Offa's Dyke Ultralight

In September 2008 I walked Offa's Dyke from the North coast of Wales through to the South Coast of Wales using only ultralight equipment - most of it homemade and without any support.

The idea was to allow two weeks for the trip and carry everything needed with resupply en-route and to thoroughly test the ultralight techniques I'd been using previously and see where they can be enhanced.

On this trip I'd moved away from the more hard-core end of the ultralight so that some items were merely light. Sometimes ease-of-use was more important to me than absolute weight.

• Offa's Dyke Ultralight - Initial Plan
• Offa's Dyke Ultralight - Final Kit List & analysis
• Offa's Dyke Ultralight - Lessons Learnt [coming soon]
• Diary [coming soon]
• Gallery [coming soon]

Trip Summary

The biggest problem that I had was lack of initial fitness. This was simply down to a hectic work schedule and not getting enough walking time in prior to the trip. To compensate for this I had to keep the daily distance low in the first few days, use a Heart Rate Monitor to determine and build fitness levels and finally I had to cover reasonable daily distances on the second week.

I had planned to wear hiking boots for the trip but an achilles tendon problem meant that I was force to wear trail running shoes. Most of the time this was fine but over the top of the Black Mountains I felt boots would have been more comfortable.

Lack of physical fitness and a sharp ramp up in distances for the second week coupled with damp feet (due to lots of rain) did lead to some small blisters which were quite inconvenient on the last few days - when I was pressing on.

It was a fun trip to do with quite a bit of variety amongst all the farmland.

I changed route several times to allow for fitness constraints and poor weather - taking a lowland path rather than a ridge path on one day and a canal on another day.

Lessons Learnt (Summary)

Accomodation

B&Bs along the route were relatively plentiful and convenient. I only actually needed to use the tent on one day. This has made me seriously reconsider what is sensible to carry. Many paths in the UK are equally well-served with B&Bs and so shelter carried can often be considered more of an emergency item and the weight trimmed accordingly. I've written about this more fully : Ultralight Hiking in the UK . That being said, I was very pleased with how the tent performed - it kept me warm and dry and allowed the down sleeping bag to work well; so well in fact that I wished I'd taken a slightly lighter bag.

On other trips I've used the accomodation for more nights and so the extra luxury of a tent would have been appreciated more.

The home-made Twin-skin tent that I took (1Kg total weight) was taken on the basis that I might need to spend a night out on the Black Mountains. In practice I cracked the key stage in one long day and managed to find a B&B either side of that day.

Footwear

I've used Trail-running shoes on several trips now when carrying a pack. They do work quite well. However, I've had issues both times with foot-bed collapse leading to blisters around the heel.

On some days it's nice to have well ventillated feet and on others you just end up with warm-and-wet feet. The soft fabric of the shoes does seem to encourage blisters over rough ground in these conditions.

There is no doubt at all that trail shoes are easier for lots of reasons than boots but for me durability is a major issue. The shoes that I took with me had less than 100 miles of use prior to this 200 mile trip. I think a decent fabric boot would survive much better.

Cooking

I worked on the basis that I could get one hot meal a day en route from a pub (almost true) and that for other times I'd eat cold food and have just hot drinks.

After experimenting with Gas, Alcohol and Esbit on previous trips I returned to Gas for this trip. Gas is a very weight-efficient fuel for longer trips even taking into account the weight of the cylinder. A Gas stove with fuel was actually a few grammes lighter than the Esbit/Alcohol stove combination I took last time. The key benefit for me was ease-of-use. The MSR Pocket Rocket is a nice simple and reliable stove that doesn't weigh much. I combined this with a Ti Mug for heating water and a plastic mug for drinking.

The Plastic Mug replaced the folding mug from previous trips after a mug started to unfold when full of coffee.

In fact I drank a lot fewer hot drinks than I expected - mostly drinking cold water from a bladder; and so the total Gas used was a mere 60g - or half a cylinder.

Clothing

I had a few regrets here. The Ultralight Kilt sometimes got me some odd looks from the locals and so a lot of the time I just wore my zip-off trousers as shorts which was not quite as comfortable but allowed me to blend in more.

In retrospect I would have taken the Backpacking Light Thorofare Trekking Pant instead. These weighed in at around 120g for me. I thought they'd be ideal for evening use when staying at B&Bs. They are very light and thin but work well. I've been seriously impressed by the shirt (shown) that I took on this trip that was made of the same material. I was lucky to buy when the $/£ exchange rate was good.

My ultralight SilNylon coat did prove a little warm on some parts of the trip so I have wondered about changing it for a Quasimdo Mountain Poncho perhaps with a knee-length cut.

I became a big fan of the PacLite Hat (shown) that was almost good enough to be used as a sun-hat. It certainly stayed on my head a lot more than was expected.

Navigation

I took with me the Harvey Offa's Dyke Maps - which are quite usable but not perfect - together with a Trailfinders Offa's Dyke Guide which was useful for accomodation and food. Both were of course out of date and incomplete with Post Office closures being the main issue. I treated both as advisory only. I've now given up on assuming that a shop in some remote village will actually exist.

On most days I prefer to behave like a traveller in a strange land and let terrain and weather dictate how much or how little I travel with re-supply happening when available. I don't like to have fixed targets for each day.

I took a Lekki Ti Trekking Pole (217g) with me on this trip and it proved invaluable over some of the muddiest terrain I've ever encountered. It's a shoe-in for future trips. It's fitted to the pack using a Karabiner onto the front strap and a small loop on the rear of the pack - it's easy to deploy/Pack without stopping! The pole has been modified to have a small 4mm rod sticking out of the top. This makes it much easier to use as a tent pole. It probably wouldn't hurt to make a little protective cap for it out of a small rubber ball....

Efficiency

When I hike I tend not to stop! Typically I might walk non-stop for 4 hours before taking a short break for lunch and then do the same in the afternoon. My whole kit is designed around efficiency more than weight-saving.

The above picture of me on the trail shows how this works.

I use a side-sporran for all my navigation stuff. The one shown was a special that I made and included a compass pouch on the front. It's big enough to hold map, compass, guide book and a radio. In practice the compass migrated to the front pouch where it was easier to handle...

The front pouch is used to hold food for the day and extras such as a camera and any small medical supplies such as lipsalve and vaseline.

The Pack has a mesh stuff pocket around the base of it. This is used to hold a coat, a windshirt and of course a potty trowel and toilet kit.

I expect to keep the pack on even when stopping and only expect to open the pack in exceptional circumstances - maybe for a hot drink.

I use a Platypus bladder with a Source Tube and Camelbak bite valve to supply on-trail water so that I don't need to stop to drink. I also sometimes carry another platypus reservoir with 0.5-1L of water in it so that it's easy to make a hot drink or pick up water without taking apart the pack!

The pack itself has an internal frame, mesh back and good ventillation. It's made of SilNylon and Cordura and weighs in at just 600g for a 40+L waterproof pack. It has only a vestigal wasitbelt and is designed to be top heavy (Design Theory and Pack Details). It works very well and is very comfortable over rough ground and for day-long carrying. Most of the weight is carried on the back via some broad padded shoulder straps which cantilever the weight onto the shoulder blades.

Future

• I am definitely going to review the tent/tarp/bivy question once more - a 1Kg saving is possible if I shed comfort.
  
• I definitely need to be fitter and thinner before I set off!!!
• Clothing needs to be tweaked
• Footwear needs to be reviewed. I'd like to replace my leather boots with newer light ones and get them nicely broken in.