Before setting out we visited the grave of Malcolm Campbell.
We finally picked up our rucksacks from the car and set off for the summit at about 1.30pm. The weather was mostly fine with just the occasional dark cloud.
Richard on the summit
We had lunch on the way up and plenty of photo stops (rests!) and got to the top of The Old Man of Coniston at about 5pm.
Old Man of Coniston pt1 Read More »
We made it to Coniston – and before setting off we thought we had better try the Bluebird Bitter, brewed here at The Black Bull Inn.
I had been planning to walk to Woodhall Spa this weekend, but following the BBC weather forecast yesterday I quickly changed my plans to a trip to the Lake District.
So the plan is to climb the Old Man of Coniston and then find somewhere to camp tonight.
We left Lincoln at about 4.30am and have now stopped in Lancaster. This gives Richard a chance to reset the multiple controls on his G12.
As with all good walking trips this one features an English Breakfast.
Backpacking this weekend Read More »
I put the Hubba tent up again last night – and slept in it to try it out. That left Jeremy on his own in the other tent, which he thought was alright, and as I could hear him texting with Sakira late into the night, he must have been pleased to get rid of me.
The above shot shows the profile of the tent, with the back pulled out, the large porch and the sleeping area. I added the high visibility guy at the back so I will have somewhere to hang my tea towel etc to dry. It is attached using a lightweight plastic carabiner, so it can be removed.
The inner tent is made of netting so you get a good view of the inside of the flysheet. The rear of the flysheet is lifted higher than you would expect to aid with ventilation. To keep the weather out the ground sheet comes up much higher at the back.
looking out the rear of the tent – the ground sheet edge is higher than my three season sleeping bag
As with nearly all one man tents the condensation overnight is quite high. The the inside of the flysheet was very wet when I got up but the inner tent was dry.
There is a two-way zip on the flysheet door to help with ventilation – and I left the top unzipped by about 20 cm, but the gap this left was small, so I am not sure if it helped much,
Inside, for a small tent, there is plenty of room for one person and some equipment – on a backpacking trip the main pack will have to stay in the porch. I could comfortably sit up and move around inside the tent, easily reaching my kit stored at either end. When backpacking I carry a small tarp (1m square) this will be useful to have in the porch to extend the living space. I will probably cut the tarp to fit the porch space.
my 22l daypack at the foot of my bed – the full length sleeping mat is well clear of the end of the tent giving plenty of room for tall people or equipment
The above shot may give the impression there is room for two people in the Hubba – there is not, it is one person wide.
The porch is very deep making it a long reach to close the door zip right to the bottom, but giving plenty of useable storage and living room. I brewed my early morning coffee in the tent, taking care to light the stove on its lowest gas setting and with the mug already on the stove.
These shots show the amount of headroom in the porch, allowing for cooking inside, if the right equipment and care is used. I fitted my MSR Pocket Rocket stove to a 100g gas bottle to lower the height and set it back into the highest part of the tent without getting too near to the inner tent. The inner tent door was securely fastened back whilst using the stove and the area around the stove kept clear.
the above shots show the room in the porch and my MSR stove set up using my MSR titanium mug with kid
I would not use my meths stove inside the closed porch
It had been raining for most of the night and was still raining whilst I made the coffee and the Hubba kept me and everything inside dry. I was unable to conveniently use a stove in my old backpacking tent due to its wedge shape – the domed, high headroom of this tent addresses that problem for when I am backpacking in bad weather.
I unzipped the double door zip to give extra ventilation whist making the coffee.
The tent is made to the highest standards, I could not find any seam stitching faults. All the strain points are well reinforced without adding to the weight too much.
The light green colour is discreet for wild camping but still allows for plenty of natural light to get in.
you cannot miss that this is an MSR product
So after one night (in the rain) I am very pleased with the MSR Hubba, I had a comfortable dry night in it – and it addresses the issues with my old backpacking tent:
The down side with all small tents is the condensation – I will have to see how this works out when I am backpacking and having to pack the flysheet away wet in by rucksack for the day.
MSR Hubba Tent – test Read More »
It did not rain overnight – however I had just set up for my early morning brew when is started raining – so I had to retreat into the tent. Our tent has a small living area in front of the bedroom, with enough headroom for me to sit on a stool and safely use a gas stove.
The rain was so hard at times it was drumming on the tight tent roof – but this still could not wake Jeremy up.
It did brighten by 10am allowing us to have breakfast outside – but we have decided today is a good day to spend at the campsite. There were some bright spells between the five minute showers and heavy grey clouds.
We watched one of the campers chase her dog round the field – she let the dog off it’s lead, the Jack Russell chased the rabbits (of which there are dozens at any one time on the campsite) and she chased the dog!
We played Rummikub…
…and Jeremy did some busking.
Just before coming away I bought a new tent – a lightweight, one person MSR Hubba. Because the tent can be erected without pegs, I had put it up in our living room and in a friend’s conservatory but today was the first chance to put it up outdoors and pegging it out.
It came with six light alloy stakes but I have replaced these with eight titanium hooked pegs. It takes just six pegs to put the tent up, the extras are, a second peg for the door and one for a rear guy line. This guy was not supplied with the tent but I am going to add one for stability in windy conditions and also to use as a line for drying equipment on.
Here are the weights in grams – total is 1374g.
This is much lighter than my previous backpacking tent (a Coleman Bedrock II) and it packs much smaller. This packed size was the most important reason for changing my tent as it now gives me more useable volume in my Golite Jam backpack, for food and equipment on multi-day trips.
Compared to the wedge shaped Coleman tent it has more useable space as the porch is larger, although the floor area in the inner tent is smaller. However with the arched shape I can comfortably sit up in the centre of the tent and safely use my MSR Pocket Rocket stove, on a 100g gas bottle, in the shelter of one on the doors – and if the wind changes direction (as it did a few weeks back when I was camping at Dunbar) I can use the other door.
The tent is simple to put up – but I was doing it in no wind – on a windy mountain it would be a bit more “flappy”!
I was going to sleep in it tonight but after getting the tent up there were a number of strong rumbles of thunder, so rather than have a wet tent to deal with in the morning, I packed it away and will use it overnight, later on this holiday.
There was a little light rain, not a storm, just enough to make things damp but it stopped after twenty minutes, so I could have used the new tent.
New Backpacking Tent – MSR Hubba Read More »
