Action packed First Issue

I haven't bought an issue of Trail magazine since the September 2003 issue.

I know this because I have every issue up to and included that one.

I can't fully remember why I stopped buying it; it may be because there wasn't enough to interest me or the general content seemed to be getting pretty bland and predictable.

Trail is celebrating its 30th birthday this year, so I thought I'd take a look back at issue one.

Back in the mists of time; July/August 1990 there were as far as I remember only one or two U.K based walking magazine; and that was The Great Outdoors and Country walking (the sister magazine to Trail), at that time I always found The Great Outdoors to be for the bearded, red sock brigade and only bought it on a handful of occasions. Country walking was always for the day walker and had very little to interest me.

So with the arrival of Trail Walker (that's what it was called back then) there was a new kid on the stands, it looked fresh, entertaining and fitted exactly the type on walking/backpacking I was into at that time.

A look at the FIRST ACTION PACKED ISSUE

When first published it was a bi-monthly magazine and I think it was like this for the first year.

Much of the issue is in black & white with only a handful of colour pictures and colour adverts.

The editor-in-chief was Keith Nelson

The first article was called Around the roof of England by Paddy Dillon; which is a 2 day youth hostel route or a 3 day backpacking one taking in Scafell Pike, Scafell, Helvellyn and Skiddaw.

Test report was on seven backpacks including Karrimor Panther 4, Mag Mor Spectre, Berghaus Pulsar, and Lowe Alpine Outback II.

The letter's page covers interesting questions like 'how to put a rucsac on', what is the best stove/fuel and it seems as meths burners are pretty thirsty beasts. My favourite letter is 'What's the ideal rucsac weight?' with the answer being the maximum recommend safe weight for a laden rucsac is 1/3 of your body weight.

A second article by Paddy covers the Pennine Way with a very detailed outline of the route and where to stay each night.

Other articles include a Pyrenean backpack, Crib-Goch Scramble, and how to make the most of scrambling.

There is also the weekender section which covers the Marsden-Edale classic, the Buttermere round, two days over Dartmoor and a two day trip around Lochnagar.

Adverts in the magazine include the OS new national trail guides, Mag Mor makers of the best British rucsacs, Bourne Sports,
HF holidays, Ron Hill and Bivvy Bug there are also 5 pages at the rear Advertising Trail Breaks.

So that's a look back at the first issue of Trail, I guess things haven't really changes that much, although the biggest thing missing form this issue is no web addresses.


Trail Walker Issue One

Thanks

I just like to say a big thanks to all the people who have commented on the video's; here and on Twitter.

I'm glad people enjoyed them and hope it gave the flavour of my TGO crossing.

After the disasters with both the stills camera and the phone; this was the best way to capture the crossing and my thoughts at the time.

I also found is to be a much easier medium to work with than writing up the trip each night; although editing the clips together was harder work than writing :-).

Bits & Pieces

The fur on the camera worked reasonably well to cut out the wind in the microphone but I do need to find a way to attach it better than at present.

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I was really impressed with the Caldera Cone; not knowing how much fuel I would need or use, I took 400ml (I know overkill for two days!) and ended up using about 100ml for the two days.

Most of the cooking was just boiling up cups of water for either coffee, tea or cooking Freezer bag style.

Boiling water for coffee, tea used about 10-12ml of meths and to boil 300ml took about 15ml.

This is a great stove for solo cooking and when food doesn't need to be simmered; although that's what a pot cozy is for.

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Before going on the last trip; I couldn't decide whether to wear boots or trainers, in the end I went with the boots which are a pair of Hi-Tec Peak II eVent, I'm glad I did as the lanes on the Sunday coming back were full of deep puddles and sticky claggy clay.

I'm working on a review of the boots, to post soon.

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Back to the camera. For some reason and I don't know why but the lens on the Zi6 seems to be narrower than on my previous camera and although filming in widescreen doesn't give a very wide angle view.

To get round this I bought a little 0.67x lens to fit on the camera. This attaches via magnets; one goes on the camera and one built into the actual lens.



These are designed for the iphone but work just as well on the Zi6.

Bad Wind

After Saturday's problems with the wind across the microphone on the Zi6, I have spent some time looking for ways to block out the wind but still allow the mic to pick up sounds and my voice.

The microphone isn't that big but picks up a lot of noise.

Position of microphone

After a bit of a hunt around the internet; I found a company that sells faux fur throws and will send out swatches of the different types they do, so I ordered half a dozen different one's to see which will work best.

Hopefully these swatches will arrive soon and I can start testing them out.

The biggest worry is how to attach them to the camera; I have seen some ideas where the fur is attached using sticky Velcro but I don't fancy sticking Velcro to the camera, so will have to find an alternative.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Been on a foraging trip; looking for fuel for the honey.

Just like the X-Factor

Well the judges have thought about it, they have deliberated, cogitated and digested, and the Man from Del Monte; he say the fat lady is warming up but you're through to the next round but will you make it any further.

But spare a thought for the one who has had to make the long dark walk.

Cheeky

With the weather being so poor yesterday here in London; I had nothing better to do than surf the 'net.

One site I found was the site for the up and coming Kendal Mountain Festival, and while looking at it, I noticed that they have an online competition for amateur films.

For some reason which I don't understand but all these film competitions only want films that are a minute long which means a lot of editing to get something half decent to show ( 3 minutes really should be the minimum).

Now; you all know my interest in making my little documentary hiking films, so I couldn't let this chance go by.

So after a couple of hours editing the trip from Scotland last May, I finally managed to make something to upload.

The films I have added are the original 'Dales Way in 60 seconds' and a new one entitled 'Through the Lairig Ghru'.

Now for the cheeky bit; if anyone would like to go and watch them and then vote, I would appreciate it very much. Unfortunately you do have to sign up to site to vote.

Kendal Mountain Festival

Also the site really compresses the hell out of the video's so they don't look that great.

2009 TGO challenge

The dates for the 2009 TGO challenge are 8th-22nd May 2009 and because this is the 30th challenge the numbers of entries has been increased to 360 for this year only.

It seems as though they will be adding some new starting points from next year and because of the increase in numbers will be putting a limit of challengers starting at the most popular start points of Oban, Malliag, & Shiel Bridge.

I have though about doing this challenge over the last couple of year especially after listening to Bob's podcasts from 2006 and 2007.

Next year would be a good year for me, as I haven't made any commitments yet to holidays and SWMBO has agreed in principal that I can go if accepted.

I just need to work out a route that would be suitable to me, how much it would cost to do and if I need to replace some of my equipment.

One thing that definitely would need replacing is a sleeping bag, I only have a light Summer bag (+3) and a heavy Winter bag (-10), I think I would need something in between; some where around the -3 mark would probably be good enough for that time of the year.

If I were to do it; I think that I would go for a low-level route although there do seem to be some tricky places crossing Scotland, the route out of Braemar looks to one of these.

I do have a funny feeling that next years event is going to way over-subscribed.

Ramblings

I'm sitting here; typing this when really I should be getting my equipment sorted out for my trip to Scotland at the end of this week.

I don't know why but sometimes I find it really difficult to motivate myself into doing this kind of stuff (the packing that is!)

Yesterday; I spent most of the day, trying to find food to take on the trip. For an activity that is helpful in reliving stress, it sure does seem to add to the stress levels as well.

Adding to all this is whether I'm making the right equipment choices, do I have the correct maps, will I remember the train tickets and the biggest hurdle; that SWMBO is not really that comfortable about me being away for 5 days.

I have always said that I would stop backpacking when I reached 50; now this is still three and a bit years away but I feel the time to stop may come sooner than that.

I'm starting to think that this trip could well be the last one.

C-C-C-Changes

One of the reasons I moved back to Blogger was that I find it easier to work with.

Over the last few days I've been adding bits and pieces and exploring what else I can do with Blogger.

One of the major things I have found is that Flickr will allow me to add pictures via email or my mobile phone to the blog. The only problem with this, is that flickr set the size of the picture. These sizes are thumbnail 100x75, small 240x180 and medium 500x375.

The first two I found to small for my taste and the medium one wouldn't fit correctly in the blog; it overlapped into the sidebar.

So I played about with the setting on the blog and have come up with a new setting that works with the 500x375 pictures.

Hopefully now I with be able to send pictures from my phone to the blog and they will look O.K.

The phone has a 2mp camera so the quailty should be fairly good on here.

Now if only I could find a way to connect my digital camera to the phone via bluetooth I could upload them as well.

Happy now

After yesterday's little rant; I'm all happy today.

I managed to change my holiday dates in work, then get the train tickets booked for the trip I mentioned.

So in a few days time I should have in my hands a return ticket to...(maybe I should keep it a secret a bit longer).

Before this though I have a 2-3 day backpacking trip to the Peak District; this is arranged to take in the lightweight show that the Backpackers Club has going on up there at the end of April.

So I go from someone who thought that he wouldn't be getting out at all this year, to someone who has 2 trips in the space of 4 weeks.

Yipeee!!! for me.

Bit of a rant

For the last 3-4 days I've been working on a trip, getting the route and logistics sorted out; finally tonight it has all come together.

Except....when I go to book the train tickets, half way through the website refuses to take my order and money and kicks me out!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I get back in, the trains and prices I want have disappeared and it now wants me to pay an extra £50 for the same journey.

So now I have the choice of paying more or having to rearrange everything.

Why oh why can't the website tell you how many seats are still available in a particular price range, so you don't have the frustration of going half way through the booking process before getting kicked out.

Oh well; try again tomorrow.

Pete & Zeena Blog go for a walk

OS outdoors show '08

Another early start to get to the Outdoors show, although this time my paranoia in missing connections meant I ended up spending an hour hanging around Euston.

Once on the train it was just over an hour before arriving at Birmingham International and the NEC.

Probably because it was the Saturday there seem to a lot more people going in, even at 9:15.

This was to prove the case as the place was heaving by mid-afternoon.

The first person I bumped into was BG! at the Alpkit stand.

As usual these seems to a lack of genuine backpacking equipment but there were the usual mixed bag of high-end equipment (sat-nav's, digital mapping) to the lower end stuff from people like Regetta and Yeomans.

I did have a play with the pacer poles and although they did seems to work and feel different I`m not sure I would pay the price for a set of poles, I think I`ll stick to my Leki's. On the subject of Leki's I couldn't find one place selling a rubber tip for a pole.

Next up I bump into John, Who even at the early time was looking a bit stressed with his work on the E-petition work, so we when a had a coffee and some discussion on wild camping.

There seems to a lot more talks and shows going on this year, although I seemed to miss most of them but I did catch one from the OS on map reading.


Next up I meet a marauding Scotsman (no NOT Duncan!) but this chap.


I can't remember from last year show but this year there did seem to a lot more stands promoting tourism.

Now on to the second highlight of the show; The UK Outdoors Bloggers Meet 2008. This year was a much bigger gathering, so big in fact that the Pub was made bigger to accommodate us.

Among the attendees this year were Phreerunner & Nallo Lady (Martin & Sue), AktoMan (Duncan), Mick & Gayle, Doodlecat, (Phil), Alan Solman, Sally in Norfolk, Geoff Jones, Bob & Rose, and the usual suspects of Andy Howell, Weird Darren, and John Hee.

I managed to have a chat with everyone, except Bob & Rose. I think I spend to much time talking to AktoMan ( I hope I didn't bore him). I also did a piece for Andy but I`m not to sure how it will turn out, there was a lot of noise from the PA and it was quite difficult to think and hear the questions.

The highlight of the show was getting to hear (Inset your own joke here) Brian Blessed, for a 71 year old man, he has so much passion for the outdoors and everything. His latest venture is to become a Cosmonaut and go to the International Space Station.

Next up was a meeting for the wild camping E-Petition and where to go with it and how to take it to the next step. There were some good ideas and plans which will start in the next few weeks.

Overall the show was O.K. The social side was great as usual. There wasn't a great deal of equipment that I was interested in buying although I did buy one item (more later).

There seems to be a lot of activities for children; the ice axe climbing wall, the climbing wall, the high ropes experience in hall 1.

Although I was there from 9:30 until 4:30 the time went very quickly and I didn't get to see everything.

Wild Camping

Wild Camping

I haven't really blogged about the wild camping campaign, other that posting about the new website and a link to the petition site.

After two things that have happened this week; I 've decided to post about wild camping.

First, let me say that I am in favour of the petition.

The first thing was a news item that appeared in some of the red tops and the London locals.

This story was about swans being taken and eaten by asylum-seekers along the River Lea in East London.

These asylum-seekers apparently live in makeshift tents, on land which is part of the 2012 Olympics site; while waiting to be housed.

Now it seems and though a lot of people are up in arms about the taking of these swans and the Police and RSPCA are to investigate.

On one of the online reports of this, there are comments left by people. All the comments are about how cruel it is to kill the swans and how these asylum-seekers should have more respect for the birds and this Country.

So that does this have to do with wild camping?

Well there isn't one mention of the camp being illegal in any of the reports I can find. So does this mean that the General public and the media don't really care about people camping on land that they shouldn't be on.

In the last few years I have see asylum-seekers/immigrants camping in some of the parks in London; mainly Hyde and Green Park. These people are normally there early morning and gone throughout the day but reappear at night especially through the winter months.

If the authorities are letting this type of camping go on, then surely the type of wild camping we wish to do is never going to be severely challenged legal or not.

The second thing was while I was doing some work for the wild camping petition in work. Some of my co-workers saw the petition poster and were asking questions about it.

As usual the biggest problem was convincing them that we are not looking to camp in their garden.

It does seem as most people think that we are looking to camp in parks and on waste ground.

Comments like "if you legalise wild camping, people will be camping in the parks and fields all around us" "We have had trouble with travellers camping in the fields across from were we live" "we'll have the immigrants camping in the woods all around here".

What people don't understand is that we don't want to camp in their gardens, in parks or on waste ground; we want to be able to camp up on a fell or mountainside and appreciate a glorious sunset or sunrise. To be out on the fells with a feeling for the Countryside, not to be out there to destroy it.

Mass illegal camping has been happening for years and there are laws already in place for it; what we are look for is the ability to camping in small or individual groups away from the crowds.

The good news is as of 12:21 today the e-petition has hit 700 signatures.