Outdoor Gear

Walking and Geocaching – Grantown on Spey – New Gear

/ Outdoor Gear, Walking / , , ,

The boys went fishing today near Grantown on Spey, so after dropping them off I set off to do some walking. There are plenty of good forest walks around Grantown on Spey and a lot of geocaches have been hidden there so planing a route was straight forward.

Walking and Geocaching - Grantown on Spey

Several of the geocaches were challenging to find (I did get some help on one of them from a local) but searching them out is part of the fun. I was planning on getting 10 – managed 7 as the boys wanted to be picked up earlier than planned.

Walking and Geocaching - Grantown on Spey

For lunch I found a shaded spot, essential for today as it was very hot and sunny, with a very convenient tree stump. Before setting up the stove I was very careful to clear the ground of the dry leaf litter as I did not want any risk of fire.

Walking and Geocaching - Grantown on Spey

Gear

Top of the list today was water.

1l roll up Platypus bottle with a drinking tube – I do not use the bladder tube very often but today it was useful to be able to sip water regularly
0.5l roll up water bottle – used to make my lunch time coffee (I know coffee dehydrates but I like it)
0.3l water with a squirt of Robinsons Squash’d citrus

Lightweight Sea to Summit pack
Map and compass
Rain jacket – not really necessary today but I still packed it
Lunch – including a snack pot of tinned pineapple for the liquid
Backpacking cooking set
GSI lightweight insulated mug
Sit mat – pads the back of the pack
Sun stick and lip balm
Bush hat with wide brim
Victorinox Camper Swiss Army Knife on a paracord lanyard

Long sleeved lightweight shirt
Crag Hopper long trousers
Karrimor hiking shoes with Bridgedale hiking socks

Pocket first aid kit, pack of tissues, whistle, space blanket, length of cord, four large safety pins, glucose tablets
Head lamp
Emergency power pack for my smartphone

Plenty of factor 50 sun screen applied before setting out.

New Gear

GSI Infinity Backpacker Mug

I bought a new mug yesterday – a GSI lightweight insulated mug, that is big enough to be used as a bowl to rehydrate a meal in when camping or backpacking. The lid has a sturdy lift up flap for drinking out of and to protect from swimming flies.

GSI Infinity Backpacker Mug

GSI Infinity Backpacker Mug

The insulated jacket is removable for cleaning.

GSI Infinity Backpacker Mug

Capacity 500ml
Weight 99g

Coffee

I saw this flavoured instant coffee in the supermarket the other day. Tastes great so I have added a Nalgene bottle if it to my kit.

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Walking and Geocaching

/ Outdoor Gear, Walking / , , , , , , ,

I headed out for a couple of miles walking today. The Craigellachie National Nature Reserve is a few minutes away from the timeshare so it is a regular destination when I do not want to get the car out. The plan was to walk a bit then find somewhere to make a brew, eat my lunch and read.

Craigellachie National Nature Reserve

Lunch stop

A few years back the boys and I used to go geocaching a lot. Then we stopped – the boys grew up and I started walking more on my own again and did not need the incentive of looking for a cache to get out and about. Now with both of them off looking for Pokemon – did I mention that they had grown up – I thought I would go and start searching for caches again.

Geocaching - Found it!
Found it!

Gear

Lunch using my Alpkit minimalist lightweight cookset
Lunch using my Alpkit minimalist lightweight cookset

Lightweight Sea to Summit pack
Map and compass
Rain jacket and bush hat
Lunch
Backpacking cooking set
1l water
Sit mat – pads the back of the pack
Swiss Army Knife

Long sleeved lightweight shirt
Crag Hopper long trousers
Karrimor hiking shoes with Bridgedale hiking socks

Pocket first aid kit, pack of tissues, whistle, space blanket, length of cord, four large safety pins, glucose tablets
Head lamp
Emergency power pack for my smartphone
Lightweight roll up jumper, fleece hat and gloves

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Walking near Sudbrooke

/ Outdoor Gear, Walking / , , , , ,

I took the MX-5 out this morning and drove over to Sudbrooke. I had been looking at the OS map and there is an interesting network of paths around Sudbrooke.

Sudbrooke Park

Tea break - traditional canvas and leather rucksack
Tea break

I was using a mix of old and new gear today. On the way out I stopped off and bought some Karrimor walking shoes. The pack I was using was my brother-in-law Phil’s, a traditional canvas, leather and brass rucksack. It is a useful size for a day pack or overnight bag but if it not packed carefully, or packed too heavy it is uncomfortable to carry. The walking shoes on the other hand were very comfortable. I am planning to use them rather than my Berghaus boots, for lighter, good weather walking, such and this morning.

Karrimor Bodmin Low IV weathertite walking shoes
Karrimor Bodmin Low IV weathertite walking shoes

Sudbrooke Park

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New cooking kit photo – new Alpkit gear

/ Backpacking, Camping, Outdoor Gear / , , , , , ,

I have added some new Alpkit gear to my lightweight backpacking and camping cook set.

backpacking cooking kit - new Alpkit gear - a titanium mug with a lid and a titanium folding spoon

I have a busy weekend of paperwork for Octagon.

Alpkit gear

However I am going camping in Scotland for Easter – so I took some time off to sort my backpacking cooking kit and make a new annotated photo for the website.

The main changes this year are the new bits of Alpkit kit – a titanium mug with a lid and a titanium folding spoon. This is a bit of kit that when added to the micro sized Alpkit Kraku stove makes a real minimalist cook set.

Alpkit is a great UK company, producing great gear at a reasonable price – we should support them.

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