Dinner tonight – Sausage and mash and onion gravy, with a mug of tea and Jaffa Cakes to follow.
I am currently working on an ebook about lightweight, simple meals for backpacking and camping – I will post it on my Downloads page when it is finished and Diana has proof read it.
I had been planning a two night trip further afield – but the variable weather and the unseasonably low temperatures meant I changed my plan to a walk to Woodhall Spa. (I have been walking for about 30 minutes, as I write this, it was cold and grey when I set out, it rained, the sun came out, it rained and now it is grey again!)
I put my iPhone in the waterproof case at the start of the day, to protect it, so I can use it as a camera for those bad weather photos and so I can write this blog as I walk – wiping the rain drops from the screen so I can read what I write.
The plan is walk to Woodhall Spa campsite from Bardney using the Viking Way – tomorrow loop out around Horncastle using the Viking Way and other paths – then Monday back to Bardney on the Water Rail Way.
Two days food, extra fuel and some spare clothes has added to my pack weight – the starting load complete was 12kgs. One thing I do need to manage is the power consumption on my iPhone – so I have disabled the 3G and data function, whilst walking, to conserve power and no movies tonight in the tent – I also plan to turn on flight mode over night.
It has now hailed on me.
The path has been very muddy in places particularly two stretches that go through cow fields. I found a convenient bit of low wall for lunch – but sitting still I got cold very quickly – so lunch was a quick stop.
I got the tent up in the dry.
I have my new inflatable pillow with me – as I do not have enough spare clothes with me to make a decent pillow. You can see the two days worth of food to the left – the milk I got from the campsite shop.
Here you can see how useful the small tarp is for giving me somewhere outside the tent to sit – and my sleeping bag in the stuff sack makes a useable stool.
A pitch right by the lake in among the trees.
I want to get plenty of overnight backpacking trips in the year, as practice for some future longer trips – The Speyside Way this summer and the Southern Upland Way summer 2013.
So whilst I have been sorting out the food this week for a trip with Jeremy next weekend I have put together a pack of food for a short solo overnighter, so if I decide to go at the last minute the food will be ready.
As I think the food pack will spend several weeks on the shelf the food had to have a good storage life – so no sausage or salami and the crackers have been double wrapped in cling film.
Menu
Trail Food
Spice and fruit oat cakes, white coffee and dried fruit and nuts
Dinner
Tuna in tomato and onion sauce, crackers, packet of noodles, tomato soup, sesame dessert, apple flakes, tea.
Supper
Hot Chocolate and biscuits
Breakfast
Tea and biscuits
Breakfast biscuits and portion of jam, 2x cereal bars, tea
Trail Food
Honey Chrysanthemum Tea and oat cakes and jam
Extra
Bag of Aldi chocolate buttons
The individual meals are packed in small ziplock bags and then these are packed in a larger ziplock bag.
The only things I need to add to this will be the tea bags and dried milk in my small brewkit – and it is ready to go.
The case is an mp3 case bought at a pound shop.
Update
I have added an “army style” can opener to this pouch – as I have removed the Bantam SAK from my backpacking kitchen, so there is no longer a tin opener in the stuff sack.
I have been finishing this post, whilst waiting to go to a supplier to look at their Cloud Computing solutions, and looking out of the window here the weather is grey, wet and overcast so the above image may well be today’s “Photo of the Day”!
Today’s “photo of the day” is testing the MSR stove.
When Jeremy and I got in we decided to test the MSR Pocket Rocket stove in the backgarden.
The assembly of the stove was very easy, the large knurled bottom of the stove helped with this and assisted with keeping the stove straight on the canister as it was screwed in. Then we tried out the stability of our MSR titanium mug and Titan kettle which we found very good, due to the angled pot stand arms.
As per the instructions we did not use a windshield and depended on the “Wind Clip™ wind shield”, these are the three small metal fins on the burner.
The stove was set up in an exposed position and there was a strong breeze. The burner lit easily even in the breeze – and we put 300ml of water on to boil, in the MSR titanium mug with lid. The Wind Clip worked as from time to time as the breeze picked up we could hear the flame stutter but it did not go out.
In this exposed position it took 2mins 30secs to bring the water to a rolling boil. When camping it would be possible to give the stove some shelter behind the tent so decreasing this boil time.
Following this test it only took a couple of minutes for the stove to cool sufficiently for it to be handled and packed away.
This was a garden test, which showed this is a good stove – we’ll test it some more when we go backpacking next.
MSR PocketRocket Stove – Test Read More »
Diana has bought me an MSR Pocket Rocket stove to supplement my Ti meths stove when backpacking in bad weather.
I could not buy a 100g gas bottle, in Lincoln this morning, so I got a 220g one so I can use/test the stove today. For my lightweight trips I’d prefer the smaller/lighter gas canister – but as the canisters are removable, I can have both styles on the go at the same time.
My MSR Titanium mug sits securely on the pot stand as does my MSR Titan kettle.
The red plastic carry box is useful to protect the stove and to protect my other kit from it’s sharp points when the stove is packed in my rucksack.
Jeremy and I are planing an overnight trip in two weeks time and we will try this stove out then – he is going to carry it!
MSR Pocket Rocket Stove Read More »
Richard bought some different backpacking food to try out – we did not take it with us this weekend, just in case we didn’t like it. So I tried it for tea this evening.
The food comes in a sturdy pouch, that will stand up and has notches for easy opening. You can cook it in a pot or in the bag and, if you pack a microwave you could use that.
I cooked mine in the microwave. Both Jeremy and I liked it. It was a good taste without being spicy.
There was a good balance of lentils and beans to sauce. The 300g portion is a good size serving after a day’s walking, some crackers would soak up the sauce, or depending on your appetite noodles or rice.
Following this test we are planing to use these in future.
Trying new backpacking food Read More »
Group shot
It is rain on my tent but frozen!
The Golite Jam packed with the sleeping mat inside the pack.
Walking to Woodhall Spa from Coningsby pt3 Read More »