Tag: vandra i småland

First solo overnighter in a long time

On By Småland OutdoorIn 2022, Overnighters, Trips3 Comments

When I first started this website and my Instagram I had a goal to spend at least one night a month, and 10% of the nights of the year in a tent. I never actually made it to 10%, but the point is I was out hiking, camping and canoeing a lot more than I’ve done the past couple of years.

I can’t really point out any specific reason to it. I still love it, but I guess short overnighters on the same spot time and again just didn’t do it for me anymore. I guess I want more. Longer hikes and paddles, multiday trips and trips further into the wilderness and mountains. I really miss the mountains, and my heart aches when I look at my old pictures from Sarek and Jotunheimen.

I also missed solo trips. I love going on trips with C, but for years my solo camps was my go-to way of winding down, getting rid of stress and recharging my batteries.

Since it’s been so long since I’ve been out on a solo trip, and I’ve just been out on two camping trips in total this year, I was looking forward to going on a solo trips this weekend. It would just be a short overnighter, but I was looking forward to the solitude, and most of all the silence. I had visited my planned location before on a day hike, and there wasn’t any man made sounds there. Living somewhat central in the city means it’s almost always sounds of neighbors, traffic, sirens etc. Just disconnecting from all those sounds is a great way relax.

I quit work a bit earlier on Friday afternoon and packed my bag for the overnighter. I was going to Lunden nature reserve, about 20-30 minutes drive from home. It’s a relatively new nature reserve, and the northern section has a lot of oak meadows and pastures, while the southern part consists of mires and pine forests. I have camped in the northern section with C before, but this time I would camp in the southern parts, where I had a lot of different camp sites checked out from my previous day hike.

On my way out I stopped at a supermarket to buy ingredients for my dinner, as I had planned to make Pasta Carbonara,.and also stopped at Systembolaget to buy a couple of beers. I ended up buying two locally produced ales, that where brewed just 14 km from my campsite.

I got to the parking lot, and my car was the only one there. I started hiking north, and in the beginning there was an abundance of blueberry- and lingonberry bushes. They where completely full of berries and I picked blueberries while I hiked.

I came to an intersection where the left turn would mean I’d follow the circle trail around the northern mire, and the right turn would lead across with mires on both sides.

I choose the right path, as that was the quickest way to my planned camp site, and I wanted to get my camp up right away.

I passed a few possible campsite until I finally choose one. I had wet lands on both sides, and camped on the somewhat narrow stretch of dry land.

After I’d put up my tent I put up the hammock. I had hesitated whether to bring it or not, but I was glad I did. I almost fell asleep laying there, but wanted to stay up so I wouldn’t have trouble sleeping at night instead. It was really relaxing, but the down side was all the black flies and moose flies. There where a lot of them. And I do mean a lot. If I hadn’t brought my mosquito net I would have gone insane.

With the mosquito net on it was easy to just ignore the flies. I forgot I had the net on a few times though, and tried to put cheese in my mouth through the net.

After chillin’ in the hammock for a while I made dinner. They only had pre chopped pancetta at the store, so it was really easy to make. I mixed the egg yokes with the pecorino romano and fried the pancetta. Then I cooked the pasta and mixed everything together and added some of the starchy pasta water. It was delicious. I choose to bring my full Trangia 27HA set. It weighs around 1kg with the chopping board, spice box, spork and dish brush. But I just love using it. I think it’s really fun to cook on it, and on shorter trips where I do more than just boil water for freeze dried food I think it’s well worth the weight. If I could only have one stove set for the rest of my life I’d choose the Trangia 27HA that I have now.

After dinner I got back into a horizontal position in the hammock, and tried the local beers that I bought. They where really tasty, and I preferred the lighter one, Småland Haze.

The sun disappeared and I thought it was time to get into the tent. It was quite warm and sticky, and I really wouldn’t need the quilt until later in the night. I had planned to read, but my ebook reader had died (and unfortunately I would not be able to get it back to life again). I watched half an episode of Westworld and then I just laid in the tent and listened to the birds nearby.

I slept somewhat ok, but while I’ve had worse pillows, my stuff sack pillow isn’t the most comfortable. I’m a side sleeper and woke up with neck pain every now and then.

I woke up at around 06.00 and laid there for a while before I mustered enough energy to get up. I planned to lay in the tent and make coffee in the vestibule with the door open, but the black flies stormed through the entrance right away. I thought it was better to get up instead of having the whole tent invaded by them.

I got out, got the Trangia up and boiled water for coffee. But when I was going to get the coffee I just couldn’t find it. I searched everywhere, but realized that I had forgotten it at home. Disaster, but I would have to endure. Fortunately I had brought a bunch of chanterelles that I had picked the other day so I had something to comfort myself with. I chopped the chanterelles and finely chopped half a red onion. Then I fried it in butter, before adding salt, pepper and cream. I let the cream boil in to a stew. Then I fried a slice of bread in butter and added the chanterelle stew. The stew would probably have been even better with a few drops of brandy in it, but it was still a really tasty breakfast.

After breakfast I packed up camp and left. I took the longer way back to the car, and picked a few blueberries here and there on the way. I saw the feathers of a bird, probably taken by a fox, and later I say a dead mouse on the trail.

I got back to the car and drove back home. I was back at 09.30. It was a short trip. Too short really, to actually wind me down. But it was still nice to get out again, since it’s been so long. Next time I’ll probably try to make it a full weekend and two nights, to really get a chance to disconnect.

First trip of 2022

On By Småland OutdoorIn 2022, Overnighters, Trips1 Comment

For a few years now I’ve had a tradition of going camping in the first week of the year. This year though all of the family got Covid by new years eve. But on 14th of January C and I got away on a trip to Stocksmyr-Brännan nature reserve.

Info

Stocksmyr-Brännan is the largest nature reserve in Kronoberg, with its 2313ha. It has trails between 80 meter to 16,2 km long. There are two different shelters, one of them next to a lake in the northern parts. There has been a forest fire here, so there are signs all over the place to be wary of falling trees and the stems where still black. The fires can burn off the roots, and the trees can fall without warning.

Trip report

C and I wanted to use a tent, and it had been a long time since the last time we camped together. But since I’d never been in the reserve I wanted to check out the shelters first, to have a backup plan.

I used Google maps to find the way, but it took us out on a tractor trail, and it was almost too rough for my car to handle. But eventually we found our way through and parked at the shelter near the lake, on the northern part of the reserve. There was a flat area that could house our tent, but since it was pretty close to the parking lot I wanted to check out the other shelter before we decided where to camp.

I drove to the center of the reserve, and we started hiking on a trail south, to reach the southernmost shelter. The trail was really nice, with old pine and spruce forest and mossy grounds. C hiked with a good pace, but did long for the tent. Hiking is ok, but camp life is her favourite.

After a while we came to the southern parking lot, where we turned east back into the forest. After a while we spotted the southern shelter, on top of a small hill. The hill was just large enough to house the newly built shelter. I thought it was really nice, and wanted to stay there, but C was dead set on sleeping in the tent. There was no room what so ever, even for a 1 person tent, so setting up our Ultamid 4 was impossible. We hike back in a circle to the car and drove back to the northern shelter.

When we came there it was already starting to get dark. I set up the tent, got all of our sleeping gear out and C snuggled back in the inner tent with a movie. I sat in the vestibule and started to make dinner. Spaghetti Carbonara. It was delicious, but C didn’t eat too much of it.

After dinner I got into the inner tent with C. The trees creaked a bit ominous, and while I had checked for burned trees nearby I got anxious that I had missed one, and the forecast had predicted quite strong gusts during the night. In the end I realized that it was better to be safe than sorry. I would never forgive myself if a tree fell on the tent and hurt C.

I managed to persuade her to move to the shelter instead. So we moved all of our gear over to the shelter and lit a fire and played “Go fish” together for the rest of the evening. I haven’t been too fond of shelters before, and prefer a tent. But it was really cozy with the fire, and comfortable to spread out our gear all over the shelter. It was Cs first time in a shelter, and while she prefers the tent she still liked it. C fell asleep, but I stayed up a bit longer, before I dozed off to the dying fire. ‘

I slept fairly good that night, and the next morning I forced myself out of my comfortable sleeping bag and started a fire. After the fire got going I got back into the sleeping bag and made breakfast.

When we finally mustered enough energy to get up we packed up the gear and got back to the car. On the way back I checked out the site for our tent, and there where no dead trees nearby, so we could have stayed there safely. But as said, better safe than sorry.

Stocksmyr-Brännan was a nice nature reserve, and I want to explore more of it. I’d love to try the southern shelter too one day, but it might take some persuasion to get C to agree on that.

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.

My first ski camping trip, and the new tent

On By Småland OutdoorIn Overnighters, Trips3 Comments

Trip report

I have wanted cross country skis for more than a decade, but it wasn’t until last year that I actually got around to buy a pair.

I wanted a pair that could suite all the potential adventures I could think of. My dream is to make ski camping trips in the mountains, and I bought a pair of Åsnes Amundsen with Alaska BC boots.

Last year I only got around to use them on a couple of occasions before the snow melted. But last weekend I could finally get out on a short ski camping trip.

I hadn’t really planned to go camping, but the weather was fantastic, and my new tent had arrived the same week so my wife thought I should take the chance to get out, since it would probably be the last week with snow.

Since I hadn’t planned anything I quickly had to search for a place nearby where it would be possible to ski and camp. I found Storasjöområdet, 30 min east of Växjö, checked the authority website that camping was allowed, quickly packed the back pack and skis and headed off.

I’d never been in that area before, but from the info I had it seemed to be a lot of mires and a couple of descent trails. I expected a smaller version of Stora Mosse, where I had been on a day trip a couple of weeks earlier.

Once there I read a sign that said camping was prohibited. It looked old though, and double checking on the website it said that camping in caravans and motor-homes was prohibited.

I started skiing the yellow trail. After some 500 meters a sign pointed to a side trail leading to a bird watching tower. I skid out to the tower, watched the view and then went back to the main trail. I was scouting for potential campsites from the beginning, since I didn’t know how the rest of the trail would look like, and it was already a bit late when I arrived.

I came to a sign that showed that the longer trail had been closed, and from the looks of it there where a lot of storm felled trees. I continued on the 2,1 km yellow trail instead.

The trail had been nice to ski on in the beginning, but soon turned for the worse. It hadn’t snowed enough to even out the ground, and the trail twisted and turned between rocks and tree stumps. My skis really took a beating, and in retrospect I should have just carried them and walked instead.

I had passed a couple of potential campsites in the beginning of the trail, and closing in on the end of the loop trail I started to realize that I wouldn’t find anything else. Blood sugar was getting low, and I just wanted to get to camp.

I came back to the car and started a new lap on the round trail. About a km in I stopped at the area that I had checked out in the first round. It was a large fairly flat area, and I stomped the snow with the skis to compress it and make it more even.

After that I started with dinner while the compressed snow got time to freeze more solid. The dinner was just a freeze dried Goulash. It wasn’t bad, but it certainly wasn’t a taste experience to write home about. I haven’t made any home dried meals in a while, so I’ll have to make due with the bought stuff.

As I’ve written before I’ve sold tents to buy another one that better suits my needs. When I transitioned to UL/LW most of my gear got pretty dialed down, but when it comes to tents I never seem to find one I’m pleased with. But I bought a HMG Ultamid 4 with a half- and full inner, to minimize the number of tents in the gear shed and have one tent for everything from solo trips to family trips. With my Tentipi Safir 5 for hot tent camping I thinks these are the only two tents I’ll need.

Since it was brand new the guy-lines weren’t attached, so I laid out the tent, dug holes in the snow to secure the tent pegs for the corners and cut and tied the guy-lines while the snow around the tent pegs froze solid. I used a midshipman’s hitch for the bottom ends of the guy-lines to have easily adjustable loops since there aren’t any linelocs for them.

When the pegs where solid and all the guy lines attached I set up my two connected ski poles as a center pole and set up the half inner. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and no wind was forecasted so I didn’t really need a tent, and absolutely not an inner. But I was eager to try out the new gear.

When everything was up it was already dark. I was getting really cold and just wanted to get inside my sleeping bag. Temps where forecasted to drop to around -12⁰C, so I had brought both my Cumulus Panyam 600 and my Wind Hard Tiny quilt. I don’t know if I really needed the quilt, but I’ll rather be too warm than freezing during the night.

I laid in the sleeping bag, snacking on nougats and chocolate and reading. I always bring my ebook reader with me, but I had to warm it up inside the sleeping bag for it to wake up.

I was really tired so around 21.00 I decided that I wouldn’t fight it any more but just try to sleep instead. But despite being so tired I had a really restless night. I wasn’t cold, but I couldn’t relax, so I drifted in and out of sleep all night.

I woke up before dawn. I had brought both a down- and a synthetic puffy and put on both. The down puffy had served as my pillow in the HMG Stuff sack pillow, and the synthetic one had been stored in the foot end of my sleeping bag so it wouldn’t be cold in the morning. I stayed in the sleeping bag while I made breakfast. I boiled some water for coffee and for my porridge. One of the water bottles was frozen solid, but I had put hot water in a vacuum bottle the night before, and poured it in the pot and added snow to melt.

The sun started to come up, and it was a beautiful morning. I was tired from tossing and turning most of the night, but I still felt great. It was cold outside, but with hot food in my belly and two puffy jackets on it was actually okey to leave the warm sleeping bag.

I packed up the tent and all my gear, took a stroll around camp to make sure nothing was dropped or lost, put on my skis and started skiing back to the car.

This was my first ski camping trip, and I’d love to do it again. It was cold, and next time I want to do it in an area that’s more suitable for skiing, like Stora Mosse National park. I liked the Ultamid 4 too. It’s large and lightweight and after trying a few different options these last years it feel great to be back again with a lightweight tent. A 4p double walled tent for roughly 1,5kg is really nice to carry.

Gear used

(Disclaimer: Below list contains affiliate links, which means I get a small commission for purchases made through the links. The gear is bought with my own money for full price though)

HMG Ultamid 4 (int) (SE)

HMG Ultamid 4 half inner (int) (SE)

HMG Southwest 4400 (int) (SE)

Cumulis Panyam 600 (int) (SE)

Aegismax Wind Hard Tiny

Exped Winterlite HL

HMG Stuff sack pillow L (int) (SE)

Toaks UL 700ml pot (int) (SE)

Storminstove cone/base/stove (unfortunately the maker passed away, but it’s a really nice stove set, comparable to Caldera cone)

Åsnes Amundsen skis with Madshus Rottefella BC Manual bindings and Alpina Alaska boots

Black Diamond Expedition 3 4 season trekking poles

Cumulus Incredilite Endurance (int) (SE)

T&P insulated jacket

Freezing overnighter on a new place

On By Småland OutdoorIn 2020, Overnighters, TripsLeave a comment

In late November C and I got out on our second camp this fall. I don’t know why really, but we just didn’t get out a lot on camps this fall.

I wanted to try another place this time and decided that we should explore Lundens nature reserve, some 20km from home.

General information

Lunden became a nature reserve as late as 2011, and consists of 492ha of pastures, forests, lakes, waterways and mire. There are old oak trees, lindens, elms, ashes and aspens and a rich bird life. There are bird watching towers near the waters. You are allowed to camp here, except in the fenced off area where the fire rings and benches are at the rest area.

Trip report

At first my plan was to go there on Saturday to Sunday, and spend most of the day there. But the forecast showed rain and frankly quite boring weather on Saturday and Sunday, while it would be clear skies and sub freezing temperatures on Friday.

I decided to reschedule and do the trip on Friday after work instead. It was a last minute decision, and as sun sets early this time of year I had to pack up quickly. I’d never been there before, so I didn’t knew what to expect.

I asked Siri to show me a route to Lundens nature reserve and got a route that would take me 75 min to drive. Something felt really off, considering how close it is, and it happens there’s another nature reserve with the same name in a bordering region.

I found my way though, and drove to the northern entrance that I had looked up on the map.

We parked the car by the northern entrance and started walking across an oak tree meadow that looked like it would be a pasture during the summer. There we found a perfect spot for our tent. But since sunset would be upon us soon we didn’t set up the camp right away but decided to got and explore.

We walked through a small forested area and came back to the trail that lead us down to the lake. Värendsleden, the canoe route that passes our “secret” spot, goes though here too.

We passed the enclosed resting area and came down to the lake. There the trails got narrower, and then split in two. C got to decide where to go, which meant following the right trail.

We got to a small bird watching “tower” that was only elevated ~50cm. Ice had formed on parts of the lake and it was beautiful in the late afternoon sun. We stayed there for a short time before heading back.

Back at the trail intersection we took the other route, that took us to a larger tower. We climbed it, and looked out over the lake as the sun was beginning to set. C wanted us to set up the tent on the platform, but I preferred to set up the tipi on the ground instead. C wanted to stay a bit longer, but other people where approaching the tower, and in these Corona times it’s best to keep distance and not share the platform.

We left the platform and headed back towards our planned campsite. On our way back we passed the resting area, which was now occupied with a group of people.

Back among the large old oak trees we set up the tipi and started to prepare for dinner. Since our getaway was a bit rushed I had only brought freeze dried meals for us. My plan was to try to use a twig stove, since fires aren’t allowed in the reserve. I have previously asked authorities for different areas with fire bans about the use of twig stoves, and got the info that they’re ok to use. I did use a ground cover made of aluminum foil to protect the ground even more.

We gathered twigs, but it had rained a lot lately, and the twigs from the dead trees where all soaked. Despite by best efforts (or half hearted attempts) the fire kept dying. Eventually I decided to cook on the alcohol stove instead. It wasn’t an efficient burn, since I didn’t bring a wind shield, but I managed to get the water to a boil.

We dug in on the snacks while we waited for the meal to re-hydrate, had dinner and then got back to the snacks.

C wanted to play pirate hunter so we did that in the dark, with our head lamps on. Hiding behind the ancient looking trees, sneaking around and fencing with the small twig swords C had picked out for us.

When it was time to sleep we crawled into our sleeping pads and I read the rest of “Det stora tältäventyret” for C. In the book the characters “fuldansar” (ugly dancing) to get warm before getting into their sleeping bags. C decided that we needed to leave our warm sleeping bags to “fuldansa” so we’d get even warmer. Reluctantly I agreed, dreading the freezing cold outside of the sleeping bags.

We jumped and danced around in the dark in the light of our headlamps, under the roof of billions of stars. It was cold, but it really was a beautiful evening.

C eventually fell asleep once we got back inside, but I laid under my quilt and watched Apocalypse Now Reduxe on my phone.

C had a restless night and woke up a lot. The sleeping bag bothered her, she rolled off her sleeping pad and lost her hat while twisting and turning in her sleeping bag. None of us woke up particularly well rested the next morning.

Both tired, but in good mood, a decision was made to skip breakfast. We only boiled water for coffee and hot coco to drink while we took down the camp, and decided stop by a store on our way home and buy breakfast.

We packed the car, said goodbye to Lunden and headed back home where we had a luxury breakfast.

Gear used

(Disclaimer: Below list contains affiliate links, which means I get a small commission for purchases made through the links. The gear is bought with my own money for full price though)

On this trip I used the following gear:

First time hot tent camping

On By Småland OutdoorIn 2018, Car camping, Overnighters, Trips3 Comments

It’s been a long time since I last wrote here. Even though I’ve been doing a lot of daytrips with my family, I’ve been to busy to write here. But last weekend I finally got out on an overnighter, and I had a really great time.

For a while now I’ve had my eye out for the Gstove Heat view, a camp stove from a small company in Norway. I’ve wanted to try hot tent camping for a long time, and when I found the stove at a 40% discount I decided to buy it.

Last weekend I tried it for the first time, with my first time doing hot tent camping.

My wife was out of town, and my son preferred to hang out with grandpa this weekend, but both my daughters joined me for this trip.

We drove to the campsite south of Asa that I had stayed at with C in June. It had rained on the way up, but when we got there the rain stopped. It was calm, and no one else was there at the beginning. Soon though a car came by with two guys in it. They walked around for a couple of minutes and the vanished again.

I set up the tent and the stove on the same spot as I had set up my tent last time. This time I used the bigger Helsport Nordmarka tipi, since I was going to use the stove to heat up the tent.

I stared to chop up some firewood and got the fire going. It wasn’t long until the stove was burning hot. We made lunch and hung out in the tent. It was chilly outside, but inside the tent it was almost t-shirt weather.

A mother and two kids arrived at the campsite, and after a while a dad and two other kids arrived too. The families knew each other, and was going to sleep in one of the huts/shelter at the camp site.

I was surprised to see other people, as I’m out camping a lot, but rarely see anyone else doing anything more than day trips. But autumn is my favorite time of the year to be out, with the crisp fresh air, absence of bugs and the beautiful changing colors of the forest, and the mother seemed to feel the same.

We walked around the camp site a bit, but most of the time we just hung out in the tent, eating snacks and enjoying the heat from the stove. As usual, with trips like these, we had packed a lot of food and goodies; different cheeses, salamis, pepper steaks, bifteki, pita bread, potato chips etc.

When evening came, we lit the oil lamp and kept feeding the stove. I really like window in the door of the stove, and it gives out a really ambient cozy light from the fire.

We made dinner, and kept chilling in the tent. M, my oldest daughter, had brought her iPad and downloaded a few movies on Netflix and watched them. C and I killed time by snacking and putting firewood in the stove.

When it was time to sleep C was all winded up, but eventually calmed down enough to sleep. I stopped feeding the stove, but it wasn’t completely burned out before we went to sleep. I had brought a Carbon-monoxide alarm though just to feel a bit safer.

When C had fallen asleep it didn’t take long for me to fall asleep too. I woke up a couple of hour later though, when M accidentally threw her arm in my face in her sleep. After that it took a couple of hours for me to get back to sleep again.

I slept like a log for the rest of the night, but woke up at 08.00 by the sound of C loudly singing the kids song “Björnen sover” (the bear’s asleep) in her sleeping bag next to me. Well, papa bear wasn’t sleeping after that.

We got up, got the stove going and made breakfast. Pita bread fried in a lot of olive oil with a cheese and salami and some hot coffee for me, and hot coco for the kids.

After breakfast I let the fire burn for a while, to drive out any remaining moisture from the tent, before we finally desired to pack down our camp.

It looked like it was about to rain, and I packed down quickly, as I was happy to pack down dry gear, which is somewhat rare in these parts.

After this trip I’m really glad I bought the stove. It’s heavy, and definitely not something for hiking trips. But for car camping trips like these, or canoe camping trips with no portages it’s perfect. The quality is superb, and it really adds to the comfort to have a source of heat in the tent.

I think I’m going to save up to get a Tentipi Safir 5 BP for these types of trips. A canvas tipi would really take the comfort to the next level. I really like hiking, but I think can get used to these comfortable, food heavy camping trips too.

Stora Mosse in March 2018

On By Småland OutdoorIn Trips5 Comments

Last weekend I drove to Stora Mosse National Park for an overnight trip. I hadn’t planned to be out this weekend, but my wife had seen how stressed out I was from work lately (lots of co-workers have quit or gotten burn outs which leaves an ever increasing work load for us that are still there), and thought that I might need some hiking time to wind down. She knows the outdoors is the best way for me to reduce stress and recharge.

Right up until the point where I sat down in the car it was still undecided where I should go. Stora Mosse National Park, Norra Kvill National Park or Raslången Eko Park was the places I had in mind. Eventually I decided to go to Stora Mosse, as I had only been there on a day hike before, and wanted to do an overnighter there.

Stora Mosse National park is located just north west of Värnamo, about an hours drive from Växjö, and was formed in 1982. Almost the entire park consists of mire, and it’s the largest untouched mire in Sweden, south of Lappland. Together with Brokullen och Långö Mosse it’s almost 8000ha of protected land. There is a system of pine forest “islands” within the mire, and there are 40 km of hiking trails in the park. Some of them are possible to use with wheelchairs or a baby stroller, while other trails cross the mire on 30cm wide foot-bridges. If you want to leave the foot-bridges it’s possible to use snow-shoes to hike in the mire. From 2013 it’s also allowed to camp in certain areas in the park. Detailed maps can be found here. If you’re lucky you might spot one of the White-tailed eagles or Golden eagles living in the area. You get here by road 151 between Värnamo and Gnosjö, and the road cuts right through the park. In the middle of the park there is a visitors center, but be sure to check the opening hours before you get there.

I drove up pretty early and arrived there a little before 11am. It was roughly a 1 hour drive from home. I decided to hike in the southern parts of the park, and had planned to camp near Lövö.

The temps where slightly below freezing, and it had been cold and snowy for a few weeks. This meant that the mire was frozen over and I didn’t have to walk on the foot bridges. I did however follow the trail. There where ski tracks on the foot bridges and I walked beside them to not ruin the tracks. I worked up a good sweat while hiking in the deep snow. I turned right at the first intersection of the trail, which meant that I would be hiking through the forest instead of going through the mire. Hiking in the forest was effortless, compared to the sometimes knee deep snow in the mire. I hiked for about 1,5 hour before I stopped for lunch. It felt good to be out in the forest again, and I was really enjoying myself.

After lunch I kept hiking south, but stopped once in a while, rolled out my cell foam sleeping mat and just laid down, watched the trees and enjoyed the silence. The forests here reminds me a bit of Tresticklan national park, with the old scattered pine trees. After a while the ski tracks stopped, and I kept hiking on the trail. There where no other foot prints, so I was alone in these parts of the park.

After a while I passed the campground near Lövö on my left, but continued south to hike in a circle. I hiked the circle trail, past the hut at Lövö and then came back to the camp site from the other direction. It was only around 14.00 but I set up my camp anyways.

It took a bit of effort to flatten out the deep snow, but eventually I got it flat enough to set up my tent. I inflated my sleeping mat, rolled out the sleeping bag and made cup of coffee.

After that I decided to keep exploring the park. I went back to Lövö and hiked the trail towards Anderstorp.

I came to an observation tower at the edge of a forest, and climbed up. For being in the middle of Småland, the views where amazing, and you could see for several km.

I kept hiking south for a short while, but quickly lost track of the foot bridges.

I turned back to my campsite and made dinner once I got back.

I slept with the top vent and the door fully open, and had no condensation at all. I had a pretty good nights sleep, even though I toss and turn a lot.

As usual, it took some mental effort to get out of the sleeping bag. I like winter, but now I’m really looking forward to the warmer seasons.

I made a nice breakfast of chili Brie and salami in tortillas. It was delicious.

After breakfast I packed up and left my camp site.

I hiked back towards the car, but stopped once in a while to lay down on the sleeping mat, look at the tree tops waving in the wind and enjoy the last silence before I got back to the city.

On the parking lot I met the first people since I left home on Saturday morning. A group of maybe 10 Danes where preparing for a day hike.

As usual, I had a great time in the outdoors. I really like the simplicity of hiking life, the serenity of the silent empty forest and the monotony of hiking. My mind wanders as I move silently through the trees. It was a great trip, and I can’t wait to get back out on another trip soon.