The hiking gear and adventures thread...

[Richard-390a0]

Faust66 said:

Quick question: does anybody know what (if anything) has happened to poster 'mickeythefish'?

He always used to post about his trips and plans, but it's all gone very quiet...

18th of March was his last reply to a topic on Pistonheads.

[Matt..]

StoutBench said:

Known as a hikers paradise isn't it? Looks beautiful, hope you share some pics.

The entire place is private land. You cannot just walk anywhere as you can in places like Norway, or in national parks in most countries. Many of the famous places are paid entry and restricted times.

[StoutBench]

Matt.. said:

StoutBench said:

Known as a hikers paradise isn't it? Looks beautiful, hope you share some pics.

The entire place is private land. You cannot just walk anywhere as you can in places like Norway, or in national parks in most countries. Many of the famous places are paid entry and restricted times.

Ah. Yes a few of the walks have a fee up to £50 per adult but there are lots of amazing free walks if you don't want to pay. You won't struggle on finding trails. If you are only there for a weekend you'd probably want to hit up a trail rather than get off the beaten track I'd imagine.

[thepritch]

w1bbles said:

My daughter and I climbed Lochnagar on Saturday. We had planned to do the 5 White Mounth Munros but the weather was so bad we bailed after 1. It was beautiful below 700m but grim above!



Luckily still had some great scenery once we were back out of the clag.

Super, hadn’t realised there was that much snow still around up there. We took a short potter up Tom’s Cairn, Finzean on the Friday and could see all the way to Aberdeen, then all the way to Lochnagar in the opp direction, a combined 54 miles of vis.

Lochnagar looked like it had a few slivers of snow on the cliffs. I said to my wife I must head up there this week as it’s my favorite walk and haven’t done it this year yet - quite glad I’ve been lazy as I don’t fancy battling any snow right now

[gusko]

Here are a few from a 3hr stroll around the foothills of the mountains where I live in Bulgaria.

My international walking partners for the day , one from France and one from Belgium, plus a Bulgarian dog



Looking back to my village and the Rila Mountains



The Pirin Mountains



Our destination is the Thracian fort on the hill in the middle of the pic



At the fort with the Rhodope Mountains in the background





Pirin Mountains



The entrance to the valley the fort protected



looking back to my village from the fort

[theplayingmantis]

Can anyone recommend a Cotswolds walking route guide, from personal experience? myriad on offer but ime generally (not cotswolds) many walking guides are low effort phoning them in. i like the old skool AA no through road type guides, so similar in a book form would be good.

[StoutBench]

theplayingmantis said:

Can anyone recommend a Cotswolds walking route guide, from personal experience? myriad on offer but ime generally (not cotswolds) many walking guides are low effort phoning them in. i like the old skool AA no through road type guides, so similar in a book form would be good.

Cicerone books are usually very good if they do one

[theplayingmantis]

Thanks they seem to do.

Do they give details/history on POI along each route?

[StoutBench]

theplayingmantis said:

Thanks they seem to do.

Do they give details/history on POI along each route?

They do tend to give a bit of history and poi's but not a huge amount of depth as the focus is on the routes. I've not found them lacking tbh. Maybe see if you can find some sample pages on the one you are interested in?

[Regbuser]

gusko said:

Here are a few from a 3hr stroll around the foothills of the mountains where I live in Bulgaria.

My international walking partners for the day , one from France and one from Belgium, plus a Bulgarian dog



Looking back to my village and the Rila Mountains



The Pirin Mountains



Our destination is the Thracian fort on the hill in the middle of the pic



At the fort with the Rhodope Mountains in the background





Pirin Mountains



The entrance to the valley the fort protected



looking back to my village from the fort

gusko, thanks for sharing

[theplayingmantis]

StoutBench said:

theplayingmantis said:

Thanks they seem to do.

Do they give details/history on POI along each route?

They do tend to give a bit of history and poi's but not a huge amount of depth as the focus is on the routes. I've not found them lacking tbh. Maybe see if you can find some sample pages on the one you are interested in?

thnaks are there any guides that focus more on the POI as thats what the old skool 'no through roads' were good at.

[irc]

Any other old school Pistonheaders still got a Primus/Optimus stove kicking about? This thought was prompted by a picture I posted elsewhere.



This is one from my dad's collection. It's a picture of a doss in Corrie Ba, Rannoch Moor, Glen Coe area. I think it's from the 60s. I used the place a few times in the 80s when it looked similar to this.

If you look closely there is a 1 pint Primus stove on the middle right of the picture. Exactly the same stove I used when I started camping in the 1970s. So I went out to the shed yesterday and pulled my stove off the shelf. Still full of paraffin from the last time I used it a couple of decades ago before switching to gas.

Fired it up and it ran like it had been used yesterday. .

[craig1912]

irc said:

Any other old school Pistonheaders still got a Primus/Optimus stove kicking about? This thought was prompted by a picture I posted elsewhere.



This is one from my dad's collection. It's a picture of a doss in Corrie Ba, Rannoch Moor, Glen Coe area. I think it's from the 60s. I used the place a few times in the 80s when it looked similar to this.

If you look closely there is a 1 pint Primus stove on the middle right of the picture. Exactly the same stove I used when I started camping in the 1970s. So I went out to the shed yesterday and pulled my stove off the shelf. Still full of paraffin from the last time I used it a couple of decades ago before switching to gas.

Fired it up and it ran like it had been used yesterday. .

Used them all the time in the 70’s in Scouts. The 2 pt could be very powerful. Also used the old Tilley lamp which worked on a similar principle and provided a decent source of heat as well as light.
Could be a pain to light when it was very cold (Camping in the Lakes in December) as it took a while to heat enough to vaporise the paraffin. Think there are still a couple in my parents garage.

[irc]

craig1912 said:

Used them all the time in the 70’s in Scouts. The 2 pt could be very powerful. Also used the old Tilley lamp which worked on a similar principle and provided a decent source of heat as well as light.
Could be a pain to light when it was very cold (Camping in the Lakes in December) as it took a while to heat enough to vaporise the paraffin. Think there are still a couple in my parents garage.

Yeah. My dad started his by getting avtrickle of paraffin in the bowl and lighting it with a few twists of newspaper. I thought this made if drity and made the nozzle block more often.

I always carried a small bottle of meths for priming.

[gusko]

As this is the hiking gear and adventure thread I thought I would add to the hiking gear aspect as I have just done the adventure bit.

I am getting older and my body lets me know about it every day. When I used to run snowmobile tours I would spend a lot of the day wearing snow shoes when I wasnt riding.

I like snow shoes but they have their drawbacks, especially for me not being the tallest of people. Also after a car crash a few years ago I havent been able to walk without a stick and only for a few hundred metres. But last spring the weather was glorious so I decided to walk to the next village 1.5km have a beer then walk back even if it took all day. . On the way there my bad knee just clicked back into place and the pain /weakness disappeared.

So this gave me a huge boost and I started to dream about getting out and about in the winter with some new snow kit.

I had wanted some Hok skis for years and now I could justify getting a pair.

These are a short ski with built in skins for climbing slopes.

I purchased a pair at xmas and they were delivered early January, alas I dont have any pics of my little excursion with them but I can say they are a lot easier for me to traverse deep snow than snow shoes , less effort , less sinking into the snow ,generally just above the ankles and I even managed to ski around a km back home without adding to my injury list..

I only managed 3 little excursions on them last season but this season I am hoping to get on them daily once the snow arrives.

https://www.aventurenordique.com/skis-raquettes-al...


I made myself a Tiak (head height ski pole)from an alloy pole I had and it was cumbersome on the uphills as a beginner , on the way down whilst sliding it was a really natural position leaning back onto it and using it as a tripod leg / rudder to get me down .

I then bought some Black Diamond hiking /ski poles and tried them ..... easier on the uphill , not as stable for me when skiing downhill, I fell many times. I have never used skis before I put these on.
I have the short version and use them with Grisport Gamekeeper boots ,
I highly recommend them

[w1bbles]

thepritch said:

Super, hadn’t realised there was that much snow still around up there. We took a short potter up Tom’s Cairn, Finzean on the Friday and could see all the way to Aberdeen, then all the way to Lochnagar in the opp direction, a combined 54 miles of vis.

Lochnagar looked like it had a few slivers of snow on the cliffs. I said to my wife I must head up there this week as it’s my favorite walk and haven’t done it this year yet - quite glad I’ve been lazy as I don’t fancy battling any snow right now

Yes - the forecast was looking excellent mid week then deteriorated a bit. It was glorious on the 5.30am drive out from Aberdeen and in the car park so we stupidly left our crampons in the car (but took up ice axes just in case). Luckily there was no ice on the big steps or the boulder field or we would have had to turn back. We might have carried on if we'd had crampons but I didn't want to risk it - or do the whole walk and not see further than 50 metres.

[LordHaveMurci]

Cracking day yesterday, 15.3mls, 3900ft elevation:

Edited by LordHaveMurci on Monday 28th April 18:11

[Faust66]

Stunning pics as always... where were they taken on the SWCP?

(I'd guess near Boscastle - but I'm probably wrong!)

[theplayingmantis]

Not boscastle I don't think

[LordHaveMurci]

Faust66 said:

Stunning pics as always... where were they taken on the SWCP?

(I'd guess near Boscastle - but I'm probably wrong!)

Pretty darn close!

This was taken at Boscastle Farm Shop (highly recommended)!

Edited by LordHaveMurci on Monday 28th April 18:11