Open invitation arctic meet 2017

[TinkyPete]

As Steve said there are local shops and a big Asda and Tesco and Sainsbury just down the road in Tamworth. There are Chinese, kebabs and a curry house if necessary.

We have wood for the fire already and for stoves if needed. There will be a tarp or chute up depending on the location within the wood we will be using. There is a large place next to the wooded area if we need to lay stuff out in the open.

If people want it I can rustle up a group meal or two, I have a few in my repertoire including everything from Mountain man breakfasts to roasts and stews and curries and the like (no deep fried chicken and chips this time, though). If people want to drink it is a general case of bring your own, but there is usual some pass rounds as well from me

 

[dewi]

As Steve said there are local shops and a big Asda and Tesco and Sainsbury just down the road in Tamworth. There are Chinese, kebabs and a curry house if necessary.

We have wood for the fire already and for stoves if needed. There will be a tarp or chute up depending on the location within the wood we will be using. There is a large place next to the wooded area if we need to lay stuff out in the open.

If people want it I can rustle up a group meal or two, I have a few in my repertoire including everything from Mountain man breakfasts to roasts and stews and curries and the like (no deep fried chicken and chips this time, though). If people want to drink it is a general case of bring your own, but there is usual some pass rounds as well from me

Wooo wooo wooo there cowboy. No mountain man breakfasts while I'm not in attendance. I missed it last time due to my urge to sleep more... I'm not missing it again because my wife wants to wander.

Save that breakfast for the next one... I'll bring the condiments.

Dave, Al and well, pretty much everyone else..... grab a takeaway... save that Mountain man breakfast for the one I'm there for... come on... don't punish me for being married!!!

 

[bopdude]

Dave, Al and well, pretty much everyone else..... grab a takeaway... save that Mountain man breakfast for the one I'm there for... come on... don't punish me for being married!!!

No mate, you're not being punished for being married, you are being punished for not attending, full stop breakfast sounds good for the Saturday, we can get supplies on the Friday ? I do like a good woodland breakfast.

 

[bopdude]

Right, for us lot this side of the water that have done this, I've just been live chatting with parcel2go, and the price is coming in at around £25 per 25Kg parcel, how does this compare with taking it on as extra luggage ? Dave, do you remember what they charged last time, anyone ?

EDIT: that was one way.

EDIT 2 forget it, just been looking through their banned freight list LINK

 

[Dave]

Ive never posted stuff before. Mine all went on the plane and train.

Theres the return to think about. How would we do that?
Walk into the nearest post office in Lulea, or Jokkmokk?
[Im guessing that would be expensive.]
We would have to take some brown tape and unwrap carefully, then use the same parcels we posted outward. Or I could probably beg, steal,or charm some brown card from someone.

Regards the meet.

Im not bringing;
Medical kit. [Make sure you get some Celox or alternative for arterial wounds]
Repair kit.
Snowtrekker tent. [Its gonna rain, and its not waterproof, plus its gonna get muddy and dirty un-neccesarily.]
Cooking kit.

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Its really nice to have a wander around a place like Jokkmokk for a couple of days. How about staying there, for a couple of days, winding down, and using a PC, to order a return pick up via parcels2go? Feasible? Dunno. Probably though.

It does seems shame to go all that way, and not have a wander around Jokkmokk. [Make sure its not a monday, as the sami museum's closed]
And it should be cheap enough in the hostel. Get cleaned up, dry kit out, use launderette, shower, etc. Heaven!

They have a hotel there which has a hostel type lodging option. [if we can get in]
I stayed in one of the rooms in the same place. Nice staff. Clean, and a chill out area.
TeePee stayed in the hostel and rated it.

I'd be happy to stay on for a bit. [In fact, I might do anyway, even if no-one else can stay on with me.]

The Sami Market is on from the 2-4th February. Seems a shame not to see such a spectacle. If were over there at that time anyway. Probably have to book lodging in advance though.

Could do 9 days in the bush, come out on the 31st, see the market, go home? That'd be two weeks.

Worth a conversation anyway.

[Have to enquire of Wayland, about costs and booking for log cabins maybe? I bet its cheap if theres a few of us]

 

[bopdude]

Yeah mate, read my edits, not that viable for reasons stated by you, plus the amount of gear we would still need to take, hey ho, as for Jokkmokk, we can talk about dates and places etc at the meet, easier to do I would have thought ?

 

[Dave]

Yeh, sure. Could still send sleeping bags and snowshoes. My two biggest items anyway.

 

[bopdude]

Yeh, sure. Could still send sleeping bags and snowshoes. My two biggest items anyway.

Yep, deffo going to look at that, if I can find some decent shoes

In other news, the Ti-Goat arrived today, it packs small, very very small

 

[Dave]

Great stuff. Nice stove.

Youve got a few months yet mate to get some snowshoes. There are a few good tutorials on how to make rubber snowshoe bindings on the web. You could buy some of those used US surplus ones, and attach them. I'll show you my bindings on the weekend, you could probably imitate them easily enough with a bit of ingenuity.

[video=youtube;dQ395XJcDxM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ395XJcDxM[/video]

Youve gotta get the right type of lampwick to make decent lampwick ones, and I havent seen any in the UK.

 

[SGL70]

Regarding lodging during the Saami market (I presume 'Jokkmokks marknad')....you might want to check for availability as soon as possible. Demand normally outweighs the supply.

Greger

 

[Dave]

Thanks Greger, thats what I thought. The last time I went the sleeper train from Stockholm was booked up six months in advance!

 

[TinkyPete]

Just to let you guys know I have a set of American/Canadian army mukluks size small which is about a 8 in UK sizes which are available just tried my spare on, found out they were a size small and were tight against my large calves so I will bring them along and if people need them they could go to a good home for a very reasonable price. The foot size is comfortable, They have the removable felt liners included as well.

Still sorting all my other kit out and will bring stuff like gloves and mittens and other stuff like that. so we can talk about them. In the wood, there is also a large table we can use for the so and tell and also the slide show and talk. I will have my toboggan with me, so people can also see that. I will also have my trolley with me so if people have a load of large kit we can use it to get it into the wood

Any other questions please ask.

Not long now

 

[Dave]

Brilliant, I was wondering if there would be a table.
Northwoods looks like a great location.

 

[bopdude]

Just to let you guys know I have a set of American/Canadian army mukluks size small which is about a 8 in UK sizes which are available just tried my spare on, found out they were a size small and were tight against my large calves so I will bring them along and if people need them they could go to a good home for a very reasonable price. The foot size is comfortable, They have the removable felt liners included as well.

I would be interested size dependant, I'm a U.K. 8 the toboggan /s yours and Dave's are of great interest to me, I'm building my own to take, I have the blank and some of the fixings ( thanks Shewie ) so I'll scrutinise yours, and take pics for reference. No, not long now, I'm taking over the back bedroom asap to lay gear out SWMBO won't like that lol

EDIT: speaking of size, I think my smock is way to small, I'll take advice at the meet

 

[bopdude]

Dave, I was watching that same vid earlier

 

[Dave]

You could do that....Plus you could have some spares. Always handy.

Im bringing some bits to lend Ash. If he wants em. Mitts, Socks, pacboots.

Im wearing these this time: [Or my Mukluks, if its below -12 or so.] I bet I get blisters.

 

[lannyman8]

Ok so should have bacon and sausage for us all. Do we need any other meat?? Lamb legs ect?? Let me know...will see about bringing my kit for you all to look at and see what you think. Im working random days and hours as normal so just bear with me...😆😆😆

Sent from my SM-A300FU using Tapatalk

 

[bopdude]

Main thing is your car MOT, need to know if I'm picking you up lol, fingers crossed it goes through ok

 

[bopdude]

Just had a look at the Jokkmokk market dates for 2017, 2 - 4 February, if we wanted to do ice fishing ( fishing in February ) that would be cutting it close ? just one more thing to talk over this weekend

 

[Dave]

Just had a look at the Jokkmokk market dates for 2017, 2 - 4 February, if we wanted to do ice fishing ( fishing in February ) that would be cutting it close ? just one more thing to talk over this weekend

Yeh, I know....maybe im trying to cram too much in? In my head, im still twenty something and fit.

Im gonna lay out some of my stuff, and share some of my experiences as well, If you can put up with that. Ive been thinking about the mistakes Ive made.
When I think about what we were doing in canada, crossing lakes with open water on them, and the temperature variations we had, and the different types of snowshoes, Ive tried now, about 7, in very different conditions, Im rethinking some choices.

I reckon there will be a few cautionary tales from everyone. When I think about my experiences, thats what they are really. Never goes smoothly.