Part One – Östersund and Discover Dog Sledding in Jämtland
You can read Part Two – Winter Wonderland with the Locals here.
Bob from the Nature Travels team visited our Discover Dog Sledding in Jämtland (also the location of Autumn Training Week with the Huskies) and Winter Wonderland with the Locals experiences at the end of the winter season in April, and found that it’s not just the beautiful spring sunshine that provides the warmth.
I love Jämtland. It’s really one of the forgotten gems of Sweden. Much less “famous” than Lapland, its neighbour just to the north, but no less wonderful. More affordably accessible from Stockholm than the far north, with spectacular scenery and great opportunities for outdoor activities in both winter and summer, it’s a lovely region. If we live in Sweden again some time in the future, I could easily choose Jämtland as my home.
Some of my first winter adventures when we started Nature Travels back in 2006 were in the county, and Sofia from Nature Travels went to high school here, not far from the regional capital of Östersund, so since long before my latest visit, it’s had a special place in my heart.
I was visiting the area in April, after the last of the winter tours for the season had ended and the spring melt was well underway. This is a lovely period – temperatures are mild, the days are long and there is the taste of the coming spring in the air. Although the spring thaw had come very early this year, conditions were still suitable for some amazing winter experiences!
Östersund
I arrived in Jämtland with a day to spare before I’d be heading to visit the kennels that are the base for Discover Dog Sledding in Jämtland. I’d arranged to stay at Hotell Gamla Teatern (“The Old Theatre”) right next to the bus station in Östersund and just a minute’s walk from the main street. I’d recommend it if you’re overnighting in Östersund – it has a lovely atmosphere, comfy beds, a cosy little spa with hot-tub and sauna, and a surprisingly affordable restaurant. Dinner for two with main course, dessert and a soft drink each came to just under £60 including the tip. The Arctic Char was excellent and I’m reliably formed by my dinner companion that the Swedish Meatballs were too.
There’s inevitably something you forget to pack on any trip, and this time, as I realised when the receptionist mentioned the word “spa” at check-in, it was my swimming trunks. I’m not the sort of chap to miss out on a spa, so I took a quick walk to catch the H&M* store nearby just before closing. Following my very enjoyable dinner, a steam in the sauna and a soak in the hot tub made for a very nice end to the evening.
*Did you know H&M is a Swedish store? The letters stand for “Hennes och Mauritz”. The store was originally called “Hennes” (“Hers”) and the “Mauritz” was added when the company later acquired a competitor, Mauritz Widforss.
Waking refreshed to a beautiful sunny morning and with the bleary 3.30am start of the previous day a distant memory, I had plenty of time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast – which was also excellent.
As always, I started with the (not-particularly-strict) intention to restrain from over-indulgence, but managed to fit in a ginger shot, orange juice, berry smoothie, a few cheeses, fresh bread, scrambled egg, smoked salmon, pickled herring in mustard sauce (my personal favourite of the many herring flavours), a pancake with cream and jam, a bowl of yoghurt with all sorts of wonderful nut and fruit things in it and a couple of cups of coffee, before the room started to spin slightly and I decided it was time to stop.
Darn it, I’m a sucker for a breakfast buffet. Still, this was work, not a holiday (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it) and in the interests of thorough research, I felt duty-bound to sample everything on offer that my pescatarianism would permit. After all, I’m a professional, though to my shame I didn’t tackle the porridge.
Jachym from the kennels would be collecting me at 14.00 after dropping off two of our guests at the train station, so I had some free time to explore the town. I hadn’t visited Östersund for a few years and was looking forward to a look around.
Östersund is Jämtland’s only city, home to around 50,000 of the county’s 120,000 inhabitants. Jämtland covers more than 34,000 square kilometres, 8.3% of Sweden’s total area, and has an average population density of just 3.5 people per square kilometre. So there’s plenty of space – PLENTY of space!
I spent a couple of happy hours wandering the streets, trying to find a reason to justify buying something new from Naturkompaniet (one of Sweden’s top outdoor clothing stores – a visit is always a terrible temptation, but I resisted this time) and enjoying the warmth of the early spring sunshine, before it was time to meet for the two-hour drive to the kennels.
Falling for the huskies
We took the main road to Strömsund and turned off onto the gravel track for the final 30 minutes to the kennels – we were getting into wild country now! As we bumped our way along, Jachym regaled me with stories of getting the car stuck in large holes when the road is washed away by floods, and did some expert dodging of several giant potholes that he’d memorised the location of on recent trips.
As we arrived, the evening sun was glinting attractively off the windows of the house – the former village school – making everything look very homely and welcoming indeed.
And welcoming it most certainly is – I felt like one of the family from the moment I got there. There’s no standing on ceremony here. I was immediately received with a warm hug from Katerina and some enthusiast tail-wagging from house-dog Sisu. Even the cat sidled up to rub against my leg with a friendly hello.
After a quick look around the kennels and my first chance to meet the dogs, our first evening passed with easy conversation around the dinner table and I retired to my cosy guestroom for the night.
We began the next day with a more in-depth look around and socialising with the dogs, including a demonstration of “husky massage”, before heading out for a short sled tour. Like any athletes, the dogs benefit from (and also love) being massaged, and this is something guests on the tours will also be involved in during the longer rest stops and overnight expeditions.
I’ve been lucky enough to do many dogsled tours over the years, and so have had many instruction sessions, but the introductory session on sled handling before starting our tour was probably the most comprehensive I’ve had. Although Discover Dog Sledding in Jamtland is relatively easy in terms of level of challenge compared to some of the other dogsled tours we offer, dog sledding on these trails is most definitely “real” mushing. Right from the start, the forest tracks are technical and require concentration and control – there’s no time to “just stand on the back and glide across the lake” – you’ll need to be alert and working from the moment you release the brake and the dogs pull for all they’re worth towards the trees.
So particular attention is given at the start to ensure that guests are as well prepared as possible for the adventure to come. This included – a new one for me – instruction in “how to fall”. I was a little skeptical at first (since the advice is usually just “Don’t Let Go!”), but actually this was really useful. Assistant guide Jackie ably demonstrated how to fall correctly and safely and how to get back up while maintaining control of the sled and team and making everything ready to get going again. Next time I find myself flying through the air towards an approaching snowdrift, I hope Katerina’s wise words will come back to me!
And then it was time to harness the teams for our short trip. We’d be doing the training loop that is normally a feature of Day 2 of the winter programme. Here there was another new approach for me – before we harnessed our teams and attached them to the lines, the dogs were let out of the kennels to run around and play in the yard for a while to burn off some of their initial exuberance and have time to greet their friends from the other enclosures. This was really effective, and meant that when the time came to hitch the dogs to the sleds, the process was much calmer than usual!
But they certainly had plenty of energy left for running, and as soon as the brakes were off, we shot out of the yard and into the forest. It was a short tour, but a great introduction, and the ideal chance to gain confidence on the sometimes tricky trails with Katerina’s words of advice from the instruction session still fresh in my ears.
We’d originally planned to follow this with the overnight dogsled expedition and camping in tipi that is part of the Discover Dog Sledding in Lapland itinerary, but the spring melt had proceeded rapidly in the last few days and the local trails were no longer suitable for this extended tour.
But this actually gave me some welcome extra time to experience different activities.
After lunch around the campfire at the kennels, we went by snowshoes to the area where the tipi had been set up most recently (the location is flexible and the tent can easily be moved between tours) to take down the tent and bring it back to be dried and cleaned.
Next morning, it was time for “Husky Mindfulness Meditation”. This isn’t normally a feature of the Discover Dog Sledding programme, but is part (though there’s no obligation of course) of Autumn Training Week with the Huskies, which is a wonderful opportunity to work closely with the kennel team and the dogs during the pre-winter training from September to November.
With the morning sun shining down benevolently, we gathered in the exercise yard next to the kennel enclosures, joined by several of the dogs. I loved the chance to participate in this magical, contemplative session and was captivated by the energy, positivity and “in-the-moment” joy of the huskies playing all around us and by the quiet beauty and sounds of the forest as it awakened to the coming spring. As a way to start your morning, it was pretty amazing.
Walking on water
Then it was time to set off for the main event of the day, a walk with snowshoes (and some dogs of course – nothing happens round here without a dog or two!) over the hill and down to the lake, where we planned to try our luck at ice fishing and have some lunch.
It was just beautiful snowshoeing through the woods, each with our hip harness with husky attached, and it was surprisingly warm – good thing I put on the sun cream. As we emerged onto the wide expanse of the lake, which would still be frozen for a few weeks yet, it was a bizarre feeling to be walking on ice with the hot spring sun beating down on us from above. I’d swap a crowded summer beach for this combination any day!
Jachym had already been fishing at this spot with some of our dog sledding guests just a few days before, and they’d had something of a battle of wits with a very large fish which had tantalisingly appeared several times but stubbornly avoided capture, so our hopes were high of fresh fish for lunch.
After 45 minutes or so of patiently dipping my rod into the ice hole, luxuriating on a reindeer skin as I gazed peacefully into the depths and tried not to fall asleep in the sun, it was clear that the elusive giant fish wasn’t planning on being caught today either. But I didn’t mind at all. In fact I was rather glad. I was enjoying myself so much, it seemed only right that the fish down below should be able to as well.
When Katerina signalled from the fireplace on the shore that it was time for lunch, we left the ice to spend a happy hour toasting “klämmackor” (literally, “squeezed sandwiches”) while the dogs enjoyed their own treats at our feet.
And after another night at the kennels, it was time to leave for my bus journey north to the small village of Norråker. I was going to miss being here, but I had plenty of memories and impressions to carry with me – of the easy-going hospitality, the wonderful home-cooked food, the strong connection to nature that permeates everything here, and of course of many, many husky hugs!
Best regards
Bob from the Nature Travels Team
Discover Dog Sledding in Jämtland is a 5-day/4-night experience offered between January and April and includes overnight dogsled expedition with winter camping in tipi. It can be chosen as a stand-alone trip or alternatively makes an excellent combination with Winter Wonderland with the Locals for an extended visit to the region. Also at the same location, Autumn Training with the Huskies offers the possibility to immerse yourself in kennel life during the pre-winter training period between September and November.