Author Archives

Jools

UK backpacker, striving for lightweight while body gets increasingly heavyweight. Completed all of the UK national trails while fitting in local day hikes and other multi-day trails both in the UK and overseas. Walked across mainland UK on five month 2500 mile 'Three Points of the Compass' hike in 2018

Trail talk

Trail talk: Lego ‘Creator’ Boy Camper (2016)

This little Lego minifigure is a young character released in 2016 as part of a remarkably well designed 'Creator' set that could be used to construct three very different builds. Add a backpack to our Boy Camper and he is ready for the hills.

Planning

Trail talk: the Pembrokeshire Coast Path: a backpacking itinerary

There are many ways to tackle the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. Section-hike, thru-hike, bed & breakfast or backpacking. If camping, which to choose- campsites or wildcamping? What follows is simply how Three Points of the Compass tackled it in September 2022.

map measurer

Map measure of the month: Harvey Maps 25k and 40k ‘map-measure-go!’ laces

It is not often that a new design of map measure appears on the market. Harvey Maps bucked the trend in 2022 and released a fun little product- boot and shoe laces complete with printed scales to suit their most popular map scales- 1:25 000 and 1: 40 000.

Gear

Gear talk: the Pembrokeshire Coast Path- post-hike gear review

Three Points of the Compass has just returned from backpacking the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. Two September weeks in Wales threw at me varied weather conditions- from strong wind and horizontal rain, to hot sunny days and cold nights. This is a post-hike look at the lightweight backpacking gear I carried.

ditty bag

Gear talk: repairing a punctured Thermarest NeoAir sleeping pad

A quick look at the repair of a punctured Thermarest inflatable sleeping pad using the Instant Field Repair Kit

Electronics

Gear talk: RovyVon Aurora A5 USB-C ‘glow-in-the-dark’ Keychain Flashlight

Following a couple of upgrades, the third generation of RovyVon Aurora A5 glow-in-the-dark (GITD) keychain flashlight is now (probably) the best ‘keychain’ hand-held light available to backpackers. It has now replaced my Nitecore NU25 headlamp on trail

Cooking

Gear talk: Vesuv titanium windshield

A new purchase- a simple titanium windshield sized to fit my favourite Evernew pan. It may be expensive, but improved efficiency is something always to be sought.

Trail talk

Trail talk: Pennine Bridleway. Settle to The Street, Ravenstonedale

My final days on the Pennine Bridleway. The walking steadily improved but the rain continued to laugh at the concept of summer. However, I had Kirkby Stephen in my sights, and nothing was going to stop me

Trail talk

Trail talk: Pennine Bridleway. The Settle Loop

The 205 mile long Pennine Bridleway has two included loops. The first is the 47 mile Mary Towneley Loop that I completed on my way up from Middleton Top. The second is the ten mile Settle Loop. My plan was to traipse round it in a few hours and call the remainder a day off in Settle. But first I had the aftermath of a night of torrential rain to contend with.

Trail talk

Trail talk: Pennine Bridleway. The Mary Towneley Loop to Settle

My Pennine Bridleway continued. I had walked the 72 miles from Middleton Top in Derbyshire to the Mary Towneley Loop. Having walked all of that 47 mile loop, I was now continuing to trail's end in Cumbria. But before then, I had to get to Settle for yet another optional loop.

Trail talk

Trail talk: Pennine Bridleway. The Mary Towneley Loop

Three Points of the Compass walked the 205 mile Pennine Bridleway during the summer of 2022. Hot weather had given way to frequent days of rain. I had already walked some seventy miles from the start of the trail at Middleton Top. I now had the forty-seven mile Mary Towneley Loop to complete before I could continue my trail northward.

Trail talk

Trail talk: Wainwright’s Coast to Coast- a new National Trail

Three Points of the Compass recently walked the Pennine Bridleway. My last night was spent at the Pennine View Campsite at Kirkby Stephen. This is also a popular halt for those walking the Coast to Coast and I spent some time chatting with a handful of backpackers following that route. What was all too apparent was the daftness of my having just completed a National Trail that (in my opinion) shouldn't be one, while they were following an 'unofficial' trail that should be a National Trail. Well, at least part of that is to change.

Trail talk

Trail talk: dry stone walls on the Pennine Bridleway

An image heavy look at dry stone walls of the Pennine Bridleway

Trail talk

Trail talk: Pennine Bridleway. Middleton Top to the Mary Towneley Loop

The Pennine Bridleway doesn't get a lot of attention from backpackers. Cyclists will tackle much of it over a couple of days, horse-riders will go out for a day's hack along parts of it, however few people walk the complete path. Three Points of the Compass ventured out in the summer of 2022 to walk the 205 mile National Trail from south to north.

Gear

Gear talk: adding caps to my MSR Groundhogs

An easy hack to make pushing pegs into the ground a little easier- adding plastic caps

map measurer

Map measure of the month: the Carl Zeiss Jena/Freiberger Präszisionsmechanik Kurvimeter 78

The Freiberger Präzisionsmechanik company is based in Saxony, Germany and has a long and convoluted history that has seen many name and structural changes. From 1965 to 1990, they were part of the Kombinat VEB Carl Zeiss Jena optics parent company. The Kurvimeter 78 map measure looked at here dates from that period of Soviet control.

Trail talk

Trail talk: Lego Mountain Climber (2013)

We have previously glanced at some of the little backpacking and hiking minifigures released by Lego over the years. The company has also produced quite a few climbing characters. Three Points of the Compass looks at one of the best of these- Mountain Climber, released in 2013.

Gear

Gear talk: peg selection

Three Points of the Compass has tried various combination sets of pegs (OK, stakes to our friends across the pond) with my various tents over the years. I suspect many of us have. There is no one-size-fits-all peg, though some come damn close to being perfect. Some ground or soil types or weather conditions such as wind or snow lend themselves better to more specialised pegs.

Trail talk

Trail talk: The first Lego ‘Creator’ backpacker (2011)

The Lego Creator theme started in 2001 and building sets are normally based around buildings, vehicles and animals. They focus more on the creative building element of the plastic bricks rather than the playability. The first minifigure to be included was 'Log Cabin Guy', a canoeing and backpacking log cabin dweller and we take a closer look at him here.

navigation

Trail talk: Maps and guidebooks for the Pennine Bridleway

The Pennine Bridleway is a peculiar trail. Not only is it multi-user, it has a couple of add-on loops and link routes, and... years after it opened, it still isn't complete! Finding maps and guidebooks for both planning and use on trail can be a challenge in itself. I know, as I searched them down in advance of my own hike in summer 2022

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