SOUVENIRS...

As a fan of of northern countries and bush-craft skills I wish to start learning to carve wood and build small furniture. This quest for tools and knives made me remember I already owned some Finnish knives I got when I was a young kid and traveled with my parents in Finland in the early 80's. As soon as I came back from work this evening I ran in my barn and started browsing in the crates from my last moving to see if I could find these pieces of steel. And..bingo here they are !

A Martiini Kätevä that nearly like a brand new one.

And an...unknown knife, "Rovaniemi" on the back side of the sheath (?), that is a bit rusted but in a pretty good condition after a bit of sanding.

I will use them for wood carving and small tasks or may be be for a short walk in the woods.

Christmas and birthday presents

How lucky I was on Christmas day some months ago and for my birthday too.

I had the pleasure to find these nice presents :







A soft, warm and very light Golite ultralite 3 seasons quilt:

an ultra light and useful tripod for my cameras : 

a mega light Petzl Elight : 

An heavy .22 rifle from CZ :

Yes we can ! .....survive...

If you feel concern about the world economy collapse or the end of the world as we know it or simply feel concern about home defense, green projects, gear, nature you can check the many survivalist websites on the net. for those of french language check the most famous preppers aka Volwest on : http://lesurvivaliste.blogspot.fr/

I started to build my own survival backup in my house, gathering food, tools, wood, growing vegetables and training to shoot with guns.

This, which could look like paranoia, is nothing less than what did our grand parents or farmers or people in most parts of the world today. this is not a matter of building a bunker filled with thousand of ammo and assault rifles. this is more about gardening and getting independent from the system. if you don't like being dependent from someone else (from your government in this case) if you care about your family, if you just want to give your life more sense, if you like nature (and I guess you do or won't have reach this blog)  and share experience with others then, you should go for survival.

Kart Poolen

Some weeks ago I got in contact with a Company, Kart Poolen, whose job consists in printing accurate and good quality maps of the Swedish Lapland district. In my project to hike the Kungsleden next year I was looking for an alternative to the traditional maps from Landmateriet, which are very good either but too big and you need too many of them to cover the entire Kungsdleden, what is not very good if you try to be light or ultra light.

I discovered Kart Poolen when hiking the Fjallraven Classic last year, they are the official provider of the hiking maps for this event and make a very smart two sided map of the trail so you can hike a full 110 km trail with a compact, light but still accurate map.

I sent a mail to Håkan Lampinen from the company and I had the good surprise to receive the proposal of a sending of a sample of their products. This was a very nice and cool offer and I had the joy to find one week after a letter with many maps inside !!! What they sent me is very good and I really appreciate the "roll over" map that covers the trail from Abisko to Kvikkjokk it is called "Ledkarta över Kungsleden" at a 1:100000 scale. once again it's a very compact and light weight size very handy to use on the trail I guess especially when it's windy because you don't have to unfold a full size map to check your position !

I don't know if they still sell this product but check their website for other maps !

Granite Gear Crown VC 60 : Debriefing Session

I took the opportunity of going for an overnight walk to try on the trail my brand new backpack from Granite Gear.
This short trip in the low central mountain range gave me the opportunity to check some particulars I noticed when I gave a first look at the back pack. So, here are my observations :

• the shoulder mesh pockets are of few use and could hardly be useful because of their position up on the shoulder straps and on the round part of the shoulder. I managed to store my Recta compass in one but I'm still not convinced about them. An ultralight belt pocket would have been a better idea because I will have to go for the purchase of one and still will have these useless shoulder pockets.
• In its "standard configuration" (that is to say loaded just up to the back top level) the pack is not a 60 liters but may be, like I told in my previous review, closer to a 40-45 liters. Anyway, if you unroll the extension collar you should effectively gain enough room to have the 60 liters but you will have the top of the pack close to the top of your head...unless you have a neck like a giraffe. Please notice that I rolled my sleeping mat like a tube and packed it inside the pack so it may be helping to loose a bit room inside, I guess that the pack is very good for a long distance trip and I will use it next year on the Kungsleden for a 10 to 15 days walk.
• The overall quality is very good and I didn't noticed any failure in the webbing system or closure system either.
• The pack is comfortable smooth and bends with your back if you have to move or turn your torso for example during a tricky ascend or "crawl" under tree limbs...it's easy to adjust and the load transfer on the hips is very efficient even compare to my Deuter ACT light which has a very rigid back frame and well padded back.
• The side mesh pockets are well designed and I could access to my water bottle without too much difficulties on the trail. The front mesh pocket is huge but once the pack is fully loaded it becomes a bit more difficult to store big items in it but I must admit that I didn't want to stretch the mesh too much to keep its good looking so it's surely possible to store a lot of stuff in it !
• I often read on the Net that the top closure system is too difficult to use or too slow to access to the main storage area, I didn't find any trouble by using it and it's as fast as a classic backpack with which you have to first unlock the top lid cover then open the main compartment. Does someone has to hurry when hiking ? keep cool and lazy !

I hope these observations will help your choice.

Vassiviere Lake - France - September 7/8

As my holidays were ending I decided to go for a two days/one night walk near Vassiviere Lake in the French central mountain range where altitude is reaching nearly 800 m osl. This was a good occasion to try on the trail some new gear I bought : the Granite Gear Crown VC 60, my Salewa Firetrail GTX shoes, my Panasonic FT20, a Ticket to the Moon hammock, a DIY tarp and some pieces of wear.

The weather was pretty hot with 30-35°C under the sun and the night fresh at 10 °C.

My trip led me from the western shore of the lake heading to the east passing by the south coast for a first 18 km walk. but starting my walk at 12 h 00 I was short on time to reach the other lake - La Vau Gelade Lake - where I intended to stay for the night.

As a lack of luck the brand new map I bought for this trip is not up to date and the trails have been modified since the map was printed. I got "lost" for a while and had to take an unexpected way under a hot shinny sun getting short on water as well as on time...I took the bad decision to hurry without taking care of the hot spots on my feet due to may be low quality socks I was wearing.

I finally reached my destination at 19 H 00 after a 30 km walk and decided to stay at the camp site for the night so I could use the drinkable water offered at this place.

After a pretty cold night in my hammock (see the report about this case) I took the way back to Vassiviere lake starting at 9 am the 20 km stretch lead me back to my car by east to west road.

Freestyle