Outdoor Discoveries

Upgrades

Over the last few years, I have been pursuing the low cost route when it comes to everyday footwear. Working from home means that there is no need for the smart casual approach that I took for workday clothing when I used to work in offices. A far more casual one predominates now.

The trouble with cheap footwear is that it can wear out faster. Some of the offers you see promoted by retailers appear to be seconds, items that did not meet quality standards for a full price item. This might have explained how I acquired a pair of Regatta boots from Matalan at a price far below the recommended retail one. Within months, they began to wear heavily. Even then, I retained them for a few years before giving them away.

A pair of Karrimor trail shoes acquired from Go Outdoors also began to discolour within weeks of delivery and eventually their soles began to wear until a hole appeared in one. Even then, it took me until Easter of this year to dispose of them and that meant throwing them into the bin while the local shoe bank was closed as part of the pandemic lockdown.

These has been supplanted by a pair of Hi Gear trail shoes bought from Go Outdoors for around £10. However, that involved a trip to Stockport to replace what was delivered with the correct item. Quite how I was sent a pair of ladies’ boots remains unknown but I overlooked it given that it was the first time that there had been a misdelivery.

These how are wearing but it is the insoles that have succumbed and a pair of Superfeet items formerly occupying the aforementioned Karrimor shoes have been pressed into service to address this because the Hi Gear ones otherwise remain in reasonable external condition.

Even so, my mind did turn to complementing them with something more durable. Cheap items that wear out more quickly are not so good for the environment when the disposal rate consequently increases. What I also was wanting were a pair of trail shores without waterproof lining. Sweaty feet need more breathability, especially indoors, and that is my reasoning. Some may go with sandals and I have done so for a while, but I prefer a fully enclosing shoe. For outdoor use, having added waterproofing remains my preference since it always helps in a damp climate. That has meant a doubling up of footwear types.

Notwithstanding their earlier misdelivery, I tried Go Outdoors for a pair of Merrell Moab 2 Ventilator shoes. What actually arrived though were Merrell Moab Adventure Lace WP ones. These include waterproofing but I kept them anyway since I fancied having an extra pair of shoes that I could use when the weather came wet and I wanted to keep my travelling curtailed given the wya of the world at the moment.. Sending wrong items like this cannot do wonders for stocktaking and it must have a similar effect on getting repeat business since I now am less likely to buy from Go Outdoors.

Still, the sizing was right and the shape suits my feet so I am not complaining. The Vibram sole unit feels stiff and supportive and there is a shaped footbed as well. All in all, I will get on OK with these. The same comments apply to the Merrell Moab 2 Ventilator shoes that I latterly ordered from Amazon so I am now acclimatising two pairs of shoes when I had planned only to get one.

Wear and tear

During my schooldays, I was accustomed to footwear wearing out after only a year. Even so, shoes often gained a second life for the purposes of knocking around at home. For some reason, it not matter if uppers were parting from sole units. Of course, better shoes were used for any purpose with added formality.

What has reminded me of this is that a pair of Karrimor trail shoes that I bought around this time last year is looking the worse for wear. Uppers are parting from sole units and there even is a hole in one of the soles. The presence of Superfeet insoles and my still thinking that the shoes have some use still keeps the things in use around the house. Then, any extra ventilation hardly hurts and I am resigned to the fact anyway; others may not be so accepting.

That is not to say that I did not set about getting replacements. One of the requirements is that these have no waterproof layering for sake of added breathability. It is a need that cuts down choices since Gore Tex is more often than not added to trail shoes these days. Nevertheless, I did pick up a pair of Hi-Gear Sierra walking shoes from Go Outdoors. The fact that they are being sold at a stock clearance price of £10 was a bonus and I now get to see their durability.

However, the delivery when it arrived was of the wrong shoes so a trip to Stockport to replace them was in order. Then, it was a matter of finding a box with the right shoes in it getting a cashier to do the exchange. That produced the right outcome and probably suggests that a store visit would have been in order in the first place.

The Macclesfield branch of Millets is being replaces with a Go Outdoors outlet anyway so that may be quicker and easier in times to come. As it happens, the Stockport store is due to close for refurbishment so some might need to go to Manchester or Sheffield instead if they want the benefits of wider stocking at a larger store.

So far, the new shoes are working out well for the purpose for which I got them. Heavier duty activity than walking paved areas or easy trails is all that I have in mind. The fact that I work from home these days means that I am more likely to use them given that my leather shoes only see occasional wear these days.

Experiences with Spanish hiking maps

Currently, I am writing up my walking trip to Mallorca from December 2016 but it is proving to be slow going. Enthusiasm for completing the job is waning so splitting up the endeavour might be in order, especially since the narrative is heading in different directions. Towards this end, I will share my ruminations on using Spanish hiking maps since they have intruded in the trip report and could deflect it from proceeding in a single direction. As things stand, it needs some additions even if it already has grown quite long already.

Before I left, I ensured that I was supplied with maps. The best of these were ones by Editorial Alpina and they covered the Serra de Tramuntana as a two map set. The scale was 1:25000 with hiking trails well marked but I ended up stepping outside their coverage around Port d’Andratx and needed one from the 1:40000 four map set by Reise Know-How to make up the shortfall. The latter covers the whole island, shows hiking trails and is made from waterproof paper, not that I needed the last feature on my trip.

Though it provided useful trail tracking, my Garmin GPS receiver proved less useful because of the poor quality of its Spanish maps. Around Port de Pollença, it may have been stymied by the presence of a military facility but the shortcomings were more than apparent around Port d’Andrtatx when I failed to locate the path that would have led me to a track towards Sant Elm. It did not help that I was in a fragile state that day but I would consider an alternative on another Spanish trip.

Though maps from Spain’s national mapping agency CNIG do not show trails, they do come in 1:50000 and 1:250000 scales that are available in digital form through SityTrail and ViewRanger. The former of these offers annual subscriptions while only an expensive all country lifetime licence is available from the latter. Both offer mobile phone apps so they would be usable much like that from Britain’s Ordnance Survey, useful as a pinpointing backup to a paper map for those moments when uncertainty descends though complementing with a compass is best.

If I was ever to venture onto Spanish territory again, I would be tempted to give SityTrail a whirl while out walking. For writing the Mallorca trip report, I have an active subscription and have been able to load GPX tracks on there after exporting them from my Garmin device. That should help with route descriptions even with CNIG data behind them and added photos can act as confirmation.

Something new for everyday wear

For quite a while, I have been using trail shoes for everyday wear. Like everything, they can look very tatty when they are used for an increasing number of years. Soles can wear and fabric can become thinner as I have been observing with a pair of North Face trail shoes in recent months. Since I was coming to the end of an earning pause enforced by my career break, I thought that acquiring new footwear would be in order, especially since it allow me to clear out a few older pairs that needed to go.

Because I still wanted to keep spending under control, I stayed away from anything made by The North Face and went for something from Columbia instead. The result was the purchase of a pair of North Plains Drifters from Go Outdoors. Rather than getting them delivered to my home, I went with delivery to one their stores instead and it allowed me to fit in shopping for a new trolley case after a handle failed on one that I already had. Pick up was not so smooth given that the shop assistant’s thoughts were elsewhere when I asked so it took a request made of another staff member before I collected my new acquisitions.

Since then, they have become my main footwear choice for lighter everyday walking and have been to Ireland and back so I have had good trial of them by now. Owing to an adverse comment about their waterproofing, I have stuck with travelling on hard surfaces with only the occasional foray onto softer ground. They worked well for pottering about Galway city on a stroll that took me along its coastline at the end of a day beset with rain showers. In doing so, I got the impression that the sole is thinner than what I am used to having but it does not make them unusable either. In any case, they have been wearable straight from their box and I plan to use them for a good while yet.

A new pair of folding walking poles

One of the reasons for acquired a large wheeled duffel bag for trips overseas was the length of Leki walking poles. During my recent career break, I added the idea of buying a pair of folding walking poles to my wish list. Needing to keep spending under control meant that such acquisitions were placed on the long finger but that changed two weeks ago.

Ahead of a walking trip to Ireland, I ordered a pair of Compact Ultra II Single walking poles from Alpkit. Though I made my order on the preceding Saturday in hope that they would be dispatched to arrive in time before leaving home on Thursday, that was not the case because of a Tuesday dispatch and subsequent attempted delivery on my day of departure. The result was that they needed collecting from the nearest Royal Mail depot (less than ten minutes walk from my house so it was no nuisance) on my return. Going on a trip away with untried items would have been foolish anyway so my tried and trusted Lekis did faithful service as they have done for the last fifteen years or so.

The newer items certainly are more compact when folded and have leashed handles that are soft to touch; the latter were changed in the latest version and were criticised in a UKC gear test that included their previous incarnations. The walking tips are topped with removable rubber ferrules and there are baskets included too. The assembly mechanism works well once you realise that you need to extend the bottom section to pull everything together and releasing a clip allows for added extension for taller people. Pressing a push button release is all that is needed to make the poles foldable again and there is a Velcro strap to keep everything together while folded.

My next steps are to test out the durability of these lightweight items. Initial impressions are promising so if they perform as hoped, they could change how I pack for overseas trips. Coupled with a different rucksack, the need for the duffel bag could be reduced or even eliminated. It might be that I could get away with carrying the poles in hand luggage but that would need a further leap of courage. Of course, it’s best to take things step by step.