we’re talking about 2 km of waterfalls and I only found one spot and even that wasn’t very good! Unbelievable. The brook is surrounded by spruce forest so for every fall that looked half promising, there was at least one thing preventing me from shooting it. Either it was impossible to get close enough to the water, or the branches were blocking the shot, or there was too much fallen tree material in the water to spoil the view. Really, the only thing I achieved on that trip was to get my jacket dirty when pushing through the forest.

But don’t let me discourage you. If you’re a waterfall aficionado, by all means check out the Kvarnbäcksfallet falls. And please take a lot of pictures and show them to me so I will know what I missed. Because I sure missed, a lot.

On the way back, I took the small road that follows the river Ljungan on the south side. I found one nice spot and I felt considerably better after that, although I guess it’s not fair that I should be disappointed if some place didn’t turn out to be as good as I had hoped for. It’s just impossible that every place is good, this is why we do scouting in the first place. I’ve been thinking about these falls for a couple of years already and now I’ve been there and can put it to rest!

One mountain that I’ve meant to explore for a few years now is Ormruet. It’s a sub-1K peak but it’s located in a nice place, for one thing it’s close to the road so it’s only a 2km hike to the top (even shorter, if you’re prepared to climb a vertical cliff wall) and secondly, I’ve speculated that it will provide a nice view towards Ånnfjället, since it’s practically just across the road. Ormruet has a very similar profile to Funäsdalsfjället, which means that it’s ugly to look at but interesting to be at. Instead of one distinctive peak, the top is flat with several ridges with a tarn nested in between two of the ridges. I had a thoroughly enjoyable morning walking around the tarn and checking out the ridges and now I’m determined to come back next summer with a tent and camp out for a night. In the evening you can shoot Ånnfjället and then catch the sunrise and shoot the mountains in the west bathed in the morning light (unlikely that I will catch the sunrise in the summer any other way than camping out…). With such a short hike and relatively easy ascend to the top, it doesn’t matter if you’re lugging heavy gear so it’s a perfect location.

This is probably the sunniest day of the vacation. It can’t get any sunnier in any case! Perfect day for a hike, so I drove to Bruksvallarna and left my car at Rockvallen. I hiked up to the Skenörsfjället peak and it was a real treat. It’s right smack in the middle of the massif between Fjällnäs/Tänndalen in the south, and Bruksvallarna/Ramundberget in the north. It is also higher than the surrounding fells (except for Skarvarna) so the view is spectacular. Yes I know, I say that about every peak… but Skenören really stands out. You can see all the plus-1500m peaks of the region; Stor-Vigeln, Skarddöra, Skarsfjället, Sylarna and Helags. And even Härjångsfjället in the distance. It’s a real primer for Funäsfjällen and fairly easy to get to, if you’re prepared to do the legwork. And today I was treated to special offer with some snow on the high peaks, Skarddöra and Sylarna were particularly nicely decorated.

On the way up there, I found quite a few reindeer antlers. I picked up the best one and strapped it on the backpack to shamelessly use it at first best opportunity. It wasn’t easy… I was in between the sun and the snowcapped peaks, which means that my shadow was falling in the foreground. I had to find an elevated spot for the antler and then lie down on the ground in the lemming droppings to avoid getting my shadow in the shot. Is it cheating to move the antler like that? I don’t know… but at least I didn’t steal it from somebody else’s picture and paste into mine! I leave that to the pros*, LOL!

When I sat down for a cupe of coffee, I saw a lot of lemmings go about their business in the slope below me. One of them appeared just a couple of meters from me, it settled down to eat some grass and totally ignored me. I was thinking that this must be a veritable smorgasbord for hawks and other predators… and would you believe, as I was sitting there, one of those birds starting circling above the spot! I couldn’t resist turning my head to see where it was flying, and maybe it saw the movement because it flew off. It would’ve been too cool if it had swooped down to catch a lemming…

I also saw a sea eagle above the mountain. I think it’s a sea eagle anyway, I don’t have a history of getting my birds of prey right… it was a big bird in any case, like the one I saw in the summer, harassed by three smaller birds of prey (that I won’t even try to ID).

In the evening I made an effort to shoot the sunset. Unfortunately, it’s pointless – you can paint the birches any colour you want and they will still be naked. The only way sunset will be interesting if there’s any cloud and then shoot into it. Considering that this was the last sunny day according to the forecast, I might still have a chance.

*go to your favourite search engine and search for “terje hellesö” and “fusk”

I decided to go to exploration mode today, so I left the cabin with the compact camera in one pocket and a chocolate bar in another. Equipped with a map and a compass, my mission for the day was to find a way to the Kovvograven ravine south from Messlingen. There was a slight problem though – I didn’t know exactly where it was. It’s not big enough to be shown on the maps the same way as e.g. Evagraven does (the !!höjdkurva!! make distinctive curves) so all I had was a vague idea and a plan.

It’s easy enough to get to the region where the ravine is, just walk south from the bridge over Mittån until your reach the plateau with the Middagstjärnen tarn. So I set my compass and followed where the arrow pointed, and gave myself a pat on the back when I came up to the plateau exactly where I wanted to – to the right of the tarn. Now I just had to continue going south, over the plateau and then go a little bit down on the other side and this is where it would get tricky, I didn’t know how much to the east or west I would need to be and I didn’t know at which altitude either. So the plan was to walk down a bit and then change to an east-west direction and walk back and forth until I came across the ravine. I almost laughed when I saw that the ground dropped steeply in front of me when I’d gone a mere 10 metres or so from turning east. Considering how steep the drop was, it was obvious that I had found some kind of a ravine, but there were no cliff walls like in the other ravines I’ve visited. The bottom of the depression was covered with spruce forest and I was wondering if the whole place even qualifies as a ravine at all. I followed it down until it levelled off, and then followed it back up in case it would get a little bit more exciting on top. I had almost given up on the whole place when I saw some cliffs between the spruces to my right and sure enough, I had found it!

Earlier in the summer I wrote about the Öjegraven ravine and what a disappointment it was. Kovvograven was even smaller, but I wasn’t disappointed at all, because it had a completely different character. It wasn’t just Evagraven in miniature scale like Öjegraven was, but it was a much gentler profile with a broad mire bottom and only one spot with cliffs on both sides in the southern end of the ravine. I followed the ravine up and now there were low cliffs only on the western side while in the east the ravine was bordered by a ridge covered with a birch forest.

Getting back from the ravine was obviously even easier than going there. All I needed was a generous southern direction, knowing that if I veered too much to the left, I would end up by the lake, and too much to the right would take me to the river. In other words, it was virtually impossible to get lost but when I found an old path, I decided to follow it anyway, curious to see where it would take me. The answer is that it took me down to a small beach by the lake and I realised that the people who use the trail normally take a boat across the lake. I didn’t have a boat but there’s also a trail that circles the lake (not sure if it circles it completely, so I guess I will have to explore it some other day) so I took it back to the bridge. But if you’re planning to visit Kovvograven, forget about the paths and just go south from the bridge to the ravine and then follow the same way back north. No GPS needed!