Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Review:Sleeping Bag millet Baikal 1000

After some downtime I am back.
And as promised: The review for the Baikal 1000.

I bought this bag end October. I first wanted to buy the Baikal 750 but the nice lady in the shop told me it was not a good allround bag, more a summer bag.
So after some thinking I walked out with this beauty.

It weighs 1 kilo and has a lenght of 185 cm.
I used it for 1 week continuously. And it did its job pretty well. I felt no cold and was really comfortable. The average temprature at night must have been between 5°C and 0°C.
Millet claims it will easily withstand temperatures of 3°C and it truly does.
The only small problem is that it is a tight fit. I am just (but really just) big enough.
But that's personal.

I haven't done a in-field test but that will come later in the year 2011.


This sleeping bag is just a good bag that does its job. A fine and light bga that is ideal for hiking.


I can't wait until i get it into the field.


Dries

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Winter is back in town!!!!




The first snow fell this day!!
Finally the best season of the year is coming.



I have some news: I bought the biakal 1000 of Millet. And i'm gonna do a nice review about it.
You can expect it before 6 december!!!


Dries

Monday, November 22, 2010

We travel to where our soul is...

Today I thought up this little sentence. I was looking at the movie Into the wild and this sentence just came up. It is the second best sentence that tellls what I feel about traveling and hiking.

I mean, When people travel to some far away they easily say that they could live there for ever. We go to new places to flee away from the stressfull life. We wanna relax.

I just wanna feel freedom. Not to worry about going to a specific place and need to get there at a certain time. Just to walk and stop when I wanna stop...


Wolves Have No King....

Dries

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Update

Back after a long time.
Here are the things you need to know that happend after the last blog:

  1. I got a job at a Outdoor shop. I work in the big warehous. It is a Temporarily job, I'm still searching for a real job. ( as a salesman in a outdoor shop)
  2. I decided I am gonna walk the West Highland Way. This is a very nice 152 km long route in Scotland. It runs from the outskirts of Glasgow to Ben Nevis (the highest mountain of Scotland.)

For more I promise i will bring some nice reviews about gear I am gonna buy. Such as:
  • A new Lighter sleeping bag. The one I now own weighs 1,5 kg.
  • Hiking socks. Some strong good one (Bridgedales or Icebreaker)
  • Some Shirts and pants. From various brands.

Dries

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Young Pup Hike 3: Day 2

Breakfeast: Bread, Cheese and cactus thea
Departure: 8.50 am
Target: Blankenberge
Arrival at Target: Didn't got there
Dinner: cakes and water
Supper: At home

Woke up at 8 am. First I putted the kettle on and and start to break up my tent. Had some breakfeast and got going.



Halfway the next city i got a phone for a job the next day.
So Instead of going to Blankenberge, I went to the train station and got to Home. ( eveything for a job, wright?)



So my vacation was shortened quite a bit but I'm happy with this first job offer.
Mostly My back and shoulders hurt. The pain in my shoulders is mostly because I have the wrong size of backpack. I am gonna buy a new one.

Maybe it wil be the Abisko from Fjällräven. Or maybe the Deuter I wrote about some earlier this year. We'll see.
I will plan a bigger trip So finally I can do decent trip. But I have work :-D

Wolves have no king,

Dries

Monday, September 13, 2010

Young Pup Hike 2: Day 1

"Next blog is from my logbook"

08/sept/2010
Day 1

Breakfeast: At home
Train: 06.25 am -> 09.15 am
Target: Campsite "De zeester" (Sea star)
Arrival at Target: 3.41 pm
Dinner: Bread, cheese and Gingerbread
Supper: Spaghetti, green peppers, bacon, Mozzarella.

From the moment I s
tepped out of the train i was wet. Good I brought that Poncho.
I started walking and singing some unknown song. I had a really great time





Done much walking today. I was so happy when I got to t
he Campsite. It was really nice that everything went as I planned out.
Accept for the rain. But I just
bought a new Poncho and it did its job really good. And thanks to the Fjällräven Oswego Shirt I actually stayed well ventilated. I LOVE THIS BRAND!!!!!!!




I might have walked a bit to fast and hard because my feet felt just so bad. As i was building my tent I found out I forgot my kite. Now I was at the sea and no kite! I was sad for a moment.

The cooking wasn't easy, but that is because my tent was to small and it was raining. To be honest it was very calm, I saw maybe 50 people in total this day. Thanks to the rain mostly.




Half way I walked true a nature park, it was Really amazing. So nice views and very pretty terrain. I loved it. One of the best parts of the Hike.

What did I learned: Never,ever, ever ,ever take out a card during the rain!!!!!!
I will post Day 2 Shortly,

Wolves Have No King.

Dries



Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Young Pup Hike 1: The preparations

So i'm almost ready for my first hike for this Blog.

Here is everything I took with me (from left to right and top to bottom):



  • Rain poncho
  • Little bag Trangia with cooking stuff
  • Thee in paper bag
  • Ethanol for Trangia
  • Toilet bag
  • Towel
  • Underpants, socks, sweater and T-shirt
  • Pillow
  • Sleeping mat
  • KamelBag
  • Logbook, Curvimeter, Pen, maps, Kompas, radio, Headlight
  • Tent
  • Sleepinbag
  • Backpack
Things i will be carrying on my body:
  • A fjällraven Oswego short
  • A zipoff pants
  • Wallet
  • Phone
  • Meindl Shoes

That's all folk,

Ill give you my logbook soon


Dries

Friday, September 3, 2010

The Sea...

A very short and quick note:
I'm gonna go for sadly 4 days to the sea ( instead of 7 because of a job interview).
It is short but i'm gonna have fun.
The plan is to walk between 60 and 70 km. Its really not that much but i hope to have a lot of fun.
I'll post a picture from what i'm gonna take with me, Soon!

Greetz

Dries

Thursday, August 12, 2010

My stuff 2...

As promised a review about my Trangia cooking Stove.
Weight:
- 860 grams
Materials:
- Aluminium
- Ultralight Hardanodized Aluminium
- Non-Stick

This is a great Cooking stove.
It is build by a swedish company who make this exact design since 1925.
The only difference are the materials these days.

The basic principle is that you cook on Ethanol or Methanol.

It is possible to cook below -10°C if you prime it and it has no moving parts so it almost impossible to break down. You can cook in it if you plan a bit.
It's real easy and simple. You can buy Ethanol or Methanol in every scandinavian shop in every village. Good for me ;-). It may even works with strong vodka or anything else that has a high alcohol percentage. (above 70° is real minimum, above 90° is better)

Now the down points:
- Uses a bit much fuel in cold weather.
- You can't adjust the flame that much.
- if you go to real cold weather (polar like) it won't work. Than you can better use Gasoline in special stoves.

But after all I love it so much. It's easy ,just so simple and so sturdy. Used it a lot of times and always did it do the job. Perfect and amazing.

Dries

PS: Just BUY it :-D

Monday, July 5, 2010

My decision of Life

I decided what i'm gonna do next year:

I'm gonna work Part-time and going to adult-school or whatever it's called. And gonna have some fun. I probably gonna do something with: Leather, metal, wood, making clothes or something with my hands and creative. :-)

Now it's looking for a job and a course.
Wish me luck.

Wolves have no King,


Dries


EDIT: I'm gonna work full time. Not part time

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Secrets of life...

We all have secrets.
Sometimes we brake one of our principles. Sometimes with a reason sometimes without.
But that's no reason to think your life ends there. Sometimes you need to fall of a cliff to find out it was'nt so deep.
But as long you do'nt die or break both you leggs. you're gonna be ok.

We need secrets cause without life is useless. All excitment dissapears and we loose the will to keep going.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Summer...


Haaaa, the summer, The time when the birds start to live again and the nature comes up out of the earth and calls us.
The time when whe trekkers fill our backpacks and head out in to the wilderness where we forget about the world that fools us in believing that going forward is the only good option. When the wild takes us and carries away our souls to a world wich I love and embrace.

Now let's talk logistics: This summer i'm gonna walk the belgian coast it will be about 70-80 km. I tend to do it in 5 days but I gonna take 7 days so I can take day of rest, or just a day of lazyness.

I'm gonna hold log of the travel and translate parts of it ( or all of it) and post it here.
My plan is to go with the tent and walk from camping to camping. I hope to cover about max 20 km a day. It might sound (no, it is) very understated. But start small thay say ha?


Now come all the planning and maybe some small training. Till next time.


Dries

Friday, May 21, 2010

A little look inside my head.

Should I go? I sounds so wonderfull to just get my stuff ready and leave. But unfortunately traveling needs MONEY. It is hard to hear about other people traveling and not being able to do it yourselve. It's not that i don't have any money but its more that I don't wanna spent all the money my parents saved for me over the years. It's also really expensive. But if I could divide the price between more people it whould save me a lot. hmmm... A good reason to get into a relationship. Or maybe just a traveling mate, nothing personal (lol). I wonder how other people do this. Offcourse I could do volunteer work and so get cheaper to a land.
My head is getting in overdrive... AAAAAAHHHH

Wolves have no King...

Dries

Saturday, May 8, 2010

My Stuff 1...

I've talked about the stuff I like to have or do. Now lets talk about the stuff I have now. A little review. In the next coming blogs I will talk about the stuff I own.

1) Coleman Kraz™ X¹ Tent.

Weight: 1,6 kg
Flysheet: 210T polyester ripstop, PU 4000 mm
Floor: 190T nylon taffeta, PU 5000 mm
Repair kit included

A very nice tent. Lovely colours and roomy sleeping-compartment.
High enough to sit in.
If your a bit structured you can cook in it.
It sets-up real easy and quick. It only uses 2 U-poles and I think 10 pegs.

Some negative points:
Small and low vestibule. (BIG problem for me)
Only 3-season tent.

I slept in it for 1 night at a campsite at sea. Had a very nice night aside from the loud road next to the campsite. There was a lot of condensation between the inner and outer tent, but it didn't drip on me, so no problem. I really like that there is like +10 cm between the inner and outer tent. So when condensation collects on the inside of the tent it has no chance of getting to the inner tent.

Sadly I have not tested in it during the rain or strong wind. But it looks (and most importantly) feels very sturdy.

So in short, Very nice tent. But to bad that the vestibule is so small. I really irritates me. It's possible to live in it, but only if you have structure.


Next one will be about my Trangia stove


;-)
Dries

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

I love Norway...

I've recently found out about this guy: Lars Monsen.

He is a Nordic journalist who spent his life making trips and movies about it.
He is mostly known for 2 trips:
1) Living for 365 days above the arctic circle
2) Crossing the northern of canada on feet or with dogsled (it took him a freaking 2 years and 7 months)
I found the subtitles for the first one and it is FA-SCI-NA-TING.
You can download them LEGALLY and EASY via Torrent just click the ne xt link: NRKBeta.
There are even subtitles (english) click again here: http://subs.hopto.org.

Really funny and very intresting. I whould love to do that, have the money and just go....


Dries

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Preparation routes

Now I will talk about the routes I wanna hike (before i go to sweden). You could see them as training. But for me they are just some nice hikes, fun time.

The Belgian coast.
I did it last year by bike, It took me 3 days. Wich is quite long for 84 kilometers.
I hope doing it (by foot) in max 5 days. I'll post up here the travelbook.

The GR15(Belgian part) .
This is a route in the belgian hills. Very varied, and nice ups and downs (literally). 200 km. A longer hike for me.

A self-planned route in southern Netherlands ( called Zeeuws-vlaanderen). Like maybe 10 days max in the summer.


That are the routes i think off right now.
More will come.


Dries

Monday, April 26, 2010

Winter anorak

I recently found this website http://www.wintertrekking.com/
They talked about the Cotton Anorak(here).

Very nice design, but it's not likely I will need it the next years. After a long search i found Empire Canvas Works . They sell the Anorak for $ 315 . That's like € 236, NOT cheap.
I like the idea of there Flex fit system. I can cut it to my own size, nice.
That's just like the trousers from Fjällräven. I love this idea, espacially with my size . i have very long legs and arms. So it's handy. You get it.


Dries

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Going to the shop...

I went today to the shop asking for some info about:

Backpacks:
I already decide i'm gonna choose between a Deuter or a Macpac.

If I choose Deuter, it will be the Aircontact PRO 60+15 :




Specifications:
Weight: 3200 g
Volume: 60+15 l + 10 l (sidepockets)
Size: 84 cm / 36 cm / 28 cm (H/B/T)
Material: Ballistic / HexLite 210 / Duratex






















  • Top part is detachable so it can be used as a small backpack.
  • Front Zipper (i'm really messy, so that's nice).
  • Grey strips at the front helps me loading material at the front.
  • One downpoint is that it has a lot of straps and clicks. Looks messy.
  • Side pockets that can be used for somekind of Camelbak.


I really like this one because it has a front zipper.
I actually wanted the 55+15 L size but the guy from the shop told me it is better to have a bit bigger for wintertrekking for wich you need bigger backpacks. (more stuff and clothes) Also the two grey "strips" at the front helps me binding material up there (sleeping pads).



The Macpac winner is the Cascade 75 FL.

Specifications:

Size: S2, S3, S4
Harness: Liberator™
Capacity: 7 5, 80, 85lt
Weight: 3.15, 3.30, 3.45kg
Fabric: AzTec®
Colour: Dusky Blue, Cardinal, Black




  • Real nice design BUT, no front zipper.
  • They say it's real waterproof, actually a friend of mine has one and say it is indeed extremely waterproof.
  • An elastic at the front also allows me to load a sleeping pad at the front.
  • Less straps so looks less messy



Now comes another question to my mind: Is it Really necessary to have a "big" backpack.
I now have a 55/65 l Wilsa outdoor backpack:
It's nice but:





  • No Front zipper
  • Useless and even irritating big sidepockets
  • It has a few small holls in it
  • No adjustable back system.
  • Very bad design
  • And (I think) not good size for me. It sits quite high on my back.
I never tried it out for serious hikes ( + 5 days) . So I better try to pack it up for like a 14 day hike and see or everything fits in it.

I also could buy a small backpack from like 40-45 liter. Then I should buy all the lightest gear and that whould cost me a lot but really light ha?
But than it wouldn't be able for some wintertrekking. They also told me that with height ( i'm like 1,87 meter high) it is better to have a bigger backpack. Also when I wanna go on wintercamping i whould need a pulka. (hmmm I like this idea). We will see.


Dries

Monday, April 19, 2010

Tents and neighbour

The day before yesterday (17/4/2010) I went to the biggest tent show of Belgium. It was real nice to finally see some tents alive: Here is my Top 3 favorite tents:
- The Hilleberg Akto:


€ 479
I really likes this tent. I heard lot about Hilleberg. All of them where positive. The only thing I heard that was a bit negative about it was that it has alot of condensation.
Very spacy , a real all-season tent and very light. Very easy to setup because this tent has only 1 pole in its construction.

Weight: 1,6 kg
Pro's: Light, Real strong, Nice design, Roomy
Con's: Very wide pitching lines
Based upon review http://www.backpacking.net/hilleberg-akto-review.html

The Hilleberg Nallo 2 or Nallo 2 GT
Nallo: € 629 Nallo GT: € 729
I choose this tent because I maybe want a two person tent for in the future. You never now what might happen. But I like it because you have alot of space, and it is also perfect if you need a cold well. Also very nice Design. The difference between the Nallo and the Nallo GT is that the GT has an extra vestibule. (this is the one in the picture)

Weight: 2,2 kg - 2,7 kg
Pro's: Fits 2 persons, much space for stuff
Cons: A bit heavier for 1 person, More poles so a bit more "difficult" to setup


The Fjällräven Sälka 1-2

± € 449 (Don't know the price exactly)
I just love this brand. It's also swedish and they have designs you cannot see any else where. This is the follow up of the Foxlite 1-2. Only there is more space. The Big plus for me is that I can sleep alone in it but it can fit JUST an extra person. So its not really an 1 or 2 person tent.

Weight: 3 kg
Pro's : For 1 and 2 persons, very roomy
Con's: heavy


I talked yesterday (18/4/2010) to my neighbour. Here son went to africa for like a year. She told me if I can't go now for a travel, I really shouldn't forget it. She told me to keep int in the back in my head, keep planning and gathering info. Good advice.


Wolves have no king,


Dries

Thursday, March 25, 2010

What to do?

After 12 years of education I started to study photography at College.
The year started nice and sweet. But after like 6 months I started to doubt if I made the right chose.

I was looking for something more in life. Then I heard about the Kungsleden.
Its a hiking trail in the northern of sweden. (440 km)
I started to look up some info and got really interested in it. You could say I almost started packing. But as always life isn't that simple. Society sadly wants you to have a degree.

Now I am really torned between 2 worlds: School and Travel.

When shall we know what the most important is: School or life experience?

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Me and I





Hi,
I'm Dries Moonen.

I am a 20 year old boy who lives in belgium. I recently felt that I needed more in my life. I want to see the world. Mostly te northern part (scandinavia, Canada, maybe russia). Just to see more of the world and meet new cultures. I feel like a wolve in world run by dogs. Not in my right place and restless. Bursting of curiousity and energy.
I'm just so eager to leave. But there is so much to plan. So first things first.

Wolves have no king,
Dries