The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.
[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Sunday, 13 July 2008

A Final Weigh In

Before unpacking my bag (just to sort through a few things and wash a few things, before packing it all back up to go away next weekend) I thought I'd weigh it. Whereas most people may find themselves ditching items as they make their way on a long walk, I found myself adding little bits and pieces.

The final weight, without any food or water, but with half the tent (I finally decided to shoulder my fair weight and took half the tent (the light half!) from Peebles) and with an almost full gas canister, was 7.5kg.

That's ridiculous isn't it? To think that I've lived for three months out of a bag weighing less than your average person's bag weighs to go for a weekend city break!

Of course, food and water added significantly. Particularly during the final two or three weeks. My left shoulder is just thinking about whether to forgive me.
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5 comments:

  1. Gerald Davison14 July 2008 at 16:27

    Good heavens! I pride myself on travelling light, but that is amazing. My backpacking kit usually tips the scales at around 10Kg including the sack. Does your weight include your rucksack? I then add around 1Kg dry weight of food per day.

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  2. Gayle14 July 2008 at 18:55

    The weight does indeed include the rucksack (OMM Villain MSC). Having used my thermarest as the back-pad the sack itself weighs under 1kg.

    I've never actually weighed a day's food, but I can say that sometimes on that trip it felt very heavy indeed - but then we were eating quite a lot.

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  3. Anonymous21 June 2009 at 00:24

    Hi Gayle,
    Just found your blog which i'm enjoying!
    Have just got myself an OMM Villain and wondered how you got on with using your Thermarest instead of the "Platformat"???!
    keep walking
    Regards Dean

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gayle22 June 2009 at 20:06

    Hi Dean,

    Glad you're enjoying the blog, although I do seem to have been a bit quiet (and lazy) lately.

    Using my Thermarest as the backpad for the Villain worked just fine for me. I carried it for around 1500 miles that way last year, and the only complaint I had was that when it rained my Thermarest got wet around the edges - although it always dried pretty quickly once in the tent so didn't cause any real problems.

    My Thermarest is the old pink girls' length Prolite 3, which is a bit longer than the three-quarter length that the pack is designed to use; however, after the first few days I got the technique for sliding it in without difficulty.

    I have also been using the Thermarest for my backpad in my Jirashanca 35 litre, even though it pokes way out of the top of the pocket so you can't get the velcro done up and it seems that there's nothing holding it in there - and that works fine too.

    Problem now is that having bought the Neo-Air I have lost my dual-use backpad. I have a potential solution to that which is lighter than resorting to the Platformat. I'll no doubt blog about it once I've tried it out.

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  5. Anonymous22 June 2009 at 22:09

    Hi Gayle,
    I'm awaiting with baited breath!!
    While on the subject of the "villain"...i must say i was a tad disappointed when i got the sack(bought online)to find that when it's full to the gunnel's its nigh on impossible to close the lid,anyway...i'm resorting to the knife soon, hopefully my pack will reappear with a floating lid.It helps to have an Aunt and Uncle who are seamstress and tailor alike!May put the frankenstein photos on the OMM gear website.
    Keep up the good work!
    Cheers Dean

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