I recently bought the Pathfinder Canteen Trail Kit. Which is basically the Pathfinder 39oz or 1.153 litre wide mouth stainless steel canteen, and 25oz or 739 ml stainless steel nesting cup (with bat wing handles).
This is primarily something to take on the longer walks with Dolly.
The just over a litre capacity is better for Dolly and me than the nato/osprey canteen. Which is a litre. That 153ml is massive! Ok maybe not. But having that little bit more water is handy. I am finding a litre tight for the two of us.
I could have bought it with the canteen stove and canteen cup lid.
To be totally honest I forgot about the lid which would have been handy to have. So I have ordered one separately.
However I’m not a big fan of the canteen stove. The Boundless Voyage Titanium Cookware Set has a similar stove, which is fine as a pot stand and windshield for a stove like a Trangia. But I’ve seen YouTubers use twig fires with this. Which it’s clearly designed for. But not a way I’d want to use it. There is nothing to stop the fire damaging the ground and leaving a scar.
Now this trail set does fit nicely in the BCB Mk2 Crusader cooker which I just so happen to have.
The Mk2 Crusader cooker obviously has one or two advantages over the Mk1 (which I do like, a lot).
The main one being it’s better suited for use with a Trangia.
I think it’s also a better option for use with this trail set than its intended stove.
The options for fuel to cook with are greater.
I actually used just the canteen during a two day training course. I can’t believe how much I drank. Nearly three litres in total. Which is very unusual for me. Naturally it was not plain ol’ water I was drinking. I need a bit of flavour so I was using Crystal Light on the go packets. Which are basically powdered squash. I’ve used them a lot in the past on backpacking trips.
Look I’m not a bushcrafter. So this single walled canteen being able to use boil water on a heat source of some description is not a major selling point for me. A “useful” feature. But for sure not something I think I’ll be doing.
The wide mouth is more important to me. It makes filling the canteen from a water source much easier.
Yes it’s heavier than a Nalgene bottle, or a plastic water bottle. But it’s robust, and for me the weight is not an issue.
Earlier in the year I caved and finally bought a play set of the metal mechs for my all time favourite board game Scythe.
Saturday we got to play Scythe with those mechs.
They look flipping awesome.
Sadly I can’t tell you who played what exactly and the mat combinations. I forgot to take a note of them.
As you can see from the gallery below our end game change was Mission Possible.
I was playing Fenris with the industrial board. Marcin was getting his filthy hands on my beloved Rusviet. Anthony had Polania, and Dave Clan Albion.
We were using the modular board. My preferred map. Stops that “I play x, if I do xyz I win in 12 turns” play by numbers. That sucks the fun out of the game.
The modular board means the map and starting positions are different each game.
There is the risk as Anthony and Dave found that your starting resources may not be favourable to your faction.
The unfavourable starting positions slowed Anthony and Dave down. But Anthony was throwing out those completed objective stars. I think at the end game the rest of us had got four or five stars out. But Marcin had that all important sixth out.
I managed to get an encounter card that I could add to my player board as an extra action I could take. Plus I got a factory card.
I still find it hard I let Marcin hold the factory space.
My last turn from the end game condition allowed me to put out two more objective stars.
In the end Marcin got the victory. A victory with hindsight I could have avoided and grabbed for myself. If only I had attacked him on the factory space on my last turn before the end of the game.
It would seem the golden age of club nights is well and truly over.
Last night we were down to just three attendees, myself (naturally), Marcin, and Anthony.
I don’t know what’s changed.
Still the three of us had fun playing some great games.
We started off playing probably the most chilled game I own or have ever played, Tokaido.
I love the art style of the game. So much so I have the art book for it. If we don’t count the MtG art books I have for the handful of settings they did them for. I have only one other board game based art book, and that is the one for Scythe. Thinking about Stonemaier have a track record of printing art books (ok just the one) maybe they will reprint the Tokaido book at some point.
I’m glad Stonemaier picked up Tokaido. They are a great home for the game. In all the excitement around them announcing their edition I don’t remember any details where the app version stands. I quickly fired up the app (by Acram games) and its splash screen shows the Stonemaier logo. So I’m guessing as far as players there is no change and the app is still supported.
Despite being the first to complete a couple of paintings, meeting more interesting people, bathing in hot springs with mountain monkeys, I didn’t make any charitable donations at the temples. That decision cost me the win leaving the door open for Marcin to steal the win.
Our second game of the evening was Biblios.
I’d never played Biblios before. I own Biblios the dice game. Which I had played once.
It’s strange to think these two share the same dna!
I like Biblios but boy it’s so different from the dice game.
Sadly Marcin won’t this game too.
Our final game of the evening was Rebirth. Which I had pimped out with third party bags for the tiles, and 3D printed score trackers from Duncan.
I really do like rebirth.
Next time this gets to the table I’ll have to play the Ireland map. Which is meant to be more “gamer”.
Despite the lead constantly leap frogging between Anthony and myself during the game. Anthony won. But I did beat Marcin by a point. His streak for the night was at an end.
I know this is a day or two after I played Star Wars Unlimited with Marcin. However I have been on a two day health and safety course the very next morning. This is the first chance I’ve had to say anything about it.
So Tuesday evening saw Marcin and I playing a few two player games of Star Wars Unlimited using the new spotlight decks from the latest set Jump to Lightspeed.
Jump to Lightspeed is the fourth set since Star Wars Unlimited was released to the world.
In the previous three sets there were 2 player starter decks released along side the booster boxes.
But now FFG have jettisoned (for the time being, never say never etc) these 2 player starter decks, and replaced them with spotlight decks.
“Spotlight Decks are pre-built decks that contain a mixture of cards from multiple sets, with cards from the new set making up the majority of the deck. Each Spotlight Deck contains five Special-rarity cards that are unique to that product, one of which is the leader card.”
I bought both the Boba Fett and Han Solo spotlight decks for this new set. These two decks basically demonstrate new mechanics introduced in this set.
One surprise in these decks was the inclusion of a booster pack. A nice addition.
Boba Fett is all about delivering indirect damage. Whilst Han is showcasing the pilot mechanic, and does something based on revealing cards from your deck.
Broken combo?
For our first three games Marcin played Boba, leaving me with Han.
During our first game I got the Falcon out with Han on it. It was a threat but not as big a threat as it could be I was going to discover.
I won that first game commenting it was a shame I didn’t get Chewie on the Falcon. Not knowing what Chewie’s ability was.
Game two I got the Falcon and Chewie in my hand. Wait Chewie does what? With Chewie as a pilot the Falcon can’t be bounced back to hand or defeated by a card! Add Han as a pilot and the Falcon hits for 11 points and can take 11 damage. That’s huge and disgusting. Draw the cards and you have this monster out and attacking on round 5!
Marcin didn’t like being on the end of this combo. Which I got out in games two and three. Obviously I won.
Marcin challenged me to play the Boba deck. See if I had more luck with it.
And I did.
The two games we played were much closer. But I won them.
I was able to make more use of Boba’s indirect damage.
Both decks were great fun to play. I definitely enjoyed the two new mechanics. I really liked pilots and the duel use they have.
A great evening of beating Marcin at Star Wars Unlimited.
As I was throwing stuff together for todays walk a shower hit. This was the turn for the worse I was expecting for the week.
It was definitely feeling a bit chillier.
But the cold and rain were not going to put me (or Dolly) off going on our walk.
By the time we hit the A47 I’d decided our destination would be back to the woodlands at Roydon Common.
Dolly was off lead for the majority of this walk, and she was really well behaved.
We explored a couple of side paths.
Which gave me a better picture of the woods. I collected a little birch bark to use as tinder.
Some of which I used to start the fire in today’s stove. Oh the stove I was using was the Kelly Kettle Trekker.
Part of these brew stops is getting Dolly used to being off lead, not wandering off, and chilling out.
I enjoyed using the Kelly Kettle. Well playing with fire (responsibly) is fun.
I didn’t mess around I used my bic lighter to start the fire. The wood I was using was some kindling I bought recently from a petrol station. Plus some twigs I’d gathered over 10 years ago!
Dolly is really sure now that she likes beef jerky! As if there was any doubt. But the jerky does make a nice treat for her during our brew stop. Plus I can have a bit too.
We had been very lucky with the weather because our walk and brew stops had no sign of rain. In fact there was some hint of the sun breaking through and blue skies!
In our wandering some of the paths we followed were definitely deer paths. I even saw a Muntjac ahead of us at one point. One such path revealed what was a “pond” that was obviously a source of water for the local wildlife. Surprisingly it was close to the actual main path, but not visible from that path.
Over a year ago I had plans to start playing the LoTR lcg with Nathan.
But like a lot of things those plans never happened.
Since then though I have got the final part of the revised saga The Return of the King. Plus the three revised campaigns Angmar Awakened, Dream-chaser, and Ered Mithrin including the matching hero boxes.
Another expensive spin off is I have bought some of the GenCon stand alone scenarios to play. I’m not getting all of them. That’d be some serious cash splashed out. I’ve gone for the ones that interested me.
So which ones did I get?
The Massing at Osgiliath – GenCon 2011 Scenario
The Battle of Lake-Town (Hobbit) Scenario GenCon 2012
The Mines of Moria – Gen Con 2019 Scenario Pack
Escape from Khazad-Dum Custom Scenario Kit
The Siege of Annuminas – Fellowship 2016 Scenario
Yes it’d be nice to get them all. Even better it’d have been nice for FFG to have done a box set containing them all. But that’s just a wild dream. It’s not going to happen.
There is one more I’d like Murder at the Prancing Pony, which basically makes the game into a Cluedo inspired murder mystery who done it. I’m curious as to how it plays. Does it work considering the theme?
So what of the plans hinted at in the posts title?
Well discussions have started with Marcin and Dave to gauge interest in playing through the three book sagas on a Saturday. They seem to like the idea, and interested.
So I need to select a Saturday to start the journey.
I’ll talk deck specifics in another post nearer to the start of the campaign.
With no Anthony to troll him this week Marcin was going to have a stress free evening.
It was good to see and play some games with Jonathan. It’s been way too long since we last sat at table and played a game.
We started off with a game of flip 7 which I won comfortably. Somehow Marcin reached the heady heights of 26 points and never managed to add any more to his total.
Our next game was Rebel Princess. Which Marcin redeemed himself by winning easily. Luckily he didn’t manage to keep a zero points score. Can’t have him matching my zero score in the last game.
Our final game was Wild Gardens. It’s an interesting action selection, resource gathering, contract fulfilment game.
This one took nearly two hour to play. It could have been quicker but when one player has ap what can you do?
Marcin won this game to.
It was a fun evening apart from the ap inflicted player dragging the game out. Plus it was really great to see Jonathan again.
Thursday evening I caught the Met Office YouTube channel warning that after the weekend the weather would once again get worse.
So I mentally made a plan to go out with Dolly on my day off.
On our way out I needed to get some petrol inside the car, otherwise we weren’t going to get very far.
At the petrol station while paying I picked up a packet of beef jerky to use as a dog treat on the walk. Which wasn’t a bad option considering there were no actual dog treats to be bought.
We then headed off towards Roydon Common. But instead of parking at the first car park we carried on to the second car park.
This was a much smaller car park that was also in the woodland that I was aiming for on our previous walk.
We were seeing wildlife almost instantly. The woods were alive with bird song. I was pleasantly surprised seeing a butterfly fluttering across the path a couple of times. It was a brimstone I think.
The woods seem to be crawling (at l ast five) with Muntjac feeding just off to the side of the path. Dolly never even noticed them as they froze hoping not to be seen. Pretending to be a statue by the Muntjac allowed me to get the phone out for a photo.
Brew stopMuntjacMuntjacTodays brewBoundless Voyage Titanium Cookware Set with the Phantom – Ultralight Stove
The path we were on was the one I was hoping to connect up to when we came here previously.
Instead of connecting up with our previous route we cut across to edge of the wood that bordered the common.
It was on this return leg that we stopped to have a brew.
For this brew stop I was using the Boundless Voyage Titanium Cookware Set with the Phantom – Ultralight Stove.
While I was waiting for my water to boil I gave Dolly some water and we shared the jerky. By share I mean I had a couple of pieces and Dolly had the rest.
It was this return leg that I tried Dolly off the lead. I was forced earlier to briefly take her off so we could get over a fence using a sty and dog hole in the fence too far from the sty.
Dolly was really good off the lead. Didn’t run off, stayed close.
I think she enjoyed the little bit of extra freedom.
As we got close to the car park I put Dolly back on her lead. I’m glad she was. There was an owner getting out of his car, his dog not on a lead or his control. He had no idea I was there or with a dog. A fecking idiot. Luckily nothing happened but I hate stupid dog owners like this.
But that last bit aside Dolly and I had a great walk in the woodland. Plenty of little paths for us to explore on return visits.
This post is just going to be a brain dump, no particular order or structure. Just thoughts put on the page as they hit me.
Obviously this post is me reflecting on doing the Alzheimer’s Research UK fundraising campaign 28 Miles In February. I think it is also going to be, or hope it’s going to be advice for those thinking of not only doing this themselves next year or any other charity run event.
I think the first thing that comes to mind is when I first signed up and the donation pages that the charity automatically sets up for you. For Alzheimer’s Research it was a Facebook donation page and a Just Giving page. Which was fine. The only issue I had was I couldn’t update the Just Giving page. Never got it sorted, naturally the charity said to deal with the Just Giving support. So much hassle and an extra step(s) so I could post updates. I gave up on this as a way to update folks. In the long run it meant I had one less place to update.
When the charity sets up your donation pages they set a default fund raising target of £150 (this may differ with other charities). You were apparently meant to be able to change this. But I never did.
But don’t let this target put pressure on you. Change it to something you think is more achievable or do as I did ignore it.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t raise that target and all you can raise is far less. Whatever you raise is fantastic and money the charity didn’t have. It all helps no matter the amount.
Also remember that we are still in a cost of living crisis. Money is scarce for a lot of people.
Which brings me onto the charities Facebook page for the fundraising.
I ended up ignoring the page. It’s meant to be there for support and encouragement. But a lot of the posts felt like blowing their own trumpet, “look at me”.
It really did feel like some posts were “look how much I’ve raised” or “look how far I’ve walked/run”. Although I think their hearts and intentions were well meaning. These posts can make those struggling whether to do the miles or raise money feel like they are failing.
It’s not a competition or a pissing match. It doesn’t matter how far others walk or how much they raise. What matters is you do you and remember why you are doing this fundraiser.
For me it was in my Nan’s memory (see one of the first posts). I was doing this for her and to raise awareness of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Whatever I raised or walked was for those reasons. What I did was a success because of that.
The charity did send all those taking part in the fundraiser a beanie. Something that ended up being useless to me because it was too small. I have a large head. It would have been nice if there was an option to select a larger sized beanie. My plan for the beanie is to give it to my aunt when she returns to the UK later in the year. She was my largest donee and because of other reasons I think will make good use of it.
They also sent out a buff to those that raise a certain amount before the fundraising started. It was fine it was a buff. Not the best one but adequate.
If you are here reading this you are likely to also have read one or two of my blog posts on here keeping folks up-to date on my progress.
I did try sharing on the Facebook group but admins deleted the post. They were not allowing links to external websites. They were fine with people sharing their videos talking to camera (kinda like a vlog), usually whilst walking. This kind of demoralised me from participating in the group.
It was a pain posting in two places (blog and Facebook page), plus there was a “dashboard” that showed you how much you had raised across both donation pages. It’d also let you update how much miles you had walked.
This was helpful in tracking your fundraising and distance walked. But nothing else.
When I first saw the ad for the fundraiser I thought how would I find time to do the big walks to do that number of miles? I don’t get back to back days off. So there would be no weekends away to walk in the mountains or part of a long distance trail.
Then it dawned on me I don’t need to do big walks. All I need to do is a mile a day.
That was much more achievable with my job and caring duties.
I think in the Fleet Pond post I lamented how much I missed the place and the army land. Where I grew up and live the nearest woods is at least 40 minutes away not 5. I have to settle for bridle ways and farmland.
But that’s cool. Some people don’t even have that. It doesn’t matter where you walk that daily mile. it’s the fact you have got out and walked that mile that matters.
My plan on the walks was to stop and have a brew mid walk. I carried a brew kit with me on every walk. I never did stop half way. The weather was not the best for stopping and enjoying the surroundings. It was only on a couple of the walks that a had a coffee at the end.
I think it’s important not to feel guilty if you miss days. Life happens. It certainly did in February for me.
While you are not walking spend 5 mins planning your next walk. It’ll give you something to look forward to and help ease that feeling of guilt.
To do this fundraiser you don’t need expensive gear to take part. You just need some footwear you can walk distances in such as trainers. You’ll also need warm clothing and/or a waterproof coat of some kind.
Yes you could go out and buy stuff. But unless you are going to keep on walking as a hobby (which you might) there really is no point. Unless you don’t have any suitable shoes etc.
I think after all the above ramblings we need to remember the reason we are raising money ( no matter the amount), and have an enjoyable time doing it.
Finally I’d like to say for the umpteenth time a very big thank you to all those that kindly donated money. Your generosity was amazing. Thank you.
