Last weekend’s hike was unsatisfying. New attempt today.

I had planned to go out on my own and try out the first two sections of Sörmlandsleden. But earlier this week I stumbled upon an outdoors-themed meetup at meetup.com, and they just happened to have a hike today, and it happened to be in a place that I was interested in, so I joined the group instead.

We walked from Flemingsberg to Häggsta cliffs and to Flottsbro hill. Häggsta is a tall cliff popular with climbers, with beautiful views over Albysjön. Flottsbro is the tallest ski slope in Stockholm, all of 103 metres!

70+ people had signed up but only 36 turned up, which was a good thing. I thought 36 was a large crowd – I cannot even imagine walking with 70 people.

Walking with a large group like this was a new thing for me. It had its benefits: someone else did the planning, found a nice destination, looked up the best way to get there. But on the whole I prefer to walk on my own. It’s like with the donkey in Mercantour: this was a perfectly nice group of perfectly nice people, and I totally understand that some might like to have that kind of company while walking, but for me it was a distraction rather than a benefit. There were people wherever I looked, instead of forest. All this talking all the time. And having to walk at other people’s pace, not being able to stop for 10 minutes when I want to take photos rather than just a snapshot or two.

What it comes down to is this: some people go on forest walks to meet people. I go on forest walks to get away from people.