Snow hike from Jordbro

Jordbro (Haninge) is a great starting point for hikes. It’s a suburb fairly close to central Stockholm that is surrounded by forest in most directions. Plus you can easily hike between areas and pick up transport back to the city. We got off at Jordbro station, walked through the business park and joined a trail near Ängarna. Then we walked through Riddartorp (where there are some wooden houses), on to Öran lake and looped round to Handen.

These photos mark the start of my birthday weekend a couple of weeks ago. Couldn’t miss a chance to get out in the snow and take some photos 🙂

I absolutely love the sight of frozen lakes! An eerie stillness and silence was a sure sign more snow was on the way. The birds had already tucked themselves away somewhere warm and the light turned grey.

We arrived to the lake edge to find very well crafted snögubbe — the head was impressively round. I found his stare a bit menacing through, almost like he was trying to stare into my soul!

Things got interesting when the trail took us down this slope towards the lake. Scott tentatively put a foot down on the snow at the bottom. The ground turned out to be frozen lake ice and his foot went through. It was hard to tell which areas were solid ground because even on a normal day, this trail runs right along the lake edge. Luckily he was cautious and had good boots on or he could have ended up with very wet feet.

I don’t think the appeal of painted wooden buildings will ever wear off; it doesn’t matter whether they are houses or just outbuildings. This colour is called Falun Red and the pigment originates from the copper mine at Falun. We visited Falun a couple of years ago but didn’t have a time to do a mine tour — it’s something I’d like to do when the pandemic is over and it’s safe to travel again.

More snow arrived just as we reached this road. These photos don’t really capture just how much was falling but it was a lot! We walked along the road for a little while before rejoining the forest trails.

Fresh snowfall had transformed the forest into a Winter wonderland! Trees were bending over with the weight of the snow and even the thinnest branches were covered. Without doubt one of my favourite Winter hikes so far.

Things got a little interesting at this point because we had to wobble our way across these frozen boards to cross water. Some of the areas were quite deep, other areas were just boggy. But of course, the pressure not to fall in made me laugh and forget how to balance.

We’ve visited this area a couple of times now but it feels like there are plenty of other routes to discover. I quite fancy swimming over to some of the smaller islands in the middle of Öran lake in the Summer.

Anyway, that concludes our Jordbro adventure. I’m sure there will be many more this year!