TGO Challenge 2014 gear Pt.2. Sleeping, F.A.K and toiletries.

Sleeping.
When it comes to sleeping bags i only have 2 real choices.

1. Rab Summit 300. 862grams incl dry bag.
2. PHD Minim 500. 970grams incl dry bag.

I have chosen to take the Rab. My reasoning for this decision is as follows.
I tend to have a definite dividing line as to when i use each bag. If the conditions and temperatures are on the downwards trend 3 ℃ and below i would take the PHD. If the trend in conditions are 0℃ and above i take the Rab. In the event that the temperature does take a dip then i could supplement the warm with clothes. Seeing that i will be taking the down jacket and warm socks anyway why not multi use them.

 Rab Summit 300.

PHD Minimus down jacket.

It was whist weighing these 2 items ( 862gr and 465gr) it came into my mind that i didn’t need a dry bag for both items individually. Changing to one dry bag saved me a whole 35grams.

Combined sleeping bag and down jacket, 1292grams. The down jacket would predominantly be used in camp anyway and therefore being located in the same bag as the sleeping bag would not cause an access problem.

I always put my down gear in its own dry bags even though i do use a rucksack dry liner.

I would like to reduce the weight of my sleeping bag by around 250 grams by getting a new one but these are expensive bits of kit and i’m not in a position to change gear just when i feel like it. So the Rab Summit will have to suffice for now.

*** Amendment made after 3 day Cumbria backpack. I will be changing the Rab summit bag for the PHD. I will not be taking my down jacket and I will not be taking the heat socks. As much as I like them.
I will take my Uniqlo down vest.

Under my bag i will be taking the ThermArest Neo air (Short) that was kindly replaced recently by Cascade. And also i will be taking some 3mm thick foam that will insulate and protect the NeoAir from punctures hopefully. The 6ft length of 3mm foam only weighs 77grams and its a luxury worth having imo. Tried and tested.

Underneath my sleeping area i will be taking a piece of Tyvek (No photo) as a groundsheet protector.100 grams.

A pair of Heat Socks will keep the cold at bay in the tent and also useful in bothies. I may not take these yet. The jury is still out.

F.A.K. (First aid kit)

The blue and yellow pouch is my Brenig food warmer which doubles up as my FAK protector.
Included here is:-

1.  Spare toilet tissue which is actually kitchen roll. (it doesn’t disintegrate as easily as std toilet tissue.) 
2. A roll of plaster tape and rubber gloves. 
3. A small tub containing foot powder, 
4. Small safety pins. Not absolutely necessary but they weigh very little.
5. Lanacane anti chaffing gel.
6. Small bandage
7. Creme for any foot rot type infections.(Well used item)
8. Painkillers
9. Anti inflammatory tabs
10. Gastro tabs
11. Alergy tabs
12. Blister plasters and re-hydration powder.
13. Small sewing kit.
14. Nail file
15. Plastic tidy bags 

Scissors are in with my knife so a pair is not included here. Also a small tube of Savlon will be included but i didn’t have any when the photo was taken. So the 292grams will be closer to 300grams when it’s included.

Toiletries.

1. Alpkit tidy bag.
2. Small Lifeventure towel
3. Toothbrush
4. Small tube of toothpaste
5. Shaving oil
6. Razor
7. Sun oil (Spray). Just in case it stops raining.
8. Cleansing wipes
9. Dental sticks
10. Soap.

TGO Challenge 2014 gear. Pt 1. Rucksack, Shelter and Cooking.

  A number of times i have been asked what gear am i going to take on the challenge and its always a bit of a quandary right up to the last minute.
So i have decided that i will do a few small posts on my gear rather than one big one which would otherwise bore folk to death.
Hopefully if i stick with a few headings at a time and give some detailed reasons as to why i picked that particular piece of gear it will help others putting together their kit. By all means please do comment if you agree or disagree or have any better ideas and even a bit of sarcasm will be appreciated.

So here goes.
First and foremost. The Rucksack.

I have 3 rucksacks which i could choose from.

1. OMM Villain 45+10 with gear rail. - 1.1kg
2. Mammut Creon lite 45. - 1.1kg
3. Deuter Air contact 45 +10. - 1.7kg

I have chosen the OMM Villain. The main reason i chose this one is that it is made from Dyneema and solidly built, there is very little to go wrong with it baring any mishap. I use the gear rail so that i can leave my tent on the outside where it can drip happily without wetting the inside of the sack. The rail is not as good as the dedicated mesh pocket you get on sacks like the GG Gorilla for example but it’s a good second best.
I have modified the back slightly by adding a foam pad to give a bit of air movement between myself and the sack and a few straps have been added. The shoulder straps and the hip belt give excellent support. The lid could be improved by adding volume adjustment and i would have preferred to have an inner lid pocket but its a minor detail.

OMM villain 45

 OMM Villain 45 back mod. (Sorry its a bit blurred).

The reasons why i didn’t pick one of the other two sacks are that i find the shoulder straps on the Creon Lite too flimsy and don’t carry the weight very well. My collar bone starts to hurt after a few days. Mammut need to take a leaf out of Osprey’s book and make straps similar to them.
Also, i had problems with the back frame support spring and although Mammut have replaced the sack i havn’t tested it in anger and therefore the challenge is not the place to find out it fails again.
The Deuter Air Contact is a very nice and comfy sack and its perfect for carrying heavy loads. I am a fan of this sack and it’s only the weight of the empty sack that makes me not pick it for the challenge. It weighs 1.7 kg.

The Tent,
I have 2 choices.

1. Tarp Tent Moment
2. MLD Duomid with Oookworks inner.

I could pick either of these tents as they are both suitable.

I am taking the Duomid if all goes well on a pre-challenge backpack over Easter. The reason i have decided on the Duomid is space related and not weight saving.
There is not a staggering amount of difference weight wise but the space is completely different. The Duomid has twice the inner floor space as the Moment and cooking can be done inside if necessary using care.
Also, the Duomid requires a walking pole to erect it whereas the Moment uses a dedicated central hoop pole. My reasoning here is that a single walking pole is very useful for river crossings whereas the Moments dedicated pole is of no use other than to support the tent.

To the Duomid, I have added 2 tie down loops to the rear edge of the tent as per advice from Robin Evans and Martin Rye. Thanks for that info.
When the tent is erected, in my opinion, it’s obvious the 2 loops needed to have been there from day one. I hope MLD have added these to the current version.
I made the extender pole myself and it is solid. I don’t think i will encounter the same problems Colin Ibbotson had with his. Fingers crossed.
I am using an Oookworks inner which i have re-guyed so that it will pitch at the same time as the outer and hopefully doesn’t need pegging or adjustment.
All in it weighs 1.7 kg. That’s, tent, walking pole, pole extender, pegs and plastic doorway sheeting.

MLD Duomid plus accessories.

Cooking.
The options here are endless, i’m sure not alone in having lots of choices of cookware. I’ve experimented, made lots of my own gear, bought numerous stoves and pots of one type or another and done hours of trial and error with different windshields and all fuels.
What did i end up with.
Well it has to be the Trail Designs 12-10 stove with a Ti Caldera cone made to suit a 600ml Evernew pan. I found that this meths burner works well and although not as fast as a gas stove it still boils 500ml of cold water in around 7-8 minutes depending on temperatures and strength of wind. There are no moving parts, no filters, no regulators to go wrong, no jets to block up, no gas canister’s to fail. Doesn’t blow out in the wind and retains the maximum heat thanks to the cone design.
When i bought the kit it came in a very nice 2 piece plastic cylinder which you could use as a cup and bowl.
However, it is a pretty bulky item even if not a heavy item.

Alistair from Al’s outdoor world blog recently changed the cylinder for a cup and measuring bowl. So i did the same.
Below is what i came up with.
Alistair’s is here and you can see the difference between the proprietary offering and the modified version.

 The remodelled Caldera kit.

 The Caldera kit contents. L-R 150ml bottle of Meths in plastic bag, Food grade plastic bowl with heat removable protector used for porridge and the like at breakfast time, Ti Caldera cone, Ti mug with heat resistant lip, Plastic lid for bowl, Fire stick, Stove base plate, bag.
(The Ti mug will be replaced with a plastic mug when i find a suitable bowl that will fit inside neatly. The weight will come down slightly too.)

 How the kit looks packed.

 Total weight 366 grams.

The pan or pot kit as i said previously is a 600ml Evernew.

    Total weight of complete kit is 180 grams

Contents of the pan kit. L-R. Bag, spare lighter, cleaning sponge, lid, pan, 12-10 stove in plastic bag and tea bags.
I put the tea bags in the pan set so that i don’t have to get my food bag out just to make a brew. As i only drink herbal teas no milk or sugar is necessary.

So that’s my first 3 bits of kit. More to follow and at the end i will do an accumulative weigh in.

A pleasing weekend

Our weekend started with a very late night on Thursday. A late night for us that is. We didn’t get in until 1.30am Friday morning after going to see the fantastic Irish band Iona. We could go and see them every week the music is awesome. They have been around for a number of years and this last 12 months we have been lucky enough to see them twice.

They are playing in Finland in Keuruu in July. Now it would be nice to go there and listen to them.

We have also done 24km this weekend with full packs just to get the shoulders and back used to the additional weight for the Challenge. Its amazing how heavy 10.5 kilo weighs. You soon forget and its been a while since i carried that much. Sheila’s weighed 7k with food and tent, now i wish i could get mine down to that but i know i can’t make much inroad into it.

Another thing that quickly comes to light is the fact that the additional weight works your leg muscles  more and after 10k i felt like i had actually walked 20k. You also burn more calories and so regular food intake needs to happen. It all has to be taken into consideration or otherwise muscle strains could ensue. I will be walking with a full pack much more now.
So here are a few pics from our local walk.

 Park Tea Shop

 Cherry Blossom

 Jacob’s sheep

 Fungi

 The remembrance circle in Tandle Park

Dark looking over Chadderton and across to Derbyshire.

Monadhliath Challenge reccy Day 2.

As it turned out the red paint came off the rucksack quite easily. It was water based and as soon as i got the hose pipe onto the sack it just ran off. ( Thats the paint that ran off, not the rucksack.)

So after a tiring day one which is readily available on JJ’s, Judith’s and Mikes blogs we managed to find a decent campsite. Mike was looking for a place to set up Cafe Akto in Glen Mazeran.

When Mike saw all those new electricity generating whirlygigs and the pylons his eyes lit up. “Maybe they have plug sockets we can use for free”. Unfortunately they only had USB sockets and we think that these were for data collection rather than power but you never know and so it is that Mike is now looking for a USB powered camping stove with 2 burners with an option to use gas just in case its a still calm day during the challenge. Ha

Overnight it snowed and i awoke to a sagging tent. I should have used the cross over pole on the tent but it was so calm when i put it up.

 Snowy pitch, there was talk of snoring but i admit i didn’t hear it. 

A cold morning and nobody was moving quickly. The warm sleeping bag held up progress but eventually we made a move. Basically it was because Mike was already packed and stood there like he expected a bus due any minute. So we broke camp and wind and moved off. Once again we used the access roads which were in excellent condition and good progress was made.

Just as we came to the edge of the industrialisation the red way markers led us to a large double container sized building with no windows. 

As we passed we heard voices from the doorway and Olaf,Oleg, sorry not sure which, came out and greeted us. It was the same guy we saw earlier in the white van.

What he said which Mike roughly translated was "Have you guys eaten because we have all finished and there is plenty left”. 

Now i caught about 2 words and thought he said "have you guys not finished". 

So you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth do you. We were made most welcome and had a terrific late brunch. There was even small dishes of fish roe but we declined. It would have spoiled the FSB and especially the Stornaway black pudding.
Cans of beer could have been bought for a small price and we thought what a great place and what a lovely lot of people. Cafe Akto may have competition.
We spent about an hour munching away and once again it got quite difficult to move out. We paid the bill £10 the lot and set off again for some remote place Mike wanted to check out. It was now late afternoon and getting a bit chilly as the sun was starting to drop down.

Did someone mention a Challenge?

Fellow blogger JJ and I had a fast and furrious scurry via Aviemore to the Monadhliath where we met up with Mike (the Pieman) and Judith for a bit of a challenge reccy.
Well i’m back home now and it was cold, wet, and in some parts deeply covered in the white stuff.
All very challenging.
There is more to come later when i’ve dried the gear out, defrosted my feet and got the red way marker paint cleaned off my rucksack. And i promise not to mention turbines.

 Which way? Are you sure this is Lairig Ghru?

The new Burma Rd, we called it, straight across the centre of the Monadhliath.
Map and compass no longer required.

The Tick key - mod

The Tick-key is a small light option to remove those pests of the outdoors., the Tick.
Last year i only had 1 tick, which burrowed into the back of my knee and i felt it in the early stages of getting its teeth into me and i quickly removed it with the key.

Then Stef at BG blog pointed me in the direction of Brian Green’s blog. Brian had modified the key.
Now the reason for doing it is so that you can get the key into those small awkward places that ticks like to wild camp for as long as possible. Generally the key will get at most ticks but i wasn’t going to take chances and so i modified mine to the same design as Brian’s. Thanks Brian btw and Stef for the heads up..

Here is my modified key.

It’s an easy mod, it took me 15 minutes max. A hacksaw, a drill and bit and a needle file was all it took. Oh as well as a piece of 1mm dyneema cord.

Reservoirs and Mud

Clear skies, chilly morning and a busy journey for me on the motorway brought 9 male plodders together at the car park at the southern end of Rivington reservoir in Lancashire.
The route was put together by John Pickton and had replaced a previously organised route around Appley Bridge. The latter cancelled i believe due to the vast amount of mud.

Dead on 10.00am we set off and headed for the folly, a scale replica of Liverpool Castle built by William Lever, Lord Leverhulme.

Rivington Castle folly.

The path heading north following the shoreline was quite busy with dog walkers. The road bridge, the  Horrobin Causway between Rivington’s upper and lower reservoirs is a lovely spot with views up and down the waterways. Depending on the light you can get some lovely photo’s here.

Looking south down Rivington reservoir.

As is usual with the plodders walks as apposed to the LDWA weekend walks there was time to take photo’s and chat about the scenery without being left behind. At the end of the causeway a smart house has the Liverbird on the chimney wall.

John stopped at a very grand house on the west shore of the Upper reservoir and told a bit of a story about it being owned by a member of the Warburton family, the bread people. Obviously sarcasm was rife about needing plenty of dough, a large slice and a crust above the rest being just a few comments. We moved on quickly.

"The Street”, owned by the Warburton family we were told.

Further along on Heapy Fold lane offered a good place for a tea break on a dry grassy bank where Martin shared the renowned delightful fudge brownies.

We were heading for White Coppice, i had been there a couple of times before and its a well kept village with a cricket pitch on the village green. All very English. However there was a few obstacles on the way as you can see in the images below.

At this point my trail shoes were full of the stuff, and i could feel muddy water between my toes. I reiterate that once again Sealskinz socks are not waterproof for long. This was only my 3rd time of wearing them. (Cleaning them out at home later i found 2 leak points)
Considering White Coppice won the best kept village a few years ago it shows that things have “slipped.”

Passing a farm on route we were surprised to see Emu’s and goats and lots of chickens, rabbits and probably other species which went unnoticed. I liked this sign below.

A fine Christmas lunch. Do we have a big enough oven?

Lunch called and so we stopped at the cricket pavilion which was closed, as was the loo. But Martin produced even more fudge brownie to keep us going for the long talk back.
The opposite bank gave delightful views of Rivington Pike and Winter Hill as we made progress south.
We spotted White Mallard which Martin convinced us were albino, i still have my doubts.

It had been quite a day for spotting species and i’m sure Martin will have kept a list. There will be an account on his blog at some point.

Just before we reached the final 1/2 mile we passed a tea shop that just invited us in. Whilst we queued, our leader John, burst through the swing doors like John Wayne and said there was a revolt outside as some of the party wanted non of this nanby pamby tea drinking malarky and much preferred the cold stewed tea and coffee that they had brought with them in their flasks. John said that a vote had been taken to move ‘em on.
Well Martin was going ape when he found out that we had not been added into the vote numbers and wooden’ move till ‘eed had his tea.

It was all good fun. thanks to John for organising the day. It was 18.5km and no rain. I will put a route map up when i pinch it.
There are some pictures of the walk here.

Thanks to Martin B for allowing me to pinch the map from his blog!

Royalties are in the post.