Kit List for West Highland Way and Great Glen Way

hey your folks how's it going welcome to another packing video it's great to have you along today we're doing things just a little bit differently in that we're talking about two walks at the same time we've got the west highland way and the great glen way and that's what i'm gonna be heading out to walk tomorrow I leave at 4 a.m. I have to catch a flight to Scotland then I have to catch a bus into the city and then a train to the start and then we'll walk 10 miles it's more it's gonna be kind of a long day for me but that's alright this is what this is all about so the west highland way then let's start with that shell 76 miles it runs from moguy just outside of glasgow right through the West Highlands up to Fort William in the West Highlands so I stayed there for two days hopefully we'll get a break in the weather and I can climb bear neveress which is the highest mountain in the UK and then from Fort William it's the start of the great glen way so i'll follow that one for about 78 miles I believe it is up to Inverness where I fly back to Bristol and be reunited with my friends and my family and my dogs of course they're the best bit sorry guys but let's be real we all know it's true and so that's my plan I've got I'll be away for 13 days in total with all of this so it's taking me six days to walk the west Hannam way and for for the great glen way got some big mileages ahead of me and if I'm honest my pack weights considerably heavier than perhaps they'd like it to be at the moment is about 15 and a half kilograms without water so I'll be carrying two liters of water and if I just want to emphasize as a filmmaker seven kilograms of this is camera gear so that's what most folks would do without I'm not a lightweight backpacker I just can't be with how I function how I work but everything in my pack has been consciously thought over as to why I'm carrying it do I need it yes it goes in the bag no not worth bringing it so that's what we do is we'll just look at everything I've got in here we're on packet have a discussion around each item and then we'll put everything back in so without further ado let's get started so this is my Osprey X source backpack if you've watched any of my other videos you know that I use this over and over and over again this is a 48 litre pack just pretty much always does me for anything up to kind of two weeks in terms of distance so it's great what I've got on the bottom here is my Healey bag octo tent this is a five season mounts intent it's a pretty awesome tunnel design but I am if I'm going to let you into a little secret here looking at potentially upgrading my one person sort of summer sleeping system just cuz I really struggle with the condensation with this tent it's just wet even if it doesn't rain or drizzle and it's so frustrating so that's my heavy bag actor which I love you know we've done some serious journeys together you know so that's that one on the bottom we don't need to look at that if you want to set for a review for pretty much anything in my kit then have a look at the description below and it'll be linked up there so we'll start with the top pocket then what I've got in here is Oh first and foremost I have a smidge head net do you want to just should we just have a little bit of fun here for a minute I'm not used one of these and I can't even see out of it and I'm not even sure I'm gonna use it but hats off look clearly I like you guys tada so whether or not I walk in this whether or not I need it whether or not I can just let go of my ego and wear it for long enough I don't know but um that's a smidge head net because one of the biggest things I've had to think about with this trip to Scotland is the fact I'm going in peak season for the mid jeez and for mosquitoes and they just seriously love my blood you know I could just yeah I just get eaten alive to be honest so I'm taking that as a precaution you see some other things as well that I've got in here so that's the first thing that has come out which is my smidge head net will pop that one there up next this is my kind of accessible dry bag within this one I've got a lot of essentials for example then I've got my wallet which has some cash in it it's got cards train tickets all of that sort of stuff this is currently packed ready to go to the airport so that's my wallet I've got in here a New Testament that I like to read it's just a bit different from reading trail stuff all the time and then basically some electrics that are very helpful to have handy if at every point I find a socket so I've got a dual USB charger which can charge my phone and my portable power pack and then I've got two leads that I can charge both at the same time so I've really tried to think that through this one's slightly longer I think is about a metre and a half in length because quite often what you find these kind of funky house places or on no cost as if you haven't defined one I think there's one at Fort William then you know you're charging your phone but you're often quite far away from the socket there is a train coming you're often quite far away from the socket so it's a little bit challenging to to stick with your phone so you want a nice long lead that's the purpose of that wave to the train okay so that's that back there that's why I've got all of that stuff this one here this is literally a half fall so it's about 25 milliliters of hand gel very helpful I've got some loose cereal bars in the top here so we've got cheer charge bars I have lots of those in my bag this time they're my main sponsors for this chip really great health sought food bars that are also fantastic for your really quite light actually for the energy that they provide and if I'm honest like these are really addictive the peanut butter on all my word that is to die for so just got a couple of those in the top there and then this here I've got some Sun cream wishful thinking some tissues I've got some insect bite stuff and I've got some newer friend joint cream because of my trap injury which basically I've got a torn muscle which makes carrying any weight pretty much agonizing pain so go me another cereal bar thing and I've got some Kendal mint cake that's kind of my emergency fuel if I just find my blood sugar levels of dropping and then also in the top I just got a little green tin of aloe vera kinda donated by my friend so that's very helpful especially if you're kind of snorting everywhere and you just need to keep things nice and moist good word all right so let's have a look at the front pocket then well we've got in here straightaway is a bag that's great isn't it in here I've got flip-flops and check this out they're not my usual ones these are like now pretty much the only time you kind of weigh on a scale different flip-flops is when you backpack right you want to watch every gram so I was there weighing my current flip-flops the ones I normally use which are grim B's or something like that fabric when they're dry their way just shy of I think it's 500 grams these guys weigh 120 grams so I was like alright you know I'm fortunately I'm gonna have to embrace the plastic and use these so I've got these this time nice flip-flops are there for around camp and I just keep them in a bag because obviously they get wet when I wear them I say obviously the forecast for this trip is very wet I'm gonna get wet that's just just wet that's all I need to say now then what we've got here is a new piece of kit and I left the tag on so I can tell you a little bit about it I've ordered this specifically nice blue it's a little bit big it's a crag Hopper's and not nause life I think they call it jacket and basically it's just designed and it's got some kind of built-in technology to repel insects I've done a lot of research into it so it's kind of a little bit more complicated than that but I'm gonna be wearing this where I need to just to keep those bugs away so that's a jacket that would be accessible I have a spare plastic bag in here I've got my usual 66 degree north Iceland hat which is wonderful that's my hat got some fingerless gloves cuz they're always great I don't always just use those as gloves either sometimes I wear them underneath my shoulders just to protect my skin there if I especially from just wearing a t-shirt from the frictions and I often get these weird lumps here and it's just good to resaw so sometimes just putting gloves underneath helps with that and then I have a buff and the only other thing I've got in here is some steel skiing gloves which actually I'm going to take out see if I can replace those with some lights and fabric gloves I think they're just worth having because the you know it's gonna be wet it's gonna be cold and I just want to be on the safe side with that so that's my kind of insulation for my extremities and then another plastic bag I don't have enough for them this is my waterproof cover for my rucksack that just stays attached to it which is good I've got a map case hopefully that will come in handy in here then this is my notes I've got my passport I've got my schedule I've got like print off of maps and things after when I'm wandering around Glasgow and Fort William I've got ya a big notepad I write a lot when I'm away so I'm gonna write in there so that's kind of all kept nice and together and the last thing I've got is this empty dry bag which I put the microphone which is my video Pro that I'm filming on now I put that in here just to keep that nice and protected so that's everything in the top and the front pocket you can see this is a nice stretchy mesh pocket very helpful for me to ram stuff in there and then usually the tripod that I'm filming on right now which is kind of a lightweight not really showing board that sits on the front when I'm walking so I can't get that off unless I stop and take my pack off but it's just the best place for me to carry that at the moment on the side I just have a flask which it's half-full for some apparent reason and then what's its if the flask sits in this mug which is a titanium mug weighs apparently I think like 100 grams so it's nothing just sits in there like that which is really great so that works really well for me a nice system and then on this side I've also got I would not normally keep this hair it's just so I can show you except it's tangled up let's get that out there we go so I've got my GoPro hero3 Plus pretty old-school keeps producing corrupt files but that's what I shoot on at the moment I'm still struggling to get a GoPro Hero 5 or 6 that works for me as in literally works they just seem to keep dying so still shooting with this old fella and then I've got a selfie stick which I don't use but I'm thinking I might try and use just to get those bigger shots of the mountains and things that we're gonna be seeing when we're in the West violence is going to be some seriously spectacular scenery I just want to maximize how much I can share with you with regards to the footage that I'm taking then on the other side what I've got here as I say this is packed for the airport now I have this whooping great bag sack thing now they are not gonna unroll it basically this will fit this rucksack in so when I'm flying it just keeps everything together I can keep my tripod in there and is obviously an extra weight that I didn't have to lug across Scotland but it's really helpful it means that I don't need to worry about roughing this in that plastic stuff that just gets thrown away and just hate that stuff is terrible it's like clean film but you put it around your kit when you're sending it off and this is just such a reusable much more environmentally sensitive products that I can reuse so I've got that one there and then I've also got just another bottle this is a weird square one perfect so got that one as well and that's the the kind of extremities of the pack then let's have a look on the inside so underneath this lid we've got a mesh pocket here and what I keep in here then I have got my head torch which is the Petzl act ik head such perfect for me nice and light really good I think it's like 300 lumens worth of lights there's proper quality stuff and then I've got some spare batteries apparently I've lost one they'll be in here somewhere there it is some spare batteries for my head torch just can't really go about those it's quite good to have them as a backup then I've got now this is kind of a luxury for me in a way it's heavy is what I'm getting at so it weighs 800 no it doesn't eighty grams so it's quite heaviest it's just a weight all of this adds up every gram really does add out but basically this is these are high five tablets this tropical flavor but basically every other one I staggered as a multivitamin so that I can just make sure I'm getting some nutrients in and electrolytes when I'm I'm on the trail so got that there nice tube at least that will go down in terms of weights as I use them it's not going to go up which is good then the final few things in this underside pocket I've got some just tablets and some water purification tablets and they're there I keep them nice and accessible I've got a lighter which is a backup in case my stove system which you see in a minute in case that fails I've got that there and my spork which is life itself so that's my sport that's where I keep that obviously you can see it's accessible right there let's have a look at the inside of the pack so got my pack sometimes it will have a ring cover over it I'd still use a rucksack liner I know some people say these are old-school but I just quite like them so I've got a rucksack liner there which essentially is a plastic bag just added protection so the first thing that I can get out is my Mountain Equipment laughs Otzi jacket this is certainly not as light as they come in terms of waterproof but it's got pit zips and this is got a rear foot shoulders hip hip sort of sections so that it's not just gonna get worn away I've recently read prove this as well says yeah that's not light it doesn't fold down that small but it's a quality jacket and I know that if I'm wearing that I'll certainly be protected from the elements up next then food yay now I'll do something a little bit different with this trail normally what I do is I tend to pack you know at least a fair amount of cereal bars and evening meals and I'll bring enough breakfast for the trail but actually this pack as they say is heavier than I really want it to be I would love to get this weight down more but what I've got in here is kind of just a random selection of stuff that will see me for a couple of days that's about it because I'm hoping to buy food on the trail that's going to involve a certain amount of sort of planning ahead staying vigilant to when the shops are open can I make it there what do I need to buy so I've got two spare sort of ziplock bag things just because then I've got one two three evening meals and you know if I was hungry I could eat all of these as one meal let's be honest so I've got to sort of couscous is which weigh a hundred grams each and then I've got this packet of noodles which is 108 grams of reading that off the back so that's what they claim they are so I've got those three evening meals I'm not bringing any sort of ration packs or dehydrated packs I'm just hoping to supplement my diet when I'm walking go to shops go to tea shops it might cost me a little bit more but that's what I'm hoping to work with on the trail I've got some tea bags and I've got some mint tea bags I just live in hope that I can find milk and have a brew because that's just the most boosting thing for my morale is a decent cup of tea having said that I have some treats here and then I've got four Oh like that go there it is for sort of latte sachets they actually just need using to me on and say I've got those for my longest mileage days just to treat myself as a reward also get some mmm calories in and then I've just got a real selection of cereal bars more mostly cheer charge actually they've got these beautiful like coffee Karma raw fruit ones they've got Chia sea flapjack with banana that's my favorite I wish they were bigger they've got cashew Karma oh man I could eat these now but they were you know 35 grams eat 30 grams they're not they're not the lightest because they are flapjacks but they're high-calorie so it's a bit of a compromise little as I've started doing these raw fruit ones as well so I've got one of them and just a couple of sort of OT bar things as well so you can see I've got quite a few cereal bars and then the rest all is left is a few breakfasts so I've got 1 2 3 4 5 6 oat sachets there golden syrup just add water and that's my breakfast there about 200 calories each so obviously that's only six days worth the rest of it I hope to find things on the trail by yogurt I really enjoy yogurt I enjoy tea cakes just anything like that is quick to eat nice and well I wouldn't carry the yogurt I'd buy that if I stopped near a shop but those are the things I like to buy so that's my food bag in a nice yellow dry bag and easily accessible if I get hungry so that's that one there next just just happens to be there this is my Patagonia nano puff hoody check out the review of that one I really like this synthetic insulation layer means if it gets wet I try not to get it wet but if it gets wet then it will keep me nice and warm I use that in the evenings I will not open that I like to keep that protected it's not the most breathable layer so that's what I've got in terms of insulation and then my clothes bag so this is slightly different to normal as well in that I've got a new piece of kit which is is an old piece of kit of mine but it's new addition to this walk and that is this I have a long-sleeve shirt thing and basically what I've tried to think about is because I'm gonna be walking and I'm sweating it's gonna rain my orange jacket that I normally use is actually 10 percent cotton and I found on recent trails it's just not being drying out it weighs nearly 500 grams so it's heavy so I've tried to sort of rethink my my system for this trail basically I'll be wearing my cheetah charge t-shirt because there's a say there my main sponsors and actually you know I've owned that t-shirt for like 15 days in a row and it still doesn't smell so it's made of something pretty decent so I'm wearing that then if I get cold I can put this over the top and of course it was raining I have my coat on anyway which is windproof and waterproof and then another layer is I can put my the crack hoppers top on as well so those are kind of my walking layers I could wear four layers and then add a push if I needed to I could put my Patagonia on as well so that's exactly why I'm packing that it's got thumb loops it's really old I think it's Northridge it's a little bit big for me hence why I can put it over a t-shirt so I've got that one there and then everything else is pretty much just socks but before the socks I've got some shorts so I'll wear these in the evening and sleeping I have two pairs of Underpants obviously I'll be wearing one so there you go you now know my underpants system and I've got a vest top thing that I also wear to sleep in so that's that's really light I mean that just weighs like what 10 grams or something crazy and then what you'll see is I'll be wearing one pairs of socks to take that one out I've got one two three four pairs of socks that I'm gonna be carrying that might seem excessive but as I say it's forecast to rain I'm wearing some old boots that I'm just trying to get some last bit of life out of and wet socks putting them on in the morning for me I often find that they give me blisters so I'm just trying to give myself a bit of variety here in terms of looking after my feet one of them I will never walk in which is this pair I always put these on an evening at night when I sleep these are my clean pair they just keep my feet protected they help to recover them when I put the foot cream stuff on them that I use so that's my sleeping person theory I only have four pairs of socks really but one of them is gonna get thrown away these are really old once the trail is done so that's my sock system and that's for me it works it means they don't get blisters I walked the coast-to-coast 200 miles across the country didn't get a single blister and that was because of my sock system and my foot care system which I'll hopefully talk about a little bit more in some upcoming videos so that is my clothes bag it's a little bit bulky but it's really not too bad you know when we're talking about two weeks I think it's okay so that's that one and then up next these are just packed here because as I say this is packed for flying I'm hoping not to walk with both of these but I've got a Smith canister and I've got some skin so soft so I've I put a post out on Facebook on a great group called outdoor gear advice and just sort of talking about insect repellent what works to people and it kind of was a 50/50 between avon so soft and all skin so soft and the smidge so i'm actually gonna try both if one of them doesn't work for me then i'll just donate it to someone else that it does work for the west side and ways a very well-known trail I'm expecting there's going to be other walkers there that I'll meet as I'm traveling so I'm taking both of those for now it's kind of a bit of an experiment and I'm also hoping when I get back from the trail then to make a review video specifically for the West Highland way and the great glen way and talking about just general insect survival in Scotland so we'll have a chat about that at a later date and if I've already made that video by the time you're watching it it'll be in the link below okay up next I've got my wash kit nice light ziplock bag I've got a travel towel I've got some wet wipes because I've got quite a few wild wops wild laps wild camps and body staying in this so I'll just help me with hygiene where there's no showers toothbrush toothpaste and a little bit of shampoo and body wash then this here is my first-aid kit this is a custom made wanna put everything in there know how to use it I'm very happy with that so that's my first aid kit that would sometimes be kept higher in my pack just so it's more accessible this is a wait most people wouldn't have this is camera batteries this is charging stuff for camera kit so that ways I think about two and a half kilograms yeah fun and then literally roll mat therm-a-rest vent sure that's my role map that I use nice that same colour green got a review on that one check out the link below will stacks nicely together my cooking system is a Jetboil flash obviously I've not got any gas in there today because I won't be flying with that but I can put that in there and then pop the lid on top and then this is my Bowl which is I don't have to take in theory I can eat out the Jetboil but it's just quite nice to have their bowl and really there in here is my birdhouse waterproof trousers and then I've got some wrist or ankle gaiters that I do tend to use these a gore-tex so I just pop them over my legs and my boots and that just stops a bit of water getting in plenty I'm wearing four pad pretty food so you win some you lose some that's that and then the final thing is my lab neutrino 400 sleeping bag says it's pretty bulky let's be honest not the lightest sleeping bag in the world certainly not the heaviest either this is down very very insulating most of the time I have the double zip towards my feet undone so I can breathe so I really trust the sleeping bag I love it great system and that's what I'll be sleeping in so this beautiful colorful array of stuff all bits in this it's quite cool actually isn't it really and so what we're gonna do then is we'll just pop everything back in and then we'll just finish with a bit of a conclusion but literally that's everything over then of course maybe not maybe not I did a little line there this is the West island way guide books this is a trail blazer guide book this is what I'd be using the West kind of way and then what I do is my camera bag sits on my front with my camera in it so I can get that out nice and quickly and then what ideas I fight I'm folding up this Harvey's map which I really don't need you know I've done the West Island way before I know that the sign there's really good signage but I just want to bring this because it's quite nice to have a map look at the surrounding area that just folds in half I'm not someone who keeps things pristine and then I shove it in there next to my camera so that's where I keep my Harvey's map I'm gonna be using the Trailblazer travel guide and I keep that tucked in the sort of airspace bit behind me so I can just pull that out if I need to and having talked about travel guides down in the back here there's like a little hidden sleeve I've got this which is another extra weight that I wouldn't normally have on the trail but because I'm doing the two walks I've got the great glen way guide book and the great glen way map so they've got to bring both of those for the second book i could potentially have posted them ahead to Fort William pick them up somewhere but it just seemed easier just to carry them so here I am carrying them I don't know how much this weighs but it's more than I would like it to I could potentially just walk it on the Harvey's map but again I'd quite like these guide books in the sense that they give you information about where you are shop times phone numbers you don't need the internet which is good for me I enjoy steering away from my phone as much as possible so that's just there hidden in the back there so much though I forgot it was there and that's it I've got a compass in my hip pocket and that that now that is everything let's get this packed up and we'll finish with a clean provision sorry about that for some reason my camera cuts out whilst I was packing I think it just had enough of me to be honest but this is everything all packed up then so as I mentioned briefly earlier I film on a Canon 70d I've got the videomic pro and a Manfrotto tripod so that's what I'll be carrying as well so you just can't see that at the moment within the packing system and that's it folks so keep an eye out in either the link below or in the next couple of weeks if you've seen this as I've uploaded it for some new videos we'll be talking about the west hand in ways specifically and the great glen way specifically as well as kind of looking after yourself when you're surrounded by mosquitoes and mozzies so survival mode for me but that's it folks thank you very much for watching if you've got any kind of comments or feedback or anything else you'd like to add or share with people then please comment below we're all about helping each other out here and encouraging each other to get outside and spend more time in the wild you got it enjoy your adventures guys and stay wild you

Channel: Abbie Barnes | Spend More Time In The WILD

Views: 54,464

Keywords: Abbie, Barnes, Song, Thrush, Productions, Adventure, Tips, hiking, walking, national, park, Outdoor, gear, trails, Gear, Reviews, Wildlife, Expedition, Backpacking

Id: MHioqdiRjxE

Length: 26min 12sec (1572 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 27 2018