Just a quick announcement that Ross from the Wood Trekker blog and I have put up the first episode of what will hopefully be a series on wilderness backpacking called Back to Back. I have to say the title is growing on me, being a good shorthand for "from one backpacker to another." The first video is more if an introduction and setting up the format and first topic, and Part 2 and 3 are our in depth discussions related to the first topic.
Keep an eye out on my Youtube channel in the future for more episodes of Back to Back if you are interested. I am glad we got the ball rolling, and I think it will be great to be able to bounce ideas and learn from Ross and hopefully other backpackers as well. I have to say, I am excited about the prospect of this project continuing on and maybe expanding, and have really enjoyed collaborating with Ross.
That's about it. Just wanted try and get the word out some. As always, feedback and questions are welcome and encouraged.
This post will be short and sweet. I was looking over the pictures from my last section hike and noticed there were a lot of pictures of mushrooms that I didn't include in my trip report. I liked the way some of them came out, so figured I would do a whole post just devoted to these pictures. The granola bar in some of the pictures is for size reference. Seeing all these mushrooms out there had me humming the Super Mario Brothers theme song quite a lot on my trip. For those of you that didn't ever play SMB on NES, this is what I am talking about:
This report covers the last stage of Västra Vätterleden hiking northbound, which leads directly to the southern starting point of Bergslagsleden, as well as the first three stages of the trail (17-15). I include the last stage of Västra Vätterleden for pragmatic reasons as a section hiker, which has mostly to do with public transportation, using the lakeside town of Karlsborg as a start/endpoint. Stage 15 ends close to the town of Laxå.
However if you are a thru-hiker and need to stock up on supplies, want/need a hostel or hotel, craving a good cup of coffee and/or a warm meal, or just want to do some sight-seeing, I recommend paying Karlsborg a visit. There are regular buses that connect to the village of Forsvik (where the E1 continues), and also to the city of Skövde where there is a train station for further connections.
Today my family and I went out to pick some wild mushrooms out in the woods, and had a particularly good haul.
This is yet another aspect I love about being outdoors--and that I have written about on this blog before--so I figured why not take some pictures and do a quick video to show off our harvest. For those of you that are into mycology, you might appreciate this; and for those of you that are not into the somewhat strange world of fungus hunting, perhaps this can shed some light on the subject. From my experiences I have found that people that are not in the know tend to think that I am crazy for picking and eating odd looking mushrooms, but so long as you know what you are doing and take some simple precautions, it's really not a big deal.
Obligatory disclaimer: I am just reflecting on my own personal goals as far as physical fitness is concerned, as well as what exercises and techniques work for me. Everyone is different, has different needs, physical abilities, genetics, limitations, etc. Basically, I am just talking about what level of fitness I want to maintain and how I go about doing that. I'm not a doctor or a trainer, just my opinion, don't sue me, etc.
I just shot a video where I spoke at length on the subject at hand, and where I cover a lot of ground, so I'll begin with the video this time and then move on to writing the rest of this text. Please watch the video first before moving on with this article:
