I wanted to post this when it was still fresh, smoking hot.. no wait, literally that would be – soaking wet instead…
This weekend I went out hiking with my scout patrol. The weather was nice when we left but half an hour after we started walking… the rain came. Pouring down, cats & dogs, sheep, flamingos – everything. The hood on my jacket saved me from drowning and I had a cover for my backpack (Granite Gear Vapor Meridian Ki) but… there was nothing shielding my legs from the rain, since I was wearing jeans. I was soaking wet, as the bandage on my knee.. that unexplainable wound, hm. Several kilometers of walking , up hills and down the hills again, later we ate lunch under some fir trees* the others ate tortellini and me and a friend had some goulash soup with macaroni :). Eating outdoors is always so different from eating indoors, especially if you’ve been working/walking/running etc. – you have more appetite, also things taste better. Could be something with all the oxygen in the woods, I don’t know :P.
We continued our walking and eventually we arrived at the place where we were going to sleep. Now, most people probably think of tents when sleeping outdoors is mentioned. Now, that is too much indoors for a scout. We sleep in “vindskydd“, “weatherbreaks” which is “half a tent” you could say, it protects us from the rain and the wind as well (if it’s positioned correctly). We find fallen trees, preferably very thin (no more than 20 cm diameter, base) and tie some to trees we’ve chosen (I can’t explain the construction since it’s something you learn from watching). Then we throw a big piece of tarpaulin over our “vindskydd-skeleton” and tighten it up (so that rain-water can’t make seas and lakes in sinkages). One side is wide open, this is how we sleep.
We were walking somewhere near “Romeleåsen”.. or perhaps even on it! More pictures below!! 😀
Of course we have inflatable matresses, pillows and sleeping bags. But, it is still cold outdoor air we’re talking about and we’re in Sweden – so temperatures can sink pretty low. This time, april, it got down to about 3°C or almost 0°C. It was cold, REALLY cold. I know, because my sleeping bag isn’t working. I lied there, keeping myself awake so that I could keep on moving my toes about** and stretching my legs.. I got terrible cramps since I couldn’t stop shivering. I sound querulous, don’t I?
Well, when it was about 5.20 I got up and went to the “vindskydd” where my little sister was sleeping. Luckily, her sleeping bag was big enough to contain us both (and she’s nice enough to let me sleep there). Thank you Selma! :). Later on, we woke up and made breakfast. I cooked some oatmeal and put a package of chocolate oat milk in boiling water.. it was wonderful***… I also ate three sandwiches with jam and.. salami? Well, they had no butter and no cheese… so I pretended the salami was cheese. It worked XD. (marmalade or jam + cheese = awesome).
We packed our bags and left the place, heading towards a place where we could eat lunch. This time I ate some tomato-soup… while almost drowning in my own jacket. I was so damn WET and COLD. Could. Not. Stop. SHIVERING!!! However, the warm soup made me feel a little better and we continued walking towards the place were we got dropped off the other day. Eventually we got there and met up with our parents (now I sound like a kindergarten kid).
So, why do I do this? If I get all wet, walk all day, work like a maniac just to get shelter and almost freeze my toes off, why do I do this? Well, when doing this together with some of my closest friends and many other nice people, helping each other – all those things above are nothing. Of course, freezing isn’t something I’d gladly do – but I still had lots of fun. When people reach my age, they hang out with their either friends in school or at parties. I’m not a party-animal (nor human), neither are most of my friends, so this is what we do instead. We train leadership, teamwork, working together with people you don’t know, a lot of important things – while having fun 😛
Some say best friends last forever (nothings eternal though), but I’ve seen how so many people betray each other, how they do not care for each other. I might now know about how the future looks, but what I do know is that, my friends are not the kind of people who’d ever let me down. That much I can tell, when we suddently fit four people in a tiny tiny wooden shelter which probably was made for two, or when we’re the slowest patrol, since everyone waits for the injured. That much I can tell, which probably is a lot more than what the party-animals know about each other (nothing bad about parties).
* They don’t spread their roots as much as deciduous trees, therefore they stand closer to each other and work as.. a bad umbrella… but still an umbrella! (Not a sprinkler, at least).
** Last time I used this sleeping bag, my toes got really cold. When I woke up I couldn’t feel them anymore and they were all blue. Pretty scary since I was hiking a bit alone that time.
*** This is what I’m talking about when I say difference between eating indoors and eating outdoors.
Some strange thing..
There were LOADS of these.. and I don’t even know what they are!
Commonly found in swedish fir tree-woods…
DO NOT touch toad… or lick on them (I didn’t) just don’t…
// Yours, sleepy SockFusion ^______^
XiaoSockFusion 