I just came back from my first hike of 2019, 180 miles across Skåne (southern Sweden).
Skåneleden SL1: Kustleden – 8 days, 180 miles
I went on this hike with Thomas, who is planning on doing The Pacific Crest Trail in 2020, so this was a perfect chance for him to do a testrun of his gear, and see how his feet and legs responded to some long hiking days.
We did the hike in 8 days, averedging 22.5 miles a day. That doesn’t sound too crazy considering my hike of the PCT had ALOT of days in the 30+ mile range.
But after no hiking for 6 months, 20 miles took a toll on my feet, but I actually think that was because I chose the wrong footwear for the hiike, but more about that later.
Skåneleden SL1: Kustleden (coast to coast) startes in Sölvesborg, on the eastern coast of Skåne in Sweden, and can actually be completed in quite a few different ways. We chose to end it in Ängelholm, on the western coast of Skåne to get the longest route out of it 🙂
Kustleden
The trail is fairly easy to follow via the orange marks all along the way pointing you in the right direction. That said I managed to get lost twice 🙂 second time was more severe as I ended up 10 miles in the wrong direction and had to get a hitch, which landed me in Mellbystand which was “only” 8 miles away from where I was supposed to be. So that day turned out to be a long day 😉
Sadly about half the trail is road walking, either on concrete/real road, or gravel roads, and that is probably why I started to get a lot of pain in my feet. I hiked in my Altra Lone Peak 4.0 trail runners, and I don’t think they are ideal for road walking. So if you plan on doing Skåneleden SL1: Kustleden, I would probably either use hiking boots, or some hiking shoes that have a harder sole.
All in all the trail has some nice views, but they are few and far between so don’t do the trail for the views, but instead hike it to get out in nature and enjoy some silence and tranquility. Or use it as a practice run for a long distance hike (like the PCT for example) or to dial in your gear.
If you do want to hike the trail, I highly recommend staying at the Immeln lake, the shelter in Osby and the shelter in Båstad as they are probably some of the highlights on the trail (we didn’t stay at Immeln, but both regret not doing it)
You can visit the official Skåneleden website here
And should You have questions feel free to contact me! I will answer to the best of my ability 🙂
If you are interested in what gear I used on this hike, You can read about that right here
Here are a “few” pictures from the trail:
There are 4 comments
Hej Rod,
thank you very much for the interesting and very nice article. It’s not easy to get good information about the trail!
And thanks for the hints to stay at Immeln (planned to do that already), Osby (the campground, right? Couldn’t find a hut there) and Båstad (is that the hut very close to the town border, east of the town?).
I’m from Germany and planning to hike the SL1 next year and wanted to know if the supermarkets in Osby and/or Vittsjö are suitable for resuplying with hiker food. Usually I’m doing freezer bag cooking, so ready-made meals like noodles, potato mash and porridge would be nice. I don’t have experiences with the swedish supermarkets, so sorry if that is a stupid question. What do you think? Or did you bring food for the whole trip?
Thanks for the reply and ‘Happy trails!’
Christian
thanks for reading! 🙂
And yes there’s not a bunch of info about the trail.
I can answer yes to all your questions 😉 and the supermarkets in Sweden have plenty of food for hikers (maybe not specifically for hikers, but yes are is noodles, cheese, bread, mash potatoes etc.)
I am in the process (still) of editing my video from the trip, so make sure to check back.
/Rod
Thank you a lot for the quick reply and all those ‘Yesses’.
Okay, then I’ll try the swedish food. I wanted to do that anyway, because that is always a part of the trip for me, to buy stuff somewhere else, makes the adventure even more adventurous.
Can’t wait to see the video. You have a lot of very nice gear too that is very interesting (nice gear list!). Love the Duplex! And the Astralite quilt. Is the other tent (it’s your buddies one, right?) a 3F UL Lanshan 2 person tent? Did he like it? Did you use the Sawyer on that trip?
Sorry, a lot of questions again. But it is okay for me if you just reply ‘Yes’ again.
I did bring a Sawyer, but I don’t remember using it as there was more or less potable water every time we needed water.
yep that was the Lashan tent, and I think he liked it pretty ok. we used the shelters a lot instead of pitching our tents on this trip 🙂 so much easier.