I made a day ride to Skalstugan close to the Norwegian border and then returned via Fröå gruva, an old copper mine, mined 2-300 years ago, where I had a very nice lunch and then back to Duved. 

Starting off from home in beautiful Swedish summerweather with temperatures in the mid 20s Centigrade.

The ride to Skalstugan offers a beautiful, winding, asphalt road, perfect for a motorcycle! The views with lakes and mountaineous terrain is fantastic! 

Google map of the Skalstugan roundtrip ride.

Beautiful views over lake Klingerselet.

Paved road with nice sweepers, perfect for a motorcycle

Skalstugan, the main goal of the trip.

After crossing into Norway and turning towards east rather than going straight north to Verdal the road follows the border for several kilometers before turning into Sweden again.

As soon as the road turned back to Sweden it became a gravel road

Swedish gravel roads typically have 3 fields of loose gravel with 2 fields of bare compacted gravel on either side of the center gravel strip, pretty natural, I guess? So to get more feeling for “proper gravel roads” I stayed in the loose gravel a lot of the time. It takes a while to get used to the front sort of floating and not having the planted feeling of asphalt.

Stopped in the middle of nowhere , curious why there were several cars parked there.

Forest stream…

After 20 kms after crossing into Sweden I reached Anjan which is both a place and lake. It’s got a “fjällstation” which is like a hostel where you can stay the night or get some food. Anjan is a great place to start your hikes on foot in the summer and on skis in the winter.

I followed road 336 for a further while and then turned right on to a road that runs on the western side of Kallsjön, this road is even smaller than the eastern side road and not so well prepared, making it a lot bumpier with several ascends and descents of hills. Some beautifull views of Kallsjön along the way.

Views from the western side of Ka.llsjön

After passing through Huså I turned off on a road towards Fröå gruva which climbs the hill on the eastern side of Åreskutan with some nice views of the mountain that I typically never see. After 10 kms I reached Fröå mine and the restaurent was open so I had a very nice lunch.

Fröån restaurant.

Lunch in beautiful weather with gorgeous views

Copper was found by a seamstress, Anna Larsdotter, in 1744 at Fröå, and copper mining was started soon after. Mining was hard work bringing the rocks to the surface and removing the water in the deep hole and, first, horses were used for the work, and after a while power was transferred from a stream one kilometer away using a primitive system of wooden beams.

After a nice roast beef followed by coffee and reading up on the history of the mine, I carried on, on the gravel road, first passing Björnrike, a newish area for tourists wishing to ski in, perhaps, more family friendly slopes than the slopes in Åre, and then on to the main road connecting Östersund with Åre and continuing west through Åre to get back.

A beautiful ride on roads that I’ve never been to before!