I'm doing the C2C - my first long walk in a long time. I'm trying to not buy all new kit.
Some of the things below I've bought for this, some I've had for ages, and some I've still yet to find. I'd appreciate your honest views on their suitability or any experience of them.
I'm going to be taking it fairly easy, camping on the tops a couple of nights but mainly in campsites. I'm aiming to eat in towns and pubs but want a brew & brekky capability and to cook occasionally hence the cook stuff.
Still concerned I'm weighing in about 12 kilo pack & belt kit weight (excl liquids, maps, c2c book and a slim novel).
Pack
Old karrimor 60L jaguar, no side pockets, w/p liner (lightweight), many plastic sacs as well. Rain cover for rucksack
Food:
1 Kg of 5 days instant oats, 2 packs noodles, chorizo muy, muy picante (Hmm!), pack with spices, herbs, s&p sachets, soya sauce, tea, instant coffee, dried milk, hot chocs, etc.
Cooking:
Go system trail classic stove & small cartridge, gelert ascent 1 cookset (2 pan & 1 lid), big plastic mug for brew and poss eating from, 330 ml flask mug (lifesystem) for a no-flame brew on the trail, small kitchen knife & cut-down chopping board. Small squeezy of eco w/up liquid and bit of scotchbrite.
2 x lighters
Eating etc.
Uco candle lantern & 1 spare candle, 1 x 1/2 tea towel. 1 spork and 1 soup spoon, chopsticks.
Self-inflating square seat cushion approx 2' x 1'
Small sony FM radio
Tent etc:
Lightwave trek t0 (recommended on here), Karrimor expedition roll-mat, crappy millets 1 season bag and thin fleece liner.
Hydration - 1 x 1 ltr sigg bottle with drinking tube system, katadyn hiker filter for topping up.
Wash & first aid: spare glasses, contacts, shampoo, soap, teeth stuff, mirror, first aid & JIC drugs, 'bits kit' of spare bulb, para cord, clothes pegs x 2 etc
Spare clothes:
1 each of non-issue norwegian shirt, helly base layer, microfleece mid layer shirts. v lightweight long trousers. 2 spare pairs socks, 2 spare boxers, spare T shirt - in pillow case.
Torches - alpkit LED headtorch, maglite solitaire on my pack zipper.
Bin the Norgie shirt. Heavy, crap at insulating once wet. You don't need two torches. Leave one behind. Don't need spare glasses - look after the one. Forget the cushion. Bin anything else you absolutely don't need. Weigh it all. Be thankful you're not carrying all that extra weight!
As CB says, why do you need 3 lights? 4 if you include the 'spare' candle. 2 pans? chopping board? flask? cushion? mirror? pegs? pillow case? leatherman? Spare clothing?
Old karrimor 60L jaguar, no side pockets, w/p liner (lightweight), many plastic sacs as well. Rain cover for rucksack
either your sack is waterproof (unlikely) or it is not. f liner; ditch rest.
Food:
1 Kg of 5 days instant oats, 2 packs noodles, chorizo muy, muy picante (Hmm!), pack with spices, herbs, s&p sachets, soya sauce, tea, instant coffee, dried milk, hot chocs, etc.
You can get food on the C"C
Cooking:
Go system trail classic stove & small cartridge, gelert ascent 1 cookset (2 pan & 1 lid), big plastic mug for brew and poss eating from, 330 ml flask mug (lifesystem) for a no-flame brew on the trail, small kitchen knife & cut-down chopping board. Small squeezy of eco w/up liquid and bit of scotchbrite.
One pan will do it all. Choppping board? Unlikely you will use it given your food choices. Brews? Cafes instead.
Uco candle lantern & 1 spare candle, 1 x 1/2 tea towel. 1 spork and 1 soup spoon, chopsticks.
A spoon and a headtorch is all you need.
Self-inflating square seat cushion approx 2' x 1'
Sit on a rock.
Small sony FM radio
Tent etc:
Lightwave trek t0 (recommended on here), Karrimor expedition roll-mat, crappy millets 1 season bag and thin fleece liner.
Hydration - 1 x 1 ltr sigg bottle with drinking tube system, katadyn hiker filter for topping up.
Aqua Mira or nothing.
Wash & first aid: spare glasses, contacts, shampoo, soap, teeth stuff, mirror, first aid & JIC drugs, 'bits kit' of spare bulb, para cord, clothes pegs x 2 etc
Seeing things - good idea; the rest, na.
Spare clothes:
1 each of non-issue norwegian shirt, helly base layer, microfleece mid layer shirts. v lightweight long trousers. 2 spare pairs socks, 2 spare boxers, spare T shirt - in pillow case.
Put any wet stuff on, wash the rest; drop the spare clothes, really. Pillow case?
Torches - alpkit LED headtorch, maglite solitaire on my pack zipper.
The C2C is a fantastic walk, but remember you're walking through towns and villages, not the Gobi desert, so you only need to take enough to sustain you on a daily basis. The Lightwave is a small tent, your millets sleeping bag will probably compress into not much, so if you junk all the junk that previous posters suggest, and you have a few quid spare, you could probably get away with a pack like an OMM Jirishanca, which would save at least a kilo and mebbe nearer 2 kilos over your Jaguar. And as it's a smaller pack, it would be a useful constraint - if you can't get stuff in, you won't be able to take it! The Jirishanca even comes with a bit of sleeping mat for a back, which you can double up if you want.
No I do appreciate the advice, it's what I asked for
The pile of 'not needed' is growing every minute. I now have a few sachets of spices, 1 torch, 1 small swiss knife etc.
Reckon I need to borrow some better scales & look at the pack, I'd rather not; £££ and sentimental reasons - it's been everywhere with me.
I'm doing a trial sleep out sunday / monday nights to experiment with the sleeping bag, it's so long since I used it. May try the liner alone as well just to see.
Large items cn be weighed on bathroom scales. Weigh yourself wearing an empty rucksac then put the large item(s) in the rucksac and weigh again. Subtract the first weight from the second and Bob's your uncle!
<>The C2C is a grand wa;k (I've done it forty times and shall be walking it again in August) but it is tougher than most people expect. If it's long tme since yu did a long walk it really is important that you get your pack weight down. There is a very stiff climb from Rosthwaite to Lining Crag and the descent is on a very broken and boggy path. There is another steep climb to The Knott (beond Angle Tarn between Patterdale and Haweswater. Also, the descent from Kidsty How to the shores of Haweswater is horribly eroded and very steep.
I should have mentioned that there are food shops and pubs in Rosthwaite, Grasmere, Patterdale, Orton, Kirkby Stephen, Reeth, Richmond (I don't know about the villages between Richmond and Ingleby Arncliffe because I never walk this section as it is dead flat and mostly on roads), Lordstones Café, Great Broughton, Glaisdale, Egton Bridge (pub only), Grosmont, High Hawsker (pub only) & Robin Hood's Bay.
Hugh - (I don't know about the villages between Richmond and Ingleby Arncliffe because I never walk this section as it is dead flat and mostly on roads)
I'm amazed that you can say that and still claim to have walked the Coast to Coast forty times. It sounds as though you've yet to make the complete crossing!
You might mention that the Lordstones Café is underground. Approach it from the 'wrong' side as a stranger to the area and you might miss it altogether.
<>You are quite right - i can claim to have walked the complete route of Wainright'sC2Conly once. Over the years, I've found much better and more attractive routes from the Irish Sea to Robin Hood's Bay that are described in detail on my website. I decline to put the clients on my walking tours through the misery of walking on roads for 25 miles from Richmond toIngleby Arncliffe. I prefer to walk for pleasure rather than sticking obstinately to a route which I know to be inferior.
