Outdoor Gear – Page 15

New Backpacking Tent – MSR Hubba

19 August 2012 / Backpacking, Camping, Outdoor Gear, Walking / Golite Jam 2, lightweight backpacking, outdoor gear

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.

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Coffee

19 August 2012 / Camping, Outdoor Gear / camping food, coffee, tea

Here is the first brew of camp coffee this trip. Put the ground coffee in the Crusader mug and boil – use a plastic tea strainer to remove most of them when pouring it into the mug.

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New Equipment

12 August 2012 / Backpacking, Camping, Outdoor Gear / Golite Jam 2, outdoor gear

When I was in Wales the other week I bought a drinking tube kit for my roll up, 1l Platypus bottle. I have a Camelbak water bladder but I have had trouble with it going mouldy between trips – even though I have a Camelbak cleaning kit and hanger, which I use and I take care when drying it out. I now store the Camelbak with water in it and the air squeezed out. On the other hand I I have had no trouble with the roll up Platypus bottle – again I take care to dry it out before storing it away. The drinking tube kit will convert any Platypus roll up bottle into a bladder system – I can use it as a drinking system whilst on the trail and easily use it as a water bottle at the campsite.

Next month I am planning a wild camping trip to The Old Man of Coniston – when I will need to carry the water I will need for overnight – so I have bought another Platypus, a 2l version for extra water storage.

Here it is stored in my GoLite Jam backpack.

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Walk to Potterhanworth Wood

5 August 2012 / Lincolnshire, Outdoor Gear, Photography, Red, Walking / coffee, outdoor gear, Photos 2012, walking

I went for a short walk across the fields to Potterhanworth Woods – taking a short break there for some coffee before heading home and beating the thunder storm.

It was a chance to photograph the last of the poppies as they fade away and the fields before they are harvested.

click on the above image for a larger version

St Andrew’s Church Potterhanworth

click on the above image for a larger version

No backpack or stove today – I took a flask and instant coffee in a Molle water bottle case on a shoulder strap and carried the essential waterproof jacket in the back pocket on my Rohan vest. I had plastic sheet to sit on, which when rolled up slipped into the Molle loops.

I tried some Kenco Millicano coffee today – in individual sachets – and it was OK, even Richard who is “particular” about his coffee thought it was alright.

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Brecon Beacons 4

24 June 2012 / Camping, Outdoor Gear, Photography, Travel, Walking / camping, coffee, lightweight camping, tea, Wales, walking

It was a wet start to the day so I made my early morning tea inside the tent using the MSR gas stove.

Before lighting the stove I checked it was placed where it would not wobble and I opened and tied back the inner tent door. I lit the stove with the valve open only just enough the give a very low gas flow, so it did not flare and only turned it up enough for the flame to be under my mug and not raging up the sides. Even on this low flame it took just over two minutes to boil a mug of water.

Rhandirmwyn Campsite

By the time we got out of our tents and had breakfast, which included fresh brewed coffee, the rain had stopped and the day promised to get brighter.

Towy Valley

Llyn Brianne Hydropower Station, Dam and Reservoir

Brecon

On the journey down we had terrible coffee at a motorway service station – so on the way home we stopped in a layby and brewed fresh coffee for ourselves.

And then we went home.

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Brecon Beacons 3

24 June 2012 / Camping, Outdoor Gear, Photography, Technology, Travel, Walking / camping, lightweight camping, Wales, walking

Rhandirmwyn Campsite

There is no mobile coverage at all at this campsite – so no overnight blogging.

We got the tents up and sleeping gear laid out before the light rain set in. I cooked my meal on my titanium meths stove using my titanium mug with lid, to keep the rain drops out. I put the burner just outside the tent door, where it got some shelter but did endanger the tent.

Sausage mash and onion gravy

gone!

The Richard’s cooked on gas under the shelter of some trees.

Here is RAP’s fajitas.

RKW had chilli sausage with cous cous – with burnt bits as he had the gas up to high and did not stir the sauce enough – but it tasted fine.

This was followed, for all of us, by chocolate and bottled beer by the river.

We had some dry weather but by 8.30pm the rain was heavy enough that we retired to the tents.

10Ah Power Bank Charger

This was a new item of equipment for this trip – this battery pack should give me about 4 to 5 charges for my iPhone, allowing me to use it for extended periods away from mains electricity.

It is about the size of a small external hard drive – I am storing it in a light padded case that used to hold such a drive – and weighs about 250g, so it is convenient for carrying on lightweight backpacking trips. For extra protection I plan to use a Aquapac 100% waterproof case.

The Power Bank is easy to use – I charged it, overnight, using a charger I had in the office that came with an HTC phone I no longer use. The Power Bank does not come with a charger. The Power Bank has overcharge and shortcircuit protection. If you press the power button four LEDs light up indicating how much charge remains in the unit.

To use plug your your device in using one of the supplied plugs and USB cable or just plug in your own device USB cable – I used an extendable iPhone/iPod cable.

I have used my iPhone all weekend and have charged it using the Power Bank – as I am writing this I have it plugged in charging/powering the iPhone – and about 50% of the power remains.

The phone usage was much higher than on a backpacking trip as I was online, reading from and playing music via the Bluetooth and car audio system for much of the car journey – and I used the iPhone in the tent last night again to read an ebook, play “Pocket Planes” and listen to an audio book for a longer time than normally because of the rain.

With normal backpacking use and careful power management on the iPhone this charger should allow me to be away from mains power for four of five days, including charging my iPod. To get a better estimate of the charging capacity I will test it when at home.

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A Short Walk

17 June 2012 / Lincolnshire, Outdoor Gear, Photography, Walking / iPhone camera apps, Photos 2012, tea, walking

I am going to the Lake District next weekend so I thought I had better get a couple of miles walking in this weekend – so a quick walk down to the River Witham across the fields.

I took a brew kit and waterproof jacket with me and used the Molle water bottle case Diana recently bought me.

The case is large enough to hold a 600ml Sigg bottle, my titanium mug with lid, meths stove, 50ml of fuel, the makings for tea and still have enough room to pack the other small items in my kitchen kit and some food. I strap the rain coat and a sit mat to the outside.

The case can hold a 1l bottle, by using a smaller bottle I can pack extra equipment – the 600ml bottle is enough for two hot drinks. I am planning to use the case when backpacking to carry my lunch and brew kit in, so I do not have to open the main pack when I stop for lunch.

My lunch was freshly brewed Indian Spiced Tea with crackers and spicy lamb kebabs. The kebabs were made from scratch, by Jeremy, last night for my Father’s Day meal. The leftover patties, I took with me, were even more delicious when eaten cold whilst sitting out in the countryside.

click on the above image for a full sized version to see the details

This poppy was in a neighbour’s garden and is in better conditions than the one I photographed on Friday.

All photographs taken using my iPhone 4 – using the Camera+ app. Post processing with Photogene². The post was written on my iPhpone using the WordPress app.

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