My first overnight hang, Tollered, Sweden

**makkan** · 08-01-2014, 03:05

Last weekend me and my friend went on a short fishing/camping trip at a nearby lake. We hiked around the lake trying to locate a shelter that I had heard of from neighbours. This particular shelter is a quite sturdy wind break or lean-to, it's built by local scouts a little over a decade ago.

We spent about two or three hours hiking in the sun to get to the shelter with a fishing/coffee break along the road. Unfortunately that fishing stop was a tell tale sign on how much fishing luck we would have for the remainder of the trip. Yeah we got zip, zero, zilch and no fish at all.

When we found the shelter we gathered up some firewood and started up a nice campfire and cooked a can of ravioli, suprisingly good I must add. I strung up my tarp for practice but I hung my hammock in the shelter in order to be a bit more social with my ground dwelling friend. After about 45 minutes in the shelter a thunderstorm came along and put our shelters to the test. It rained really hard for a good hour before it stopped as quickly as it came. We managed to stay high and dry in the shelter and if I had been forced to stay under my tarp the ground beneath it was equally dry.

My first night in the hammock was not as nice as I had hoped. I got a bit cold in the morning hours, probably from neglecting bottom insulation. Also I got a bit of a pain just below my shoulder blade. I don't really think it's from hammock camping as I've been painting my house every night for the last two weeks but staying fixed in the hammock probably made the soarness into a pain. As an added bonus I didn't have to use my bug net as there were a suprisingly low amount of mosquitos for this time of year.

Anyways it was nice to get out in the woods again, it must have been well over 20 years since I last spend the night under the stars.

**MAD777** · 08-01-2014, 04:56

Glad you were able to get out in the woods again. Starry nights are wonderful! And sometimes the fish aren't interested.

**K0m4** · 08-01-2014, 06:36

Vackert! Shelter hanging is really nice. Probably all the mozzies in Sweden were with me up in Kiruna and had had their bellies full and were still sleeping it off!

That coffee pot looks familiar too, although too pristine as yet!

How is it hiking in the five-fingers? Been considering trying them for a while, but living where I do there's no way to try them on, only option is ordering online.. (yes, I know of the lawsuit, but I want to try them anyway and take my own responsibilities..).

**makkan** · 08-01-2014, 07:51

Thanks guys!

The coffee pot by the way is probably older than me, it's just been very well kept and maybe not seen that much use in the last two or perhaps three decades

Hiking in Vibram Five Fingers is really nice. This time it was way too warm for socks and gaiters but I guess I would be using that if I were more worried about ticks and wanted to get off the beaten path more. One thing though is that you get really dirty feet if you step in mud and such but I just wore my clean socks in the hammock instead and kept the dirt out of my sleeping bag.

I bought them from addnature in sweden. They have a quite good size chart and free returns so get one or two sizes and send the ones that don't fit back. I just got one size and luckily enough it fit like a glove. Been running in them for over two years and I would agree with most claims vibram makes. The only thing I can't really say if is if I got more nerves in my feet. More muscles? Yes. More stable feet? Yes. But for the love of all that is sacred, take it easy when starting out.
Good luck with your future monkey shoes