I wanted to go somewhere I hadnt been before and somewhere that doesnt take too long to get to. It was an easy decision really, Fulufjällets National Park in Dalarna regions mountains. Its not much of a sight from the main Malung to Idre road as it just pokes up out of the forest.
Fulufjället is known for a few things, its a large platue whith a couple of smaller rounded tops reaching up to 1000m with a number of good fishing lakes at the northern end if you dont mind the hike to get there. Here you can fish for both Arctic Char and Brown Trout, some of which reach impressive sizes if you know how to cath them.
Its also known for having Swedens highest waterfall, Njupeskär (93m) on the eastern slopes just outside the village of Mörkret (The Darkness). Its also got some very interesting geology due to the last ice-age not eroding away the mountain. The ice was frozen fast onto the rock and didnt move, so what you see is from before the last ice age. In fact what you see up on Fulufjället is an old equatriol seabed which is 900 million years old. You can still see the ripples in the sand in some places.
Perhaps the easiest place to access Fulufjället from is the Naturum on the eastern side where there is a large car park. Its only a couple of km walk up past the waterfall before you reach the top after a steep climb. From there there are paths stretching all over the mountain and at the nearest lakes there is accommodation available and boats to rent. This is where most people go to.
What I did was go a bit further, quite a bit actually, I was wanting to find some good fishing. As most people know the best fishing is often in places that other people cant be bothered going to. Thats where I went, even if it was pretty tough going towards the end over some quite marshy ground.
I set up camp on the western side of a good looking lake, collected wood for a fire (yes you are allowed to lights fires in some places in the park) and started fishing, or mostly sitting by the campfire taking in the scenery because I was fishing with worms.
The weather couldnt have been better, it was a fantastic night with little sleep which resulted in some good fishing. A 40cm Char, a 35cm Brown Trout (must be a lot of food for them here, fantastic looking fish) and a slightly smaller Trout (which was still large by my standards). Couldnt have been better. All were taken using a worm on a float.
I didnt have a lot of food with me, just the bare minimum to manage 3 days so the Char being over minimum size ended up in the pot and fed me for a couple of days.
I had minimum kit with me too, all of which fitted into my 65 ltr rucksack.
- 3 season sleeping bag.
- outer shell of my 3 man tunnel tent.
- light weight Primus gas burner and gas.
- a trangia kettle
- trangia frying pan
- one spoon
- my knife
- fishing kit (bare minimum)
- waterproofs
- hat & gloves
- spare socks
- spare warm top and trousers
- first aid kit
- map & compass
- sunglasses and suncream
- string and sliver tape if I needed to make repairs
Day 2 i decided to move and try something new. I spend the day fishing my way along a small river down into the Birch forest. Using worms on a float and a dry fly attached to a float I managed to catch a number of smaller river trout.
From a dry and sunny morning the weather soon turned for the worse with wind and constant rain, wet in other words. The main discovery for the day was that my long serving gore-tex trousers had holes in the knees and let in water, not too good when wading through very wet thigh deep grass.
In all I was really surprised at how wild Fulufjället is considering that’s its easily accessible for a lot of people, but as usual most people don’t go too far from their cars or from marked paths. So its easy to find your own little bit of wilderness.
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