Category: Car camping

Kids camping with Outdoor Life Växjö

On By Småland OutdoorIn 2021, Car camping, Overnighters, Trips1 Comment

There’s a Facebook group called Outdoor Life Växjö where we share tips and tricks about gear and sweet spots nearby. The group has meetups every now and then. Since a lot of the members in the group has kids I thought it would be fun to have a meetup with the kids.

In mid September a bunch of us met up on Skälsnäs on the northern side of Helgasjön. Christoffer and E from Friluftsfrämjandet Skogsknytte also joined, and Christoffer also brought E:s little brother. A couple of the guys who came with their kids only stayed for the evening but four of us camped with our kids.

Skälsnäs is a good place for car camping trips. There’s a shelter, privys, a sandy beach, several fire pits and lots of room for tents.

I had brought the Tentipi with the HeatPal. Since it was a car camping trip I wanted as much comfort as possible. I had also brought a lot of good food, with a couple of beers and tasty cheeses and sausages. But despite having the carriying frame I wouldn’t want to carry this setup any longer distances. It really is heavy.

We had a fire next to the shelter and hung out there most of the evening. The kids where playing, but C was a bit shy until Christoffer and E came. C was very happy that E came and they played together for the rest of the evening. When it was getting darker they went inside the tent with snacks and an iPad to watch a movie. The kids had been soaked from playing near (in) the water and I hung up the clothes to dry and fired up the HeatPal.

The adult stayed by the fire, chatting and eating. It was really nice and relaxing. By midnight it was time to go to bed. Dario, who started the Facebook group, and his daughter and friend used the shelter, while the rest of us used tents.

Next morning Christoffer and I had to leave pretty early, since we where going to Skogsknytte with the kids. It was more important for Christoffer since he is one of the leaders om Skogsknytte.

It was a fun trip, and nice to be out with the kids and meet other patents. I’d love to do it again, but next time I would like to do a hiking- or paddling trip instead of a car camping trip.

Camping with “Skogsknytte” friends

On By Småland OutdoorIn 2021, Car camping, Overnighters, Trips1 Comment

C has been going to Frilufsfrämjandet Skogsknytte for 1,5 years. Some of us have talked about going camping with the kids, and in the middle of May we got out on a camp with E and her father Christoffer.

We had scouted suitable areas, and I had found a nice looking oak meadow, just south of a nature reserve close to Växjö. Camping is prohibited within the reserve, but allowed outside through “Allemansrätten”. To be fair, the oak meadow was more beautiful than lots of the reserve. There are pastures around here, so one isn’t allowed to camp here if there are any animals there.

Under the old magnificent oak trees the ground was covered with Wood Anemone and Heath Peas.

C and I arrived first, and found a nice spot for two tents. After a while we heard E and Christoffer coming through the meadow. We set up our tents, and it started raining. We’d had sun and great weather all week, but once we got out we had rain. And it rained a lot. A litteral downpour all evening and all night. Having a Mid with a full inner provided some difficulties in a never endimg downpour, as it kept raining in everytime we entered or exited the tent.

We made dinner, and on the meny this time was tortilla pizza. I liked them, but they weren’t C:s favourite. Perhaps because she just wanted to play with E instead of eating.

The kids played with My Little Ponies in the Ultamid at first, but later in the evening they retreated to E and Christoffers tent, where they watched movies until late in the evening. Christoffer and I stayed outside, eating snacks and having a couple of cold beers. When it was time to put the kids to sleep we asked ourselfs why we had stayed out in the rain instead of just sitting in the tent.

C was super tired when we got back to our tent, and she fell asleep right away. I didn’t though, because I had found out that the tent was leaking. Water seeped through somewhere, and dropped down on the inner, and through the mesh onto the gear. I got pretty upset with it. The tent costs a fortune, and all the reviews holds it up to be some kind of super shelter, and I had water dropping down. I’ve had the Ultamid 2 before and didn’t have this issue. I mailed Hyperlite Mountain Gear right away, and later got a roll of DCF-tape sent, and a description on where the trouble spots usually are. (The story unfortunately will continue in my next post)

The next morning I had to wake C up. It felt like she could’ve slept forever. I made french toast for breakfast and we explored the area around the meadow before packing up.

It was fun to camp with E and Christoffer, and the first time to camp on that place. The rain was unfortunate though, but we’ll definitely come back here again. Christoffer and I talked about bringing canoes the next time.

Camping and first canoeing of 2021

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It’s been a while since I wrote here. It has been a lot going on this spring and I just haven’t had the time or energy to write. But I do have a few trip reports to post, so I’ll start with No. 1 out of 4.

Trip report

On 30th of April C and I got out on an overnighter together. It was our first overnighter together since our hot tent overnighter in Januaury, and it would be the first time C got to use the new Ultamid 4. I had only used it once before, on my ski trip in February, but that time I used the half inner. For this trip I brought the full inner, to get a chance to test it.

We got away later than first planned, and since we had to get back early the next day drove to our “secret” spot, that is close to home. It’s also C:s favourite place to camp. I brought the canoe too. We didn’t plan to paddle to a campsite, but I wanted to do at least a short paddle.

When we arrived I set up camp right away. The spot where we usually put up the tent was in the danger zone though. A pine tree had cracked about 100cm up, but was still standing. It would have been stupid to put up the tent within falling distance from it, so we cleared out a new spot and set up the tent.

After that we made dinner, chicken paeng red curry with noodles. I loved it, but C prefered the noodles over the paeng.

We paddled for a while and C got to use her new fishing rod. We didn’t catch anything though. But after a while C wanted to get back. It’s neither the hiking nor the paddling that she prefers. It’s playing in the tent.

So we got back to the car, put the canoe back in the roof and went back to the tent.

There where a lot of Canada geese that honked all around us. Their nests are everywhere in these parts. But we also heard the lonely calls from Loons. The sound of their cries cut through everything, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful sounds in nature.

As the sun was setting we got out on a rock on the far edge of our peninsula and just sat there, looked over the lake and listened to the sounds of nature.

After a long time we got back to the tent. C slept like a log all night, but I woke up several times when my Massdrop Klymit mat had deflated (I later found a tiny little hole in it.)

The next morning I made french toast from a pancake powder mix I had made at home. It was a pretty nice breakfast.

We packed up after that, and when I started to take down the tent the rain started.

And that’s that. A simple short overnighter, but a nice time spent in nature and hanging out with my daughter.

Traditional first week of the year camping

On By Småland OutdoorIn Car camping, Overnighters, Trips2 Comments

For 7 years now I’ve had a tradition to go camping in the first week of the year. This year both C and my wife Maria joined me. Maria isn’t as enthusiastic about camping as C and I are, so both of us where really glad to have her with us. As usual, my older kids had no interest in going camping.

This wasn’t intended to be a hiking trip in any way, but a comfortable car camping trip with lots of goodies. There where a little bit of snow, and temps below freezing. Great weather for hot tent camping in other words.

We drove to Lerike, 20 min drive north of Växjö. There’s a shelter here, a couple of fireplaces and a privy. It’s a designated camp site for the canoe route “Värendsleden”. In the summer it’s a popular little beach, where people arrive both by car, boat and canoe. It way to crowded in summer for my liking though.

For this trip we used the Tentipi Safir 5. It’s a canvas tipi that’s easy to set up, very comfortable and of a very high quality. In my opinion the Safir Tentipis are probably among the best, if not THE best canvas tents out there. I’ve seen a lot of YouTube channels that use other types of canvas tents and most of them seem to be both heavier and more of a hassle to set up.

We also brought the GStove Heat view. It’s my trusty companion to the tipi, and something of a must-have when you’re tipi camping in colder weather. I’ve been hot tent camping for a few years now, and sitting in a t-shirt in a tent warmed by a hot fire in a stove when it’s freezing outside is a really great feeling.

When we arrived we carried our gear from the car to the campsite and begun setting everything up. My wife and C got to start setting up the tipi so that they would learn. After that they played, while I set up the stove and unpacked everything in the tent.

We decided to make a fire in the fire pit outside, and stay there until it got dark. After dark I started up a fire in the stove to have the tipi warmed up for when we decided to get inside.

We made dinner when we got inside the tent. Pepper steaks, Mediterranean rice and fried vegetables and mushrooms. It’s sort of my go-to food when hot tent camping. Easy to make and really tasty.

After dinner we laidd in the tent and played UNO and I made popcorn on the stove for the first time. I thought I’d burn the popcorn, but they where prefect. Since I only had the 750ml pot I had to make two batches to get enough.

Around 21.30 we really needed to put C to sleep, and it didn’t take many seconds for her to fall asleep after she had crawled into her sleeping bag.

Mia and I stayed up a little longer, but finally decided to call it a night. I filled up the stove with large pieces of wood and adjusted the air flow to get a slow burn.

Mia and I shared the Exped Duomat HL LW. She used my Cumulus Panyam 600 while I used my Quilt 450. We where both warm and snug throughout the night.

The next morning the others waited in their sleeping bags for me to get up and get the fire started. The tent was cold, and I quickly got out from the quilt to fire up the prepared kindling and then got back under the quilt to wait for the stove do drive out the cold.

When the tipi was warm and snug again we all got out of our sleeping bags and got ready for breakfast. We had brought the last Karelian Pies and egg butter from Christmas, and we heated them up next to the stove.

After breakfast we let the stove cool down and explored an “island” nearby. It’s not really an island, but since it’s only connected to mainland with a narrow streach of land it becomes an island when the water levels are higher in spring. On the end of the islands therse some sort of homemade shelter made of branches and a very worn and torn plastic tarp. It’s been here for years, and I don’t know if its some kind of Scout shelter or what it is.

When the stove had finally cooled down I got back to our campsite and packed up our camp, while C and Mia played on the island.

It was a short little trip, like most of my trips are nowadays. But it was nice to get away, and I really enjoyed having both C and Mia with me. Someday maybe our older kids will want to join too.

October overnigher

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With the Corona restrictions the outdoors have gotten more attentions. This is especially obvious when I’ve been on day trips near the city, and it’s been difficult to find unoccupied fire places, and at times difficult to even find somewhere to park the car.

We’ve been on a lot of day trips this fall, but somehow I’ve never got away on any overnighters. But in late October C and I got away on a short overnight trip. My first plan was to paddle to an island we discovered on a day paddle in Asasjön, the lake bordering Tolgasjön where we usually paddle and camp. The weather forecast didn’t look too good though, and with headwinds and rain on our way home I decided to do a car camping trip instead. I want to keep it comfortable for C, so she doesn’t get put of from camping.

We drove to our usual spot at Tolgasjön where we set up our camp. We brought a small Tentipi and a firebox. I had bought the previously owned, but barley used tipi on a whim earlier this fall, and was eager to try it out. I do like gear too much, and have bought and sold quite a few tents this decade.

The sun sets early, and we got away a little later than expected, so I set up the camp as soon as we arrived. It was more of a bushcraft camp than a hiker camp, with the canvas tipi, the firebox and the cozy sheep pelts to rest on. We also brought the Feuerhand- and the UCO lanterns.

I got the fire going pretty quickly, and we fried a couple of burgers for lunch. By dinner time we weren’t really that hungry, but I still made some rice, fried veggies and and a steak.

The rest of the evening we just chilled by the fire. Eventually C went inside the tent and played there while I laid by the fire and just enjoyed the moment.

When it was time to sleep I read C:s new book; Det stora tältäventyret (The great tent adventure). By the third chapter she was asleep.

The tent door was open, and the fire burned outside in the firebox. I stayed in the sleeping bag and listened to C:s heavy sleeping next to me, and the sounds of the fire outside the tent. I felt fully at peace. Being in the outdoors like this really reduces all the stress and is the best way for me to recharge.

As usual C woke up earlier than me, and eventually woke me up. I got the fire going again, and started to prepare breakfast. I had made a bag of krabbelurmix with egg- and milkpowder, and added water an let the mix sit for a while. When it was ready I fried up krabbelurer to us, that we ate with honey on top. It was a great start of the day. We didn’t stay long though, and after breakfast we drove back home.

Overnighter in Tiveden

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In late February me, my wife and C decided to go on a road trip to do some Geocaching. In our part of the world it’s been raining more or less non stop for since beginning of October, and this weekend would be one of the rare ones with sun.

We decided to go to Tiveden national park, situated between the two largest lakes in Sweden, Vänern and Vättern. Tiveden is roughly a 3h drive from home. The last times I was there camping was prohibited within the park, but since then the park has expanded some 30-50% (not sure about the exact numbers), and now has two designated campsites. These are fairly small though, and you’re only allowed to have the tent pitched between 18.00-10.00.

When we arrived I ran out to one of the campsites to check it out, and see if it was possible to bring the tipi and the stove out there. We had also brought a backpacking tent, in case it would prove to hard to carry the heavy gear to the campsite.

After I had checked out the campsite, we drove to the main entrance of the park, and started to hike in the northern parts of the park. Tiveden national park consists of old pine forests and steep cliffs. I’ve been here a couple of times before, but this was the first time my family came along.

We hiked a mixed route where we followed parts of the yellow, grey and purple routes, and found some Geocaches along the way.

We had some spectacular views over the lake Stora Trehörningen, in the sunset. Despite being one of the few sunny days, and during the February school break, it was fairly few people there.

After our hike, and bagging a few Geocaches, we got back to the main entrance and drove back to the southern parts of Tiveden, to get to the campsite on Mellannäsudden.

It was dark when we got there, and we had to hike with the head lamps on the narrow trail out to the camp site. I had the stove and cooking gear on my back, a bag of fire wood in one hand and the tipi in the other hand. It was only a 1 km walk, but it was a hard km. The tipi weighs 10+ kg, the stove with the cooking gear probably weighs 15+ kg and I don’t know how much the firewood weighted. But since my wife isn’t too fond of camping I wanted to bring luxury.

Once there it felt really nice to set up the tipi and the stove and get going with dinner. The campsite did have some firewood, an axe, a saw and a privy. It was a nice place, but I guess it will be crowded during peak season.

We snuggled up in the tipi and enjoyed our good food before going to bed. The sky was clear with no clouds, and there wasn’t any wind. I went outside too cool off, and stood a long time by the lake, just enjoying the silence and watching the stars in the sky and their reflection in the mirror-like lake.

The temperature dropped during the night, and the next morning a thin layer of ice had formed on the lake. The winds picked up, and the large thin ice sheet blew towards the shore, where it cracked to pieced, that piled up on the shore. It was a marvelous spectacle.

After packing up we carried all of our gear back to the car, and drove to the entrance at Vitsand, where we hiked out to the campsite Käringaudden and took a couple of Geocaches on the way.

We left Tiveden, and spent the next night at a hotel in Arboga, before driving back home again.

 Tiveden is a beautiful area, and I want to come back here again when it’s warmer outside. But it’s a place I really recommend visiting.

Winter overnighter with my daughter

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I haven’t been out camping a lot this year, and the last overnighter I had was in September.

I’ve been longing for the outdoors, but things have come in the way.

Last weekend I finally got out again, on a short overnight trip with C. She too had been longing for some time in a tent, and it was nice to get out together.

It’s became a rather sudden decision, so when we finally got out to our “secret” spot north of Växjö it was already dark. But the sun do set early in the winter up north.

C had fallen asleep in the car, so I set up camp before I woke her up. I had decided to film this trip, and the darkness provided some difficulties to the filming. But filming in the warm light of a candle light or a storm lantern gave its own feeling to the shots.

With darkness already upon us, and a cold windy weather C and I stayed in the warm tent.

With trial and error I’ve finally seemed to have managed how to keep the stove relatively warm for a long period without using up too mush wood.

We made a dinner of fried vegetable , pepper steaks and rice. Sort of out usual dinner while hot tent camping. But it is delicious.

After dinner C kept playing with pine cones. “Mommy pine cone and baby pine cone” She also “found a map” in the magic red light of her head lamp. It was a map of England and Beach Land, that she studied in the red light against the tipi wall.

We had Christmas porridge (rice porridge) before we went to bed.

I used the Exped Synmat Duo UL LW this time too, and I truly love it. It is such an improvement to my sleep. It’s super comfortable, and C always crawled up on my sleeping pad before. This way we can share a 130x200cm pad with lots of room. For camping with a kid this is really an awesome piece of gear.

For other gear I also used my Frost River Isle Royale Jr pack. For hiking I’m a light weight backpacker, but I do love traditional canvas- and leather gear, and for car- and canoe camping like this, I prefer them.

I had aligned the sleeping pad in a different angle than I use to, so when I woke up the next morning I first had trouble figuring out where the door was in my sleep drunken state.

I had chopped up small pieces of firewood last night to quickly get a hot fire burning. We then fried some breads for breakfast that we ate with salamis and cheeses.

C didn’t want to go home, but unfortunately it was time to go home after breakfast. We stayed in the tent while the stove cooled down, and packed down the rest of the gear.

As usual we had a nice time camping. There is less hiking nowadays, but I love camping with C. She longs for the canoe again, and so do I. I can’t wait to get out on a canoe camping trip with her again.

The video from the trip is up on YouTube. Both filming in the dark and filming with a tree year old was challenging. But I’ll try to film more this year. The editing is still rudimentary, but hopefully it’ll improve the more I do it.

Snowy overnighter and first time skiing

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All of February I was on parental leave with C, and though we didn’t get out as much as I had planned, we did two overnighters and a full day trip.

On our second overnighter, 21-22 February we finally had some snow. It had been pouring down the night before, and I was really looking forward to trying my new skis. A couple of weeks earlier I had ordered a pair of Åsnes Amundsen with Alpina Alaska BC boots. There was a lot of snow when I ordered them, but by the time I got them, all the snow had rained away. Needless to say, I was happy to see some snow again.

We went back to our usual spot at Tolgasjön. I was a bit worried that we wouldn’t be able to drive all the way down, since the logging road wasn’t plowed. But going down to the lake wasn’t an issue.

Once down at the lake I set up the camp while C was asleep. I woke her up and we tried the skis for a little while. I had bought cheap plastic skis for her, and she tried her best. So did I, since I hadn’t used skis since I was a kid.

When C got tired of skiing we went back to camp to warm us up in the tent.

It’s always nice to get into a warm cozy tipi when it’s cold outside. When we where about to make dinner I realized that I had forgotten both butter and olive oil. Fortunately there was a little store in the nearest village, and we went back to the car to drive there. Getting up from the logging road proved to be a bit more difficult than going down though. It took a couple of tries, but eventually I had enough speed to get the car up to the real road.

We bought more supplies and went back to our camp, where we made dinner and just had a good time. C fell asleep and I read for a while.

The next morning I woke up before the sun had come over the horizon. It was a really beautiful morning.

I got a fire going quickly, with pre made fire sticks and finely chopped wood. We made breakfast and then skied a bit more.

Our plan was to stay for two nights, where we would pick up my wife after work. C was sad, and a bit cold, and after we’d made dinner we where out of fire wood.

She wanted to go home, and since I just want our trips in the outdoors to be fun without demands or hardships I decided to cut it short and pack up camp. We went back home and had a cozy evening in the couch instead.

It was a nice trip, and I really liked skiing. I hope we’ll get a better winter next year so I can do a ski camping trip.

Most of the trips lately have been more camping than hiking. It’s been nice and comfortable, but now I’m looking forward to spring and to go hiking again. I think I’m going to go either to Skåne or to Stora Mosse on my next trip.

Winter camping with a three year old

On By Småland OutdoorIn 2019, Car camping, Overnighters, Trips2 Comments

I’m on parental leave for all of February, and I had planned to do a lot of trips with C. But it wasn’t until last weekend that I actually got out on an overnighter with her.

Since it’s still cold outside I wanted to use the stove. But with the lakes frozen over and no snow on the ground to be able to bring the heavy gear with either a canoe or a pulk, I had to choose a place that was fairly close to the car. So I got back to our new favorite spot at Tolgasjön.

The first half of February had rained away, but this day we had great weather, with the sun shining and the temperature a few degrees above freezing. It felt like spring.

As usual, C had fallen asleep in the car, and I carried the gear out to the peninsula before I woke her up. We then set up the tent and the stove, and got our sleeping gear out.

I’ve bought a Fjällräven Duffel no. 6 for the stove and the cooking gear. The reason I choose this one and not the one from GStove was the retractable shoulder-straps, that makes it possible to carry the bag as a backpack. I also like the look of it better.

I had brought some firewood, but I wanted to harvest some from all of the fallen trees around. I had recently bought an Eka Viking foldable saw for occasions like this, and wanted to try it out. It worked a lot better than my Bacho Laplander copy from Kershaw that I’ve used before. We didn’t take a lot of firewood though, but just enough to keep the fire going.

I sawed the branches in appropriate sizes and C carried them back to the tent and put them in a pile. I worked up a good sweat and had to remove a couple of layers of clothes.

Once the firewood was done we got the fire going and got a nice warm temperature in the tent. C mostly want to hang out in the tent and play, so we did that, with the door open.

Eventually it was time for dinner. This time I had chosen to do a beef stroganoff with rice. I cooked the rice in my Toaks 750ml pot, and fried the pre-cut beef in my frying pan. I’ve bought a Ronneby Bruks UL cast iron frying pan. It’s not UL by any means, but lighter than a regular cast iron pan. When I hike I like to use Ultralight principles and I have a fairly light base weight of roughly 6kg. After a lot of trying I’ve found that this gives the perfect balance between hiking comfort and camp comfort. But when I go on trips like these, where I don’t have to carry the gear any longer distances I like to go all in on the luxury, like cooking real food on a cast iron pan, on a heavy stainless steel woodstove, in a comfortable heavy canvas Lavvu.

Once the beef was fried I added cream fraise, ketchup, tomato paste, mustard, salt and pepper and let it simmer for a while. It tasted great, even better than when I do it at home.

Outside the ice kept singing and cracking. We saw a couple ice fishing on the lake, but I have a phobia about being out on the ice, and wouldn’t dare to get out there.

As dusk fell, the moon came up, and lit up our campsite through the trees. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the stars where everywhere. We heard some screaming across the lake, and I couldn’t hear if it was human or from an animal. I screamed back a couple of times: “Is it someone who need help!” but once I’d screamed back the sound stopped. Maybe it was an animal, and the day after we found a pile of feathers from where we had heard the screaming.

We mostly stayed in the tent, since C like to play in the warm cozy tent. As usual we had a lot of snacks with us.

When it was time to sleep, C fell a sleep pretty quickly. I stayed awake for a while longer, reading and listening to the sounds of nature.

Both of us slept good through the night. I woke up a couple of times, and listened to the ice. It was making sounds almost constantly.

By morning I woke up before C for once. Most of the times she wakes me up with a: “Is it morning now?” and I just want to keep sleeping. Since she was still asleep I decided to get up and get the fire going before she woke up.

We fried some pita breads for breakfast and then put on all our clothes. It was time do do some exploring.

The stove was going to take a while to burn out and cool down, and I wanted to explore the area around the peninsula.

We followed a logging road to the end, and then we walked down to the lake. The small peninsula is on one end of larger cape, and we followed the shoreline to get back to our campsite. There had been a lot of logging in the area, and the surroundings consisted of different patches of clear cuts or young birch forests, but down by the shoreline the trees where left mostly untouched.

Now and then we stopped to play. A fallen tree became a bus, and a tree stump was a bus stop. The sun was shining in full force, and the shift in temperature from the freezing night made the ice sing and crack constantly. It was a fascinating sound, and I really enjoyed listening to it, while my little bus driver was going from station to station behind me.

We slowly came back to our campsite, where the stove had cooled down completely. At first, C didn’t want to get back home, but by now she was ready. I’ve gotten a good routine now, and quickly got the camp packed. We left the unused fire wood in a nice pile next to the existing fire ring and headed back to the car.

I had a great time, and it’s always fun to be out with C. I miss hiking, and I miss canoe camping, but these trips are great too.

We’ll probably get out in a two-night trip from Thursday to Saturday this week. My oldest daughter is in Athens, and my son is going to visit his grandparents, so if we’re lucky, my wife will join us too on Friday after work. She’s not that outdoorsy though, so maybe she’ll just enjoy the peace and calm of having the house to herself for once.

First 2019 camping with my 2-year old.

On By Småland OutdoorIn 2019, Car camping, Overnighters, Trips2 Comments

I really hadn’t planned to get out last weekend, and at first I didn’t really feel like it. But my wife needed to study and wanted the house to be a bit calmer, so she asked me if I wanted to take C on a camping trip.

C was excited to get out in the woods again, since it’s been two months since she spent a night outdoors.

I had decided to go to Tolgasjön again, to the “secret” spot that I had discovered a couple of weeks earlier.

I packed up the car with a bag of firewood, my canvas tipi – the Tentipi Safir 5, a backpack with the sleeping gear and other stuff and my duffel bag with the stove and the cooking gear. I go all in on luxury on trips like these.

We stopped by the store on the way and bought snacks and ingredients for our dinner. Then we set off toward the camp site. C fell asleep in the car, and I carried the gear out to the peninsula and set up the tent before I woke her up. When I was back at the car to get her two cars slowly passed us, and we waved to them. One of the cars had a brand name on them, and I think it might have been the land owner. I hope they don’t put up a gate at the beginning of the road but let us still have access to this place.

When they had passed we walked out to the end of the peninsula together. C made herself comfortable inside the tipi while I chopped up some wood and made some feather sticks. We loaded the stove with fire wood and quickly got a hot fire going.

Temperatures outside the tent was below freezing, but it didn’t take long for us to get sweaty, and we had to remove layer after layer.

C barely wanted to leave the tent, but just wanted to stay inside the cozy warm tent, play and eat snacks. So that’s what we did for most of the afternoon and evening.

When it was time for dinner I boiled potatoes in the pot and made reindeer stew in the frying pan. We ate it in flat bread rolls. This time I remembered to bring the lingonberry jam. It tasted delicious.

The rest of the evening we just played and relaxed in the tent, before it was time for her to sleep.

She fell asleep pretty quickly, and I spent a couple of hours reading and watching Netflix.

I slept pretty good, and C just woke up once to go out to pee. I woke up a couple of time, and listened to the sound of snow falling on the tipi.

The next morning C woke me up, and wanted us to get up and make some breakfast. I didn’t want to leave the warm sleeping bag, but I got up and quickly made a fire with the pre chopped small pieces of wood I had.

The skies where covered in clouds at first, but after a breakfast of fried pita breads with cheese and salamis, we got out again. This time the sun had come out, and it was really beautiful outside.

C didn’t want to get back home, and neither did I. The weather was perfect, with snow, sun and a couple of degrees below freezing. But we had other obligations so we had couldn’t stay too long. While we waited for the stove to cool down I packed up the rest of the gear.

When the stove was cold enough we packed it down, packed down the tent and headed back home. Once again it had been a short overnighter, but a great time outside. I got one more week at work before I got four weeks of parental leave. I’m planning on spending a lot of the following weeks outside with my little rug rat.