Always best to recommend a hike to a nice place when you made it yourself and you liked it. Well, there are many trails on my wish list, but the one to Ärteråsen (about 8 km) I was most curious about because it starts right behind our farm. It’s an old path the villagers took with their cattle to go to their summer farms up the hill, Ärteråsen. Our Work Away volunteer Nadia, from Brazil, is a photographer, so it was a nice opportunity to make some pictures too. She made lots of them. Of the thousands of blueberry’s, the different types of woods: from John Bauers dark ones to open ones, white moss, huge rocks. We also saw lots of mushrooms: brown, bright red, white ones. Unfortunately we didn’t meet any animal. Just before we reached Ärteråsen, it started to rain, but it was warm so we didn’t really care.
Ärteråsen is one of the largest preserved summer farms in Sweden with a spectacular view. The place is very old. In the oldest cabin you find carvings that date back to 1662, though Ärteråsen’s origin can be tracked back to the 1400’s. During the summer they serve coffee, cookies and the special Swedish tunnbröd, flat soft thin bread on which they put cheese or butter and then make it into a wrap. We bought two, and they tasted delicious. We took some more pictures and feeded the cows and then hiked up to the watchtower from which the views over the Oresjö-lake, villages, woods and hills are even more spectacular. There’s a perfect picnic place also with a view under the tower.
Ärteråsen was at its peak in 1850, when there were 22 cabins and 36 care takers for the animals. During this time several families would share cabins and hundreds of animals would graze nearby. The summer farms were in use until 1954 and today 12 cabins remain, owned by individuals and during the summer month cows graze in the meadow. Volunteers stay there during the summer holidays for a week (or more) and take care of the cows (these are my favorites from Sunnanhed, the farm we wrote about earlier).
You yourself can also put up a tent there after this two hours hike. You can get water from the large pot on the fire near the café. Alternatively you can stay in a rest house, for just 50 kronor, bring your own sleeping gear and wake up with the most beautiful view while hearing the little bells of the cows and the smell of a log fire out of one of the small chimneys of a tiny house. But Let’s keep it a secret… the nice trail to Ärteråsen with its spectacular views
We went back along the same Siljan path to Näsets Marcusgård, while it was sunny again. Nadia took more pictures. Of course I made some of her too, because seeing a pretty Brazilian girl walking in the Swedish woods is maybe just as special as encounter a bear.
Ärteråsens Fäbod is open from week 25 – week 32, during these weeks the little cafe is open every day from 12:00 till 16:00.