Fall trekk in Omberg

Revisiting Omberg once again. This place is just an hours drive from home and offers a quite interesting landscape. The weather forecast said rain and that’s pretty much all we got…

We started to walk around 11am on Saturday. The temperature at the car was 6 degrees Celsius and we had a light drizzle but a strong wind coming in from the north. As soon as we got into the forest the big trees shielded us from the elements and we had a nice walk up north. The colors were just amazing. The beech trees were completely yellow and there were leaves all over the ground covering slippery rocks and roots.

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We had our first break as a shelter facing east, overlooking the farmlands. Had some water and some snacks and then got on the road again before we got too cold.

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The next stop was on the western side, Marberget, with a good view down towards lake Vättern and the beech forest down below. Right here there was basically no wind and we thought about having lunch here but we decided to go a little further to Västra Väggar.

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So far the trails had been completely empty, not too strange with te weather, but when we came to Västra Väggar we
found four persons there enjoying the view. They were snapping some photos and after a minute or two they went back to their car and drove off.

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We brought out the cooking set and started to boil some water. We had some issues with getting the alcohol lit due to the cold but with some dedication we managed and in a couple of minutes lunch was served.

 

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After lunch we went south towards Älvarums udde where we’ve camped a few times before. The plan was to setup camp here but it was only around 3pm so we decided to go to Hjässan before it went dark. We might return here if there was time.

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On top of Hjässan, 261m, we had the best view ever! Just have a look at the pictures below…

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It was getting dark about the time we came back down from there and we decided to camp at Stocklycke harbor instead. There was no-one there but a caravan. We went to the shelter and our plan was to make a fire to get dry. Luckily enough the guys in the caravan(?) had been sloppy enough not to put out the fire completely so we just grabbed a few sheets from the newspapers that we found there and a couple of logs and we had a fire in no time. Thanks I guess…

Day two. 

The night was really cold, around 3 degrees and with the rain and the damp air it felt like -1. We both said that we were freezing during the night. I slept with all my gear on apart from the wind- and rain jacket. I guess I need warmer long johns in the future. Might even try a pair of down pants, sounds cozy. After we took down the tent we realized that we’ve pitched in on gravel and mud so that added to the experience. It was too dark to see when we pitched the tent, otherwise we might have picked a better spot around Stocklycke meadows.

Got up rather late, around 9-9.30, and skipped breakfast. Just had a handful of nuts and a power bar.

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Walked south towards Ellen Key’s summer home and from there back to the car. Only about 2-3 km on the last day but it was good.

Solo hiking Västanåleden – A first try at SUL Hiking

The majority of my hikes are shorter weekend trips on any of the trails close to my hometown. It’s only during my summer holidays that I have time for week long journeys to places like Norway and northern Sweden. With this in mind I have started to work on a lighter kit custom tailored for the needs I have on my shorter trips in the woods around Jönköping. So after spending the spring purchasing new equipment it was now time for a first trip trying to go SUL – Super Ultra Light that is 🙂 

In this post i will do a short trip report and also try to sum up the experience of my new kit and talk through some of the new items i used.

Hiking Västanåleden

Västanåleden is a short round trip hike in the beech forest south of Gränna. The trail shares tracks with John Bauerleden that connects all the way down to Jönköping. Both of these trails are familiar to me and just last year me and André took a short overnight trip at this trail. I decided to walk the southern part of the trail as these are the ones I like most. As this would be a rather short route I would also have time for some detours along any of the other trails crossing my path.

I started out just outside the small village of Röttle and decided to take a short walk down to the harbour. On my way I passed the waterfalls and the remains of the old Jerusalem mill. Down by the harbour I took a small pause and then headed back up to the trail.

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Röttle river waterfalls and the remains of Jerusalem Mill


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