Tag: hikingplans

Summerplans – solo or with company

On By Småland OutdoorIn 2018, Planning, Trips1 Comment

Every year me and my childhood friend Fredrik use to do a hike in the mountains, and this year we had planned to spend a week in Hardangervidda, Norways largest national park, in mid August.

Unfortunately Fredrik had to cancel this year, and from the looks of it I’ll go on a solo hike. It’s bit sad that he couldn’t join me this year, but I still don’t mind doing a solo hike. I’ve never been on a week long solo hike before, so it’ll be a new experience.

Since I had free hands to go wherever I liked now, I thought about going back to Sarek. But it’s so far away, which means spending a lot of time traveling back and forth, so I’ll probably stick to Hardangervidda.

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Initially my plans are to drive up to Middalsbu in the southwestern part of Hardangervidda, and hike on the marked trails east towards Hellevassbu, and then hike off trail and on unmarked trails for a week, and just see where I’ll end up. I don’t know if I’ll do this when I’m going to hike solo though. I hike faster when I’m on my own, as I tend to take shorter and fewer breaks, which means I can plan a longer route. Maybe I’ll make a route on some of the numerous trails in the park and then try to push myself a bit.

I do want to avoid the most crowded places though, so I’ll probably skip Preikestolen and Trolltunga, despite the amazing views. Hiking on Besseggen felt like hiking on a busy freeway at times, and though the scenery was spectacular, it felt too crowded for my liking. But nothing is carved in stone, and I might change my mind.

I’m looking forward to the trip. If I end up doing it solo it’ll be fine. If someone decides to tag along that would be fun too, as it’s nice to get to know new people.

Now I’m going to go back out in the sun and enjoy the beautiful weather we have here. Next week I’m going on another two-night trip with C. I haven’t decided whether to hike in Skåne or go canoeing in Halen-Raslången-Immeln yet. But I don’t have to decide until Friday.

Finally back out (soon)

On By Småland OutdoorIn TripsLeave a comment


The boots are newly waxed and the backpack is filled with gear. I haven’t been out since mid November, But tomorrow I’ll finally get out again. The winter has finally come to southern Sweden and there is a thin layer of snow on the ground. Yesterday morning the temperature was -8°c.

This trip will be more of a campingtrip than a hikingtrip. I’ve only planned to hike a couple of kilometers and then set up camp. I’ll just spend tomorrow relaxing, reading and maybe I’ll try to get a fire going. I’ll also use my new multi fuel stove for the first time. I was considering getting out tonight, and spend two nights in the woods. But with work it would have been almost dark by the time I would be out. I’ll go first thing tomorrow instead. It will be great to be out in the woods again.

Plans for the next year

On By Småland OutdoorIn Trips1 Comment

In a few hours from writing this 2016 will end and 2017 will begin. I’ve never really cared much about New Years Eve as a holiday. For years I’ve been working nights either on New Years Eve or started early the morning after. But I do like to make plans for my life in a year to year basis, and I have started to lay out the plans for my outdoor life in the next year.

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2016 offered stunning views
Plans for 2017

  • I plan to get out on at least one overnight trip every month. I didn’t succeed with this in 2016, but I’ll make another attempt this year. I got better hours on my new job, with no work on weekends, and that will probably make it easier to get away.
  • I want to spend at least 10% of the years nights sleeping outside, under the stars, in a tent, in a lean-to or otherwise out in nature. That’s 36 night, and shouldn’t be impossible to do.
  • Travel to Greenland and hike the Arctic Circle Trail. The planning is nearly done, and I’ve done some gear purchases, put away money for the plane tickets and notified my boss about vacation for the planned weeks.
  • Lots of day hikes with my youngest daughter since I’ll be home from work with her quite a lot up until August when she’ll start to go to kindergarten.
  • I’ll start with some more advanced, yet lightweight, outdoor cooking this year. I’m getting tired of eating the same freezer bag meals as always, and it will be fun to expand the culinary experience.
  • Buy a canoe and have overnight canoetrips on both Helgasjön and Åsnen. Åsnen is the second largest lake in Småland, and parts of it will most likely be transformed to a National park in the near future. This goal however is depending on whether I can afford to spend that much money or not.
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    I got my eye set on this beauty
  • Work on getting a hiking trail around Helgasjön. I’ve been in contact with the local authorities and it’s been up for discussion, but they won’t fund it right now. But I know there are more hikers around Växjö who’d like a trail there, and I’ll try to get more people to push for it.
  • Make the blog more active and write at least once a week, preferably two times a week.
  • Start making movies of my hikes and movies with gear reviews.
  • This year I also want to seriously start planning for a shift in my life, with more passive income than today, and find ways to cut down on office time and maybe find a way to make an income from my outdoor interest. I have both Angeliqa Mejstedt from Vandringsbloggen and Philip Werner from sectionhiker.com as role models. Both of them have a larger outdoor experience than me and have a really large number of readers, but you got to start somewhere 🙂

These are the plans I have now for the next year. Some will be easier to succeed with than others but in general, I’ll try to spend more time in the outdoors and focus more actively on finding alternative ways to make an income. In a year or so I’ll summarize how well I did in reaching my goals.

Happy new year everyone. Let’s make it a great one!