coffee

Overnight trip to the Old Man of Coniston

Next weekend I am planning a backpacking trip to the Lake Dustrict, with a couple of friends, to walk up the Old Man of Coniston with an overnight camp – depending on the weather. (Click on the map for a larger version).

Old Man of Conniston

The main reason for going away is to spend the weekend taking photographs – so we are taking a tripod with us and I am going to try my hand at some video on my iPhone. I have a bracket to mount my iPhone on a tripod.

iPhone on a tripod

This weekend I have been sorting the gear.

  • I will get to try out my second inflatable pillow!
  • I am going to take my MSR Pocket Rocket stove with a 100g cannister – I have not yet used it on an overnight trip
  • I am going to test using a Molle water bottle pouch to carry my lunch and brew kit – fixed to the hip belt or compression strap on the Golite Jam2

Molle Water Bottle Pouch

  • I am going to pack the titanium meths stove and 50ml of meths in the Molle pouch – for hot drinks whilst walking

Food for the trip

We are going to start walking after lunch on the Saturday

Saturday

  • On the trail dried mango slices and salted cashew nuts
  • Instant white coffee – I can make a brew whilst waiting for the light to change for that perfect photograph

Evening meal

  • Smoked Sausage
  • Tortilla x3
  • Onion Gravy
  • Instant custard and chocolate chip cake
  • Tea

Indian tea (with milk and brown sugar) wafer biscuits
Hot chocolate, wafer biscuits

Sunday

Tea and biscuits  whilst still in my sleeping bag

Breakfast

  • Cereal bars
  • Breakfast biscuits
  • Crackers and jam
  • Apple flakes
  • Tea

On the trail dried mango slices and salted cashew nuts

Extras

  • Boiled sweets, apple flapjack bar
  • 2x instant peach teas (use hot or cold)
  • 15ml of dried milk 2x sugar packets 2x pepper packets 1x salt packet 1x tomato ketchup sachet
  • 1 oz Southern Comfort
  • Tissues

Emergency Food – Glucose tablets

Water

  • 1l in my CamelBak for the walk – this should be enough for both days as we are not walking far
  • 1.3l for evening meal
  • 0.7l for breakfast
  • 0.9l for extra cups of tea and cleaning

I am going to store some water in the car so I can drink before setting out and on my return.

 

Let’s hope the weather is good enough!

Overnight trip to the Old Man of Coniston Read More »

Annotated Kit Photograph

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1 Aluminium foil wind shield – wraps in close around the stove for really windy weather
2 Stove board/stand – it protects the grass and makes a stable base for the stove.
3 Half aluminium wind shield – I bought a wind shield, cut it in half and removed a panel to make it fit better around this stove and mug
4 Vargo Triad XE Alcohol / Fuel Tab Titanium Stove with a copper mug support
5 MSR Titanium mug – mug and cooking pot
6 Aluminium lid for the mug
7 & 8 Small Beaker with lid – second mug when the titanium mug is being used as a pot. The lid makes it a useful storage jar and it is just big enough to rehydrate a 65g pack of noodles in.
9 Small Brew Kit
10 Army style tin opener
11 25ml bottle of dried milk
12 Refillable gas lighter – it has a stronger flame than a disposable lighter
13 2x fuel tablets – emergency fuel
14 Methylated spirits- in a clearly marked bottle – packed in a ziplock bag to protect the other equipment from leaks.
15 Washing up and Hygiene
– Alcohol hand cleaner – hygiene is essential when camp cooking
– 20ml Multi-purpose bio-degradable soap – for washing up, cleaning clothes or person. I decant some into a shampoo bottle that I got from a hotel
– 1/4 Pot sponge
– Hi absorbent cloth – for drying up
– Kitchen cloth
16 Plastic Cutting board – this is made from a plastic wall tile cut in half – 5cms x 12cms. Some kind of chopping board is often overlooked, having something to cut on saves other bits of kit, lids or plates getting damaged. I have several of these tiles in my camp box when one gets too badly scratched up I will replace it.
17 Victorinox Camper SAK – cooking knife, tin and bottle opener as well as an all round camp tool.
18 Paper towels in a small ziplock bag
19 Small LMF spork – this is a double ended utensil with a real fork at one end and a real spoon at the other. A true spork is not very good at getting the last drops of gravy out of a bowl or for hooking up a forkful of noodles.
20 Camp folding spoon and knife
21 Three section spice pot/shaker
22 GSI pot lifter
23 LMF ferro rod and striker
24 Spare gas lighter
25 1oz Single Malt Whisky
26 Stuff sack that holds most of this equipment
27 1l roll up water bottle with sports top for easy pouring
28 Selection of small pots and bottles to carry, dried milk, peanut butter etc
29 Coffee maker/tea strainer
30 Air tight canister for fresh coffee
31 600ml bowl with a clip on lid – this is large enough for the meals I make, but it also serves as a container for transporting more fragile food whilst walking.
32 1m square lightweight tarp – for putting on the ground and making a clean cooking area

Not shown in the photograph

  • Tea bags and sugar packets in the brew kit
  • 58 Pattern British Army water bottle
  • Plastic food bags with wire ties used both for food storage and for packing rubbish out

Annotated Kit Photograph Read More »

Gear that worked – Gear that didn’t

Inflatable Pillow

I’ll start with the failure – the inflatable pillow. It started off alright, it was comfortable, but that soon decreased as the air slowly leaked out from the valve. Luckily it only cost me a pound. I dumped it in the bin before leaving the campsite – however I will be looking for a better quality inflatable pillow as the idea was good.

Peanut Butter

I have seen in other backpacking blogs that in the US peanut butter, in single portion packets, is easily available in supermarkets – I have found it online in the UK but not for a price that makes it a viable purchase here.

I have been on the lookout for some small containers to portion jam, honey and peanut butter in to, and last week I found these in Boyes, in Lincoln at 89p a pack of four.

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The pots have a very secure high thread so they can be filled to the brim. I filled two with peanut butter for this weekend and found one pot was enough for four crackers at lunchtime.

So these are a success.

Beaker or bowl

I have swapped the screw top beaker for a 600ml bowl with a snap top lid.

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It is much larger which was needed to make the sausage and mash dinner.

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I have gone back to carrying the lightweight beaker that fits inside my titanium mug, so I can have tea whilst cooking. The titanium mug with a lid still makes an excellent “one person kettle” and a mug. I can use the titanium mug almost straight from the stove – I have a GSI pot lifter to hold the handles in when I lift it from the stove (and to handle the lid and wind shield when hot) but by the time I make my tea or coffee in the mug the handles and mug lip are cool enough to hold and drink from.

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Gear that worked – Gear that didn’t Read More »

Today’s Photo

Today’s photo is actually a photo of someone else’s photo!

I have been on a site visit today with one of the server engineers Octagon uses and during the coffee break he showed me some photos from his recent holiday to Las Vegas.

I could not resist sharing this.

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I used Camera+ to get the image off his monitor – which gave a dark, high contrast result and then I used the Clarify function in Camera+ the give a useable image. I often use this process, when at work, when recording site data – it gives a result for screen photos.

Today’s Photo Read More »

Be Prepared!

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.

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  • 1x Indian spiced tea bag
  • 5x tea bags
  • 3x sugar
  • salt and pepper
  • 20ml dried milk
  • 1x 500mg paracetamol tablet
  • 1x indigestion tablet
  • small refillable gas lighter – it gives a stronger flame compared to a disposable lighter

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”!

Be Prepared! Read More »

Backpacking Food

I am backpacking this weekend with two friends – it is a try out hike before we go on a planned wild camp trip to the Lake District next month. It is only a short walk with an overnight stay so we need an evening meal and breakfast.

So it is noodles with smoked sausage and chocolate chip cake and custard for dinner, cereal bars, crackers and jam with fresh brewed coffee for breakfast.

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Backpacking Food Read More »