A Long Long Walk....
Have you ever slung a backpack over your shoulders and taken to the trails.. either by foot ( or riding a bike )?
The longest walk I have ever taken was of about 1200 miles over about a 100 days of spring / summer through England~Wales~Scotland hugging the coast.
I felt a bit like Bilbo Baggins..but luckily for me, there were no Orcs...just a lot of beautiful landscapes that were suprisingly void of people...
Sigh...Nostalgia..
\ 
The longest walk I have ever taken was of about 1200 miles over about a 100 days of spring / summer through England~Wales~Scotland hugging the coast.
I felt a bit like Bilbo Baggins..but luckily for me, there were no Orcs...just a lot of beautiful landscapes that were suprisingly void of people...
Sigh...Nostalgia..
\
Comments
If I had my druthers I'd go for the PCT. Nice variety of low desert, mid/high steppe, high alpine, volcanoes, glaciated mountains etc. Contintal Divide Trail would be great as well. Roaming the hills of the UK would be pretty sweet as well although I prefer alpine stuffs. For a shorter trip a few hundred miles the John Muir Trail or perhaps the PCT north of Snoqualmie Pass to Canadia would be up there. Maybe something in Australia or Scandanavia or something, I'm not as familiar with the options there though. Obviously there are different types as well, US thru hikes are pretty much invariably tent camping however in a lot of other Western places you have the shelter/hut style of trekking. I prefer the former but it is all good.
You got pics online of your UK trek?
There was someone here a year or two ago that posted a thread that he was gonna do the AT. Never heard back from him after the fact though.
AT doesn't hold quite the attraction for me that the western trails do. Scenery is not nearly as nice although still decent, there are more town stops, more hikers etc. Although the AT is actually a little bit harder physically than the PCT in many people's opinions because it isn't graded at 10% for horsies. The main difficulty though according to most be though is not physical but the ability to accept living outdoors for several months as a lifestyle after the novelty of it has been extinguished.
CDT is definitely the loneliest of the triple crown and a bit of a challenge to do unless you flip-flop because you hit the San Juans pretty early in the season. The route is a little bit sketchy in some places as well.
but I have never had a very long session, a week is the longest, hiking ~90 miles @ 11,000 ft+
We were going to do mt. whitney, but due to some errors on our part, ran short on time and had to cut it, we did tackle forester pass(~13,480 ft) though, with full packs, a little bit burlier than going the extra thousand feet without packs that would have been whitney
but yeah, I love backpacking, really great stuff.
One day I'd like to do the john muir trail or something like that, the last trip I went on, we met up with an OLD guy(like 60) who had been hiking for about 90 days along the californian coast, forget how many miles he charted, but it was a lot especially for an older guy.
But seriously, I've never really gone out and hiked or anything, but two summers ago we went to a remote camping area about 4 hours from where I live called Stillwater Reservoir. We stayed there for a week, no idea anybody was anywhere near you, it would take about a 30 minute boat ride to your site, only way to get any supplies was to take your boat back to the boat launch to a tiny general store. It was a great vacation. We walked around there a lot, no matter how far we ventured we never seemed to bump into anybody else.
Cheers
Scott
Originally posted by Anders
I´m going to the fridge for some beers. Anyone want some?
Yum, a good danish beer for me, please
Originally posted by Powerdoc
Yum, a good danish beer for me, please
Anders....make that two pleeeze...
I'm for watching the Rugby tonight.
England Vs France..only 1 hour to go...( sorry if it's off topic fellas )
Anyway: I'm wondering. For hiking, I like to be as light as I can, and I abstain from longer walks (pass-through hikes, as it were, as opposed to one-day hikes from a fixed base) because of the luggage issue. I hate toting around a heavy pack. And what with a tent, food and drink for a day or two (till the next town) and some clothing, you are at 20-25 kilos in no time. And that takes a whole lot of fun out of the hiking. I have gone on longer trips with that kind of luggage though. 5 days in the Belgian Ardennes, 7 days in the Spanish Pyrennees. Still, for me to have more future in hiking, I'd like to know how you people handle the load.
I have never found the need to buy a tent.
It is much cheaper, lighter and easier to buy one of those blue plastic tarpaulin car covers. Weighs practically nothing and has lug holes for ropes to tie it down to branches or rocks etc. it doesn't take long to cut wood to size ( for poles )
But water has always been the same weight....
( I am sure someone will suggest you use instant powdered water..no doubt
Between finishing University and graduation I did a 100Km walk with three friends, in 26 hours straight, over the South Downs (southern England). Massive blisters, five hours sleep in three days and couldn't move at more than a shuffle for the next day, but it was definitely worth it. Next time, I'd like to aim for ~17hours (but with more foot toughening
Anyway: I'm wondering. For hiking, I like to be as light as I can, and I abstain from longer walks (pass-through hikes, as it were, as opposed to one-day hikes from a fixed base) because of the luggage issue. I hate toting around a heavy pack. And what with a tent, food and drink for a day or two (till the next town) and some clothing, you are at 20-25 kilos in no time. And that takes a whole lot of fun out of the hiking. I have gone on longer trips with that kind of luggage though. 5 days in the Belgian Ardennes, 7 days in the Spanish Pyrennees. Still, for me to have more future in hiking, I'd like to know how you people handle the load.
As far as weight I think there are two approaches to take. Firstly you simply have to decide what is a luxury that can be left at home and what isn't. If you don't use something on a trip and it isn't for emergencies then remove it next time. The easiest way to reduce weight is simply to take less stuff.
Beyond that I think the second thing you have to do is address your big four items: Pack, Tent, Sleeping Bag and Mattress. Those four items will comprise a good portion of your weight and if you can keep them down then you should be OK. My tent including tyvek ground cloth, stakes, and poles weighs around 36 ounces. Tarp as mentioned is a good option although our climate is a bit rough for that here. So I prefer a full tent, plus tarp is problematic with bugs in season. Henry Shires tarptent is a nice compomise between the two though. My sleeping bag weighs 24 oz for a 30 degree bag. I sometimes take just a ridge rest which weighs in at only 10 ounces. For non-alpine stuffs My pack weighs 42 oz. I'll take an esbit stove weighing 3 oz plus a few more for fuel tabs. So for 3 season trips I'm looking at 112 oz which is 7 pounds or I think about 3 kilos that would be. I dunno if perhaps there are reasons to handle water differently in Europe but for the most part here I will carry two liters plus an empty one gallon (4 liters) dromedary bag for camp. It's trickier in the desert certainly but for a temperate climate with a reasonable amount of water access you should be able to get by without carrying more than a gallon at a time in most situations. I generally don't carry more than the two liters though while hiking.
My gear for a 3 season weekend generally would break down something like this:
Pack 42 oz
Pack Cover 4 oz
Dromedary Bag 5 oz
Water Bottle 1 Liter 1 oz
Water Bottle 1 Liter 4 oz
Water Filter 16 oz
Iodine (Emergency) 1 oz
Fuel Bottle 5 oz
Fuel (22 liquid oz) 16 oz
Plastic Glass/Measuring Cup 3 oz
Lighter 1 oz
Pot/Potscrubber/Stuffsack/Pot Handle 9 oz
Stove/Base/Stuffsack 22 oz
[I can go esbit at low altitude fair weather and save 31 oz]
Spoon 1 oz
Stuff Sack and Rope for hanging food 4 oz
Rain Jacket 28 oz
Fleece 18 oz
Glove liners 2 oz
Hat 2 oz
Bandana 1 oz
Liner Socks 2 oz
Liner Socks 2 oz
Wool Socks 3 oz
Rain Pants 9 oz
TShirt 7 oz
Flip-Flops 4 oz
Tent and Accessories 36 oz
Camera Stuffs 153 oz
Pillow 1 oz
Sleeping Bag 24 oz
Stuff sack 3 oz
Closed foam pad 10 oz
Headlamp 7 oz
Trowel 2 oz
Compass 2 oz
First Aid Kit 8 oz
Insect Repellant ~4 oz
Sun tan lotion ~4 oz
Soap ~6 oz
Plastic Bags 1 oz
Matches 1 oz
Pen/Paper 2 oz
Water 64 oz
Toilet Paper 2 oz
Candle 1 oz
Food ~ 64 oz
That's about it. Clothes worn but that's not weight on my back. I'm no ultralighter as you can see in fact counting the camera gear I'm even a bit above average. I take a tripod, a film camera with two lenses, and a digital so that's my main indulgence. However if you ignore the camera gear it shrinks to a reasonable number, about 20 pounds plus food and water. 26 pounds with food and water for a weekend. For a week you are looking at 40 pounds at most with a little more clothing and more food which isn't bad at all. I think that that would be what, about 17 kilograms? That's solo, take a partner and it's less. I can cut weight with my stove going to the esbit or an alcohol or even a canister. But since WA is cool and I spend a decent amount of time at moderate altitude I use white gas most of the time. I'm a little heavy on socks but no extra warmth sweater or heavy shirt. My jackets are both on the heavy side. There's room to cut maybe five pounds or so from what I have now so you could probably get that pack weight down to 15 pounds excluding food/water and camera gear. That would be a real good base pack weight for me.
The only thing that I would add is a space blanket and a flexible plastic mirror reflector that I can use to focus light for a fire or to " beam " at aircraft or helicopters, ( if in case I was so dumb as to need rescuing )
Yep : good list Col.
Also: the esbit stove. How often do you cook? And what? I believe that I can go without anything hot for several days (although my caffeine habit has grown considerably since my last hike), enough, at least, to wait it out till I encounter some cheap diner with hot and nutritious food. Of course, Europe is more densely populated than the US, so it's actually rather hard going for days without encountering a habitation of sorts (except for, maybe, Scandinavia).
A very instructive list, nonetheless. Another question: a water filter? As in purifier, or something else? Have you thought about those purifying tablets?
And: what's the volume of your pack? I have this honking 90 liter pack which is very ergonomical, but maybe a bit hefty, if I'm not going on a three month skiing trek across the arctic.
The only thing that I would add is a space blanket and a flexible plastic mirror reflector that I can use to focus light for a fire or to " beam " at aircraft or helicopters, ( if in case I was so dumb as to need rescuing )
I carry a space blanket as part of my first aid kit. I know I have a little mirror somewhere but I'm not sure if it is in my first aid kit or not. Like most people I don't pay too much attention to my first aid kit.
Very impressive, Colander. You have one of those one-person tunnel-tents, I reckon? My tent really IS excessively large and weighty for hiking alone (hosts 3 people if necessary, weighs at least 2.5 kilos). Yet I do agree with you, and with myself: a tarp is not feasible. That's one concession I'm not prepared to make.
I agree. Bugs and rain make a tarp less than desireable IMO. But it works for some people.
My 3 season tent of preference right now is the Europa:
http://www.sixmoondesigns.com/products/Europa2.asp
Weighs 30 ounces on my scale (33 according to the guy who makes htem) + 6 for the ground cloth. I think there are about 35 ounces in a kilogram so that's about one kilogram. It's very spacious for one person, a little cozy for two but OK. Your tent sounds a little heavy, if you're going with three people then that weight is fine but if you're going by yourself much then that is pretty weighty. I like the stuff the backpacking cottage industry is churning out. A lot of those guys are thru-hikers in fact which is why they made their own shelters; needing something super light weight for such hikes. Another one that I htought about buying was a tarptent which some other people have spoken highly of. http://www.tarptent.com/products.html
Also: the esbit stove. How often do you cook? And what? I believe that I can go without anything hot for several days (although my caffeine habit has grown considerably since my last hike), enough, at least, to wait it out till I encounter some cheap diner with hot and nutritious food. Of course, Europe is more densely populated than the US, so it's actually rather hard going for days without encountering a habitation of sorts (except for, maybe, Scandinavia).
I generally will heat tea in the morning to kind of sit around and wake up and have something warm to drink. So I'm just boiling water there. Then I'll have snacks or cold food for lunch and usually a hot dinner. So twice a day. Dinner is whatever, those pricey backpacking foods half the time, maybe something like ramen with to flavor it, or occasionally I'll take a regular food item that is a little weightier and cook it hte first night.
Coffee is good, I'm a fiend, but it is a diarrhetic which is something that is not so good if you're gonna shit in the woods. I like tea as well.
If you can go without hot foods then you can dump your stove, fuel and container, pot, spoon etc. With the white gas setup that is over a kilogram, even without still maybe half a kilogram. Good way to save weight but personally I love hot food and beverages at dawn and dusk.
I haven't really done much backpacking in Europe but it does seem to be a lot different then here. Certainly the East coast of the US is much more like Europe although still will some larger tracts of land. However the Western US still has some pretty decent sized wildernesses. I don't think they really have the strict concept of wilderness that we have here in the US where wilderness entails sizable chunks of public land set aside with no roads, no buildings, no bikes/snowmobiles etc. Basically in the US wilderness means trails are the primary human impact and walking and horseback are your means of travel. Of course you can go hiking in some type of park or BLM/USFS or whatever where you have development to an extent but it's still not the mixed wild/small town sort of thing that people do in Europe. Those places are still nice and I do day hikes there but for backpacking I take advantage of the wilderness options available in my corner of the country.
Here's the wilderness map for WA.
Washington has 4.3 million acres of wilderness which would be equilavent to about half the size of Belgium. Altogether the US has about 105 million acres which would be somewhere between France and Germany in size.
Another question: a water filter? As in purifier, or something else? Have you thought about those purifying tablets?
The difference is that a purifier will stop viruses whereas a filter will not. I've always just used a filter and in the US and Canadia it is common to use just a filter. Viruses in the backcountry aren't a big worry. But a purifier gives you added protection I guess. Not sure what the standard is in other Western countries.
You can use hte iodine tablets but that is costlier long term. Tastes ickly. You have to wait a while too for it to act. Tablets are a bit lighter weight though. Again, you could cut weight here if you wanted to. You can boil it as well but I htink that that is a hassle.
And: what's the volume of your pack? I have this honking 90 liter pack which is very ergonomical, but maybe a bit hefty, if I'm not going on a three month skiing trek across the arctic.
Yeah, when I first started backpacking a decade ago my thought was that it would be best to get a monster pack because it could carry a lot or a little. Still have the pack and use it occasionally, it is a good pack but it weighs about 7.5 pounds so 3 kilograms. I've got a couple different packs now. My weekend pack is a Gregory G pack which weighs 42 ounces on my scale so a little over a kg. Some of the GoLite packs are like 10 oz or something but I didn't really like the fit on those. For 25 pounds or less the G pack is good and fairly light, for a heavier weight then the suspension gets stressed. Unfortunately I have no idea how many liters it holds, but it is about 3500 square inches IIRC. I found the pack was the last thing I upgraded as I tried to go a little lighter because I wanted to get one appropriate for the volume and weight that I needed and those two measurements were decreasing as I changed other gear.
What I did basically was read up on gear and do shopping online and in person. Thought about what ideal items were and looked for ideas from the thruhiker stuff online which is where a lot of the interesting ideas came from. I listed all of my gear. Bought a cheap mechanical postal scale for ten bucks. You can get a more accurate digital one for 30 bucks or so on ebay. Then I measured all my gear in ounces rounding up. Added it up and it was a lot. So I thought about what items I could upgrade. I had a wishlist. And which items I could cut out completely. Cutting out was just making decisions and being disciplined. For replacement items, basically I prioritized by looking at ounces saved/$ and then used that as the order for what I wanted. Still a work in progress. And yes my methods are anal retentive.