Optimus Crux stove

I bought the Optimus Crux stove for this trip. I admit that this is the first gas burner i have bought for decades.
I see lots of gas stoves in the hills but i have always used meths stoves. So i thought i would take the plunge and give one a try.

I also purchased the small Optimus pan set with it.

When it arrived from Ultralight outdoor gear, which took 2 days from ordering. Fantastic company by the way. I couldn't believe just how small it was and how it all fitted nicely together underneath a gas cylinder.
It weighed 90 gr.

I purchased a 120gr Go Systems iso/butane mix cylinder and couldn't wait to try it out in the field.

I kept a log of how much water 1 off 120 gr cylinder would boil. It achieved 5.67 litres. I thought that this was a fantastic achievement. I was very surprised, it just kept going.

One thing to take into consideration was the high ambient temperatures which i guess averaged around 20 degrees and topped 29 degrees one day. So for planning purposes i would take off around 20% and work on 1 cylinder boiling around 4.5 litres.

One thing i wasn't too pleased with was the simmering and the controllability of the gas power. When the gas was turned down the regulator decides to go to the absolute minimum it could get without going out.
I always had to check and see if it had gone out or not.

When on high output it was brilliant and very fast. The most water i boiled at any one time was 0.5L and it took just a couple of minutes.
I was also using the Primus windshield which worked very well.

Summarising then, i think there may be better burners out there that regulate finer. But to simply boil water and pack away into a tiny space it cannot be knocked. A bit expensive as well i thought at £45.
It would be interesting to compare how the new Go Systems stove, which looks just like the Crux but costs £25, works out against it.

Our Lakes walk photo's May 2010

I have now loaded the photo's from the Lakes walk and they can be found here. We hope you like them.

This was our first night wild campsite GR NY22572 06288. Just below Central pillar on Dow crags, Upper Esk.

Sunday 23rd May 2010

We are back home now after another scorching night and day.
Its been a very pleasant trip and i will put the photos on when i have time to download them.

Although the day that we wanted to do Bowfell and the Crinkles didn't come off we still enjoyed the walks we did.

We tried out the new Optimus crux stove and i was very surprised with it's performance. More on this to come.
We enjoyed the Mug shots for lunch which were recommended by Gibson, his very good blog is here. So thanks for that Gibson we will be getting more.
One of the best new things we tried was the Real Turmat dehydrated food. I must agree with Alan Sloman, his very good blog is here,  that the Wolfish casserole is number 1 and closely followed by the Game casserole.
But to be fair they are all very nice. They are a bit pricey but worth it in taste.

Next to our pitch in Seathwaite, came 2 chaps who were getting fit and gear testing for the Saunders marathon. They had purchased the new Vaude Power Lizard. I had a good look at it and i was surprised to see that it had equally as much floor space as our own Odyssee winter. It weighs in at 1Kilo.
Both chaps were taller than me, i guess one was close to 6ft and the other about 5ft 9. They said it was great and better than the Laser comp.

The pegs looked poor and would pull out quite easy in strong wind, i would guess. They may be ok for comps but i think i would change them for backpacking even though it might add a little extra weight.

I will certainly be interested to read any reviews that have been written by any one using the Lizard on the current TGO challenge.

The first few days of our walk was also a try out of Sheila's new blogging phone. The HTC Desire.
As you can read, the blogs posted ok but the spelling was a bit poor as was the punctuation. I could go back in now and edit the posts but i am going to leave them so that we can laugh at them later.
She just needs to get the hang of the keyboard and adding photos. It is certainly a smart piece of kit and the camera quality is fantastic.

Right, now to get the washing machine loaded.

Saturday 22nd May 2010

We left the Coniston Hall campsite at 8.15 and we are glad to be on our way. This campsite is like Glastonbury but without the music. It was guy rope to guy rope.
We were quite surprised that although it was packed there was no noise after 11.00 pm.
However there was some very large fires and we were glad that there was only a small one near our tent.

We were looking forward to a breakfast in Coniston village but we found out that nothing opened until 9.00am. We decided to wait as we didn't want to set off up the Walna with empty stomachs.

Our bacon barms, orange juice and coffee was purchased from a very nice Italian cafe just opposite the main carpark. I think it was called the Lakeland. We can recommend this place.

So at 9.25 we set off up the road past the Sun hotel and onto the track proper. Wow is this road steep!
It had been a few years since i did this route and somehow i had forgotten how steep it was.

The temperature was a scorching 26 degrees and blue sky. We must be reasonably fit because we started to pass the day walkers who only had small sacks, or no sacks and just a map. Sheila was quite impressed with this as she always thinks she is finding the up's a struggle.

It was a very hot pair of backpackers that set down the sacks at the top of the Walna and it was nice to get a bit of a breeze blowing over from the Duddon side. The temperature was 29 degrees.
We drank lots of water, the travel tap we bought from Backpacking light was certainly working overtime.
We stopped for about 15 minutes for lunch and then headed off for Turner Hall campsite at Seathwaite Duddon valley.

We arrived there and found the site relatively quiet and we had no problems in pitching. So once pitched, we were off to visit our friends in the village and to sample the local beer in the Newfield Inn.

A very good night was had.

Friday 21.5.10

set off langdale this morning, still very cloudy and overcast but looked promising. followed the track past blea tarn to fell foot. across the bridge just after fell foot farm and picked up the track for tilberthwaite. went up tilberthwaite ghyll after a ten minute stop. weather has really picked up and the tops are now becoming really clear. very hot now 25 degrees as we approach copper mines valley. walked through coniston to campsite arrived at campsite at 2pm. very hot 28 degrees. just going for a dip.

Thursday 20.5.2010

Thursday . set off from the campsite up onto lingmor fell and Brown How .Walked into the mist, no visability above 300 metres. Followed quarry track down to little langdale where we are now having lunch. good low views across the valley. we will be heading to Baysbrown and not the 3 shires. along the river track to langdale campsite. yes the old dg. hope the mist clears tomorrow.

wed 19 may

having found the motorway, sorry path from ESk hause to Rossett ghyll we made our way down to the olddg. just had tea and a hot shower. the weather has booked up overcast but at least not raining. hope to get up the crinkles tomorrow .

lake walk

we set of from seathwaite yesterday morning and headed up the esk towards scarfel.lovely day Sunny and clear. wild camped at lingcove beck. woke up today in the mizzy. no view raining but not cold. found ESk hause . very foggy decided not to go up higher but head down to langdale.

Lakes backpacking

We have been sorting the gear out for our weeks walk in Cumbria. We have not decided on a complete route as we want it to be a leisurely affair, and not that we have to be somewhere at a certain time or day.
We are starting off in Seathwaite, Duddon Valley, where we will leave the car with friends. From here we are heading off through Wallabarrow Gorge, past Grassguards, skirting Harter and heading for Brotherilkeld.

From here we will head up the Esk towards Lingcove beck and find somewhere to park the tent.
Then we will head up to Esk Hause and go to Great End, then back to Allen Crags and Glaramara before finding somewhere else to park up.

From here it gets sketchy, we have not decided whether to head across to Raise and then into Grasmere or whether to go Bowfell/ Crinkles route and then through Little Langdale, Tilberthwaite, Coniston.
I think it may be the latter.

Like always, i have packed and repacked the rucksacks, put this in take that out syndrome has been prevalent.
I am reasonably happy now, the rucksacks weigh 11 kilos including food for 4 days, spare clothes, tent, fuel, sleeping bag etc etc.

Checked my Golite Flytrails and i have noticed the sole on the heel of one shoe is detaching. Just what i needed today.
So i got the Araldite out and glued it back together. I just hope it stays together for a week.
I am a bit surprised at this because they have only done about 100 miles.
I really like them and didn't want to part with them so soon, but it's looking like i will buy a new pair of Inov-8 Roclite's at the Duddon Fell race when i see Pete Bland next month.

We are not putting boot to trail until tuesday morning. We have to go to Gosforth first to Sheila's mums and then we are visiting Seathwaite and staying with friends on monday night.
We are so looking forward to this trip and i am sure Sheila will be trying out her new blogging toy when ever we have a signal.

TGO challenge

I thought it would save quite a bit of time and typing if i put a message on my blog rather than everybody else's individually.
So for all those lucky people  taking part in this years TGO Challenge i would like to take this opportunity to wish you all good luck, a safe and extremely pleasant trip. 

I hope that all the super new gear that you have been buying up, and denting those credit cards, works well and i look forward to reading your reports on what worked and what didn't. And the walking/drinking  reports of course.

Sheila and i will be off to the Lakes for a weeks backpacking. Not the same really is it but there we go.

Their will also be a first for us on this trip as we will be using a gas stove! Aghast! Not used gas since i was in the scouts 40 something years ago.
I have purchased an Optimus Crux, so we will see if i like it better than my little meths burner.

Sheila has had to buy a new pair of Integral Designs shortie gaiters, as she has lost one of her original pair. They are so light and small that you can easily lose them without realising. Not cheap either.

So for now. Bon Voyage everybody.

HTC Desire phone

I (sheila) have to say that i am very impressed with the new HTC Desire phone.  It does everything we desire. pun

The Digital compass is very clear and precise as Alan has checked it against his silva compass.  The maps are very clear and the free gps works.  He must be sick of me saying OMG this is wonderful.  We have also tried blogging and this is fine and the emails work great.

It is such an easy phone to use, once you understand the principle of the android system.  There are loads of free apps and after ten hours of playing, i have decided to keep it instead of going for the apple.  The only disappointing thing was that with it being an Android phone i expected it to be delivered by R2D2 and it wasn't. HeHe.

More blogging phone stories

Prior to Sheila getting an iphone on her contract renewal, she has got an HTC Desire, just to try for a couple of weeks. Does anybody have an opinion on this phone and is it a decent blogging phone?
It looks the business and i am envious but i would like to hear from anybody who blogs with it so that we can make a decision if to stay with it.
We have decided not to use a phone as a mountain GPS, so that issue has been put to bed, thankfully.
Any assistance would be most welcome.

Sleeping bag

Anybody looking for a new sleeping bag in the not too distant future may want to take a look HERE. and compare it against other manufacturers.
Katabatic is not a company known much here in the UK, but this bag weight is 670grams and is rated at minus 9. Cost $355. I'll not covert it to pounds due to the fluctuations.
It seems pretty good to me.

Gosforth Weekend Apr.22-26th 2010

We go up to Sheila's mums in Gosforth Cumbria every 3 weeks to take her shopping. If we are lucky we can usually get a walk in, that is if it's not too long or too strenuous.
Fridays forecast was good so i picked a walk up to Burnmoor Tarn starting from Giggle Alley in Eskdale Green.
 The route follows the river Mite to the head of the Miterdale valley and across to the tarn and back by the same track.
Not hilly and only about 9 miles.

  The River Mite at Porterthwaite bridge.

The Land Rover Track leads to the farm of Low Place where the unusual sign in old Cumbrian reads Footpath to Eskdale.

Once through the farm a track on either side of the river can be taken, we crossed the footbridge and stayed on the RH bank.

Miterdale Track with Sca Fell in the background. 

The walk up Miterdale is very pleasant and today there was not a breath of wind and for a change it was sunny. At the head of the valley there is a beautiful natural amphitheatre. 

We decided to stop here for luch before moving off to the tarn.

We were being entertained by the Ravens swooping down on the sheep and there were plenty of Skylarks. We even saw a Grey Shriek.(Should be Shrike, Thanks Martin. I must start wearing the glasses.)

 Head of Miterdale

Burnmoor Tarn.

After walking back to Eskdale we decided to have a beer in Gosforth Hall, just to celebrate the achievement you understand.

A nice pint of Yate's Fever Pitch and a glass of Chardonnay before Tea.

The beautiful fireplace in Gosforth Hall Inn with the widest span arch in the uk (reputedly).

Thankfully we decided to do this walk Friday as this turned out to be the best day of the weekend. Saturday was reasonable but Sunday was horrid. The mist was really low and we didn't see the hills all day. As the day wore on the mist got worse until it was down to village level.

Therm A Rest Neo Air

When the Neo Air hit the market a great deal of excitement went round the outdoor community.  I eventually got mine in August 2009 after a little bit of a wait due to the demand and replaced my Prolite.
So i have used it now for around 9 months, and i find it very comfy, easy to inflate, it gives some protection from the cold coming up from the ground, but not enough in my opinion and it packs away small. Ideal in fact.
However, am i the only one who finds it too deep?
I use the short mat and i put my pillow on the floor not on the mat and i have never been happy with this situation. The mat moves in the night quite a bit and the pillow stays where it was put. Therefore i end up being uncomfortable, usually with my head half on the pillow and with a bit of a stiff neck.
You may say i should have bought a longer one and put the pillow on the mat, but for light weight backpacking this defeats the object.
I wish the mat was only half as thick and with a better insulated underside to increase the season rating and with some sort of slip resistant material.
Am i asking too much? or do others agree.

White Pike and Caw

The walk we did on Sat. 17th April was a circular route, starting and obviously finishing from Turner Hall camp site. It included White Maiden, White Pike and Caw. Last night was a very cold night and although no frost, i felt a wee bit cold in my Rab Summit 400 bag.

As we set off the day was cooler than yesterday and much more haze around. The Scafells  and the ridge around to Esk Pike was almost invisible and Harter fell was grey. The views became finer as we ascended the Walna Scar track towards the quarries. We passed a group of young lads who were sat down at the side of the track and they had huge sacks. A couple of them were so heavily laden i don't know how they carried it.

As we approached the Walna Quarry gate, a biker was just in front of us pedalling for all he was worth. It made us tired just watching how many revolutions of the pedals got him a further metre up the track.

We very soon reached the Duddon/Coniston watershed and there was quite a few people around as you would expect on a Saturday. The majority were heading up from the Coniston direction and then turning right to go up Brown Pike etc.
We had a 5 minute sit down and then put on an extra layer as the cold wind had picked up.

Our path was to the south, and led to White Maiden. There was quite a strong cold breeze and i was glad of the Montane litespeed to keep it out. As we started off for White Pike the skies darkened and i thought we were going to get a shower, but it was blown away.

White Maiden Top

A quick stroll from White Maiden and you are at the cairn on White Pike.

White Pike with Dow Crag in the distance.

It's a deceptive piece of rock White Pike. From ground level it looks an easy descent, but it can be quite dangerous especially in bad weather. There is no set route or footpath going south off the Pike and care should be taken.
The safest route is to head off in a SE direction and pick your way down the grassy slopes gradually turning S. We were heading onto Caw from here so we picked our way across the boggy ground towards the Pikes.

Caw from White Pike

South edge of White Pike.

The distance from White Pike to Caw always seems to take much longer than it should but eventually we reached the Trig Point on Caw.

White Pike is first hill behind Trig point.

From Caw summit we headed off West to Caw quarries and we spent a few minutes having a look round the old building and mine shaft before following the good track down to the Park Head Road which in a mile or so leads to the Newfield Inn, where obviously you have to call in because it's open.

We enjoyed this walk and we had only met 2 adults and 2 children from getting to the top of the Walna track to the Newfield.
This walk was 11km distance and Ascent of 672m, although it seems  much more.

The Duddon Valley Friday 16th April

We arrived in the Duddon Valley on Thursday afternoon and set up base camp on Turner Hall Farm. It was extremely quiet and Hillary (Proprietor) was laying shale to a new area for car parking. I said i would give her a lift after we had got the tent up.
Tent quickly erected, i got the excavator going and flattened off the shale and compressed it down ready for the weekends campers to drive over it.
Sheila had a doze i think, whilst this activity was being carried out.

Later we met up with some friends in the Newfield Inn for a couple of beers.
Thursday night proved to be a cold night but the sun was warming the tent nicely as we awoke.
We had decided to do a walk round Stickle pike and Great Stickle today. This is not a difficult walk by any means but it was one that we had been meaning to do for a while so today was the day.

We parked low down in the valley bottom near to Cinderhill Beck and from here walked south along the road to pick up the track signposted on the left.
This is a excellent man made track up into the hills. I believe it's origins go back to when peat was cut from the boggy fells and then brought down by this track.

Eventually the path leads to Hovel Knot, a promontory below Great Stickle with good views.

From Hovel Knot its only a short walk to the trig point on top of Great Stickle  from where we could see our next top Stickle Pike.

We followed the high ground leading to Yew Pike, west of Stickle pike and then turned east to pick up a track leading on to the east shoulder of Stickle pike and with Stickle tarn on the right.
Once on Stickle pike there are great views of the high fells.

From here we carried on north until we joined the road at Kiln Bank cross and then found the track which leads to Birks and Ulpha bridge.
It was getting to be a really warm day and so as we dropped down the secondary layer came off.
Crossing Ulpha bridge and then turning left on a minor road we came across a field full of Daffodils and then a little further on the path is found, through a gate opposite the old Bobbin Mill.

 The path from the Bobbin Mill leads through Forge wood and without any difficulties, in about 2 1/2 miles you come to the Wood Mill at Beckfoot. The woods walk is again full of wild flowers and Daffs and will very soon be full of blue bells.

At the Wood Mill watch out for the track behind the mill which leads to Rawfold bridge. It's easy here to walk straight on towards the small hamlet at Beckfoot and miss this turning.

Once over Rawfold bridge the path leads through the gate opposite and then through two fields and up to the road where you turn left and return to the car.
On the way to the car we saw an Adder with a sore head. (It had been run over)

This walk was 15km total and had a ascent of 541 metres and a descent of 543 metres. It's the kind of walk that you tell yourself, I'll save that walk for a wet day. I'm pleased that we did it when it was fine, because the views in all 360 degrees are worth seeing. If it had been a lousy day then the views more than likely would have been hidden and that would have been a shame.

Today.

I've been over to Todmorden today and the views are fantastic. As i sat there doing nothing i thought about M and G's walk from Marsden to Ogden, which is today's leg of their walk for heroes..
 They are not too far away from where i was contemplating the day. Just across the moors.
They would have had a misty start probably, and vastly improving by the minute. It's very warm but a bit of a breeze on top.

I'm now back home and i have got to sort gear out, as we are off to the Duddon valley on Thursday morning. I've not been there since i went to an old friends funeral in January so it will be great to meet up with folk again.

I've also been and bought maps for the Rob Roy Way as we fancy doing this at the end of June if Sheila can get the time off work. Must get my Skin so Soft supply.
We will be starting from Aberfoyle rather than Drymen and we will probably finish at Blair Athol rather than Pitlochry. But it's all still at planning stage and things could change, (well apart from the start because we have booked the hotel).

Any ideas regarding wild camp sites or info generally will be most welcome.

Duddon Valley Fell Race 2010

 Sheila and I have just had confirmation that we will be marshall's again on Swirl How for this years Duddon Valley Fell Race. 

The race is graded "A" and is held 1st saturday in June. That's 5th June this year.

We particularly like being on this top as the views can be spectacular. Although when the weather is bad it's usually very bad here.

It's always a fantastic day, not just the racing but also the post race entertainment, which is held in the garden at the Newfield Inn. There are usually a few bands playing and the range of music is varied from Blues, Folk, Rock etc etc.

We will be on Swirl How from around 12.30pm until around 4.00pm. If anybody is in the area why not come up and say hello.

 

Goretex Socks

Our thanks go to Laura for finding a pair of Gore-tex socks which fit Sheila. We had been looking for a small pair of GT socks for ages, as those who read this blog will know. 

If anybody else is looking for a pair you can find them HERE  (just type Goretex socks in the product search). I would have put the exact page in as a link rather than just the company but pages have a habit of changing.

Much easier than ordering them from USA.
Thanks again Laura.