Pack weight

I've been spending some time lately exploring the excellent US site of Francis Tapon. He's presently backpacking around Eastern Europe with a view to writing a book. His account of the various trails he's done in the USA make interesting reading. He's obviously an experienced (ultra-lightweight) hiker but he has a habit of losing bits of kit and having quite hair-raising experiences. His packweight (excluding food, water and fuel) is around 6-7 pounds. Using his kit list, I reckon I can get mine down to around 8.5 pounds and hope to get a weekend away somewhere soon to try it out.

Glyme Valley Way

I had a guest staying with me last weekend. Those of you who followed my LEJOG adventure, may remember Vinnie. He's from Jamestown, NY and was walking his own LEJOG. Our paths crossed no less than three times - at Kingsbury Water Park, near Birmingham, in Thorpe in the Peak District and then at Horton-in-Ribblesdale. He'd been reading this blog back home before he started and so recognised me from my blog mugshot at our first meeting. We walked the Glyme Valley Way, a distance of sixteen miles, plus a couple of extra miles around Blenheim Park at the beginning. It's not that well signposted in places but that didn't present a great problem as I'm familiar with the area.

Vinnie's now returned home. I hope we'll keep in touch.