Been a while. Over half a year since my last post. So what the hell is going on? Well, it's pretty simple in some respects, more complex in others. Let's start with the simple: life has just been really busy the past year. Having small kids, working full time, social life, etc. have all been more demanding, so my free time has suffered because of it, unfortunately. Then on top of this, a few trips I had planned recently fell through due to illness. So yeah, some bad luck too.
However there are other factors that have contributed to my outdoor life sinking into a rut. I vented about them at length on the forum for Ultralight backpacking over at Reddit, which you can read here. Long story short, after several years of devotedly section hiking trails in my area, I ran out of new places to explore, and this made me lose the motivation to get out as regularly as I did in the past.
Don't get me wrong, I still adore backpacking and crave it all the time. Things are just complicated right now as far as my outdoor life is concerned. The little free time I have right now doesn't give me a very big window of opportunity to explore new and exciting outdoor adventures that are further away. It is what it is, as they say--but this will pass in time.
I dream of thru-hikes. I want to go on one so bad I can taste it. To have say one, two, or three months to wonder around in the wild is something I have wanted to do for decades, but the time was never right. But the day will come when the time is right, and I will finally get the chance to become a thru-hiker. Until then, the section hiking and weekend warrior compromises will have to do.
Then there is another variable that has contributed to less content here: less gear. This is because I just don't want/need very much new gear. Over the past several years I have more or less been in transition to dial in my own personal set of UL gear that works best for me in the conditions that I use them. It's a surreal but nice feeling going into my gear closet and having a sense of satisfaction. Sure, there are a few fancy toys that I'd want to have as an added luxury--been thinking about getting that new MLD Solomid XL in the new and improved silnylon, for example. But when you get to the point that you confidently feel like your gear lists are in the realm of 9-point-something out of 10, the incentive to go from say 9.3 to 9.5 is, well, not very strong. So yeah, less new gear means less reviews. There may be some long term use reviews in the future, however.
Apologies for such an anticlimactic update. There will be some posts and videos and such in the future. I have been asked to do a few collaboration projects, for example. I am flattered by some of these and will have to follow through on those. And come the summer, I will be doing at least one long section hike that I will be documenting, which will be the very last leg of the Swedish E1 trails. But I am thinking more and more about long term. Come 2027 I hope to have a video drone following me around as I set off on my first big thru-hike.
Take care and happy trails everyone.
