Hiking Holavedsleden (59km) from Tranås to Gränna in the last days of April. The numbers and letters showing up through out the video are map reference markers.
Pleasant walk but a lot of roads and not enough trails through the forests. Water was an issue at times but not so much that it was holding me back.
Number of ticks attached, four. A few crawlers too.
For maps and more info about Holavedsleden click here.
Coming full circle on this trail or rather where we ended a trip 4 years ago down from Omberg to Gränna. Click this for the old reports, check the ones posted 2013. Them backpacks back then, pew, 25-ish kilos! I could wear about three backpacks now to get to that weight 🙂
It was a good trip with superb weather, 26-28 degrees Celsius and a light breeze. But from a scenic point of view only the first 5-8km from the start (south section) is worth while and the last section (north section) is good for the most part, especially the last bit when you get the view of lake Vättern.
Ticks loves this trail, or me, I had 19 of them but only two attached. Jon got away with two… Lucky.
Sometimes it’s just nice to go out on the weekends and get a fire going with some wood you brought. Put a kettle in the coals and enjoy a nice cup of coffee in the crisp air.
The coffee always taste better outside and when you’ve made the fire by hand so to say. Really starting to get the hang of it with making a fire with just a knife/axe and a fire steel.
Here are some pictures from the last three weekends or so.
This is the hike that me and Jon took yesterday. We met up at my office and then went to Bunn a few miles north of Jönköping. From there we proceeded south towards Skärstad and lake Ramsjön. Fun walk with different terrain features. The only not so fun part was that there was quite a lot of deer flies in the area. Nasty things! A fun part was also that we even managed to get lost for a few minutes, haha! But with a compass and some help from an iPhone we managed to get back on track quite fast. If you look at the map above I’m quite sure that you can figure out where we were lost 🙂 I forgot to turn off the tracking after we got back to the car so that’s why there’s a stretch from the start-marker to the stop-marker. You can click the map to get to the Suunto page and look at our trip in detail.
Last summer we did a three day trip but we ended it early due to a big thunderstorm that came in over us. We were quite happy that we didn’t sleep in a tent that night because it caused massive problems with flooding etc. So this time we went on an overnighter to complete the last leg, the last 16km. Västanåleden – click to see trail info and maps.
Pre-planning and packing. Big thanks to Jon that helped with the pack and some other stuff as my calendar has been packed.
We started on Friday as soon as I came off work and we drove to Gränna north of Jönköping (Sweden). After unpacking the car and doing some last minute adjustments and distributed a few things to balance the loads we started walking. It was now a few minutes past five. At this point we had about 2,5 hours of light before the sun set.
The small village of Röttle hosts a many treats like this waterfall and the Jerusalem mill.
Jerusalems mill in Röttle.
And the beech forrest.
About one hour in we took a short break making some coffee as the sun was going down in the background.
One of the missions on this overnighter was to see how much fuel the Primus Omnilite TI burner used for a days worth of cooking. We found that three meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner with an additional three boils for coffee water we used about 1dl of fuel. We used Primus Power Fuel and the temperature were between 0 degrees Celsius and +12 on the last day. We didn’t really go all in on saving fuel – our thoughts were rather:
– If we do this as comfortable as possible how much fuel will we spend?”
Trying out a new concept for us – Freeze bag cooking! Worked like a charm! Couscous with cheese.
As soon as the sun set it got dark really fast and we had to pitch the tent in the dark. But with our headlamps on but it worked great. Team work pays out!
Saturday morning – waking up around 06.30 – rise and shine!
Heading down the steep slopes to get water for cooking and the morning coffee.
Filling up the Platypus bottles.
Jon is happy in his Arc’Teryx down jacket – cozy and warm.
After breakfast we took off quickly again to gain some momentum and getting warm as it was quite cold this morning.
Taking a quick breather after gaining some altitude.
Back in Röttle for a quick coffee before moving on again further north.
A light breeze strikes the water – It’s all warm and nice, feels just like a summers day.
Shoes off! Waiting for the freeze dried food to get ready.
End of the line – back where we ended our trip the last time when the thunderstorm came in on us. A great two days of walking!
Went on Hassafallsleden today in the great spring weather, 7,5 degrees Celsius outside and the sun was shining down on us. Not a typical situation for the past weeks so I had to take advantage of it.
Click for large image.
It was also a good opportunity to try out my new shoes rather than just walking around the house. I must say that they’re very comfortable but I’m also glad that I only took a short hike, 4km, rather than going for a 7 hour, 20km+, like we did the last time because I had some blistering going on. My left heel started to get a little red and few more hours I would probably have had a nasty blister right there. The other foot however didn’t have any issues but I think that I tied that shoe a little looser so that it moved around more easily.
Finally at the top! Time for some coffee!
The top of the knoll was not the highest climb in the world but the view was great! Met two other persons up there but they were basically leaving when I got there. So I enjoyed the view and a nice cup of hot Joe and then went back down.
Click for large image.
Finally home again I went online and ordered the topographic map over Jotunheimen to start preparing this summers trip even in more detail. 🙂
I and Jon was out on a 7 hour hike yesterday and during those hours we covered roughly 20km. A days work!
We went on the John Bauer trail and the after a few hours went on our own little side track to make a nice circle back to our car.
We were hoping for some rain and heavy winds to test out some new rain gear but at first we didn’t get any but that changed after a few hours and then we got some nice down pour for about an hour or so. I thought I had packed my rain pants but I put those back in the closet and opted for some stuff to make pancakes instead (which we never did, haha!). So I just had to make due with my rain jacket which preformed very well through out the day. Must say that I like my Patagonia Torrentshell rain set very much. I’ve chosen the Patagonia jacket as my outer layer instead of a GoreTex jacket.
This is photo is taken at the end of the day. I’ve got no rain pants but I’ve got pancakes in my backpack 🙂 The city of Jönköping in the background. And if you look closely you can see a small hight on the high ground to the top left and that’s basically where I live.
If you want to see a picture in higher resolution that’s in the slideshow just right click it and choose open in new tab/window.
Me on the last part of the trip near our destination, Gränna.
Took a four day trip with a friend but it only took us three days to complete it – we apparently walk fast 🙂 We had a great time and the weather was good, almost too good! I think I’ve never been that sweaty ever before…
The picture above is taken by my friend with my camera and I gave the picture some loving when I got back home.
More pictures will come soon!
Lighter Packs 