Lerjrevallen to Östafors

Ever since returning from Lapland I have spent a lot of time thinking about gear and planning for my next visit in 2011. For 2011 I intend to cover approximately 300 kms over about 20 days without resupply, which requires me to consider carefully the gear I am carrying, as food alone will amount to 15 kg. So this trip, like other upcoming trips, was about testing and developing a gear list that I am happy with for an extended trip. I know I will be using an Aarn pack (perhaps a little bigger than the current Mountain Magic 55) and my Nunatak quilt. So my interest lay in shelter footwear and stoves.

To begin the walk I caught a train to Kristianstad from Copenhagen and then a bus to Bonnslättsvägen (Skånetraffiken bus 550). From there it was a 5 km walk to Lerjrevallen, the start of the trail. Along the way to Lerjrevallen I discovered that you should not always believe what Google Maps tells you, that is tracks can become overgrown, closed or ... so after a slight detour and a brief conversation with 2 Swedish guys I finally found the starting point of the walk, after passing some apple orchards where the apples were undoubtedly ripe for the picking.



After passing the orchards I wandered down to the cool forest surrounding Lerjevallen and soon heard the sounds of many children enjoying themselves, they were a school group who had stayed at a hostel and were learning about nature, playing football, fishing and ... After a lunch I headed away from the lake and soon began climbing, this was my first trip since Lapland so whilst the hill was not that steep, I recognised how little exercise I had had over summer. Once on top of the hill I began to notice the number of different Fungi in varying stages of growth.









The walk for the remainder of the day continued in much the same way, green forest with moss covered rocks;



Narrow trails



All in all a very pleasant and relaxing experience with the sun shining and the birds singing.

I arrived at Bökested a place I had visited a couple of years ago and set my MLD SpeedMid overlooking the lake, it was very calm and there was the occasional mosquito around.



I was quite taken by Ryan Jordans post a while ago about Mids and after my last trip lapland I though that yes a Speedmid from MLD may work and will be a lot lighter (a days worth of food), more recently I had been heartened by a recent post on another blog about mosquito protection in a laavu and given a Mids recognised wind protection characteristics then it maybe ideal for Lapland. There was certainly enough space inside for me and my gear and even in rainy weather the back half of the mid would be protected from rain and spray.



Having settled down for a relaxing evening I collected firewood for the Evernew Sidewinder Caldera, this was my second use of the stove and with better quality firewood there was much less smoke and much more heat, I was very happy with its performance and with its packability it would seem an ideal stove set up for long distances.



In the morning I prefer to use Esbit to heat water for coffee and porridge and one 14 gm Esbit tablet was able to boil 600 mls of water, which I was happy with.

After dinner I sat down on the banks of the lake just enjoying the tranquility of evening, it truly was a pleasant night only punctuated by the occasional sounds of other people way off in the distance. The outlet of the lake was calm



and the sky was magical



After a leisurely start in the morning with a little cloud in the sky I set off soon passing by another still lake



I was now on a section of trail I had been on before so I was able to wander without needing to worry too much about the direction, my focus was on appreciating the warm sunshine in the calm conditions. However, there was one surprise for me having passed by in cooler weather I was surprised to come across these wonderful stands of pink flowers which seemed to be a fitting conclusion to a relaxing and enjoyable trip.




Some of the gear used:

MLD SpeedMid, I was very happy with my first outing with this shelter, and look forward to using it many more times in all types of weather conditions.

Shoes: I wore my Salomon XT Wings 2, the ground was dry so there was no problems with slippage and they were very comfortable, especially when walking on hard packed surfaces I will be using them again.

Caldera Stove: worked faultlessly and is very packable.

Trekking Poles: I dug out my old REI Peak UL Poles (193 gms each) for this trip and walked with one only, as I wanted to test the concept of walking at a more relaxed pace. This worked well and I will continue to experiment with this approach.


Aarn Mountain Magic 55: As comfortable as always and worked well as an overnight pack, given its large volume.

Evernew Sidewinder

My first titanium pot was the Evernew 900 ml pot, which I have owned for about 7 years. Sometimes I stop using it but then I return. For me it is lightweight and the width of the pot ensures that most burners will quickly boil the water in the pot. I am also a great fan of the Ti Tri Caldera but as many others will say the packing of the cone is problematic. Well the good news is that the folks at Trail Designs have been working on it and for some pots there is the "Compact Option" as well as the "Sidewinder option which fits inside the Evernew pot, as shown.


The weight for the Ti Tri Caldera Sidewinder and Inferno set up including the Tyvek covers is 78 grams and with the pot weighing 98 grams (without handles) the total weight is 176 grams for pot and wood burner. Coupled with a gram cracker for use with Esbit and you have a little over 180 grams for a complete multi fuel cook set.



I had to try the set up out so I went to a local forested area and set about lighting the wood fire and making a cup of tea. While I have used other Ti Tri infernos, one thing I have noticed is that once the pot is placed on top of the cone it can be smokey, but with the sidewinder it was much less so, due in part, I believe, to the wide opening which allows a better updraft to be established. I normally light the fire in the inferno and once it is well established I add the outer cone pre installed with the pegs and the place the pot on top. To grip the pot I use a set of MSR LiteLifter



The wood used was what was found in the forest and the larger opening makes it easier to place nice size pieces of wood into the cone.



Tea is made.


As usual the wood soon burns down to a small pile of ash which is easily extinguished.



I will be using this wood burning stove on my upcoming overnight trips, so more in the field reports will follow.

Along the Nordkalottleden: Gear Review

My gear list was published prior to departure on the trip, however, there were a few late additions to the pack including a book (300 gms) waterproof carry case for the camera and an extra meal, so my pack weight was closer to 17 kg when I left home. As I have stated previously I was generally happy with my gear and it enabled me to complete the walk with a minimum of hassles, but there are always times when the gear is not optimal, for others it may be a different story. I will comment on the big three as well as some other items of gear.
Aarn Mountain Magic 55l pack.
Generally I was very pleased with the pack and certainly with the ability to carry 17 kg comfortably. There is no doubt I had probably pushed the pack beyond its comfortable weight limit but given that a days food weighed about 800 gms, after a couple of days the weight was approaching what was more realistic of a pack this size. The picture below shows the pack fully loaded with only tent poles and a sleeping mat attached to the outside.



The front balance pockets were full and each contained approximately 3 kg and did inhibit leg lift, after day one I reduced the weights to about 2 kg in each and this proved to be much better. One problem I had with the pack is the attachments to the top of the balance pockets, these a shock cord and cord locks, I do not believe that this the best design as the shock cord stretches and the cord locks slip when the bungy gets wet. I tied knots into the cords to stop them from sliding but still they stretched further than I would have liked. I am now looking at replacing the bungy with either dyneema cord or webbing straps. For my next long trip I may consider using the Featherlite Freedom as it is perhaps more suited to such loads and the attachments for the balance pockets are better suited to heavier loads.
Stephensons Warmlite 2C tent



I was very pleased with this tent, as I had said in an earlier blog post I had decided to err on the side of caution when taking a shelter for the trip. The tent withstood strong winds from the back the front as well as the sides, it was spacious for one and could be erected in under 5 minutes. The shelter only requires a total of 9 pegs and can be erected with 3. There was some minor condensation at the single layer cones at each end but the mid section stayed condensation free. There are two changes I would make to the tent, one, I intended to, but did not put silicone sealer on the floor to reduce the slipperiness, it will be done before the next trip. As it was daylight all night and the tent quickly warmed in the mornings it would have been nice to have an insect free refuge with the door open, I intend to contact Stephensons to arrange for a no seeum door to be added. But these are minor annoyances more than design deficiencies, I can strongly recommend the tent. Having experienced the wonders of Lapland I now feel it is possible to use an appropriate shelter with added bug protection, such as GoLite ShangriLa 1, Gossamer Gear Spinnshelter, any of the pyramid shelters from MLD or Black Diamond as well as tarps such as the Spinntwinn from Gossamer Gear. Of course in using such shelters, care will need to be taken in adverse weather conditions.

Nunatak Arc Specialist Quilt, kept me warm and comfortable through out the trip, nothing more need to said about such a fine product.

Cooking, I used a Primus Micron ti Stove with a mini Light My Fire striker. The stove worked flawlessly and I boiled approximatey 12 litres of water over the 10 days using less than a 250 grams of gas, I estimate there were 2 days left in the canister suggesting a usage of approximately 20 grams per 1.2 litres of water. For the next trip I may consider the use of a small wood burning stove in conjunction with either Esbit or gas, when the insects or weather make the outdoors less than pleasant. Options include the Bushbuddy Ultra and the FourDog stove LT1 with the Primus stove or a Monatauk Gnat.
Clothing
Haglöffs Oz Pullover, there has already been much discussion on the blog about the pullover. My perception was that water did bead in the beginning indicating that it was repelling water, but eventually became overloaded causing a build up of moisture inside. Given that I tend to perspire a lot this may be expected. However, with the air being dry the coat did dry quickly and as it was only used a couple of days, heavy duty wet weather gear was not needed and the Oz pullover did the job. I will use the Rab Demand pullover next time, though there is a weight penalty.

I used a Montane Featherlight Smock, which was excellent and with a Tilley hat along with a Buff I saw no need for a hooded windshirt such as the Lightspeed. My water resistant pants were the Featherlite pants and whilst in continued rain they do wet through I was happy with them and would use them again, they also make great wind speed measurers.



Merino; anything made out of Merino wool performed faultlessly, though my BPL Beartooth hoody is showing some wear and tear now and I need to consider replacements. Thanks to Joe at Thunder in the Night I now have an IBEX Hooded Indie to experiment with. My Ibex Liners performed perfectly and were ideal for protecting my hands from the mossies.

Vest; I did not take a vest, and there were times I wish I had, for use when the weather is a little cool or at rest stops, if I take one I would be deciding between the Haglöffs Treble Vest and the BPL Cocoon Vest.

Salomon Quest boots, after developing Plantar Fasciitis, and the long recovery period that followed I have been using Salomon footwear and have been very happy with them. For this trip I chose boots over shoes as I felt the more rigid soles would be better on the Talus etc, and I think this was true, however, the boots had a major drawback, lining, resulting in blisters. It is for this reason that I intend to return to Innov-8 Terrocs for all my hiking in the coming months paying particular attention to the activities that can lead to Plantar Fasciitis.



Pacer Poles, aluminium alloy, excellent as usual and even with a major fall the poles continued to work, albeit with a slight bend in one of the lower sections.

Camera; Olympus E-Pen 2, I was very pleased with the camera and am still learning how to use it, I was attracted to the Micro fourthirds in an effort to reduce weight, but maintain the quality offered by a DSLR. I also found that the user interface had some similarities with my Ricoh GX100 which made the transition a little less daunting. I intend to write a longer review on this camera in due course.