Saturday, June 25, 2011

Stamp of the Day: Swedish mountain hiking (fjällvandring)

Here they go, the four members of our family, up in the northern Swedish mountains!  It is an amazing place, with spruce and pine forest in the valleys, changing to low growing birch-forest as you go up the slopes, and at higher altitudes the tree-less area takes over with small gnarly micro-shrubs of heather and blueberry plants, willows, and many herbs, grasses and sedges.  Lots of lichens and mosses, and gorgeous views.  I really can't imagine a better place to hike, as long as the snow doesn't come (even in summer) or the mosquitoes don't attack. 

I really miss this mouintain kind of nature here in New Jersey, and the most similar we have are on some mountains in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The Swedish mountains are better to hike though, because it is less up and down, and you can drink the water in the streams (no giardia parasites yet!). Oh, I miss the Swedish 'fjäll'!

The stamp is from Sweden and the Pieljekaise national park in northern Sweden.

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