its all about the baseweight.... and Chorley cakes

This is probably going to be a post that appeals to the walking/hiking nerds out there... Ok, I know I'm one, anyone else want to join camping gear anonymous?

My gear for the Coast to Coast is coming together nicely... and while walking yesterday I tried a rough comparison of the gear I used to do long distance paths...

Tent
now 1kg, then 2kg

Camping Mat
now 0.5kg, then 1kg

Sleeping bag
now 1kg, then 1kg

Stove (with pans and fuel)
now 0.75kg, then 2kg

All of which adds together, with almost the worlds smallest wash kit, a lighter rucksack ect ect brings my baseweight (the weight of gear not including water and food) to 8kg, there'll be about 3l of water (that's 3 kg) and probably another kg of food... So rounded up that's 13kg or about 2 stone... on my back for 2 weeks...

The good news my rough memory of the weight I used to carry was closer to 20kg or a third heavier... That should help a lot!!!

The ultralight brigade would say I'm carrying 3kg too much, and I should be less of a wimp and man up and get rid of some of my luxuries... Like the change of clothes, 2 pairs of socks, tent... They'd also cut bits off the various gear to bring down the weight... I'm obsessed, but not obsessional... The art is to get to a weight I'm happy with, and its good - I walked 12 miles yesterday with it on, and yes I could feel it, but I didn't think it was excessive!

Which all helps the dickey ticker, not quite as much as losing a stone in weight would (but that'll come)...



We did manage to find a pie for lunch (it was national pie week, and we did leave Wigan) but Chorley had run out of Chorley cakes!!!!

The run didn't happen today, thumping headache and a blocked nose meant I had an easy day (so shopping, washing, cleaning walking boots, bargain hunting online)...

TTFN

Paul

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