Author Topic: Pack weight for treks  (Read 6010 times)

sussamb

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #15 on: 11:33:42, 12/01/18 »
Jim Bob, sound advice, thanks but, at 64 some would say that I'm already in later life! Not sure about getting a coffee whenever needed (ProPlus tabs just ain't the same), and will want to camp in north Scotland en route. Also I want to average 18 miles per day and sometimes there aren't pubs and shops in the right places to maintain that average.


I did the PW for my second time this year at 65.  Started with a pack weight of 17 kgs mainly due to special self heating food packs.  Finished nearer to 10kgs but I'm the first to admit I carry more than I really need to.  As you're doing lejog take the advice above and cut down as much as possible.
Where there's a will ...

AFANASIEW

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #16 on: 11:45:15, 12/01/18 »
Good point, NeilC, about differential carrying capacity. I came across this item which kinda confirms your view. Using that calculation, I could carry up to 41lbs, but the weight of opinion seems to lean heavily (!) towards a much lighter load. Still, gotta have music in the shape of a tiny mp3 player so as not to use up my phone, on which I'll be using Viewranger. Being a minimalist is hard!
It's simple - one foot in front of the other.

Stube

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #17 on: 12:09:40, 12/01/18 »
I did the PW when I was 64 and camped all the way. My pack base weight was about 10kg including fuel, sticks & solarcharger. Water (travel tap), food & maps/guidebooks added perhaps another 5kg (I always carry too much food particularly snacks).

A kindle wasn't an option for guidebooks at the time - but is certainly a good idea.

If you are carryring waterproof trousers, then I would regard gaiters as superfluous before Scotland - you'll not be wading through heather since most of the PW is flagged across the moors these days. And you certainly don't need them in southern England.

Use the Post Office's Poste Restrante service to send stuff uptrail and save weight.

I find relying on Pubs / village shops a very risky strategy - unless you are willing to make long detours. I have found that outside major tourist centres, about 50% were closed when I passed them - either permanently or wrong day or time. It is particularly difficult to get breakfast - something I find essential.

Most of my walking is off the beaten track of National Trails on lesser known LDPs.

Rather be walking

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #18 on: 12:39:58, 12/01/18 »
My maximum rucksack weight is 8kgs the avg is 6-7kgs that's including tent, sleeping bag, stove, cook stuff etc.
I've walked the South Down Way (camping) with 4kgs rucksack, I didn't have a change of clothes, just spare socks. It was only 4 days and only myself for company ;D
People seem to carry loads of stuff they don't need.
After 46 years I have it down to a fine art.

I was once told by a my scout leader back in the 1960's, when you come back from your first trip make two piles, one of the stuff you used and one of stuff you didn't and repeat.

Jon.   
““The hardest part was coming to terms with the constant dispiriting discovery that there is always more hill.”
― Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods

Owen

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #19 on: 12:42:40, 12/01/18 »
Good point, NeilC, about differential carrying capacity. I came across this item which kinda confirms your view. Using that calculation, I could carry up to 41lbs, but the weight of opinion seems to lean heavily (!) towards a much lighter load.


That article is fine in principal but of no use what so ever in the real world. Knowing what the maximum weight you could carry tells you absolutely nothing about what you'd be comfortable carrying day after day.

Requiem

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #20 on: 12:52:09, 12/01/18 »
If I'm travelling Far and Remote (which tbh these days is the PW) I always Overpack Food and Underpack clothes. Clothes will remain clothes even if they smell sweaty and get a bit muddy whereas theres nothing more miserable than waking in a tent on a cold morning on the Fell with little to eat and little prospect of finding somewhere to get some. The advent of cars, Tesco delivery and shrinking village life means that long distance paths will never have enough places to buy supplies so I'll always take lightweight water-reconstituted food with me for a one meal a day hit - and if theres a luxury of a cafe, a shop or a pub then I'll stock up.
I always take a water filter - walking hungry is often necessary, walking thirsty is stupidity  O0


I used to stockpile my old, nearly-knackered t-shirts and pants etc for long distance routes so I could just bin them when I'd worn them - these days sports-direct sell stuff so cheap and of a decent enough quality for hiking that you can squeeze them down and they're light enough to sit in the bottom of your rucksack until you can wash them out in the shower, and they dry quickly on a drying-room peg. Overclothes I spend more money on for the warmth, but again they stay warm when wet and are stupidly light compared to how they used to be.


Electronics-wise, I spend as much as I can on this stuff for regular use so when I need it for long distances it performs well - A top Android phone will usually take the best pics (no need for a camera so less weight) and will have the best battery (less need for a backup battery) and will perform other tasks quite well (music player, GPS, ViewRanger, nudey pics ::) , telly)


Good modern gear as above will repel water better, dry quicker and most importantly STAY WARM when wet


And finally. Most importantly. Marry someone who doesn't mind your daft hobbys and pastimes!! Having a partner willing to bundle the Labradors and a weeks provisions into the back of the car and then drive out 120 miles to drop it off at a particular road corner on a particular bit of moorland is a real benefit.


Roy
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fernman

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #21 on: 12:54:03, 12/01/18 »
For books get a kindle and consider getting yourself a solar panel to attach to your rucksack for recharging a portable charger. There are also chargers that use standard batteries. Of course if you're gonna stay in B&Bs then you don't even need to worry about that. I wouldn't be carrying a month's worth of paperbacks!

Much as I love books and reading, I won't be carrying one any more because I simply never opened the ones I carried on my last two trips, while on the trip previous to themI only read a few pages of the book I carried .
I always used to read a bit during and just after my lunch stop, but these days I'm happy to just sit and admire the landscape, while I also guiltily feel I should be getting on with the walk instead of spending time sitting on my backside with my nose in a book.
My overnight wild camping is usually timed so that it is just beginning to get dark as I finish my dinner, after which I used to bed down and read for anything up to an hour. Maybe it's an age thing, but I find it too uncomfortable now and I'm quite content to go to sleep early. Sometimes I find a good pitch early, and then there's an hour or an hour-and-a-half to kill; this would be a good time to read, but after the day's exertions it is also a good time to lay down and have a nap.
So, that will be a few more grammes weight saved!

AFANASIEW

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #22 on: 13:25:42, 12/01/18 »
Dismissed the heavyweight Kindle idea - I'll be too busy acting out Don Quixote to bother reading it again. But I am becoming self conscious about my packing list. Got a Wild Country Hoolie 2 tent for a bit of space for the pack. (My ultra-lightweight tent back in the 1980s failed to survive a drunken night in Germany!) Got an Endor Forest sleeping bag plus silk liner and two mats - a foam one in an attempt to prevent the lightweight inflatable from being punctured and as backup if it does. There's the Jetboil. And I want to take the Haglof softshell to use as a midlayer if necessary under the Lhotse jacket. The gaiters are because I got very wet and cold on both Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike when the rain ran off waterproof trousers straight into boots!
Still looking for a backpack and welcome suggestions. I'm liking the look of the Jack Wolfskin Denali.


It's simple - one foot in front of the other.

Islandplodder

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #23 on: 15:05:57, 12/01/18 »

I use paramo walking trousers which are waterproof (and I find them very comfortable) which means I don't have to carry separate waterproof trousers.  They dry very quickly as well, if you get the urge to give them a rinse occasionally!
Using the Poste Restante service to send stuff ahead (fresh socks, maps etc) also helps a lot. 40 years ago I remember putting a package of spare clothes on the train and catching them up in Fort William a few days later, but I don't suppose they let you do that now.
I usually do LDPs with a friend, and the first few we did we emptied our packs out before we set off, and each went through the other's stuff chucking the  inessentials out.  We had to justify each bit that went back in.
Similar to putting stuff aside you didn't use last time.

AFANASIEW

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #24 on: 16:26:47, 12/01/18 »
Stube's experience of shops and pubs being unreliable chimes with my own - try checking online whether village x-bury or y-ham has a shop and whether it's still open!
I too dislike walking without a reasonable breakfast inside me - I get too grouchy and niggly to enjoy the views.
The idea of using poste restante is a familiar one I've used for maps in the past and plan to use for dry food rations this time.
Islandplodder, I'll be wearing lightweight shorts for the most part.
Right, thanks to all for your contributions. You've inspired me to go through my packing list challenging each item. Presumably the unused principle doesn't work for the first aid kit, though.

Tony
It's simple - one foot in front of the other.

NeilC

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #25 on: 16:30:21, 12/01/18 »
Much as I love books and reading, I won't be carrying one any more because I simply never opened the ones I carried on my last two trips, while on the trip previous to themI only read a few pages of the book I carried .
I always used to read a bit during and just after my lunch stop, but these days I'm happy to just sit and admire the landscape, while I also guiltily feel I should be getting on with the walk instead of spending time sitting on my backside with my nose in a book.
My overnight wild camping is usually timed so that it is just beginning to get dark as I finish my dinner, after which I used to bed down and read for anything up to an hour. Maybe it's an age thing, but I find it too uncomfortable now and I'm quite content to go to sleep early. Sometimes I find a good pitch early, and then there's an hour or an hour-and-a-half to kill; this would be a good time to read, but after the day's exertions it is also a good time to lay down and have a nap.
So, that will be a few more grammes weight saved!


I don't usually bother with a kindle other than winter. As you say, with daylight, there's plenty to look at. But this time of year it's getting dark at 5 and you can be alone in a small tent for about 13+ hours of darkness. I find some form of entertain is required. I'm not the meditative type. Audiobooks on the phone are good for me.

Islandplodder

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #26 on: 16:32:09, 12/01/18 »

Good luck with LEJoG.
I quite envy you.  I've been hankering after doing it since reading John Hillaby 40 odd years ago.
It would be good to hear how it went.

AFANASIEW

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #27 on: 17:39:02, 12/01/18 »
Thank you.
For anyone who may be interested, here's my account of tackling the Pennine Way in 2015. The blog has lain fallow for a while, but I'll shortly take up tools again to give an account of preparations for both the SWCP and LEJOG.
It's simple - one foot in front of the other.

Stube

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #28 on: 19:14:49, 12/01/18 »
Quote
l... and two mats - a foam one in an attempt to prevent the lightweight inflatable from being punctured and as backup if it does. There's the Jetboil.  ....
The gaiters are because I got very wet and cold on both Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike when the rain ran off waterproof trousers straight into boots!

I've used a lightweight self-inflating mat for years and never punctured it, it's probably lighter than an airbed and foam mat combo and certainly less space. A self-inflating mat still provides some insulation/comfort even if flat.

The weight penalty of a Jetboil is not offset by its greater efficency provided you can get fuel every 7/10 days - generally possible in the UK.

All my walking trousers (whether waterproof or not) are a little on the long side and sit over the socks and boots (think spats). Water just bypasses the socks and boot tops straight to the ground.

BTW I always walk in zip-offs so I can convert them to shorts whenever possible! They have the further advantage that generally you only need the wash the leg bits to remain presentable.

FYI The stretch between Garrigill and Alston is a tick hotspot and the locals avoid walking in shorts.
 

AFANASIEW

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Re: Pack weight for treks
« Reply #29 on: 20:01:46, 12/01/18 »
Stube, it's a bit late for that advice. I remember the midges as I sat on the bench outside the church in Garrigill to re-fuel, at which point I was assailed by memories of a miserably sodden night at the George and Dragon thirty-odd years before. No-one had told me about the ticks, so I ventured forth with naked calves and, guess what? My tick-removal tool is still unused. Retrospective 'Phew!'
It's simple - one foot in front of the other.

 

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