EV7: Day 2: Gideå Bruk to Bjästa

We woke up only to find that it was raining rather heavily. We first tried to wait it out for a little while, but the weather forecast did not look promising. However, after the first hour on the road the rain stopped, and there were only a few short showers after that.

Additionally, we have now officially reached the Höga Kusten — the High Coast. For us, this means a constant uphill-downhill, rollercoaster-like route… However, the landscape is just beautiful.

We were already quite exhausted and hungry when we reached Örnsköldsvik for lunch — in the local ice hockey stadium, where we could watch the training while eating. A big lunch — including a salad buffet, salmon fillets and drinks (coffee, water, milk, light beer) — only costs ~9 €. This is why we typically make it a priority to stop at a decent lunch place.

Because the weather had changed for the better (contrary to what the forecast said), we decided to continue cycling. Shortly after the small town of Bjästa (where we bought dinner at a supermarket and filled up all our water bottles) we met an old lady whom Björn asked about shelters nearby. She recommended a shelter/house as well as a public bath at a lake where we could take a shower. We had to climb a few hills before we found the place. And what a place! Next to a small beach there was a sauna and a hot (!!!) shower as well as a few picnic tables. After a strenuous day like today it felt like heaven. I even went for a little swim in the lake. We didn’t have enough time to heat up the sauna. 😄

We did not expect the last 4 km to the shelter to be so hard, as we had to cycle on a sandy gravel road going mostly uphill with all our water bottles full. We were rewarded twice: first we got to see a wild moose 🦌 running through the woods — who seemed even more surprised than us. Second, we found the shelter to be a proper house with an oven and firewood (Skrikestuga, Bjästa).

Therefore, a day that had started out very wet and not very promising actually turned out to be pretty awesome, and we still made 92 km with more than 1000 hm.

Photos

Route

Download GPX track