Norway/Sweden foresty roads/trails
 

Heading to Norway/Sweden in July and was wondering if it is possible to travel on forestry roads/trails and if so are these mapped and where would i find such a map?

I was in Sweden last year for a Land Rover meeting over on the East Coast near Okno, a lot of the forest trails are graded chippings and are public roads. My Navman satnav seemed to show them all and had them marked up as unsurfaced roads. You can just take a detour off the main roads and find yourself going through forests ending up at lakes etc. Good driving through spectacular scenery.

Neil

Very possible, and very enjoyable too. Here's a map of Norway.

It's in Norwegian, but pretty self explanatory. From scale 1:100 000 you can see what kind of surface the roads have.

On the file symbols to the left, choose "Vegdekke" (Road Surface).

Then choose "Vegdekke_massetype (Fra 1: 100 000)" (Road Surface_type (from 1:100 000))

Refresh the map with "Vis kart" (Show map)

You typically want to find the roads called "Grus" ("Gravel") and/or "Skogsbilveg" (Forestry road/trails)

For planning and for programming the GPS you need a good map. I found this one. Scandinavien by Freytag & Berndt ISBN 3-7079-0424-5.

It a ring bound atlas with the lower part at 1:250,000 and the norhtern part at 1:400,000. It shows a lot of roads but doesn't tell you which ones are gravel unfortunately. It's fair to say that if it's rural and between the main roads it stands a chance of being unsurfaced. Some of these roads in the summer are basicly smooth compacted dirt with the gravel pushed to the side. You can do 50-60 mph on this easily if you can see ahead. Often though you find no warning of a change of surface from tarmac to dirt/gravel so you have to be on the ball. Wonderful roads. I've run these roads on road tyres (020's) so if you're on something more agressive you'll have no worries unless it's heavy rain.

Have fun.

have a look at SOE in the grussnack section theres a good link to a series of GPS points that cover a route of 2500km on minor roads from uppsala to Kiruna

Hi,

Check this link for the files with GPS tracks and roadbooks for the track mentioned above.
Operation Sverigelänken - Sidan 3 - Svenska Offroadentusiasterna
At the bottom of that thread look for an attachemnt called:
200__pannben_etapp_1-13_med_gps_wp_final.zip_588.doc
(It seems that that it works to click on text above to download file)

Download and remove the suffix _588.doc. In the zip file you will have GPS file for the whole track(gpx and gdb). There is also .rbf files which allows you to print out a complete roadbook and put it in a roadbook holder.
In this link you can download a program which is able to read the rbf files.
RBEditor - Roadbook editor It is a freeware.

It is not me who has made this but som friends of mine. They have put a huge effort into this.
Send a PM to me if you have any questions.

The route is fantastic and you have a lot of places at small lakes and rivers where you just can put up a tent and camp each night. As you probably know it is free to camp anywhere in Sweden as long you aren't putting the tent in someones backyard ( which is hard to find in the north of Sweden).

Happy travel!!!