VIKING TREKKING WOOO

As previously mentioned, my friend Refr and I have been planning a "Viking Trek" for some months now. Using only historical gear (making exceptions for water purification and other safety considerations), we planned to hike in, camp one night, and hike out.

The preparations:

In addition to the kind of "normal" backpacking preparations like choosing a route and a destination, we also each prepared food and gear for ourselves. I was intending to do more of a "Celtic" trek, actually, since I've done more research into early Celtic food and I wanted to wear my adorable bog shoes and chiton. When it came down to it, I deferred to Ref on a lot of the gear research, and pretty much all of the practical how-to advice we found was geared toward black powder reenactment, so I don't know how confident I am that I actually did a Celtic trek, per se. At any rate, the things we needed fell into the basic categories of water, shelter, clothing, and food.

Water: I brought a modern bota bag as a substitute for an actual waterskin, and a SteriPen. I also tied a horn to my belt (it's like the Celtic Nalgene bottle!) and brought backup water purification tablets just in case.

Shelter: Ref made us two pieces of oilcloth by soaking cotton bedsheets in linseed oil and leaving them out to dry. Unfortunately, they didn't finish drying by the time the day of the trek came, so we didn't bring them with us. The weather was supposed to be fine and clear, so we just brought two wool blankets each and hoped for the best.

Clothing: I wore a linen underdress, a linen dress, and my bog shoes. I had meant to do some work on my shoes to make them a little less baggy in the toes, but didn't end up getting around to it. Just before setting off, I stuffed some pieces of rabbit fur into each shoe for extra cushioning/warmth. I also brought along both a wool tunic and a wool chiton/peplos for warmth at night. I also brought my Vibrams as emergency shoe backup, since they weigh very little.

Food: My goal here was lightweight, non-perishable, easy to pack and eat, plausibly authentic, and, because I am who I am, in line with my "primal" eating habits. My mom gave me some dried vegetables (cabbage and carrots), and I dried some kale and turnips, too. I purchased dried apples, blueberries, and prunes, and some hazelnuts. I also made beef jerky that was "cured" with honey and salt. I will admit I have not done much research into the history of jerky. The name is modern, however, and certainly in my medieval food research I have never come across a description of anything that sounds like jerky. More research is required. I packed all of my food in little linen bags, except for a bit of pasture butter that I wrapped in waxed paper and then in linen (since I didn't get around to making waxed linen like I'd wanted to). In terms of cooking/eating utensils, Ref brought a small cookpot and we each brought a spoon and a knife. Oh, and we brought our tinder kits, and Ref brought a hatchet for wood.

How it all turned out:

I spread out my blankets, laid my clothes on top of them, and put my supplies at one end. I folded the sides of the blankets in and rolled everything up. I secured it with rope, which turned out to be massively uncomfortable to carry and a leather strap is a necessity for next time.

The hike in went very well. My gear wasn't too heavy, my shoes worked out just fine, and it was a beautiful hike. The mosquitoes were a little annoying, though, but didn't bother us too much at first. There was actually quite a bit of snow still covering parts of the trail, but we crossed it with no problems. My little shoes worked admirably, although I was VERY glad for the rabbit fur. Hiking in, I felt mighty, and like I was accomplishing great things.

It turns out that Vikings and Celts are very tough, but can't handle vicious mosquitoes.

We reached our goal and found a great campsite, sat down to have snacks... and were instantly
blanketed in mosquitoes. They had been somewhat pesky while hiking in, but nothing compared to how bad they were at the lake. It was awful. We had to eat while walking around and using one hand to fend off the worst of them. I'm still certain I ate a few. Today I look like I have severe acne, or measles. Everything that was exposed is covered in bites, and I even discovered bites on my elbows, which were totally covered up.

After some discussion ("Aaaaaaa! Mosquitoes! AAAA!" "Do we really want to endure this for 9 more hours?"), we decided that discretion is the better part of valor and that staying with the bugs would be absolutely unbearable, so we hiked back to the car. Initially our plan was to go and find a regular campsite down at a lower elevation where the mosquitoes would be less prevalent, but the hike back took a lot out of both of us. Our feet hurt, Ref had tweaked his back, and I slowed to a snail's pace at the end and only made it out by sheer stubborn force of will. We were pretty well done in, so we called it a day. When I got back home, I lay face-down on the floor while the dog sniffed at me and Better Half offered limited sympathy.

But still, I actually had one of the best days ever. I learned a lot and really challenged myself mentally and physically, and totally want to do a primitive trek again.

The only thing that still seems totally weird to me is that not ONE single person that we encountered asked why we were in the woods dressed like Vikings. Keep Portland weird, I guess.