The weather looks spring like this weekend – so I have packed my bag and set off to camp at Woodhall Spa. It was not an early start so I got a lift to Bardney.
the starting point in Bardney
It is a cool day and promises to freeze tonight but I am depending on my new down sleeping bag and winter long underwear to keep me warm enough.
Backpacking to Woodhall Spa pt1 Read More »
Although my plans for this weekend have been changed by the weather – I had already packed my backpacking food for the trip.
The original plan was to have lunch in Coniston and then walk up the Old Man of Coniston and find somewhere to camp out for the night. We would be back in Coniston for lunch on Sunday.
This menu is for a short weekend and suits my appetite – you should consider your food needs and the terrain you are travelling through when planning your menus.
Trail snacks
Food for during the day. We were planning to stop and make a hot drink on the way up at Low Water.
Evening meal
It takes just over a litre of water to make up all the components of the backpacking food in the evening meal.
Breakfast
Tea and biscuits in bed first.
Extras
backpacking food packed – the brew kit is not in this bag – the cranberries go in my pocket
Water
I was planning to carry my Travel Tap bottle and a 1l roll up Platypus bottle. At the start of the walk I would have about 300ml in the Platypus – and the plan was to fill all my bottles using the Travel Tap at Low Water before continuing up to the summit. This should be enough water for the wild camp. On the way down I would collect some more water if required.
Backpacking food for a weekend Read More »
Yesterday one of the outdoor shops in Inverness was having a sale – and I found a sleeping bag to replace the rubbish sleeping bag I bought last year.
In the shop, I was able to get into the bag to try it for size and comfort.
It is filled with down, weighs just less than 1kg and is warm to about zero centigrade – it will reduce weight and space in my rucksack for backpacking.
Robens Down Lite 500
packed and compressed
The specification looks to be just what I was looking for. I hope it is made well enough to keep the down inside the bag and that it is warm. The real test will be during my next camping trip.
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 »
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.
New Backpacking Tent – MSR Hubba Read More »
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).
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.
This weekend I have been sorting the gear.
Food for the trip
We are going to start walking after lunch on the Saturday
Saturday
Evening meal
Indian tea (with milk and brown sugar) wafer biscuits
Hot chocolate, wafer biscuits
Sunday
Tea and biscuits whilst still in my sleeping bag
Breakfast
On the trail dried mango slices and salted cashew nuts
Extras
Emergency Food – Glucose tablets
Water
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 »
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
Annotated Kit Photograph Read More »