The Quiet Picture

Now this is what I call a Christmas present – new car! It’s a Nissan Qashqai 1.6 diesel, and I hope it will be everything the little Yaris wasn’t. My patience with the Yaris ran out last summer when it became painfully obviously how hopelessly inadequate it is on the mountain roads I was driving. And then of course I’ve always had a problem with the ground clearance, it’s just not enough for the forest roads around here. And the small engine with semi-automatic gearbox… I promise you I was starting to tear out hairs in frustration when I had to literally floor the gas pedal to get any decent acceleration out of it. And then you were suddenly doing 60 kph on second gear… I’m no race driver and the Yaris is not a racing car for sure.

The Qashqai fixes all these issues I’ve had. High ground clearance, bigger and more powerful engine, manual gearbox… and then it has a bigger trunk, more space inside (so it’s just simply bigger in every way and this time bigger is better), it’s actually more quiet to drive with an efficient sound proofing and you almost never hear the typical diesel engine noise, and the interior is less plasticky which means less rattling noise when driving on rough roads. And it’s smoother over bumps, all these little things which make the driving experience fun and not frustration.

There were some things about the car that made me so happy I was grinning for ear to ear… like for example, the car actually accelerates as soon as you push down the gas pedal, instead of waiting for a couple of seconds and then shifting down to a lower gear and then slowly going faster. And even when driving at 95 kph, the Qashqai is not even doing 2000 RPM. Do you know what the Yaris does at under 2K revs? Nothing!

Of course, when I got the Yaris I was initially very happy with it, I mean you’re always happy with a new car, right? But when the novelty wears off, the little nags start to surface. But considering that the Qashqai fixes all those nags I had with the Yaris, I have high hopes that I will stay happy with the “KasKas” (you need to be a Finn to appreciate that nickname…) for many many years to come!

Another quick visit to the mountains yesterday to fix one last detail before letting the cabin hibernate over winter – I’m not planning to use it until March. There was plenty of time for photography as well, but in these days when daylight is at a premium, time is a relative concept. We thought we would wait out for the sunset at a scenic spot, but when there was no sign of gaps in the cloud cover we decided to drive back home. Only problem was that only a few kilometres on, there was an orange glow in the clouds. The closer to Funäsdalen we got, the better the glow but now we really had no time left to scout for the best spot. We took our chances and caught the glow and as we continued the drive home, we had the nagging feeling that it would’ve been even better if we had driven all the way down to Funäsdalen. But the important thing is that we got some pictures, instead of going for the big win and miss out on it completely!

Been a warm autumn. Despite the cold nights we had in October, and the little bit of snow that came and went, there’s not a sign of winter yet. The days are just getting darker, that’s all. Even in the mountains it’s warmer than usual, the first cross country skiing race should go off in Bruksvallarna next weekend but I reckon the only way they’re gonna pull it off is if they had stored some snow from last year (they do that in some places you know). The only snow I saw was on top of the higher mountains and even that was melting, it was patchy and not very pretty. I walked around in some boggy areas and felt that the moss pillows were hard under my foot, so there has been some colder periods to freeze them. There was also a little bit of ice left on the small and shaded tarns. The kind of thing I’d expect in September, really.

But at least the weather was nice up there, with a little bit of sun. At home it’s just foggy and damp and the day was too dark for photographing the birds, but what else is there to shoot these days anyway? I had to go up to ISO 800 to get any decent shutter speeds, not a favourite thing to do but since the fog was providing a light background, it was possible to pull of some pictures like the squirrel closeup. Unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to flip the camera for a vertical (the squirrel would’ve been gone long before) so I just barely got the ear tufts in the frame and was happy with that. Added some canvas afterwards, no problem with that when the background is so even. And the crested is a bonus, nothing spectacular but I’m still just a little bit thrilled for getting any pictures of it at all. The crest says it all – it’s damp in the forest.

I’ve never done a hike in the mountains in October before, so it was exiting to see what the day had in store. It turned out that it was all good – the first snow had fallen in the tundra and apart from the occasional snowfall that flew past in the heavy wind, it was a sunny day which allowed us to see the landscape in all its glory. The colours were muted under the thin layer of snow and all the features of the landscape were highlighted, giving it a very graphical quality that you normally don’t see.

We hiked up to the Lill-Skarven fell because there’s a road that takes almost up to the tree line, thus sparing us from wasting time and effort on climbing up the boring part through the forest. Once you’re up there, it’s easy going until you’re at the foot of the mountain but it’s not such a bad climb anyway. It was cold though, so much so that the water in the tube leading out from the water bladder in my backpack was frozen! The October weather is nothing to toy with, the wind was biting through my supposedly wind proof clothing but by the afternoon the sun was sufficiently warm to melt the snow on the ground and the ice in the water tube. But the slight discomfort aside, it was an amazing hike. There’s nothing like the first snow in the mountains!

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?

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”