It sure was in almostevery aspect!
First of all I wasn't alone. Mywife really wanted to come too, especially since she saw the pictures of mylast one. She is new to the outdoorthings I do, so I introduced her towinteroutings/camping.
Secondly I did not bring any of mynatural or traditional gear. No wool, no leather, no canvas.... apart from mytinderbox and a little something I received from Finland yesterday; a Finnishshoulder/gasmaskbag! Courtesy of bmatt!!
And thirdly, we got lost..... Ihave to admit it. We really were....
How it all went down?
Read on....
After taking the kids to school,we changed clothes, grabbed our gear, which we had packed last night and wenton our way. The first 5 kilometers we went by car. Taking into account that theMss. is fysically unaccustomed to the kind of walking we were going toundertake, we thought it wise to save on valuable energy and time.
We set out to check some sites Ihad in mind for future events and we did spot a nice one! The clearing in theforrest had accumulated more snow than we anticipated...
Another site we both wanted tocheck out, was the small island in the middle of the lake we frequently visit.That meant crossing the frozen lake on food. This was a new experience for metoo and within a few steps I noticed my senses going on high alert! It felt sonot natural and I felt very.... different... light in the head... aware...
We kept our distance.... at least10 meters apart...
After we crossed the lake andscouted the island, which was larger than we thought, my wife had to take some“private” time....
We noticed the light changed. Whenwe set out it was a flat grey sky, but now the sun tried to burn through the clouds,giving off a strange orangy glow, which reflected in the snow around us..
There was so much to see at thelakeside. There were so many animaltracks, yet the surrounding country wasempty and dead silent.... apart fro our footsteps, breaking through the crustysnow..
I did not even see a bird!
After crossing the island andother lakeside, we thought it would be nice to see what lay behind the hill wenow faced. What followed was a bit of a touch climb up a steep slope, coveredwith forrest and undergrowth.
On top we found a loggerstrail andfollowed that to the right. After a while we found some “pebbles”....
The largest one was also the mostinteresting one. It had a very colourfull covering of mosses, lichen and algea,topped of with some snow.
On the other side the bolder helda little surprise; a little snowfree overhang with rocks at the base. Theserocks held no soil between them, so there were some holes between them.
It would make a grest shelter, Ithought. Just a matter of making a wall of poles and boughs leaning at therock, a small fire in front and a layer of boughs at the base. The holes in thebottom would hold the cold air....
A few meters further up the trailwe found a fresh watersource and we still heard some water running underneaththe ice.
The water accumulated under alarger boulder first...
and than right through a largerock which had split down the middle...
with a straight edge, as it it wasmanmade!
A few steps further down the trailwe found a grouping of rocks, which would have made an easy and great shelterfor 2…
As I turned I spotted some freshmoosetracks
and some unusual and to me unknownfungi
We walked on following the tracksa little, when suddenly my wife called. She had found moosedroppings and thesewere so fresh, that there was no sight of snow or even frost on them! We gotcaught by tracking fever!!
While following the numeroustracks; appearantly the moose was browsing through the area, we came acrossanother frozen mountainstream. It was a magical place and sight and it caughtus with its spell....
We followed the stream downhill,figuring it would lead us back to the lake, which was our initial plan.Unfortunately we ended up in what in summertimes would be a swampy area, so wehad to stagger back uphill again. The terrain got quite tough... Large bouldersand rocky outcrops kept throwing us off course and there was another largemountainstream, that held us up...
Finally we reached the top of thehill again and and at the other side at the foot of the hill, we saw a largeflat white area. We had reached the lake again.... or so we thought! It was asmall lake, not the large one we crossed! Appearantly we had gotten off track,following the moosetracks and mountainstream. The difficult terrain had donethe rest.
Now I discovered I had forgottenjust one more item for this trip; the map!!
I new there was a smaller lake tothe southeast of the larger one, so if we followed the compass, which Ifortunately always have with me, to the northwest, we should find the lakeagain.
So on and on we struggled. Theterrain was quite difficult with many clearcuts to cross. These had eitheryoung trees and a thick layer of treestumps and branches, but all were coveredin a thick layer of snow.
But whatever we did, we did notfind the large lake again! I even noticed that the forrest can still play nastytricks on you, even with a compass in hand. We started crossing a patch ofyoung forrest, after I had checked the compass to see that we were indeedheading NW. After a short time, maybe 10 minutes, I checked again and I wasfacing south!! I could have sworn I was going straigh, but made a 180 degreeturn unnoticed!
And now I had no idea where I wasanymore.... I decided that we should follow the edge of the treeline on to aclearcut a few 100 meters ahead. There was a large open area and maybe we couldget our bearing again by identifying a landmark. We were really lost and I felta choking sence of discomfort creep upon me.... I shook it off. I head to keepmy head clear and focus on the plan. My wife was doing just great. Despite herlack of fysical fittness and her experience, she never once complained and keptup. Not being alone really kept our spirits up.
We found a landmark we recognised,but we were shocked to find that particular one so close by! Never mind! Wefound one.... This was the time to take a break, get some warm food and a hotdrink, refuel and warm ourselves, befor setting out in order to get home again.
The weather was still overcast,with the same pale grey sky we had started off with. So much for reliableweatherforecasts... They promissed us a more or less sunny day!
We chose a site to take a breakand I cut down a dead standing spruce as thick as an arm. After chopping thatinto sizeable pieces and cutting thin pieces, I made us a fire. No nonsence,just a small pile of wood, some fatwood and a match....
Warm food; pytt i panna (potatoes,unions and meat, all in small cubes and a piece of ham. A kettle with water forcoffee.
A gift by bmatt, which I receivedyesterday; a Finnish shoulder/gasmaskbag. A great little bag.
And a small extra gift I foundinside of it; a mini Finnish knife with a salmonhide sheath!!!
Warm food and a hot drink;inmeasurably important as a moralbooster!!
Not to mention to boost yourenergylevels as well
Well, wedid get home…..
We headedtoward the landmark we found and came onto a road. I knew that familair terrainwas due west, so we followed the road. After more than an hour of walking in anup tempo we came home, half an hour befor dark.
When wecame onto that road I had a very strong feeling that turning left wouldeventually lead us to the large lake, but I did not want to changes anymore.Not this late. So I opted for safe.
Coming home and checking the map, I saw that had weturned left we would have found the very far edge of the lake within 500meters. That would have meant of few more kilometers across the lake to get toour car and arriving home a little earlier. Now we had to borrow my father inlaws car in order to retrieve ours..... I guess we’ll be hearing this story forquite some time to come...
There were several reasons for me to go to "the other side", to go synthetic if you will...
I know I always talk about natural and/or traditional, but I feel that I should know the other side of the story too.
I have all this gear, but it does not get used. I wanted to give it a go so that, if I get guests, and I know I will, and they want to come out to, I can supply them with gear that I know will or will not work.
I must admit that I was quite pleasantly surprised with how it all held up.
The Swedish M59 coat is comfortable and warm, the German army mittens were warm, too warm sometimes.
The synthetic overpants were warm too and, allthough wet, kept me warm and dried quite fast. The moisture never got to my skin. I wore thin trekkingsocks and a pair of thicker insulative socks over that, both more than 50% synthetics.
My army thermal underwear isn't exactly natural either. Even the synthetic bags and other gear I used performed well in the cold. The only thong that I did not like so much was the Fjällraven backpack. It was quite tiring on the shoulders and back, but the fabric held up, too!
First of all I wasn't alone. Mywife really wanted to come too, especially since she saw the pictures of mylast one. She is new to the outdoorthings I do, so I introduced her towinteroutings/camping.
Secondly I did not bring any of mynatural or traditional gear. No wool, no leather, no canvas.... apart from mytinderbox and a little something I received from Finland yesterday; a Finnishshoulder/gasmaskbag! Courtesy of bmatt!!
And thirdly, we got lost..... Ihave to admit it. We really were....
How it all went down?
Read on....
After taking the kids to school,we changed clothes, grabbed our gear, which we had packed last night and wenton our way. The first 5 kilometers we went by car. Taking into account that theMss. is fysically unaccustomed to the kind of walking we were going toundertake, we thought it wise to save on valuable energy and time.
We set out to check some sites Ihad in mind for future events and we did spot a nice one! The clearing in theforrest had accumulated more snow than we anticipated...
Another site we both wanted tocheck out, was the small island in the middle of the lake we frequently visit.That meant crossing the frozen lake on food. This was a new experience for metoo and within a few steps I noticed my senses going on high alert! It felt sonot natural and I felt very.... different... light in the head... aware...
We kept our distance.... at least10 meters apart...
After we crossed the lake andscouted the island, which was larger than we thought, my wife had to take some“private” time....
We noticed the light changed. Whenwe set out it was a flat grey sky, but now the sun tried to burn through the clouds,giving off a strange orangy glow, which reflected in the snow around us..
There was so much to see at thelakeside. There were so many animaltracks, yet the surrounding country wasempty and dead silent.... apart fro our footsteps, breaking through the crustysnow..
I did not even see a bird!
After crossing the island andother lakeside, we thought it would be nice to see what lay behind the hill wenow faced. What followed was a bit of a touch climb up a steep slope, coveredwith forrest and undergrowth.
On top we found a loggerstrail andfollowed that to the right. After a while we found some “pebbles”....
The largest one was also the mostinteresting one. It had a very colourfull covering of mosses, lichen and algea,topped of with some snow.
On the other side the bolder helda little surprise; a little snowfree overhang with rocks at the base. Theserocks held no soil between them, so there were some holes between them.
It would make a grest shelter, Ithought. Just a matter of making a wall of poles and boughs leaning at therock, a small fire in front and a layer of boughs at the base. The holes in thebottom would hold the cold air....
A few meters further up the trailwe found a fresh watersource and we still heard some water running underneaththe ice.
The water accumulated under alarger boulder first...
and than right through a largerock which had split down the middle...
with a straight edge, as it it wasmanmade!
A few steps further down the trailwe found a grouping of rocks, which would have made an easy and great shelterfor 2…
As I turned I spotted some freshmoosetracks
and some unusual and to me unknownfungi
We walked on following the tracksa little, when suddenly my wife called. She had found moosedroppings and thesewere so fresh, that there was no sight of snow or even frost on them! We gotcaught by tracking fever!!
While following the numeroustracks; appearantly the moose was browsing through the area, we came acrossanother frozen mountainstream. It was a magical place and sight and it caughtus with its spell....
We followed the stream downhill,figuring it would lead us back to the lake, which was our initial plan.Unfortunately we ended up in what in summertimes would be a swampy area, so wehad to stagger back uphill again. The terrain got quite tough... Large bouldersand rocky outcrops kept throwing us off course and there was another largemountainstream, that held us up...
Finally we reached the top of thehill again and and at the other side at the foot of the hill, we saw a largeflat white area. We had reached the lake again.... or so we thought! It was asmall lake, not the large one we crossed! Appearantly we had gotten off track,following the moosetracks and mountainstream. The difficult terrain had donethe rest.
Now I discovered I had forgottenjust one more item for this trip; the map!!
I new there was a smaller lake tothe southeast of the larger one, so if we followed the compass, which Ifortunately always have with me, to the northwest, we should find the lakeagain.
So on and on we struggled. Theterrain was quite difficult with many clearcuts to cross. These had eitheryoung trees and a thick layer of treestumps and branches, but all were coveredin a thick layer of snow.
But whatever we did, we did notfind the large lake again! I even noticed that the forrest can still play nastytricks on you, even with a compass in hand. We started crossing a patch ofyoung forrest, after I had checked the compass to see that we were indeedheading NW. After a short time, maybe 10 minutes, I checked again and I wasfacing south!! I could have sworn I was going straigh, but made a 180 degreeturn unnoticed!
And now I had no idea where I wasanymore.... I decided that we should follow the edge of the treeline on to aclearcut a few 100 meters ahead. There was a large open area and maybe we couldget our bearing again by identifying a landmark. We were really lost and I felta choking sence of discomfort creep upon me.... I shook it off. I head to keepmy head clear and focus on the plan. My wife was doing just great. Despite herlack of fysical fittness and her experience, she never once complained and keptup. Not being alone really kept our spirits up.
We found a landmark we recognised,but we were shocked to find that particular one so close by! Never mind! Wefound one.... This was the time to take a break, get some warm food and a hotdrink, refuel and warm ourselves, befor setting out in order to get home again.
The weather was still overcast,with the same pale grey sky we had started off with. So much for reliableweatherforecasts... They promissed us a more or less sunny day!
We chose a site to take a breakand I cut down a dead standing spruce as thick as an arm. After chopping thatinto sizeable pieces and cutting thin pieces, I made us a fire. No nonsence,just a small pile of wood, some fatwood and a match....
Warm food; pytt i panna (potatoes,unions and meat, all in small cubes and a piece of ham. A kettle with water forcoffee.
A gift by bmatt, which I receivedyesterday; a Finnish shoulder/gasmaskbag. A great little bag.
And a small extra gift I foundinside of it; a mini Finnish knife with a salmonhide sheath!!!
Warm food and a hot drink;inmeasurably important as a moralbooster!!
Not to mention to boost yourenergylevels as well
Well, wedid get home…..
We headedtoward the landmark we found and came onto a road. I knew that familair terrainwas due west, so we followed the road. After more than an hour of walking in anup tempo we came home, half an hour befor dark.
When wecame onto that road I had a very strong feeling that turning left wouldeventually lead us to the large lake, but I did not want to changes anymore.Not this late. So I opted for safe.
Coming home and checking the map, I saw that had weturned left we would have found the very far edge of the lake within 500meters. That would have meant of few more kilometers across the lake to get toour car and arriving home a little earlier. Now we had to borrow my father inlaws car in order to retrieve ours..... I guess we’ll be hearing this story forquite some time to come...
There were several reasons for me to go to "the other side", to go synthetic if you will...
I know I always talk about natural and/or traditional, but I feel that I should know the other side of the story too.
I have all this gear, but it does not get used. I wanted to give it a go so that, if I get guests, and I know I will, and they want to come out to, I can supply them with gear that I know will or will not work.
I must admit that I was quite pleasantly surprised with how it all held up.
The Swedish M59 coat is comfortable and warm, the German army mittens were warm, too warm sometimes.
The synthetic overpants were warm too and, allthough wet, kept me warm and dried quite fast. The moisture never got to my skin. I wore thin trekkingsocks and a pair of thicker insulative socks over that, both more than 50% synthetics.
My army thermal underwear isn't exactly natural either. Even the synthetic bags and other gear I used performed well in the cold. The only thong that I did not like so much was the Fjällraven backpack. It was quite tiring on the shoulders and back, but the fabric held up, too!
