lightweight backpacking – Page 9

Gear that worked – Gear that didn’t

7 May 2012 / Backpacking, Camping, Outdoor Gear, Walking / backpacking, coffee, lightweight backpacking, MSR titanium mug, outdoor gear, tea

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.

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.

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

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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The Walk Back pt2

7 May 2012 / Backpacking, Camping, Lincolnshire, Photography, VR, Walking / lightweight backpacking, Photos 2012, walking

The Walk Back pt2 Read More »

Be Prepared!

27 April 2012 / Backpacking, Camping, Outdoor Gear, Photography, Walking / backpacking food, coffee, lightweight backpacking, lightweight backpacking food, lightweight camping, outdoor gear, Photos 2012, tea

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.

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”!

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MSR PocketRocket Stove – Test

23 April 2012 / Backpacking, Camping, Outdoor Gear, Photography, Walking / iPhone photography, lightweight backpacking, outdoor gear, Photos 2012

Today’s “photo of the day” is testing the MSR stove.

When Jeremy and I got in we decided to test the MSR Pocket Rocket stove in the backgarden.

The assembly of the stove was very easy, the large knurled bottom of the stove helped with this and assisted with keeping the stove straight on the canister as it was screwed in. Then we tried out the stability of our MSR titanium mug and Titan kettle which we found very good, due to the angled pot stand arms.

As per the instructions we did not use a windshield and depended on the “Wind Clip™ wind shield”, these are the three small metal fins on the burner.

The stove was set up in an exposed position and there was a strong breeze. The burner lit easily even in the breeze – and we put 300ml of water on to boil, in the MSR titanium mug with lid. The Wind Clip worked as from time to time as the breeze picked up we could hear the flame stutter but it did not go out.

In this exposed position it took 2mins 30secs to bring the water to a rolling boil. When camping it would be possible to give the stove some shelter behind the tent so decreasing this boil time.

Following this test it only took a couple of minutes for the stove to cool sufficiently for it to be handled and packed away.

This was a garden test, which showed this is a good stove – we’ll test it some more when we go backpacking next.

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MSR Pocket Rocket Stove

23 April 2012 / Backpacking, Camping, Outdoor Gear, Walking / backpacking, lightweight backpacking, outdoor gear

Diana has bought me an MSR Pocket Rocket stove to supplement my Ti meths stove when backpacking in bad weather.

I could not buy a 100g gas bottle, in Lincoln this morning, so I got a 220g one so I can use/test the stove today. For my lightweight trips I’d prefer the smaller/lighter gas canister – but as the canisters are removable, I can have both styles on the go at the same time.

My MSR Titanium mug sits securely on the pot stand as does my MSR Titan kettle.

The red plastic carry box is useful to protect the stove and to protect my other kit from it’s sharp points when the stove is packed in my rucksack.

Jeremy and I are planing an overnight trip in two weeks time and we will try this stove out then – he is going to carry it!

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