Current
The stretches around Örtjärnen are currently very difficult to get around. A large number of trees have fallen due to spruce bark beetle infestation. To get there, you have to make a detour around the trees, and in some cases climb over them. In some places a very long detour may be required.
This will be addressed as soon as possible.
Stage 19 is a beautiful and varied route where the second half is quite hilly.
After leaving the windbreak at Lake Kolpen, you soon come out on an easy path. The path follows a small stream ravine through dense spruce forest where the ground is covered in thick green moss. You come out at road 68 and are now in Darsbo. From Lake Dagarn to Lake Storsjön across Darsbo farm, there is a stretch of leptite formations. The leptite contains limestone and iron ore, which was previously mined. In Darsbo, by Lake Dagarn, there was a smeltery that was the largest in the parish between 1610-12. It is not known when operations ceased, but today only a slag heap and the remains of a dam remain.
Through Darsbo you walk on a wide path at the edge of Storsjön and then on a small gravel road. After a short distance through the forest, you come out on a larger gravel road below Främshyttan, a mountain manor first mentioned in 1540. The gravel road takes you through Främshyttan's beautiful and varied cultural landscape past meadows, farms and horse pastures. All the time you have a view of Storsjön.
After Ivarbyn, the trail turns off the road and climbs upwards, into the dense forest. Eventually it goes down again towards Getingtäkten. On the other side of the road follows a slightly more boring stretch along a gravel road that takes you up a 2 km long hill lined with forest.
You will be rewarded when you reach the beautiful area around Lake Örtjärnen. Örtjärnen is an approximately four kilometer long and 50-150 m wide rift valley lake. The difference in level between the lake and the surroundings is about 50 m. When you cross the bridge, you cross the border between Västmanland and Dalarna. At Örtjärnen there are two campsites to choose from. The first is on the headland you come to just after the bridge. There are two shelters here. If you continue a few hundred meters more, you will arrive at the next shelter.
RESTING PLACES
There is a shelter with a fireplace by Lake Kolpen. The shelter has a beautiful location right down by the water.
At Örtjärnen there are two campsites. The first is on a headland that you reach after crossing the bridge from the south. There are two shelters with a fireplace. The place is beautiful and cozy and several tents fit around it.
The next shelter is located after another few hundred meters and here is also the TC. This shelter is also beautifully located with the opening to the lake.
Directions
At road 68 at Darsbo, bus no. 500 stops, which goes to Skinnskatteberg - Köping or Fagersta - Norberg - Avesta. The bus runs once an hour on weekdays but a little less frequently on weekends.
