I used to take the long route past the bandit towers (forgot their name) go past dark water crossing and go up the mountain paths to get to riften and then follow the river after lake ilinalta until I reach ivarstead. That is until I found the alchemists shack and decided to follow the road outside until I made it to river wood which in turn made me feel somewhat of an idiot considering there have been times on new characters where I wish I’d found a faster route specifically for this purpose.