Kit load out for a 9 day hike

Description

In this video we take a look at the gear I carried for a 9 day hike across the Cairngorms national park in Scotland. there are no full reviews here but if you'd like to see a full review of any piece of equipment let me know in the comments!

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Tags: Bushcraft,Bushcraft Skills,Wilderness Skills,Outdooors,Hiking,Camping,Survival,Survival Skills,woodcraft,wood craft,walking,kit,gear

Video Transcription

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hello and welcome to another video today's video is all about my kit loadout for a long distance hike before I get into it and before I start going through it I'm gonna explain a little bit about the kind of iteration of this kit and where it's come from I'm very very happy with it and this is gonna be my go-to selection equipment for the foreseeable future for any of my longer distance hikes so this selection of equipment a lot of it was purchased for and selected for a trip I did earlier this year in the Cairngorms I was only May and it had to cope with a number of things so the weather the starters we when we looked into it basically weather was completely unpredictable so we had to prepare for hot sunny sunshine and nice conditions

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rain bit work bit gray bit miserable wind snow so we robbed it across safely Charlie and and then just overcast and grit and drizzly so basically this equipment had to deal with everything that the weather catharsis and also a number of different types of terrain so we were going through the Cairngorm so we had valleys to cross through we had mountains to go over a little bit of road walking to do and we had some open kind of more than these stuff to get over as well so it had to be a well-rounded selection of equipment and to be honest with you I'm really really happy with how this turned out there's very very few things in this that I actually want to change I'm really really happy with it there's a couple of things that I am gonna shuffle around a little bit but I'll explain what they are and why when I get to each individual piece of equipment so I'm gonna start off actually by talking about the clothing I'm wearing really really quickly these are the exact clothes I was willing to do that hike so I've got a merino wool t-shirt on we all know merino walls good stops you getting too smelly it's good at wicking and doesn't rub all that kind of stuff trousers and wearing a pair these fjällräven Vidur pro-choicers which are absolutely amazing pike and they're so comfortable to wear articulated legs and they even have a really practical mat pocket in them as well which I like and on my feet I have got my old bird boots and I honestly cannot remember what the model of the maze I probably find it out and and they're quite heavy but to be honest they really did the job comfortable I didn't get a single blister on it on the trip and they did keep my feet very very dry for the whole trip apart not one point where I kind of got stressed out lost my temper and decided to stomp my way through a waist-deep river in my boots so that wasn't the fault of the boots that was my fault entirely okay so and mostly equipment in here was kept in the bag there's a couple of things

on my person which I'm gonna explain first so first of all a little me tripod which was kept in my pocket with the camera attached to it which is my new canon canon g7x which is just a box behind me not using it today but I have got all my camera stuff and of course I also have a matte case and compass which I'm gonna very quickly show you how that fitted into these er raven trousers so the matte case which is this Trek mate and sort of rubberized matte case absolutely brilliant didn't let any water in despite the four rendus amounts of rain that were thrown out as on one of the days so this folds up quite neatly like so and actually this pocket just here in these trousers is brilliant is absolutely perfect for a map pocket so that was really useful I can't feel that that's in there it's not uncomfortable because these have got these like nice articulated knees in them and it just became part of the part of the walk and it's I just forget it's there now she's really good so that was the stuff that was kept on my person I've got it in the bag today just for the the purposes of filming in the video the bag itself is a Osprey Kestrel 58 liter pack I could not be happier with this backpack I absolutely love it I can't really find any fault with it and if you've been watching my channel for a while you'll know that I have a lot of backpacks on I seem to go through them and I'm constantly using them and then kind of finding little bits that I don't like so it's kind of my personal quest to find the perfect Rockside and I've got to say this one it is pretty close so it's a 58 liter pack and worth noting now actually one of the things I'm not showing you in this video today is the food that I was carrying the trips been done I haven't got that for you anymore it's all been eaten so there isn't any food here sell for parts of that trip some of the equipment inside this pack was on the outside lot fun with the pack it's just it was much too small but still kind of perfect really there's a number of features that I really right about this pack I'm not gonna do a full review of anything but we'll just have a look at a few things so for some parts of it my tent was a tactically outside just here which was really useful did make the pack a bit weighted weirdly it's got two pockets in the top of the the lid here which makes it very very accessible for things that I need quick access to well the one thing that I absolutely love about this is that it can be side to side access to it I always get the wrong side I have got the wrong side so there's a little pouch on the side here which can be used to extend it or to keep bits in this side here opens up so that I can access the stuff that's down this side very easy and very quickly without having to get everything out that future is amazing for hiking and I've got my down jackets and stuff here things that I'm gonna need quick access to my little pouch and an extra layer all down the side in here was ordinarily with a lot of packs you have to get into them from the top I love this feature the reason I like this obviously as I said the water food in this and that really really packed this bag out and what can happen is as you start to get through the food your bag starts to get a little bit loose and a little bit blocking it doesn't sit right and your back anymore because it's it's not for to its full capacity this part it can all be cinched down really tightly so you can start to decrease the actual capacity of it as you go through that worked really really so the pack was always nice and tight up against my back it's very very comfortable it's got really padded very very nicely padded and straps on it which don't sit here they kind of come in and round so I found very very comfortable so you can really cinch that that sternum strut down the waist strap again is very very padded it has these pockets so I had access to that little snacks and things that I was putting in here all day long and it's it's really really comfortably on your hip those come in a variety of sizes

this is the small start size set - it's from Hollis setting because I'm a midget and not really much else to say about that but my side pockets as usual but that was the pact that I was using all actually one really important feature absolutely game-changing feature is this stole on-the-go system by the poles so ordinarily the poles in your bag have to sit on the the front side of the pack so to actually access them or put them away you've got to take the pack off and strap them on these sit kind of here so when you need them you can pull them out like a sword which I do quite a lot and when you're done with them they just go straight back in and they don't get in the way they're just just there you still got full access here for your hands it's just comfortable it's an amazing amazing game-changing feature I absolutely love that feature I will be doing the full review of this pack at some point in the future I've added on to it and a whistle obviously for safety even though it does have one built into the sternum strap and I don't really like the sternum strap whistles they're good whistles but they're just they're a bit awkward to actually access and also I have attached to it some worth possibly on the front but she's using on the strap I have attached a little rag which usually sits on the strap it was on the front to dry it out from the previous trip and and this is great when it's cold or wet and you start to get a bit of a runny nose I just give my face a bit of a wipe with it or whatever and it's just helpful to have that little microfiber towel there always accessible so one of them things that you don't you don't realize how useful it is until it's not there or until you need one so with this it just sits on these straps the whole time it's really useful there's a lot of little strips on this pack for attaching things it's like quite like I'm being candid with us now there we go and that just sits on there so the poles that I was using between this lovely snow on the go thing are these lightweight carbon-fiber poles from our we x40 quit really good really really lightweight comfortable good quality and carbon fiber instead of metal which does make them a bit lighter and a little bit more flexible these are invaluable on the trip especially getting up and down the the various mountains and with the amount of weight we carry with my pack like 32 kilograms with the food in it that's a lot of weight on your knees and having these made a huge difference to like this you know the stress that has been putting off put onto you onto my legs and it really easy off and also what I like about these is that they extend much taller than needed for walking but it's the the center pole for my channel okay so I'm gonna start going through the actual contents of the pack what I'm going to do is I'm gonna start with lips on the top and work my way through to the bottom that's the only order I'm gonna do it in so from top to bottom the stuff at the top of the pack is the stuff that I need access to sort of pretty readily as I think the weather is about to demonstrate so right in the top here I've got my waterproof so rain coat these things were amazing honestly so much better than walk through trousers and look at the size of it pack down it weighs nothing literally like a few grams really really happy with that and if you're lucky I might put a bonus thing on of me wearing it I have got a waterproof jacket so this is the burgh house rain storm I think jacket can't member exactly nice lightweight jacket not the most breathable in the world but nice lightweight and really genuinely very very walk through including walk through pockets which was nice and as I go on just worth mentioning it again I'm not going to do a full specification of each of the pieces of equipment I talked a little bit about why each bit has been selected if it's necessary and if there is anything that you would like to see a full review on let me know in the comment and I'll get that sorted out for you so to go along with the rain kilt I also have para gaiters which were really invaluable actually where we were there was a lot of ticks and quite a lot of like long vegetation to get through when you didn't really need for water boots on so Gators were rep very very useful but keeping the ticks out and also getting through small rivers and stuff combination of these Gators with these boots and these trousers meant I could doll

sort of fairly deep in water without getting wet wet inside my boots so that was nice so in the top that isn't part of the equipment that came with me that's my shelf encapsulator head gear so it's a selection a head gear so all of its bundled up in this Oh II X Mountain cap because it's waterproof all right

so rather than have it in a dry bag I just shoved it in this mountain cat these mine caps make you look ridiculous but they're so good oh it goes like this keeps the ears covered and then a nice peak cap as well just to let the rain runoff and that can be popped up as well I have pebbles and gloves are possible other things I am gonna change actually because these gloves these North plays polar Trek gloves are actually very good very very warm very very comfortable nice fits on them and problem with them is they're not waterproof and that became quite problematic quite quickly on one of the days so I do need to find a water treatment alternative or addition to them probably some seal skins but my last pair fell apart I have a thin merino wool kind of hat liner these are generally what I were now I find them really comfortable especially in the wind but if it's not too cold to be needing the Hat but it is windy these did the job at like keeping my hair out of my face and they stopped the wind that batter in my head again the wind gives me quite bad headaches so these are really useful Marina War buff so yeah just the neck scarf can be used as a bandana type thing again merino wool because it wicks away it dries really really quickly and I don't find I sweat as much in it so quite expensive but well worth the money click come to you as well so that's a hat liner a buff and then I also have my extra warm or fini which you have seen me wearing quite a lot so that's my headgear to be honest this buff equipment I absolutely love it it just works it looks pretty cool as well which is a rare thing in the outdoors but I like the design that they use because everything just seems to fit your head really nicely there's not food knob bits on it and it's not extra padded it just fits and then you can actually get your foot over the top of it which honestly is is really important the amount of hats I've had and then tried to wear them in the cold but it's also raining and you can't get your hood over them so yeah roof headgear really rate it and really rewrite it in the top here I also have a power bank and tried a number of things kept inside dry bags in this the whole bag was aligned with a driver I have not gotten today just because it it sounds horrendous on the camera so I've taken it out fill me this well power bank for charging my camera and my phone and a little bit like that and my head torch as well so that's them a round power power bank it's one of their newer ones but it's got a huge capacity in it and I will be doing a full review of those at some point so stalking the top of the bag nice and simple basic stuff mostly and waterproof that I need to grab quickly I also kept some snacks in the top as well so moving down the pack okay dope now I think I'll check these out for the time being as well just the mapping the the tripod we looked at earlier what else have I got in the front it's in the front I've got a couple of head torches always coat your head torch in case one fails both of these are waterproof three night one and this led Lenser one which I've changed I've flipped the batteries around it good tip actually flip your I haven't done it with a few nights I was using it yesterday you put your batteries in the wrong way it means that it's not accidentally gonna get switched on in your pack so when you to stop just flip the batteries around nothing else in the front there and I'll do the side pouches later on so starting in the top of the pot straight at the top in case I need it is a big first-aid kit so I carried a first-aid kit which is a bit beyond what you really for hiking but I carried this in case anyone's agree really need it so I've got a good selection of stuff in there included some antibiotics and things like that I have a Rabb nope not rub berg house ramp Chi 3 I think it is love this jacket is the warmest jacket I have ever owned super super lightweight only problem with it is it didn't come with its own stuff sack so it's in micro coppers compressed light bag for now extra layer this is a blue synthetic lightweight partially fleecy kind of running running hoodie I actually really like it it's kind of it's perfect for hiking and when you just need like that in a mid layer just to keep the wind off or to keep the Sun off only problem with it is because it is definitely like poly polyester type stuff it's I guess very smelly very very quickly so I had to air it out every day oh I have to monk's so one's a little coffee mug these little wild I'll folding mug this is a more a knife one that's my little coffee mug and I have a larger one which I actually used as a bulb while I was away so that was what I had my pollen in the morning they need a wash and they're nice because they just sit it's it kind of together and they're just nest in these were just tucked in the bag any old in any old place everything else is quite like quite ordered in here but these are just thrown in just you know it's wedged in wordid fit okay big thing I have my looks

mini peak to tent I love this 10 it is so good

lightweight easy to pop and there's so much space in it even on one of the nights where absolutely rained I had somewhere to actually sit up and and work and have all my stuff laid out and then it's got like a smaller you know all your problem with it is I need to add a ground sheet have noticed the top part of it is really walk with me we had some torrential rain and I've been out in some hideous weather in this but it does seem to let a little bit dampness through you through the bottom so I'm gonna get and when we invest in the ground doesn't get wet as such it just gets a little bit damp through the bottom and that uses and one of the hiking poles to hold it up fantastic little tent really really really clever design I have a wash bag so in here we've got sort of toothbrush toothpaste and mouthwash shower gel eye drops to put that the toothpaste that I'm using actually these little things from lush the brilliant the little toothpaste tabs you just put me your mouth a little bit of water and start scrubbing and bit lighter than your traditional toothpaste it also means that if the lid comes off it's not gonna squirt horrible toothpaste over everywhere which wrecks waterproof equipment and the mouthwash is the same they're just these little dissolvable mouthwash tablet really really clever idea one of the things I am going to use that's in here at the minute is my bug repellent to keep in my wash pitch I keep him a wash kit so that at the end of the day or in the morning when I've had a wash and washed it off it's straight they're to be reapplied so I'm being eaten by midges today it's finally rained not the best in central point in the world I've got some better stuff in my pocket if they carry on on you smell that way and this little wash kit is is brilliant as you can kind of hang it off and I've got like a hairbrush and some and you sort of roll on the old and it's tucked in there and it rolls up so I've got a full wash kick on shorter trips I don't we bother I just take the toothbrush and toothpaste but on these longer ones it was really nice to have a washing and next up we have this which is probably my favourite piece of equipment in this whole bag this is the therm-a-rest trekker curcuit quite heavy from what it is and stand alarms not that heavy but obviously when you add it to the rest there's quite heavy but what an amazing piece of equipment especially on these longer hikes so basically if you've not seen where these before what this does is it turns your therm-a-rest mart into a chair that you can lean back in and believe me that makes the world of difference when you've been carrying a 30 kilogram pack all day or from down mountains or you want to do is sit down comfortably and this piece of equipment really makes that possible I absolutely love this piece of equipment it will come on every every single hike with me from now on just because of like the difference it makes you can relax and you can kind of you know I'm into hunched over your cook set you can just kind of have it beside you when it's combined with this tent you can sit down comfortably in the dry and be okay so next up sorry about that people keep ringing me up that's why there's a few weird little cooks in this next up I have my cook system I've already done a review on I'm using the MSR stove in there so in this cooks it

crock-pot I have got my spoon gas port or I did have a spare gas bottle with me for the trip but that got thrown in the bin it's used so the work to gas bottles and I've got my Oh X solar cook set still love that still using it absolutely solid piece of equipment I have a little Maxpedition pouch with useful bits in it so things like spare batteries another set of eye drops I have to trouble with my eyes pens matte pens and extra torch tip remover personal cook kit cuts kit all that kind of stuff in there invaluable piece of equipment that it's good for those little odds and ends that don't really have anywhere else to live stuff that you need and I do use that stuff quite a lot I have a an extra down jacket so this is like a rabbit down gel a really nice because it just packs down to nothing to this can just be wedged in anywhere and it does come with its own little stuff sack and I like this top strap because it stands out inside the bag and every cell it's kind of black and green that stands out quite nicely and spur socks spur Underpants spur base layers just in this little dry bag this is the only thing that's been kept in a dry bag because this stuff kind of lives in this dry bag permanently at home it's where I store it obviously apart when I'm washing it okay well on to sleep equipment now so I'm gonna move on to what's in this side pouch so this next piece of equipment is possibly the only thing that I'm actually gonna change this is the katadyn hiker hiker throw water filter and it's it's really really good I can't fault the equipment at all however all the other lads had the katadyn the new thoughts they've got which is to be free and that's why I admit I was really skeptical about that at first and I didn't get it I opted for this one instead which is a little bit more expensive and just a little bit more fiddly to use so what this is a great filter the be free was just a bit more practical for hiking I still use this four times when I'm gonna need like larger quantities of water and I still will be using four let's let her fall on the be freeze but yeah that is probably the only thing that I would change from this so we're the guys when they were sorting the water literally they just scooped it up screwed the lid on it was ready to go I had to get this out construct it pump the watering get somebody else to hold the little thong thing in place and it was just a bit of a fat to be honest so the be free is really good and be pleased later as well this is so heavy just pour keep over here and spur tent pegs will catch at the side that she need to go back into the tent everything in this side we have a mosquito head net and if you've never been to Scotland I've heard the horror stories of midges and mosquitoes this was an essential piece of equipment that we ended up not needing it wasn't too bad our problem was with ticks but still weighs next to nothing

scrunches down to even less worth carrying anyway I have got my and Maura Ellis knife with its little striker on there and so no point carrying a massive fixed blade knife for a hike but the word times were this was needed notably Brian forgot his tent pegs so on the first night he needed to wit looks and tent pegs which we could have done with the Swiss Army knives are all Korean we're having this which made the whole thing a bit easier really useful piece of equipment and it's small enough to be shoved in home side pouch as well and I did at the time I had the the neck strap on it actually looped through a strap so it couldn't fall out and don't miss him that's the more L dress and that is everything from the head culture so I believe nothing in here wonderful so sleep system last bit bulkiest bit I would say little X bed pillow reeling in a little pillow tiny little things but actually a decent decent sized pillow when it's actually inflated three-quarter length therm-a-rest sleep map this is absolutely perfect for me I'm only small anyway so my feet just hanging off the end of it lightweight it can I folded this really poorly it can go a lot smaller than that and that's what gets used with the chair and then at the end you got a deeper sort of searcher you just unclip it and then sweep it all together and then last but not least just in here another thing I like about this pack is it's got a separate compartment at the bottom for your sleep system so just stays in its nicely I've got my trusty old Everest down bag which I've had for seven years now when I've used every since I've been out it's just my year-round bag I don't have separate bags different touch a year and it's been going for seven years and I think sadly it is now reaching the end of its life it started to get a bit flat so I think it's time to replace this Old Faithful bag now we did alright on the trip despite the fact that it did get quite wet Jesus fact that I was no that is all my equipment for a nine-day hike and laid out as you can see it's pretty minimal I think that's why I like it every single piece of equipment here got used and there wasn't anything that I thought on I need this or I haven't got such such a thing so I'm really happy with this kit lower some people will have Lao is two things that are missing well three things so food which I'm already mentioned haven't haven't included food I do want to do a separate video on that at some point there's no water bottle here as well the reason for that is I don't carry make a specific water for hiking I use smart water bottles because they're like disposable water bottles and they just they don't weigh or cost anything and I did actually bring some to demonstrate I have left them in the car but the water bottles

you know co2 smart water bottles and a water filter in Scotland there's no there's no worry of not being able to buy them worth it absolutely everywhere and the other thing that's missing is we did have an emergency shelter and a tarp with us the top didn't get used so I've kind of taken that and out of the equation I don't think that I'll carry it off again the tent did the job just well enough and the emergency shelter which was a poor person sort of bothy bag for using the mountains I didn't carry that I had the first aid kit in the and the tarp tarp that we didn't use and the bothy Bible was with Brian the reason I've not got it to show you is because Brian still has that body bag and but yeah this is absolutely everything like I can't think of anything that I would add or remove from this this selection of equipment it worked brilliantly and it's lightweight this is my base our base equipment so I'm not including food water this weighs in around 12 kilograms which is really not very much and that's including the weight of the bag it packs it packs into the bag really nicely as well I think I've just havin think I'll do a quick time-lapse video of me and actually packing this to show you how quickly it goes in imagine that that is possibly Brian attempting to women you know it is hello can you say hello people Brian just interrupting my mic it loadout for my Scotland video so don't tell people