Route: Sörmlandsleden main part - Stage 1-62 (Sweden)

Sörmlandsleden is a system of hiking trails, divided approximately 100 separate stages (the exact number subject to change, as new adjoining stages and/or circuits are still added), covering a total of approximately 1,000-kilometre (620 mi) of walking paths in swedish county Södermanland.  The trails pass through several nature reserves, areas of cultural tradition and several historical monuments. 

The main part consists of stages 1 – 62 and is in total approximately 600 km long. The official length, summing the lengths of the individual stages, adds upp to 603.5 km, but the here attached GPX files say 580 km. Stage 1 starts in Björkhagen in the south of Stockholm. Stage 7 starts in Lida, Tullinge, and, together with stages 8 – 62, it creates a huge loop through the county of Södermanland, via Södertälje, Malmköping, Hällesforsnäs, Katrineholm, Nävekvarn, Nyköping and Trosa, coming back to Lida once again at the end of stage 62. Several hikers have walked the entire 62 main stages and received recognition for this by the association Sörmlandsleden, which manages, maintains and develops the trail. Some of those hikers did actually not hike, but rather run all the main stages.  Having said that, not all that many have done all the main stages as part of one single, multi day, hike or run. On writing this, the current unofficial record is held by Roxen Roxvret, who according to the legend (and his own records) completed the 62 main stages in 10 days (slightly less actually) during June 15th-24th 2015. He started in the morning the 15th and finished in the afternoon the 24th.

You may start your run with stages 1-6, or finish with stages 6 – 1. Then there is the main loop, which can be run either counter-clockwise, stage 7 – 62, or clockwise, stage 62 – 7. Thus, the main part of Sörmlandsleden can be completed in either of four different ways.

Which direction on the main loop and whether to start of finish with stages 1-6, is a matter of planning and tactics. There may be good reasons to plan for passing the mentioned cities & villages during opening hours of restaurants and shops. There is also a car ferry between stage 58 & 59, which makes sense to consider in your planning, as the ferry typically does not operate between 23:00 and 06:00, with some seasonal variations.