It’s that time of the year again. The time where you once again can apply to Fjällräven Polar, a 300km adventure through the arctic north, and the time where I once again shamelessly ask for votes in all ways I can.

So please vote for me, and I’ll be forever grateful -> Vote here

My planning for this year isn’t done, but I do have a few things in mind already:

• To do a lot of canoe camping trips, and bring my kids with me. My youngest is getting big enough for me to dare to take her along in the canoe
• I’ll make another attempt at getting out on at least one overnighter each month of the year, and I’d really like to succeed in spending 10% of the nights outdoors.
• A 3-day trip to Trestickan (I’m going on Thursday, but I’d like to get back there in spring or early fall too)
• A 3-4 day canoe camping trip at Halen-Raslången-Immeln this spring. This will be my first longer canoe camping trip, and I’m really looking forward to it.
• A weeklong canoe camping trip in Femundsmarka this summer. I thought about doing the ACT in Greenland this summer, but I’ll probably wait for the kids to grow older before I do this trip, and do a week in Femundsmarka instead.
• An Ultralight ultracheap hiking trip. This is something I’m really looking forward to trying. I’ve acquired a complete set of ultracheap lightweight gear while buying stuff for my family and also stuff I’ve bought for myself. I’ll post my updated ultralight ultracheap gear list in an upcoming post and it’ll be a fun test.
• I’d like to do another social hiking trip again. It was fun to meet other hikers in general, and especially to meet UL hikers and discuss gear and stuff like that.

These are some of the things I have planned for 2018. I hope it will be a great year, and I’m looking forward to it.

It’s been a long time since my last post, and I’ve hardly even thought about the blog for a while.

There’s been some reorganization at work, and theses last two months have been crazy. I’ve been more stressed out than in a long time, and have been to tired to think about the blog and write about the outdoors. A coworker compared our situation to the Greek mythology about Sisyphus punishment in the Underworld, where he for all eternity has to push a bolder up a mountain side and when he almost reach the top it keep rolling down again.

It’s in times like these that it’s more important to actually get outside to recharge and de-stress, but I haven’t had the time.

I had plans to get out this weekend, but other engagements came up, and I have to postpone it even further.

I don’t think my next trip will be a canoe trip since temperatures keeps dropping below freezing, but probably a camping trip pretty close to the car, with lots of food and a camp fire. It’s getting dark early this time of year, which means more time in camp.

When it comes to gear I bought a Tentipi Olivin earlier this fall, and I really came to like it. It’s heavier than my HMG Ultamid 2, but I actually liked it better, and it felt a lot cozier. I can shed weight by using trekking poles instead of the dedicated center pole.

Tentipi doesn’t make a floor for it, but I found a floor on AliExpress for a 3F UL Gear Cangyang 3 that has the same dimensions. It only cost me ~25€.

As for the canoe, one of the fiberglass seats, that already had a crack in it when I bought it, broke on my last trip. I made two wooden seats instead and used them instead of the fiberglass seats. The canoe is too heavy for me to use alone, and I would need the space in my basement for other things, so I’ve been saving up for a new canoe. I’ll sell this one and probably buy a Bergans Ally foldable canoe. It only weighs 18kg, and can be stored in its pack without taking up that much space.

When it comes to trips I’ve been planning next years trips, and I’ll do a 4-day trip at Halen-Raslången-Immeln in Blekinge and Scania in the early spring. It’ll be sort of a test run for longer canoe trips.

In summer I plan to go to Femundsmarka national park and do a weeklong canoe trip. I had planned to go to Greenland this summer, but I might postpone it again. I was away from my kids for two weeks this summer and I missed them too much.

Here’s my canoe camping pack list.

It’s a lot heavier than my regular UL pack list. Partly because of my heavier tent, but also because I bring more gear for cooking and an axe for campfires. Weight isn’t that much of an issue when canoe camping. But I still like to keep it down as much as possible without cutting down on comfort.

I hope I’ll get out on another trip soon. I can’t wait for the snow to fall, and I want to do a snowshoe hiking trip, but I’m also looking forward to spring and to be able to do longer canoe camping trips.

Hi, my name is A. and I’m a gearoholic.

So I did it again. I ordered another piece of gear that I didn’t really need, but still wanted to get. A Tentipi Olivin.

My Hyperlite Mountain Gear Ultamid 2 is a really great UL-tent for lightweight hiking trips where I hike all day and just sleep in the tent (ok, it’s big and comfortable to hang out in on a rainy trail day too) My Helsport Nordmarka 6 Lavvu is a great family tent for car camping trips.

But lately I’ve been looking into hot tent camping, especially during the colder seasons, and that’s where the Tentipi Olivin comes in. It’s a two-person tipi with a diameter of 280cm and a height of 170cm. The fabric is polyamide coated with silicone on both sides, it’s flame retardant, and unlike sil-nylon it doesn’t stretch or sag when it’s wet. I could have settled with the Nordmarka, but a 6 person Lavvu at ~5,7kg is both too big and too heavy for hiking solo. The Olivin weighs 1,8kg, so it’s far from lightweight. But that’s still 4kg lighter than the Nordmarka, and it has a more suitable size for solo trips.

You can have a small open fire inside, but I plan to buy a wood stove, like a Solo stove or a Toaks wood stove, that I can use inside the tent. If I like this tent it’ll probably be my go-to tent for solo canoe trips, bushcraft trips (as much as that can be done within the boundaries of Right of public access) and shorter cold weather trips.

I’ll post some pictures of it once I’ve received it and got it out in the woods.

For a while now I’ve been looking for a canoe. Well, not actively looking since I have to cut down expenses while my wife (and later me) is home with our youngest daughter. But I’ve been all over the Internet drooling over different kinds of canoes. I enjoy paddling a lot, even though I rarely do it. But I like the possibility to get to remote islands without people, and to be able to enjoy the scenery even when there aren’t any trails near the lakes. It also allows me to pack heavier and have more food with me.

I’ve watched canoe-journeys from the YouTube-channel Burley Outdoors a while ago, and got introduced to Swift Canoes from the videos. They make really lightweight canoes, kayaks and packboats. They’re made of either Carbon fusion (the lightest option), Kevlar fusion or Expedition Kevlar (the heaviest and most durable option). I first had my eyes set on an Adirondack Pack 13.6. These canoes are way over my price range, but i did drool over it as the light weight really appealed to me.

However I found another canoe that I immediately fell in love with. The Swedish made Esker Wood Ki Chi Saga 13 made out of Canadian Red Cedar.

I think that it is one of the most beautiful canoes I’ve seen. At 22 kg it’s heavier than a Swift Canoe, 9 kg heavier than the heaviest version of Adirondack Pack 13.6. But for me it was an instant love. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to prioritize buying this canoe any time soon. I’m putting away money for a trip next summer to the Arctic Circle Trail in Greenland and I don’t think I’ll be able to get a canoe next year. But one can dream, and hopefully I’ll be able to get my hands on one in the near future.