Posts by Chris H
I'm looking for easily obtained fuels for an open-cup stove, such as a Trangia, in case I need to top up while travelling. I have a small simple DIY open cup spirit stove, for boiling water when b...
I regularly cycle to the pool with limited time, and have found that the best option is trunks, but they don't have to be as skimpy as we tend to think of as speedos. Mine (similar to these but a l...
One thing you can do is close up the gap under the fly sheet on the upwind side using something you already have. That's easy for me - I go bike camping and my panniers are heavy duty dry bags that...
While there's a lot of overlap, a trail that can't possibly lead to anywhere to stay the night is unlikely to be called a backpacking trail, as backpacking implies multi-day trips carrying sleep ge...
I suggest using both the car and the tent together. A car will lose heat fastest through the windows, so use the tent to cover them (and the top). The windows are a thin single layer of glass, wh...
In most situations you should be prepared for a dunking, so you could hang around in the water and bail without getting too cold. Of course, if you're in danger (e.g. from hitting rocks) get yours...
Mobile mapping is optimised for colour, which isn't available on any of the e-ink devices I can find, despite talk of colour e-paper since about 2013. Having played with black and white prints of ...
A massive advantage of paper maps over electronic is the combination of area and resolution. You can take a bearing to a mast on top of a hill several km away, when zooming out that far on a GPS sc...
If you've got the strap to the perfect length and want to maintain that length, you can sew a small fold in the strap, similar to what's used at the end to stop the whole strap running through. Sli...
This is rather speculative, but draws on a few birding/wildlife books I've read and it's too much for a comment. It also has a little UK bias, but I've visited 4 continents on wildlife trips, and m...
Carrying less weight makes a big difference. My packing follows the "be prepared" style more than the ultralight one, but even I admit it's easy to carry too much. Stepping cautiously especially o...
I use a small cotton towel, such as a tea towel, folded a few times in to a long strip. If the pan is small and light you can wrap the towel round and hold the ends tightly together to form a handl...
Flares appear to weigh up to around 200g each, and to be fairly bulky. As each one can only be used once, that's a lot to carry per fire - a similar amount of liquid fuel and tinder could be expect...
Herbivore faeces doesn't smell as much as human faeces (or dog/cat/other carnivore). The vast majority of mammals, by number or mass, are herbivores. Population densities of large herbivores (overa...
I'd use food storage boxes - yes, plural, for flexibility in arranging the fridge. The good quality ones with an o-ring in the lid should seal tight (in practice they're not always airtight for lon...
In answers to a recent question, ultrasonic dog repellers were suggested as a means of self defence against stray dogs rather than weapons. I'm also concerned with loose farm dogs, and live somewhe...
I've hiked in the UK, and a little in the US and western Europe. I'll concentrate on the UK. My perception is that British hikers keep their gear for longer than Americans, leading to two things:...
There are some light polycotton travel/hiking trousers. Rohan Bags are the originals (as far as I know) but I've had something similar from Craghoppers as well. They don't feel nearly as synthetic ...
A motorway is very strictly defined and will always be named Mn or An(M). There are A roads sometimes called expressways that look a lot like motorways but they don't have hard shoulders and their ...
If you've got a (waterproof) outer layer, that can be used to retain the blanket, by wearing the blanket under the coat. If you don't have a waterproof layer, the foil blanket will keep the worst o...
Assuming firewood can be found, but it's likely to be damp, how can I best be prepared for getting a fire going? This is for a light hiking situation, so I'm not going to carry a sack full of kindl...
In other contexts a knife and fork icon (or fork and spoon e.g. on UK motorway service signs) is widely used, but I'm a little reluctant to propose it here, as it could equally mean cutlery, or mor...
Given your clarification ("up to small knives") a 10mm diameter by 5mm thick rare earth magnet would work. I've got some and they'll lift my Swiss army knife. However I'd go for a bit bigger, and ...
For calm water towing would work. For short stretches of even the gentlest rapids the best approach would be to tie up one boat, paddle the first down (or pole up), tie it up and walk back for the ...
To address the issues you're having with audio-based solutions, keep the phone inside your clothing and use a "hands-free" headset (wired). This will stop the phone dying due to a cold battery, wh...
