Farms in Hälsingland look like farms, until you open the door. Jon-Lars, near Alfta in the forested heart of the province, is one of the seven farmsteads inscribed in 2012 as the Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland, and from the road it seems a tidy group of dark red timber buildings around a yard. Inside, the festive rooms are covered with painted decoration, with flowers, curtains, biblical scenes and trompe-l'oeil swags painted in the nineteenth century, when the farmers were rich.
The wealth came from flax. In the early and middle 1800s, Hälsingland farmers grew flax, spun and wove it, and sold linen across Sweden, and some of them did extremely well. Rather than build grand manor houses, they put their money into an extra, decorated wing used only for weddings, christenings and other parties, often a little show-off in its taste, with paintwork that was done by travelling artists and carried on in local traditions. That is the key to the Hälsingland house: the plain exterior and the lavish interior, shown off only on special days. The industry collapsed when cotton and later synthetic fibres took over, and the farms were preserved almost by accident.
You ride here through proper northern Swedish country. Forests of spruce and pine close in on both sides of the road, interrupted by lakes, fields and the Voxnan river, and the villages are spread out. The roads are quiet and generally in good shape, with long easy curves, a fair amount of up and down, and plenty of places to pull over. Elk are a real hazard, especially at dawn and dusk, and a collision with one is serious, so keep your speed down in the woods. Speed cameras are common on the main roads, and the limits are firmly observed. Summer is the best time, with long light evenings, and the autumn colours are good in September.
Alfta is a small town, with a couple of thousand people and basic services, and Edsbyn, about twelve kilometres away, is bigger and has the wider choice of fuel and food. Edsbyn is also known as a stronghold of bandy, the Swedish ice hockey on a football-sized pitch, and winter evenings there draw crowds. Swedish cafes serve coffee with a cinnamon bun, and in summer the local farm shops offer berries, cheese and smoked fish.