Well I had a nice four days plodding round the lakes. This being my first
experience of autumn walking/camping, I had some new toys to play with:
The good ones were:
ME microtherm jacket. Fantastic - pertexy outer with microfleecy inner.
Perfect worn over a smelly helly. Only wore the paclite smock over it when
it began raining properly.
Kimm powerstretch tights. If you don't mind wearing tights, these are fab.
Would be too warm in milder weather, but still felt lovely and snuggly in
hard rain and wind.
Kimm q490 sleeping bag. Lighter than a lovely fluffy cloud, but still kept
me warm (well I did have my clothes on).
The less good were:
Laser tent. It's broken!. The two zips run either side of a central tape,
which the pole-sleeve is attached to. This tape is then attached to the main
tape running under the tent, and the whole pole-tape ensemble provides the
tension for the porch. Alas, the zip-tape-bit detached from the
tape-under-the-tent bit. I was able to bodge something with the string off
my compass, but I was not impressed. Back to the shop it goes...
Boots, tho' it may just be me. I got some "mid" boots which go above the
ankle. The cuff ended up pressing hard on the pointy lump to the left of my
right ankle, and in the end made it very painful to walk.Is this a design
flaw in my ankle or the boot?
The jury is still out on the balloon bed. Fourth time I've used it, and I'm
still chasing it round the tent in the middle of the night. But, it's so
lovely and small! I'm very tempted by a short thermarest prolite 3, but it
does take up more pack space (for a 4-night mix of YHA and wild camping I
was using a 35l bag, weighing about 14lbs without food/water).
Anyway, it was a very enjoyable weekend, brilliant autumn colours and some
fine walking.
Tom