The Ultralight Cotswold Way

I decided to walk the Cotswold Way using ultralight principles and ultralight kit. The idea was not to 'do' the Cotswold Way but more to use it as a way to play with ideas and enjoy some time outdoors.

For me the great thing about the Cotswold Way (apart from the views) is that it passes within a few miles of my house, is a lowland walk and of course there are lots of places on or near the route where it is possible to resupply with food and water.

Finally, if all goes awry it is possible to stay in a B&B at several of the villages en-route.

This article will be expanded over time to include a full breakdown of kit choices and personal style. This page is a jumping-off point.

I have included a full kit list here.

Objectives

Most of all I wanted to spend a week in the countryside. I wanted to walk for as long as I wanted to walk, stop wherever and whenever I wanted and basically just enjoy the outdoors. I had no fixed daily mileages and no fixed start and stop times. Instead I carried enough food and water to allow me to be flexible in these things.

This trip was to be a shake-down of all the equipment that I had chosen or designed over the last year so that I could determine what really did work in the UK and what would not work (or at least not for me).

I thought that the Cotswold Way would be a perfect route for testing ultralight kit. The countryside is 'tame' and you are never too far from civilisation and so if things go badly wrong it is possible to recover.

Route Summary

After 5 days of rain I decided to take a break and return home. I did not feel the need to 'finish it' and was rather bored of wet feet. I had chosen kit based on experiencing some rain and not continual rain. The fact that I chose to spend some nights in B&Bs rather than have a night under a very small tarp says as much about the kit as it does about me. Anyway, here is the summary of the 5 wet days of walking that I did do:

I plan to take 2-3 days in the near future (probably the next Bank Holiday) to finish the route - and probably make some minor kit changes!

Each day was only a modest distance even with an ultralight pack. This is a reflection of my slow pace and wet weather. Rain seems to slow me down.

The choice between Tarp and B&B was very simple. If I had spent the afternoon walking in the rain and it was still raining at/near my destination then I didn't mentally feel able to face setting up camp under a very small (2.5mx1.5m) tarp and instead boked into a B&B so that I could dry out. If I had carried a tent I think I would have camped out more.

Clothing

My clothing was chosen based primarily on functionality and with weight as a secondary consideration. My objective was to be comfortable whatever the weather (more or less) on the basis that if I was comfortable I would walk further and faster than if I was not. My clothing included many ultra-light pieces such as a waterproof skirt/kilt, a Montane Featherlite Smock and a Montane 200 Jacket. I'll cover all of these in more detail here.

I was seriously impressed by how effective the Featherlite smock was as a windproof layer and also how well it worked for light showers.

The biggest surprise for me however was how much time I actually spent walking in just shorts and a shirt - very much like a boy scout. It just simply proved to be the most comforable combination.

When it rained my initial choice ended up being to do nothing. Short showers were not worth stopping for. My Rohan polyamide shirt and Kathmandu cordura shorts/trousers were very good at keeping me comfortable. If the show carried on for more than 5-10 minutes I would put on the Montane Featherlite Smock. This has proved to be amazingly comfortable and is good for showers up to about 1/2 an hour or so before it begins to leak.

Finally, if the rain persisted I would put on the Montane 200 Jacket over the top of the Smock. This proved to be much more comfortable than just the jacket.

Footwear

For fotwear I was using a pair of Vasque trail-running shoes. They had been chosen on the basis of fit and weight.I combined them with a pair of light hiking socks.

Most of the time they worked very well and I did not miss my walking boots. In warm weather they are excellent. After long rain they were reasonable but after a short time walking through damp grass they soon became very wet.

Overall I am now convinced of the benefits of trail-running shoes over regular boots for many terrains but there were days on this path where boots would have been more comfortable. However, if the weather had been less bad there is no doubt that trail-running shoes would have been the best choice.

I am tempted to complete the final section using my normal 'heavy' leather boots in order that I can fully compare the two.

Certainly during the dryer summer months I can see me wearing these shoes instead of boots but I am also certain that in the colder and wetter months the boots will reign supreme.

Pack

My pack was one that I had designed and made. It weighed in at 480g and included a fully padded back, a decent hip belt and an internal frame. It incorporated ideas from a Karrimor Jaguar, a Go Lite Jam, an OMM 25 and the Berghaus Arete 45. The irony was that after packing it with ultralight kit it was too big.

The pack could easily accomodate 50L (seam allowances soon add up!) but was only carrying 30L. Still, after a couple of days fiddling with compression straps I had it cracked. (The image shows a 55cm wide mat rolled up on the back and in a protective sleeve).

The Karrimor Jaguar is a classic backpack for carrying heavy loads. The version I own has two large aluminium strips that help to form a rigid frame. This is linked to a well padded hip belt, kidney pad and shoulder straps to create a platform that is excellent for carrying loads.

The Ultralight packs that I own seem to sacrifice load-carrying ability in order to save weight. I am not convinced that this is always ideal.

After much fiddling around and field testing my final pack design did feature a proper frame and padding. The cost of this over a less complex design was no more than about 100g. However, it meant that the pack was very comfortable to carry (much more so than any of my other packs) and could easily carry larger loads of food and water without suddenly becoming uncomfortable.

I'll give more details of pack design later.

Shelter

My shelter consisted of a home-made 2.5mx1.5m tarp which featured one closed end (a tent without doors) and a home-made breathable bivy bag - a bit like this one.

The shelter had been designed to be light and compact and suitable for overnight rain. It was not designed to be suitable for prolonged use or to be set up in the rain.

The tarp is the smallest usable size that you can live with (see picture above). You have to crawl in and out of it but once under it you can cook or do whatever needs to be done. Just!

It kept me warm and dry during some wet nights BUT I was not the least bit keen to set it up in the wet.

If wet weather is certain then in the future I think I will use a much larger tarp - probably based on the ultralight tent which has a lot more room in it for maybe 100g of extra weight. For mountain conditions I will continue to use a bivy bag and micro-tarp.

Sleep

For sleeping I was carrying a trimmed Multimat that weighed only 270g including a DIY sleeve and a Mountain Equipment Helium 400 sleeping bag (800g). The bag was too warm on one night (after a very hearty meal) and just warm enough on another night (I had not eaten enough) for nighttime lows of 11°C

Food and Water

For Food I planned to eat the nutritional parts of my diet at the various pubs that are scatterred along the route. To supplement this I carried up to 1Kg/3000 calories of 'junk' food high in sugar and starch that will provide raw calories. This Junk included things like Jelly Babies, chocolate bars, breakfast / oat bars and fresh cakes. It also included some more 'healthy' items such as nuts and dried fruit.

My biggest mistake was to allow my food stores to drop to 400 calories only to discover that the store that I was relying on (at Birdlip) for resupply no longer existed. My next resupply point was closed by the time that I arrived. Lack of food meant that progress was slower on this leg and that I was 'forced' to stay in B&B in order to resupply the next morning.

For water I typically carried 1L and topped it up as and when I could en route. The peak load for water was 1.5L. This was a reflection of how frequently it was possible to collect water from pure sources such as pubs along the way.

Medical and Ancillaries

Before departure I weighed everything that I had taken to the nearest gram. I weighed everything when I returned. I have been amazed about how little was used over 5 days - much less than I could possibly have imagined - such as only a few g of travel soap even if I was washing every day.

First Aid

I did collect a couple of blisters on day 2 - I had not correctly laced my trail shoes and so the foot had too much freedom to move. I used some 25mm Micropore tape to strap the blister so that the blister was covered by one layer of tape and the tape was wrapped around my foot. This worked amazingly well and allowed the blisters to heal over the next few days. This has to be the best method for treating blisters that I have ever found. It is also the cheapest!

Luxury Items

I did carry a Motorola F3 phone as a semi-luxury. The phone weighs 71g is a basic phone and has a supurb battery life. It achieves this by having no 'extra' features and using a Liquid Paper display that uses no power when it is not moving. The phone was bought on PAYG and cost just £15. It is about 60g lighter than my existing phone and has the great advantage of having a different number - so that I could have it for emergencies and avoid unwanted calls.

The luxury list is rather short. It features a Nikon Coolpix L6 digital camera (in a case) and a 50g FM Radio.

The Nikon is an excellent little camera that will take up to 1000 pics on a single set of Lithium AA batteries. In reality it is less but for all practical purposes I can treat the camera in the same way as I used to treat a 35mm camera and just not worry about the battery life.

The only issue that I have had with the L6 is that it does not seem to like to switch itself on when in a pouch since the on/off switch is raised. I have taped on a protective switch cover that seems to work even if it is ugly.

The FM Radio was a £2 cheapo personal AM/FM radio from ASDA. It works well enough but since it is only analogue tuning it can be tricky to get it to lock on to a signal in some areas. It also eats batteries with signal locking beginning to wane after 4 hours and being useless after 5 hours.

I did carry a book but since it never got read I mailed it back home at Painswick.

Summary

Five days taught me one hell of a lot about what was viable for ultralight kit in wet conditions. It also taught me a lot about myself. I am a lot less fussy about staying dry than I ever have been.

For the next trip I think I will be making a few changes:

• Replace the waterproof breathable jacket with a knee-length non-breathable one (weight neutral)
• Carry waterproof chaps to protect the lower legs during bushwacking and long rainy spells (weight gain)
• Add deep sides to the tarp so that I can sit under it comfortably (weight gain).