Sorted

Even though I’m not off to the Lakes until the 28th, I’m all packed and ready to go. All the food has been bought, except tea bags. Map has been printed. All I need is some good weather!

The idea is to do a three day, four night backpack in the area that I visited last November. Dovedale, Scandale Pass, Fairfield, Grisedale, Angletarn Pikes, Kidsty Pike, Haweswater, Harter Fell, High Street, Hayeswater, Brothers Water. I’ve given myself shorter days than I would normally do (8-10 miles each day) as the daylight is shorter and I really want to wild camp at some of the places I missed out on last year. My big mistake last year was being too ambitious.

Because it’s a bit colder, I’ve packed a bit extra (like bivvy boots!) to make sure I’ll definitely be warm. Total base weight is just over 9kg. If I was being hair-shirted about it, I could easily push it below 8kg, but I’m not doing huge mileage, so why suffer?

I’m using my Mariposa Plus, rather than the Exos. However, I’m going to try the Paramo/Quickfire combination as an experiment, even though it’s not strictly necessary. Tent is the Laser Comp, obviously. I like the look of the new Scarp 1, so this could be the last outing for the Comp for some time. Sleeping bag is the Pipedream 400.

I was shocked to find that I only had two Real Turmat meals left. Then I remembered that I’d given Charlie some. I’ve got some Mountain House meals left so I’ll take those as well.

I’m really looking forward to this trip, as life has been a bit stressful of late.

Hayeswater, one of the places where I want to camp