Craigellachie National Nature Reserve is very close to Scandinavian Village, so with poor light and snow forecast for later in the day it is a good place for a short walk. As it was poor light I did not climb to the higher areas but stayed in the forest.
It was not so cold – so I found somewhere suitable, over looking the loch, to make some tea.
Craigellachie National Nature Reserve Read More »
As followed the route along the Loch there was a convenient picnic area for a tea break.
I carry the meths bottle in an outside mesh pocket, on my rucksack, which meant I did struggle to light the meths as it was very cold.
Here is the view from my cafe – menu, fresh hot tea with custard creams.
Walk along Loch Tay – tea break Read More »
It snowed again overnight – so I planned a walk along the banks of Loch Tay through the forest.
Walk along Loch Tay pt1 Read More »
Jeremy bought me this bottle for Christmas – the specs are here.
This is a really simple, lightweight, way to produce safe drinking water whilst I am backpacking or wild camping. No moving parts, batteries or pumps – drink straight from the bottle or use it to fill another water container or pot. When I wild camped in the Lakes last year I carried 3l or 3kg of water, my pack without the water weighed less than 9kgs – in the future I can top up along the way and save weight.
Travel Tap – Micro Purification Water Filter Bottle Read More »
I didn’t take a backpack on my walk this morning, I wore my winter walking coat and carried just enough equipment for a coffee break on the walk back – well actually it was hot chocolate.
I used a stile as a convenient seat and got my meths stove out of the wind behind the fence post.
I use a strip of heavy duty aluminium foil, cut from a tray an oven joint was cooked in. The foil is shaped into a “coil” so it fits snuggly around the titanium mug with lid, making an effective wind shield.
The plastic mug fits over the Sigg bottle and the folded up stove is stored under the bottle, the titanium mug slides onto the bottom of the bottle.
The other sundries fit into the front pocket: spork, fire steel, mug lid, meths bottle, some paper towel in a small ziplock bag for cleaning up and the rubbish.
I carried my sitmat in a jacket pocket.
Morning coffee before Jeremy gets up -boiled up in my Crusader Cookset but using my Vargo Ti meths burner as it is cleaner than solid fuel tablets. Even though we have an MSR Pocket Rocket gas stove with us the meths burner still gets a lot of use, especially when we need to boil water for both of us – and we are not in a hurry. It also is a good second burner when cooking – again best for boiling water. The down side is it takes a bit longer to boil the water compared to the MSR stove.
Veryan Campsite pt4 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 »