Dragon Rambles

We had our Spring bank holiday today and what a day it was. Spring came out in all her glory.

I decided to enjoy the weather with a walk to work. By road, work is about 5 miles away (that’s about 8km for those of us who speak metric). But no one really wants to walk via the road as there are no footpaths. This last week, I’ve been told by a few people about how you can match up several public footpaths to walk to work. It’s a longer trip but is supposed to be a nice walk. I picked up a couple of OS maps this morning (yep, Saffron Walden is at the top of one so I needed two) and headed off.

I’ll be heading out across these fields.

At the moment all the rape is blooming. It’s gorgeous, but is causing havoc with everyone’s hayfever. For me, I usually only get really bad hayfever my first spring in a new place and then I usually get used to the new types of pollen. I’m really hoping that continues to be the case as my reaction is a little different from the norm: lots of heavy bleeding noses. Yes, yuck. Unfortunately I have a golden staph infection in my sinuses, a gift from a hospital when I was very little, and when this flares up, the blood flows. Luckily, today it was behaving, even when I was walking next to these fields.

Isn’t that house great. I’ll live there please. It was lovely walking through these fields of yellow, feeling a little like the only person in the world even though I was just 10 minutes out of town.

At one point, the ground I was walking on was much lower than the other side of me. I got a fantastic view of the ground. Wow, there really isn’t a lot of soil there is there.

In some parts of the walk, the direction to take was nice and clear.

And in others, not so much (I had to turn left here).

While much of the way was yellow to begin with, as this view back to town shows nicely

Not all of the farmers had planted rape when they harvested the wheat fields last autumn.

Then later, the crops change to something else, that obviously bunnies like. I’ll have to wait and see what the crop turns into so I know what is so tasty and worthy of protection.

Eventually, you get to a point in the walk where the start/end of the path is not a farm, but a village. This cute little church was in Little Chesterford, just as I was exiting a paddock.

And this one was in Ickleton, just before I went into the nature reserve at the back end of work.

2.5 hours after I set off from town, I was sitting at a picnic table at work having lunch. Not that it took that long to walk there. I just found a cool little place with pocky little crafty shops (art, framing, jewellery, craft supply shop) next to a tiny little lake. It was like finding a secret place – I had no idea it was there. So I stopped for an ice cream and had a look around. While I made it to work, I wasn’t actually going to go to work, so this was the closest I got – looking across the fields at the buildings.

A nice stop for lunch then the return trip back. It took 2 hours to get back to Saffron Walden town, by which time I was getting really tired and my legs and lower back was starting to really ache. Going for a long walk in joggers is not a good idea, so I really need to get my new hiking boots before I try a day of walking again.

And of course, this walk was out the north side of town and I live on the southern edge, so there was the extra walk home. Which took twice as longer as usual as I was walking slower and slower as I got closer and closer to home. But it was a great walk, and luckily my sinuses didn’t realise how much pollen I was breathing in and so behaved. Well, until the start of this paragraph, that is. They’ve just caught up..

Those of you in the UK, hope you had a great long weekend. Those of you not, hope your week started well.

Ok, so I know that a couple of people who read this post go hiking. Who knows, maybe more of you do and you might find the following information useful too. If not, feel free to ignore this post – I’m sure you will anyway, but just don’t feel even the teensiest bit guilty about it

Over the last 15 years or so, there have been a lot of changes in packs – options, fit, etc. For example, you never used to be able to get a women’s fit pack. I don’t know if the manufacturers didn’t get that women are different shape or just didn’t care. Thankfully, that’s now in the past, but all of the options available does make it a tricky question when trying to decide which is the best pack to get. What I was after was one for multi-day trekking. And what you want in this sort of pack is very different from what is more important in packs for day walks or mountain climbing.

The fit is the most important concern, regardless of which type of pack you want, but if you’re going to be carrying a lot of weight for several consecutive days when on a multi-day hike, the fit become crucial. This is where if you’re a female, look at the female packs. Some sales assistants will try and tell you that there are unisex packs. No. This just means that the manufacturer hasn’t advertised a male and female version of the pack, and this pack is a male one.

So what is different about a female pack? Well, the biggest point is that they start with shorter torso length. But they also generally position the shoulder straps closer together, as women generally don’t have as broad shoulders as men. The chest strap is also in the right position for us, given we’re not flat chested. And even those of us who don’t protrude in the chest area as much as some, will be grateful that the strap doesn’t sit/rub on more tender areas. Each manufacturer has their own take on the female frame and might make other slight alterations to the structure of the pack to suit us better than the packs designed for men.

So other than going for a female pack, you also want the right size. It seems that the good packs will come in either two sizes (short/medium or tall/large) or three sizes (small, medium and large). Now this sizing is just a starting point. What you really want is a pack that can be adjusted to fit you.

Here’s where I introduce the packs that I was looking at. During my online research on packs, I found a great site that ranked mens’ backpacks for multi-day trekking: outdoor gear lab. Looking at the top three, I found the female versions of these. So starting the day of pack shopping, we had:
1. Arcteryx Altra 62 Women’s
2. Gregory Deva 60
3. Osprey Arial 65
I should probably point out that the order of these packs listed here is also the order of their price (highest to lowest).

Snow and Rock stock Arcteryx and Osprey, so I headed to their huge store in Covent Garden to try these. Before I mention the packs, I have to say that the staff at Snow and Rock were great. So very helpful, knew their stuff and were very friendly.

Arcteryx Altra 62 Women’s

The Arcteryx pack comes in two sizes, so we started with the short/medium pack as I have a short torso, and am not all that tall to begin with. What is great about this pack is that it has fully adjustable shoulders. They can actually detach and be moved into one of three height positions and one of five horizontal positions for each shoulder strap. Yes, the shoulders are two separate pieces. This pack definitely wins hands down for adjustability. We managed to get a pretty good fit for my frame. It has a comfortable hip strap that is one piece but sits on a swivel, so moves with your body as you walk. There was a gap between the small of my back and the pack, which should allow for nice airflow during a warm walk, but didn’t feel like the gap shouldn’t be there.

In addition to adjustability and the swivel hip belt, this pack also has a good number of straps around the pack for compressing the load. It’s really important when you’re walking, especially over uneven terrain and when traversing climbs/descents, that the pack is packed tightly. You don’t want anything moving around and getting you off balance. Also, the tighter the load is packed into your back, usually the closer it all is to your centre of gravity and therefore the load doesn’t feel as heavy and is more manageable (and comfortable) to carry. Packs can be notoriously hard for getting things in and out of, with the old packs requiring you to empty everything out each evening to be able to cook dinner. This pack has a great zip that opens up along the length of the pack like a suitcase, allowing easy access to everything.

When getting a pack fitted, it’s also important to try it with some weight, not just a stack of padding. Snow and Rock were able to put 12kg into the pack, which will be less that what I’ll be carrying most likely but gives me a good idea of how it feels. With this pack full to the brim and fully compressed using all the straps, I tried it out. The pack was comfortable and didn’t feel heavy. The top was swaying a little as I walked but I put that down to the weight added in the top to get it to the 12kg and figured this would be fine when I’m actually hiking as I won’t have anything heavy up the top of the pack.

You can find out more about this pack if you’re interested here. In all, I’d say the only downside of this pack is that it doesn’t have an integrated rain cover. Though it’s not that big a deal to get one separately. This pack is pricey, selling at £280 RRP, but that’s to be expected from the top pack on the market.

Osprey Arial 65

The Osprey pack comes in three sizes so we started with a small. This pack does have adjustable shoulder height but the shoulder span is fixed. On the shortest setting, there was still a small gap between my shoulders and the straps. This isn’t a good sign, but there were other fit issues with the pack. This is where it’s hard to describe what was wrong. It just didn’t feel right. Maybe it was because I tried it on after fully testing the Arcteryx, but either way if a pack doesn’t feel right when nothing is in it, it’s not going to feel right when it’s loaded.

The other downside of the pack was that the hip belt was fixed. There will be no movement of this with your body.

We did try an Osprey Xenon 70 as well, but had the same issues. The race was clearly down to the Arcteryx and the Gregory.

But if you want to find out more about the Arial, because it’s a good pack and at £160, is substantially cheaper than the Arcteryx, you can read about it here. Maybe it will be a better fit on you.

Gregory Deva 60

Gregory packs have a good reputation for being able to carry heavy loads comfortably. The Deva has a lot of padding, which makes it a more comfortable wear, but also adds to the weight of the pack. To try out this pack I went to Ellis Brigham, also in Covent Garden. Before I get on to the pack, I have to say that there was a massive difference between the service here and at Snow and Rock. The assistant was not friendly nor was he very knowledgable. I was instructing him that if a women’s fit small pack did not fit, a “unisex” short pack would not fit better. Not to mention what he didn’t know about boots and Goretex vs leather (but lets not go into that here).

So, onto the Deva. This pack has no adjustment at all. I picked a small, but there was no way to shorten the torso length. This left quite a gap between my shoulders and the straps. We managed to offset this a bit with adjusting the straps attached to the bottom and top of the shoulders to get it closer fitting, but still they weren’t right. What I did like was the curve of the frame. It fit my back nicely with the curve moulding in to the curve of my spine. My only concern was that it would get very hot as it was a hard frame along the back and there would be no airflow.

Like the Arcteryx, this pack also has a swivel hip belt, though this time the belt is not in one piece, and instead the two hip parts move independently. This would be very useful over uneven terrain, really moving with the body.

Despite my misgivings about the fit through the shoulders, I decided to try it with some weight. Ellis Brigham was able to load it with 9kg. Oh shit, did that hurt. All of the weight was carried in the small of my back, not my hips as it’s supposed to. Did I think that curve of the pack to my spine was a good thing? Hell, no! As I can only assume that this is why the weight was carried in the wrong place. In less than a minute my back was starting to ache. I couldn’t keep the pack on for 5 minutes and when I took it off it then took the rest of the day for the ache to go away. Massive fail!

I can’t see why this weight distribution problem would only be with me. I’m more inclined to think that it is an inherent flaw of the design, but it was so very noticeable to me because I have lower back problems. So I would not recommend this pack to anyone, even if it doesn’t cause you pain in the shop. But if you are interested in reading more about it, you can do so here. Retailing at £200 it’s also on the high end of pack prices, but still falls far short of the cost of the Arcteryx.

The winner

Well, as you would have been able to tell from above, there was a clear winner of these three packs: Arcteryx Altra 62 Women’s.

Yes it cost a lot, but in this instance, the day clearly showed that you get what you pay for. And I can now understand why this brand is known as the top of the range pack. I can tell you that now that I’ve discovered them, they will be the only brand I buy.

I hope this review of my day trying out packs was useful to any of my regular readers to whom this subject matter is relevant, and also to anyone who has found their way here while searching for information about these packs.

A couple of weekends ago, the sun was shining, I didn’t have to go in to work, had no previous engagements either, so I finally got to go back to the Gower. It was an early start as I had a 50 min train ride to Swansea, then about an hour out to my start point by bus.

I got to Oxwich Castle where I’d planned to start, had a snack and was ready to start my trek by 10:45. I knew my destination was Mumbles Head, specifically the pier at Mumbles but I had no idea how far it was in distance or in time. I figured that since it doesn’t get dark at the moment until after 9pm, that I should have plenty of time.

The trek started with a walk down to the sea and as I was starting up on a hill, I got tantalising glimpses of Oxwich Bay through the trees.

To get out to the coastal track I had to walk through a reserve that in no way looked like it was on the edge of dunes. Of course a lot of the dunes were completely overgrown with grasses, so they didn’t much look like dunes either to begin with. But eventually, I saw the sea, and the start of the coastal way I would be taking.

The start was deceptively easy getting around to the end of Oxwich Bay and facing the first cliff I had to climb. Don’t worry, there were tracks up behind the cliff face, it’s not as if I had to scale the rock face itself. But given what I could see of the steepness of the path and that most of it was sand underfoot, I knew it would be a hard slog.

And I was not wrong! But, oh the views from the top.

Once on top of the cliffs it was a nice easy walk along the top until having to clamber down to the next bay and up on top of the cliffs again. Here are some pics of the dreadful scenery I had to keep me company, what a bore

I passed a golf course, on top of a cliff with an almighty drop…

wonder how much of a penalty you get if it knocks out a sunbather.

And of course because the UK has plenty of history, there were ruins to admire.

Of course with any walk where you’ve never been before and when you keep the map in your pack and decide to just follow the paths that seem to go in the general direction (hey, I figured if I kept the sea to my right I couldn’t go toooo wrong), there will be the odd folly. Like in the picture below. I’d come down off one cliff, climbed up a very steep path from the bottom left corner, up to that  big white structure just below the middle of the saddle and down the path that ended on the bottom right corner. Now if I’d bothered to check the map, I would have known where the path went and I could have just waded across that streamlet.

Next I had to get back up to the top of the cliffs, and here’s the way I chose. Now, looking at the map, there were about 3 ways I could have chosen. This one was the hardest. And not even marked on my map as a path. Of course having just discovered my previous folly, you’d be excused for thinking I would check my map to see which way to go. Of course I didn’t! So there I went, and I am quite sure any of the beachgoers who looked up must have thought I was mad. But it wasn’t that bad. Sure the whole way up was on sand so it was a tad slippery. And yes a large portion of the ‘path’ was at  over a 60 deg angle. And I often felt like I was going to start dune surfing down. Minus the board.

And you can see by the picture why I tried it.  It really doesn’t look that steep from the bottom

But despite all the picking the hardest paths to take I got to my destination in one piece, and in just 7 hours.

If you want to see any more pics, I’ve uploaded some that I took here.

Halloween marked the start of a weekend away that I had been looking forward to for weeks. Two friends from work and myself were heading off to do some walking in Dartmoor. We stayed at Jo’s house Friday night and got a reasonably early start on the 1st. We got dropped off in the middle of Dartmoor somewhere before starting the walk back to the town where we had left the car. I think the walk was to be about 12 miles. Yes, I’m talking miles people. I’m learning to go with the flow ? For those still living in the metric world, I think 1 mile is about 1.7 km – do the maths yourself

When we got started the wind was cold. It pretty much just got colder. Although after a few hours we changed the direction we were walking in, so it wasn’t an icy wind straight into the ear anymore. We had lunch sheltering in the middle of a collection of very large boulders to try and get out of the wind. Didn’t work. I have to say it was the shortest lunch break I’ve ever had during a walk.

And because we were walking the first few hours off the trail, following some slightly vague directions, we got lost. Andreas managed to figure out where we were though after we climbed to the top of another great big hill so he could take out height on his handy little GPS and look around at the landmarks. Yay, we were saved! Hehehe.

You may be thinking at this point that we didn’t have a good day. You’d be wrong. I even had fun of walking through all the boggy ground. Jo and I fell over a lot, while Andreas with his walking poles had a much easier job of walking through. At one point either Jo or I were falling down almost every 2nd step. Sometimes we were laughing so hard we just couldn’t get up.

The views were so stark and lonely and often it felt like we were the only ones up there. We walked past ancient iron mines (or rather the spoil mounds that are left of them), ruins of ancient settlements and weird looking wildlife. Ok, ok, so cows aren’t quite wildlife, but they were black with a big white band around its middle. Never seen anything like it.

As we were coming to the end of the trip ready to walk back down off the moors, we were gifted with a gorgeous sunset. Of course like everything else I didn’t get a photo of this as the cold tricked my camera into thinking the battery was flat. I plan to get copies of Jo’s photos off her.

And finally, as we walked through the gate off Dartmoor, we stopped being cold. For the first time since getting out of the car we were no longer in the icy wind. I’d love to go back to Dartmoor again, but I think I’ll wait til Spring. Or Summer.

The next day I had very sore legs. From all that springy walking through the bogs. Before we headed off on the drive back to Cardiff, we stopped at Plymouth to have a walk around. Here are the photos that I took that weekend.

In a bid to start to meet more people outside of work I decided to go along on one of the Tiger Bay Ramblers walks. Jo came along too. We went to the Brecon Mountain Railway where we started our walk. It was a great day and I met some nice people. I think I’ll be going on another one, just not sure when yet. I took a few photos – just not as many as I thought I had.

Another weekend walk for Jo, Andreas and myself. This time we signed up and went with a group, so we had a guide. It was a bit different, as I’m not used to walking through villages. And the walk was very easy. We three were out the front for most of it and easily chatting the whole way. But it was still a good 4-5h walk. Here are the photos.

Before I started work I went with a couple other post-docs: Jo and Andreas. Here are the photos.