Day 17: Arbrå to Falun | 145km

8 June 2026

I’ve now cycled over 145km for two days straight, and to my surprise, my body is holding up. Before this trip, I’d never bikepacked or even cycled more than 100km on consecutive days, so I was nervous about how I’d handle it. Luckily, my body seems to have adapted.

This trip has given me plenty of time to reflect on why I’m doing this. I don’t have anything to prove. Since I’m doing this alone, it’s really just for me. I’ve been wondering if this is mainly an athletic, creative, or adventurous pursuit. The reasons shift each day, but part of me is curious to find my physical limits.

I’m not traveling light. I have my camera and drone to document the journey and reignite my creativity. Yet I’m still able to cover huge distances each day. I wonder how far I could go with a more streamlined setup, built for distance rather than all the other reasons behind this trip.

But it’s not just about the physical. Today was a perfect example. The stretch between the two towns was essentially 120km, and for that entire distance, I barely saw another person, car, or any hint of civilization. I spent the day pedaling through a vast forest on a gravel road. The elevation wasn’t too bad, but the desolation and isolation turned it into a mental challenge. When you keep pedaling but the landscape around you looks exactly the same (trees, endless trees), it feels like you’re stuck in a loop, going nowhere. If I kept going like that, I think my mind would give up before my body. But in other circumstances, it’s the opposite. When I thought I’d never get off that mountain in Norway, it was my mind that kept pushing, even though my body was battered beyond what I thought I could handle.