Walking Forum
Main Boards => Long Distance Walks => Topic started by: Oldstuff on 00:21:16, 15/05/18
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Hello walkers
Hope you're all well. I am new here and am looking for some advice if that's ok.
I started the Pennine Way last year...S-N and almost at Malham. I am thinking of starting again in a few weeks and wonder if anyone has any advice about solo walking and wild camping. I'm female if that makes a difference. When I did the first stretch I was with other people but they don't want to do any more. I really want to finish it.
1) Do you think wild camping in discreet locations is possible along the rest of the way?
2) I have a 1kg tent and can get my kit down to a decent weight but am slightly concerned about carrying food. Are there plenty of places to get things on the way? I'm not particularly strong and so can't carry a lot of weight and do the descents.
Any advice very gratefully received.
Thanks for reading walkers
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There are many places along the PW where you can eat or pick up food, many simply take snacks for breakfast and then eat at cafes or pubs en route. There are also many places to wild camp or there are some official campsites. Difficult to give exact advice without knowing what sort of daily distances you do and whether you want to wild camp and cook your own food throughout.
This blog may help in your planning http://www.treksnappy.com/2014/06/hiking-pennine-way-days-1-3.html
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I'm going to be soloing a different route but I've spoke to a place at the half way point who've agreed to let me send a care package to myself there. So fresh socks and food waiting there that way I don't have to carry it. I'll be wild camping all the way as well and trying to spend as little money as possible. Will need a few nice coffees though 😂
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There are no problems wild camping PW as long as you are careful about it; also there are several, usually small farm or pub campsites
Search Google & YouTube for 'Pennine Way camping', there are loads of references
There are now so few YHA hostels on PW that it's not worth joining. But if the weather's bad or you want a change you can stay as a non member, just turn up and pay a small additional fee
I once met a young woman walking on her own through the Highlands. She said she had to be aware of the usual hazards for any solo walker - getting lost; sprained ankle; other injuries. 'As for the other thing, I'm probably safer in the hills than I am at home in Birmingham'.
Don't forget Greg's Hut and the refuge huts on the Cheviots
food for backpacking is a vast subject on its own - Search Google & YT
The easiest & lightest is to get the just-add-boiling-water dried backpacking meals, but they are expensive. Would be worth carrying a couple just in case, and using them up when you cross the Cheviots
A cheaper method is to use pasta & sauce or instant noodles, and extend them with small can of tuna, smoked pork sausage, or whatever
There is now nothing available at Byrness, you'll have to take everything from Bellingham
If you're camping at a village get a change from dried food - pub or cafe; buy proper food & cook it yourself; or canned
( why the small font? no idea, my computer threw a wobbly)
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The last time I did the PW I did it with my dog who cannot eat any old food and my wife just posted food ahead to campsites (ditto maps) and it worked pretty well so you could do the same with your food if you wish but TBH there is no need because there is somewhere to buy food most of the way - sometimes you might have to detour a little. I managed to stop near a pub most nights or during the day (no pub at Crowden though)
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There is now nothing available at Byrness
That's bad news for all Pennine Wayfarers. I've seen posts by the proprietors of Forest View desperately trying to sell it as a going concern - they obviously failed. I hope something else opens up by next year, when I'll be doing LEJOG without a tent.
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Like others I too have hiked the Pennine Way alone. Apart from bad weather, midges at Alston and being charged by a herd of cows near Bellingham, who verred off away from me in the last few seconds, its an enjoyable walk and its demanding enough! I found camping and shopping easy to do en route, including wild camping as well. I gave some thought to personal security recently and bought a 3 pack x 130db personal alarms (from Amazon about £12, light as a feather) which I thought might come in useful. Each alarm has a small rod pushed into its side, when the rod is pulled out, loads of noise!!!!!!. Easy to stop just put the rod back in. The only extra I needed to buy was some fishing line, no weight at all, £4 for 40 yards. I tried out one alarm last week in France> I was on a site with only 3 tents around. I tied an alarm to my tent entrance and then went for a meal. If I was burgled at least the alarm would go off and the other tenters and the motor caravaneers would hear it.
When I next wild camp I now have the option of using the fishing line to secure all of my area if I want to. I can circle myself if need be and if anyone, or an animal crosses into my enclosed area I would hear them before they got to my tent, maybe the 130db's would scare them off as well? I've had the experience of pigs trying to get in my tent with me and cattle appearing in the night so I know these little surprises can happen.
During my hiking years I have met quite a few lone female hikers, young, middle aged and older. None of them, to my knowledge had problems because of their gender. Once on the Pennine Way I met a young woman, she looked about 20-25 going south and the second time a couple of years later I met a young woman about 30 and we climbed over the top of Pen Y Fan together and both camped the night on the Horton campsite. My most memorable was a young 22 year old (she told me, spoke perfect English) French woman who was hiking alone in the Pyrenees. We were in the middle of nowhere by the side of a lake and she opened her rucksack to show me her machete in a very nice leather scabbard. Her Dad bought it as a birthday present, I thought, what a nice man!!
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How sad, I've stayed at Byrness three times and liked it a lot. Can hikers camp in the caravan site nearby?
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That's bad news for all Pennine Wayfarers. I've seen posts by the proprietors of Forest View desperately trying to sell it as a going concern - they obviously failed. I hope something else opens up by next year, when I'll be doing LEJOG without a tent.
I don't think Colin and Joyce have closed, just there isn't a shop where you can buy stuff.
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Use walking poles, if you don't already, they help with the ascents and descents when carrying loads.
Use the Post Offices's Poste Restante service to post supples "Up trail" to Post Offices.
If not collected then they are returned at no further charge. The most northerly PO for this service is Bellingham.
Get a copy of Trailblazer's guide to the PW - by far the best.
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How sad, I've stayed at Byrness three times and liked it a lot. Can hikers camp in the caravan site nearby?
On the Border Forest Caravan website it says....Please note we do not allow tents except Pennine Way walkers and D of E groups
So, that'll be a "yes" although no price seems to be mentioned.
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I walked the PW and wild-camped all but few nights. On such walks I walk about 24 k a day so I work that out on the map and then look for a bit of nearby woodland to hide away in; sometimes I will go off route a bit to get to a woodland ;check the contours to see if it is going to be flat enough to camp.
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I am not sure what Zuludog is talking about when he says that there is nothing at Byrness. Forest View Inn is still open and thriving Spruce cottage bunkhouse is still open for self caterers on a budget and even people not buying a bed can use our tuck shop to buy tins and packets of easy cook food, snacks chocolate etc. I would be interested to know why Zuludog has posted this as we are working hard to keep this end of the Pennine way going until we can find a suitable buyer (as opposed to just any buyer) . On the subject of a lack of YHA`s the Independent hostel guide has listed it`s members hostels and bunkhouses close to or on the Pennine way & they are now compiling list for other national trails.
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I am not sure what Zuludog is talking about when he says that there is nothing at Byrness. Forest View Inn is still open and thriving Spruce cottage bunkhouse is still open for self caterers on a budget and even people not buying a bed can use our tuck shop to buy tins and packets of easy cook food, snacks chocolate etc. I would be interested to know why Zuludog has posted this as we are working hard to keep this end of the Pennine way going until we can find a suitable buyer (as opposed to just any buyer) . On the subject of a lack of YHA`s the Independent hostel guide has listed it`s members hostels and bunkhouses close to or on the Pennine way & they are now compiling list for other national trails.
I stand corrected
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I met several solo female walkers heading north on the PW last year as I went south. The only common factor amongst them was that they were all a lot younger than me!. I would say that they were mostly well prepared, fit, well equipped and with one exception, realistic about what they could achieve each day.
These young women would have no more difficulty completing the task at hand than supposedly stronger souls like me; probably less.
I think the risks of being molested, harassed etc on the PW are very low indeed compared to; say, the typical inner city.
As I said in my blog, I hope my granddaughters will do the walk in coming years ( I have already threatened my eldest with a coast to coast accompanied by granddad for his 70th birthday when she is 13!)
ps: has it dried up much Joyce and Colin? :D
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My best memory was a young woman who I met who claimed that she had little or no fear of being molested because the people that she had already met were too exhausted and unfit even to try. I still advised her to be careful.
Have you noticed how many woman 'revenge' films there are at the moment.
I've watched two in the last fortnight, the first is 'Revenge' filmed in the USA and 'Hunting Emma' filmed in South Africa. I thought both were good enough to watch, very nice photography, desert landscapes. The violence was a bit graphic and stylised.
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Hi everyone
Thank you all so much for your detailed replies. I am starting again tomorrow from Gargrave. Really looking forward to it.
I will take some breakfast and emergency food and hopefully eat in pubs and cafe's where I can.
I have the route logged onto my Garmin so hopefully I won't get lost, even if I'm in cloud and drizzle.
Happy walking everyone
OldStuff