Back in the Game

It took long enough but I eventually managed to get out again for a quick one nighter. I've been busy lately, working some extra hours and what with injuring my knee back at the end of July I didn't manage to get out at all but eventually thanks in part to a friend who was keen to try a wild camp I managed in the end.

Marcus had mentioned that he wanted to try a wild camp and we spent some time looking at gear in an attempt to keep the weight down. I suggested an Argos Hike Lite 1 tent as a starter and after letting him see mine thats what he went for. He had a sleeping bag and CCF mat and I sorted him out with an EK meths burner set-up and loaned him an Alpkit Mitymug. For food he settled on easy to prepare noodles/cuppa soup etc and managed to get the pack weight just under 9kg which is pretty good for a 1st attempt.





We set off pretty late only arriving at the start point near Quolie Dam at 4.00pm so what with Mid Hill and Collin Top and plenty of boggy or heather covered ground between us and Loughgarve, the spot I had picked as a camp, we were going to be covering most of it in the dark.





Thankfully it didn't rain and we eventually reached the camp at around 7.30pm. We managed to get the tents pitched on a reasonably level spot and settled in for the night getting the meths burners set-up. I was pretty hungry by this stage but had made the mistake of taking a Reiter Hungarian beef freeze dried meal which I hadn't tried before. I found it barely edible to be honest, really really salty and with a greasey taste to it. I ate most of it and it wasn't a happy experience but I managed ok as I'd started with a cuppa soup while waiting for the beef/noodles to rehydrate and finished off with a chocolate bar. I eventually settled down at around 10.30-11.00pm and didn't waken until 4.30am when I made some custard/raisins (Birds Instant custard powder in a zip-lock) and a mug of drinking chocolate.



I went back to sleep and wakened again around 8.00am and started to prepare breakfast, simply Tesco Museli with a few spoonfuls of coffee whitener followed by a mug of coffee.

It must have rained at some stage during the night but had stopped while we packed everything away. Our plan was to walk into Glenariff forest park before following the forest tracks for a few miles and then heading north (ish) over Trostan (highest point on the Antrim Plateau) before dropping down WNW into Slieveanorra forest to follow the tracks west to our suggested pick-up point at Altnahinch dam.

We made good progress on better ground with less heather than the previous evening and quickly cleared Glenariff park but as we headed up a track through the forest we found that our route was blocked by a motor rally of all things. We decided to wait a bit but were quickly running out of time as Marcus's sister had agreed to pick us up. We simply decided to walk back to the forest park and use the phone box (no network coverage on O2 or Vodafone) to rearrrange the pick-up and started off up the road to a car park to wait.

Other than getting blocked by the rally everything worked fine, I was using some gear I'd bought for summer use but wanted to see how far I could push it. I used a basic CCF mat, my ME Xero down bag which I supplemented with a PHD Ultra down vest, my waterproofs consisted of a Marmot Essence jacket, a pair of cheap Trespass Trestex packaway overtrousers and a pair of Marmot unlined shell gloves. I considered wearing my trail shoes but knowing what the terrain was like decided on my AKU Croda's with Trekmates ankle gaiters. The rest of my clothing consisted of;

Trekmates Bamboo L/S Top
Primark Zip Neck Fleece
Montane Featherlite Jetstream
Columbia Omni Trousers
Trespass Windproof Fleece gloves
Buff
Woolly Hat
Salomon Ski Socks
PHD Ultra Down vest

I carried a spare set of baselayer/socks for sleepwear consisting of a Chocolate Fish Merino L/S top and Trekmates Bamboo long-johns but as the socks I'd been wearing were dry I didn't use the spare set. I changed back into my other baselayer top in the morning although as it was only a one nighter I needed have bothered.

As I mentioned I used an ME Xero 250 down bag, Millets 3 season CCF mat and the Argos Hike-Lite 1 and carried it in a Haglofs LIM45.

All in all it was a good night, everything worked fine and more importantly Marcus was still smilimg at the end so it didn't put him off.

New GPS

I pretty much have my gear sorted now as far as weight or preference is concerned but there are a few items still on the wants list. One item that always looked too heavy was my GPS, a Garmin Etrex Summit. I don’t use a GPS as my primary navigation tool for a variety of reasons, for a start there’s no mapping software for N.I. and although I use Memory Map software for trips to Scotland I’m not keen on using the GPS without the visual aid of a map, add the issue of batteries and I tend to only use the GPS as a back-up.

The Etrex Summit has a barometric altimeter which I like so I wanted to make sure that any GPS I bought also had this feature. I looked at the Geko range which is fairly basic and lighter than the Etrex range. The Etrex Summit weighs 170g including pouch and 2 x AA Lithium batteries. The Geko 301 has all the features of the Etrex Summit including the barometric altimeter but with 2 x lithium AAA batteries only weighs 86g. I managed to pick up a refurbished one from a seller on ebay for £54 plus postage. The unit came next day and looks like a perfect solution for my needs, it’s quite a bit smaller and I find the buttons on the front easier to use than the side mounted buttons on the Etrex. So far I’ve only messed about with it, getting it set up and so on but I’m pleased with it so far. I haven’t tried using it with Memory map but I think it should work with the data lead that I used with the Etrex. I think the battery life is better than the Etrex and as it uses AAA batteries rather than AA any spares I carry will be lighter, in addition my head torch uses AAA batteries so the cross compatibility is useful.

MYOG Trekking Poles Update

I played about a bit with various methods of attaching grip straps the easiest was to use a ladder lock buckle and a dog clip. It's not an elegant solution and unfortunately added to the weight, the poles now weigh 383g pair. It illustrates how good the commercial poles that I mentioned are, they're much more versatile being length adjustable and I would guess are stronger. Really the only thing I can take comfort from is that I saved £60 - £80 plus I recycled something but I'm pretty sure if I had the cash to spare and saw a set of Khola Evo's I'd buy them.

MYOG, Lightweight Trekking Poles

My normal trekking pole are old Highlander Mountaineer ones which have been reliable and not too heavy at 558g pair but obviously I'd like something lighter. Surprisingly you can spend quite a bit for poles that are only fractionally lighter and the lightest I've found were Leki Thermolite at 430g pair, Alpkit Carbonlite at 400g pair and Khola Evo X-lite at 360-380g pair. The cheapest are the Alpkit poles at £60. It seemed quite expensive to save around 150g but I was tempted by the Khola Evo X-Lite, unfortunately I can't find a supplier.

The other alternative are the very light poles made from what appear to be tent pole sections such as Raidlight At 280g pair they're really light but still expensive.

I had some damaged poles from a large family type tent and decided to try and make a set of lightweight poles. The poles were 13mm and I managed to salvage 6 sections that weren't damaged. I cut them down to length and used a length of 2mm guyline with a short length of paracord to hold them together, a set of tips/baskets from an old set of Lidl trekking poles were added and I used a roll of handlebar tape for the grips. To make the grips thick enough I used 2 layers of tape. I haven't come up with a suitable wrist strap yet and The handles still need some refining but so far they seem ok. Unfortunately they aren't much lighter than the Khola Exo X-Lite poles as they weigh 348g pair without straps but they haven't cost anything so I suppose I should be happy enough. I'll try them out and see how they perform. As they are it saves 200g over my Highlander poles.

Coincidence?

I was responding to a question by Dave Hanlon regarding my bivvy bag mentioned in the previous posts and found the original sale invoice from Field & Trek. The bag cost £76.96 ex vat when I bought it back in 1990. The spooky thing is the invoice date.

Single or Double?

As I mentioned I've been trying my Phreeranger as a single skinned tarp tent, in fact I slept in it again last night and to be honest I'm wondering if I really need a double skinned tent. There was some condensation on the inside of the fly this morning but again no drips. I was using a bivvy bag anyway so a few drips or moisture knocked off due to heavy rain/wind wouldn't have been a problem. There are advantages to using a double skin tent though, the oft quoted one is that they reduce condensation but I'm not convinced that this is the case as I've often found the inside of the fly to be wet when using a tent, what the double skin provides though is a barrier between yourself and the fly but with the Phreeranger and most Tarp Tents there's so much space that there's little chance of touching the fly anway. The other 2 advantages of an inner are heat/draft reduction and bug proofing, the fist may not be too important if you're using a bivvy bag as it protects from drafts and should upgrade the performance of the sleeping bag, I would however prefer to have some protection from insects and I don't believe a bivvy bag even if it has a bug net offers quite the same protection/ease of use.

I've been looking at some of Henry Shires 'Tarptents' and they solve the bug issue by having sewn in netting and groundsheet. The only issue remaining is loss of heat but I wonder if the bivvy bag overcomes this. My bivvy bag is an old heavy Goretex one weighing in at 596g which is heavier than my inner tent but I don't think I need the level of protection that my bag provides so something smaller and lighter would be fine assuming it was breathable enough, perhaps even something like the PHD Drishell cover which only weighs 163g. If using a bivvy bag allowed me to use a sleeping bag with a lower rating then some of the weight of the bivvy bag is offset against the weight saved by using a lighter sleeping bag.

I like the idea of the 'Tarptent' Rainbow/Double Rainbow, the Rainbow including poles/groundsheet/bug net and 6 pegs weighs 965g, add the PHD sleeping bag cover for a total weight of 1128g, the larger Double Rainbow weighs 1135g, or 1298g including the bag cover but offers a massive amount of space, 2250mm L x 1220mm w x 1100mm H with 600mm wide (at the apex) porches on both sides.

I can't see any other disadvantages but if anyone can think of something that I've overlooked please add your comments.

http://www.tarptent.com/photogallery.html

http://www.tarptent.com/rainbow.html

http://www.tarptent.com/rainbowRev.html

http://www.tarptent.com/doublerainbow.html

Tarp Tent Update

Just a brief update on the Phreeranger tarp tent. Everything was fine, I didn’t notice any drafts although it was pretty calm with clear skies initially. It did rain quite heavily after sunrise but while the inside of the fly was wet from condensation there were no signs of any drips as the footprint and bivybag were dry. The silnylon footprint worked perfectly well as a groundsheet which has convinced me that it’s more than suitable as a fabric to replace the damaged groundsheet on my inner tent, especially as I use an additional footprint/protector anyway (I always have done) That would give me a double layer of silnylon or I could make the footprint/protector from double glazing film which is about half the weight of silnylon, the combined weight of the groundsheet protector and the new inner tent groundsheet would be less than the standard groundsheet.

One other idea that I had a while back was to make a mesh inner tent/bug nest using a Trekmates Adventurer Mosquito net, they had some in TK Max recently together with the Trekmates Bivvy Bag so I might take a trip into town and see if they’ve any left.

I’ve also e-mailed Henry Shires with some questions about the Contrail and Rainbow series so there are plenty of options open which should keep me busy while my knee heals.