Tag: john bauer trail

The hiking year 2016

On By Småland OutdoorIn Gear, TripsLeave a comment

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The New Years Eve is closing in, and it’s time to sum up the past year. My goal for the year was to get out on at least one overnight trip every month of the year.

I didn’t succeed with this though, but I did get out on quite a few trips.

January:

Februari:

  • My third child was born, so hiking was not a priority in Februari.

March:

  • A two night trip on John Bauerleden north of Jönköping in the beginning of March, that nearly ruined my feet.
  • An overnighter again in the end of March on Vildmarksleden near Åseda. I got sick during the hike and spent the next few days in bed after this hike.

April:

  • I didn’t get away on a hike this month.

May:

June:

  • No trip this month either.

July:

August & September:

  • A two night hike on another trail called Vildmarksleden, this time east of Gotherburg. It was a wet rainy experience and not a trail I’ll visit again.
  • The “big” trip this year begun in late August and ended in the beginning of September and was a week-long hike in Jotunheimen in Norway. It was a great trip with mostly good weather. It was very windy though. But I can’t wait to get back to some real mountains again.

October:

  • In late October I finally got out on a trip. I had planned for a two night hike in Tiveden, but really poor weather made me change my mind, and despite the long drive I ended up with a short overnighter.

November:

  • In the beginning of November I got out on an overnighter on Helgö, just outside Växjö. It was one of the first cold nights, and I woke up to a white layer of snow. I did have some serious condensation on this trip.
  • In the middle of the month I got out again. This time on an overnighter in Lerike, at the north end of the lake Helgasjön. Everything was covered in a thick layer of frost, and the nature was absolutely stunning. I tried to make a short video of the trip, but it got quite short since I had forgotten to bring a larger memory card. I haven’t decided if I’m going to publish it or not.

December:

  • No trip this month, but in the first week of January I plan to be out in the wild again.

When it comes to gear I both added and changed a few things. My biggest purchase was the Hilleberg Enan. I actually like it better than I thought I would. I was afraid I’d find it too small and cramped, but it felt a lot roomier than expected.

I also bought a down quilt from Cumulus. This was my first time using a quilt instead of a sleeping bag, and I’m still not sure if I like it. I might end up selling it, and buying a Liteline 400 instead.

I also bought an Exped Winterlite sleeping pad. I really like my Synmat 7 UL, but as soon as the temperatures drop below freezing I find it too cold. It was comfortable and warm, but the mummyshape takes some getting used to.

During the fall I started to stock up gear for my planned ACT hike. After the trip to Jotunheimen I realised that I would have a hard time fitting 12-14 days worth of food in my 60l backpack (it’s not like it can’t be done, but I’d have a hard time making it work). The hike takes somewhere between 9-11 days, but I might also start at the Ice cap, with will add 40 km to the trail. I also want to do some more advanced outdoor cooking than just eating my freezer bag meals. It also seems to be really hard to get gas canisters in Greenland and a multi fuel stove seems to be the best way to go. For this I purchased an Exped Expedition 80 backpack, a Trangia 27 ULHA and the multi fuel burner X2 to the Trangia. I did put some thought down before I bought the Trangia, considering it’s weight and volume. But in Norway, where I was constantly above timberline and with really strong winds most of the time I did miss having a sturdy stove with a better windshield. Cooking was a pain in the ass when the windshield almost blew away and much of the heat escaped because of the wind.

I’m constantly trying to improve my gear and find the perfect gear for me and for the designated trip. I try to conserve my shopping in my everyday life, but when it comes to outdoor gear, I think I have a problem. 🙂

All things considered, I had a great hiking year. I do want to get out a lot more than I do. But it is a balance between familylife, work and my need to get out on hikes.

Next year I’d really like to buy a pair of Åsnes Sondre and get out on a winter trip. I also have loosely planned to buy a canoe, and if so, it’ll most likely be an Esker Wood Ki Chi Saga. It was love at first sight, and I’ll go to their showroom next year and look at one up close. There aren’t that many good hiking trails close to Växjö (if you don’t like dark spruce forests), but Småland is littered with lakes, and with a canoe I can do a lot of trips in beautiful scenery close to home. It’s a really big investment though and I don’t know if I can prioritize the cost.

I wish you all a happy new year, and I hope that you have a lot of great trips in 2017!

Multiday on John Bauer-trail in March

On By Småland OutdoorIn 2016, Trips, Two-night trips1 Comment

For different reasons I didn’t get out on a trip in Februari. Since I did have my plan for 2016 to get out at least once a month I thought I’d take two trips in March to compensate. So in the beginning of March I took the car to Jönköping to the southern trailhead of the John Bauer-trail, witch is a ~50km long trail between Jönköping and Gränna and goes somewhat parallel to the lake Vättern, the second largest lake in Sweden.

When I left my home, about 1,5h drive from Jönköping it had been above freezing and no snow for quite some time. Therefore I didn’t expect any snow, and thought this would be a great opportunity to try hiking in trailrunners. Up until now I’ve used these big boots, and I love them. I never had a blister, and I’ve been running about 9km in them (when I forgot my gloves at a lake on the Norwegian side of Tresticklan national park.) and they felt as comfortable to run in as running shoes.

I did however want to try what it’s like to hike in trailrunners. Even though I love the boots, I wanted to try the “wet feet” thing where you know your feet will get wet, but you dry them in camp, and you have light shoes that dries quickly. I wouldn’t have to worry about rivercrossings and trying to keep my boots dry this way. From what I read about trailrunners you wouldn’t have to worry about blisters and breaking them in. I was stupid to think that I didn’t have to take the necessary preparations (like thin double socks etc).

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My Inov-8 Roclite 295

I parked the car, and started walking. It was a layer of a few cm of snow, and quite quickly it started to melt through the mesh on the top of the shoe. After a while I got to the trailhead of John Bauer trail. Apparently I had walked a stretch of the South Vättern Trail.

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Jönköping, and the southern tip of Vättern. Snow and grey skies.

I only walked about 4 km the first afternoon, before I found a nice meadow to set up camp. It was starting to get dark. For this trip I used the Luxe Outdoor Sil Twinpeak. I’ve been looking for a light 2-person tent and this was kind of cheap. I don’t know if I’ll keep looking or not. I do have my eye set on the HMG Ultamid 2 with a halfsolid inner from Bearpawwd. This however is a much to large investment at the moment. The Twinpeak has a full mesh inner, and I do prefer to have at least 1/3-1/2 solid inner to block the wind while sleeping.

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My home for the night. I kicked away 10-15 cm of snow to get it down to the ground.

 

I had to kick away snow to get the tent down a bit in the snow. It was fairly easy to pitch, and I inflated my mattress and fluffed up my sleepingbag. After that I started with dinner. I make my own dinners, and my favourite is risestew. Instant-rice, dried tomato-basil soup, crushed peanuts and oliveoil.

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Making dinner

One foot had already gotten a blister at the heel. I forgot my Leukoplast, but had a little piece of blister-tape. I did realise that I should have had better socks, and use double socks as I do with boots.

I was a bit cold that night. I don’t know the temperature, but the cold didn’t come from the top, but from the sleepingpad not insulating enough. I’ll probably buy a Winterlite or something similar for the next winter.

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Airing out the sleepingbag
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Full-mesh inner, not my favourite. But the tent has lots of room for one person wintercamping

I started walking after a breakfast of tortillas with nutella and coffee. The nutella had frozen over night so I had to put the bag down in the coffee-water to make it soft enough to spread it on the tortillas.

I had a plan to walk for about half the day, and then turn back towards the car. This was a multidaytrip and I had one more night on the trail planned.

My feet hurt though. I had now gotten a blister on the other foot. Since I didn’t have gaiters (something I use now) snow kept getting inside my shoe. My socks were to rough and also worn, witch made a lot of friction. I should have stopped, but I was just stubborn and kept walking. The snow got deeper the further into the trail I got, and this made it quite an effort to hike. Especially when my feet hurt the way they did.

After a few hours of walking I had lunch and started to go back. At this point all I could think about was how much my feet hurt. I felt stupid for not taking my boots, even though I really didn’t expect snow. I felt stupid for not using better socks, and two pairs of them. I didn’t want to use my sleeping-socks while walking since I wanted a dry pair to sleep in. Same goes with the socks dedicated as “camp-socks”.

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The snow was really deep on many places
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My pack, the Exped Lightning 60. I really like it.

It was starting to get dark when I got to my designated camp-spot. I had walked about 25km this day. The camp-spot was in a meadow a few hundred meters from where I camped the first night. I thought about keep going till I reached the car, and head back home. My feet were numb at this point so I could walk somewhat painless. I did however want to be out on a multiday-trip and therefore decided to set up camp for another night. In this meadow the snow was even deeper than the first one.

I set up camp, ate dinner and then went to sleep. I didn’t really enjoy myself at this point. My feet hurt, they were cold and I felt miserable. I boiled water and filled one of the waterbottles with it and put it in my sleepingbag. It took a long time before my feet started to feel warm again. The bottle helped though, and I didn’t feel chilled like I did the night before.

The next morning I skipped breakfast, packed up camp and started walking. Or really, it was more limping than walking at this point. I did manage to get to the car though. I had my usual craving for fatfood and stopped at Mc Donalds on my way home to have a burger breakfast. My heels looked awful at this point. I’ve never had so large and deep blisters on my feet before and it hurt wearing shoes for days afterwards.

In all, I liked the trail. I’ll try it again when there’s no snow. Even though it was far from a pleasant experience I got to try my pack for a real hike, and I really loved it. It was supercomfortable and lightweight. I got to try the tent, witch I only pitched once before, and I got to try hiking in trailrunners, and learn what I should do different.

My packlist for the trip.