Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
General => Meets, places, trips and reviews => Topic started by: 666_pack on January 05, 2010
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Hi All,
Myself, MG1 & Billybackpack are planing an overnight in Glenariff forest park followed by a hike in Glenariff glen the next day.
As always everyone is welcome and any thoughts to possible additions could be worked into the route.
: ;D
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Bah, have to work Monday
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Bah, have to work Monday
I'm sure you can work something out ::)
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Bah, have to work Monday
I'm sure you can work something out ::)
Not this one unfortunately. Plus I'm walking the down coast on Sat again.
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Surely we're not the only one's that are evading the asylum :o
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Can't stay the night but could drop in on Sunday for a hello if you don't mind? Where and when are you meeting?
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You would be more than welcome.
The plan so far:
Provisionally meet at Larne around 3pm, head to Glenariff forest and find a safe place to leave a car and head up towards Trostan for an overnight camp.
Nothing set in stone yet but we will keep everyone on the forum updated during the week.
We are really hopeful some others on here will join us but if not it's understandable given the days chosen. (or is it the inclement weather :D )
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I live in larne where you meeting at?
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As the other Guy's are not familiar with this neck of the woods we are probably going to meet at Killyglen crossroads then either go via Cairncastle or head down to the Branch road to the coast and on round to Waterfoot.
Although given the current weather conditions it may be wise to stick to the main coast road.
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It's not great round here tonight the killyglen road is like a bottle. The bin men didn't even get out today. I was round the coast road earlier it wasn't bad, I live off the killyglen road are you close yourself Billy?
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I do I'm only a mile away from the crossroads.
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Are you talking about the crossroads at the chapel or the staggered crossroads at the country end of the killyglen road?
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You would be more than welcome.
The plan so far:
Provisionally meet at Larne around 3pm, head to Glenariff forest and find a safe place to leave a car and head up towards Trostan for an overnight camp.
Nothing set in stone yet but we will keep everyone on the forum updated during the week.
We are really hopeful some others on here will join us but if not it's understandable given the days chosen. (or is it the inclement weather :D )
So is Trostan on the aganda then? I thought it was just the glen. Good stuff. So Paul will we be seeing you at camp then?
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It's going to be proper cold. Might want to pack gloves :)
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are you sure we can't tempt you along mate? I sure you can take Monday as a holiday.........I know I am ;D
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Not for this one unfortunately. However, I might be able to persuade the wife'n'boy to come to Glenariff on Sunday afternoon for a walk if you know where you're going to be.
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Are you camping on top of Trostan? You are leaving it kind of late to get up there and set up if you are only meeting at 3? Or are you camping in the forest?
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this is billys baby, but I think we are camping in the forest and then hiking in the glen the next day......but you know how plans change round the camp fire and we could hit trostan in the morning.
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Any idea where? Prob best to PM!
(http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii423/sputnik57/Misc/Glenarrif.jpg)
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to be honest mate I have no clue as I don't know the area. As you can see time is against us for day one and some of it might be planned on the hoof but we'll give you a call on the day and keep you posted. But I'm sure andy has a better idea than me as it's his neck of the woods and he'd have a better idea of were we are likely to be.
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On the hoof plans are sometimes the best especially in this weather. When you guys firm up a meeting time and place i will see you there. i will only be there for the day it would be nice to put some faces to the names.
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Looks like the Alpkit 600s are going to get a proper test :o If anyone wants to borrow my bivi bag let me know.
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It's hard to know what to believe the talk is for -10 but looking at the weather report today it said it's to be +2/3 .
No matter I'm lookin forward to it
I take it there will just be the trio overnighting.
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So what is the final plans and times then lads?
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At the min i think we are meeting in Larne at 15.00 and i think hoping to be at Glenariff for 15.30, then find a a spot around along the tree line on Troston to stick the tent up.
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Are you talking about the crossroads at the chapel or the staggered crossroads at the country end of the killyglen road?
Good evening Paul, Have been workin so couldn't get a chance to reply I'm more the staggered end.
As for final plans we're quietly hopefull that we may be joined by others ::)..... so we haven't came to a final conclusion other than still meeting in Larne. The other two will take approx 45 minutes to arrive and they are leaving home at 1.30pm on Sunday afternoon so as soon as they arrive it's off to Glenariff and let the games begin :D
Are you still for coming ?
Opps I see MG1 has beat me to the update
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What tree line on Trostan?
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Sorry Paul don't really know the area. But i think we're camping on the edge of the Glenariff forest facing Troston.
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Where are you parking when you get to glenariff folks?
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Only experience of the area is from walking the Ulster Way when the weather closed in and we ended up camping in pretty much a bog just a bit from Trostan, not the most enjoyable tent bound experience, but anyways.
For anybody that hasn't been round the park I'd recommend having a look at the waterfalls, if you have the time and like that sort of thing, however the walk down could be a bit tricky.
The Ulster Way/Moyle Way is probably a sensible and easily followed option for getting to Trostan and its tagged pretty regularly, however you do go through quite a lot of forest and jump streams here and there, might be "interesting" in this weather.
From what I can remember if you leave the main entrance of the park, you cross the road and follow a track up the hill with the river on the left passing waterfalls and crossing forest tracks before entering the forest, you follow a stream for the most part and come in and out of forest crossing boggy fire breaks before re-entering more forest, eventually you come out of the forest and follow a fence line for a bit and then you move away from the fence line following 6 foot posts marking the route, at this stage Trostan will be to the right somewhere, but its pretty hard to differentiate as the inclines are pretty low.
Can't remember seeing anywhere to camp on the way up but wasn't looking, not to say there isn't, I wouldn't normally camp where we did but had to make do.
If you have any questions I'll try and answer them but the memories getting a bit rusty, think I killed off half my brain over Christmas :)
Have fun guys, If I didn't have an exam on Monday and one on Thursday I'd be on it like vomit!
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There seems to be plenty of fellow larne yin,s on here ;D
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There seems to be billy56. What carpark at glenariff is everyone meeting at??
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Still undecided as yet but the update is everyone is on their way to Larne and I will PM you before I leave with final thoughts.
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What cross roads is it you are meeting at billy is it the one at the end of the killyglen road the country side/
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Yep thats it ..................... still waiting :P
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Ok, are you sitting out there now??
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Have a great time lads! Take a few photos.
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I'm sitting out at the cross roads now, it's the killyglen ballymullock cross roads, I hope I'm in the right place.
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Well im just back, i let the guys at the start of the forest south of trostan, still a good bit of snow up there but they are all in good spirits and Chris has his camera so i expect there will be some great photos to come. I must say it was great to get out with such a great bunch even for such a short time. Thanks again for the meet up lads.
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We are all home safe and sound............what a morning though to wake up with tent on your face (literally) and sick as a dog. I thought at first it was something to do with the little tipple but definitely not I am convinced I have got some sort of bug as I haven't been able to keep anything down and am quaking all over.
On another note how deep was the snow, it was pretty awesome and I think Chris has a cracking photo of 6pack up to his waist ;)
Many thanks to the crew once again for a great overnighter it was worth all the effort.
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So how did the tent do?
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Kick ass sorry i missed this i love the old snow cant wait for the pics,
Regards,
Dave
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Thanks for the concern about my health Jonno :'(
The tent is awesome there's plenty of room, seemed warm enough, no real condensation problems and all in all fit for purpose.
I was really pleasantly surprised at the size of the footprint for a 3 man tent it's compact but still loads of room. I would have to agree that its perfect for 2 as you can still get all your kit in and not be squashed.
The fact that we woke up with it on our face was maybe due to the fact it wasn't pitched too well as the snow was really deep and the area chosen to pitch was not really suitable but was the best at the time.
I had my camera as well as Chris but only got a couple last night there was def not any taken today as I could barely walk never mind try to goet the perfect picture which really annoys me as the place was like a postcard and to think we were at the Antrim Glens it really could have been Finland or Sweden or anywhere like that.
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Thanks for the concern about my health Jonno :'(
I was very concerned for your health. I was just more concerned about the tent ;)
Did you have much trouble lighting a fire and was how did the Alpkit bags perform?
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i cant upload my pics, file size is too big... solutions please jonno!
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i cant upload my pics, file size is too big... solutions please jonno!
Resize them. I use Picasa from Google (http://picasa.google.co.uk/) to store photos in. It can resize them for you. Or use a photobucket.com account and just link them.
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try this wee program :-
http://www.resize2mail.com/
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I'll get the pics up as soon as I can. I'm sorting out my old desktop and I'm going to run it soley for using with my camera, unfortunatley its all crapped up at the min so I'm re-installing windows once thats done its pics ahoy!
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I'll get the pics up as soon as I can. I'm sorting out my old desktop and I'm going to run it soley for using with my camera, unfortunatley its all crapped up at the min so I'm re-installing windows once thats done its pics ahoy!
Awesome. Looking forward to seeing them.
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well that truly turned out to me a mini epic. To answer a few of your questions jonno we did get a fire lit but it was bloody hard work but it kept us busy, the bags were great but i was let down by a poor sleepmat and could feel the cold leeching through bit I put my extra fleece under me as extra insulation.
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well that truly turned out to me a mini epic. To answer a few of your questions jonno we did get a fire lit but it was bloody hard work but it kept us busy, the bags were great but i was let down by a poor sleepmat and could feel the cold leeching through bit I put my extra fleece under me as extra insulation.
What sort of mat were you using? Did you get a walk on Monday or was Andy too ill?
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just a basic self inflate type. But I really should have had a foam mat undernieth but you live and learn. Me, MG1 & chris had a wee dander while Andy had some kip but it's amazing how waste high snow can change even the most straigt forward hill.
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just a basic self inflate type. But I really should have had a foam mat undernieth but you live and learn. Me, MG1 & chris had a wee dander while Andy had some kip but it's amazing how waste high snow can change even the most straigt forward hill.
I can imagine. What weight was your gear?
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It was a crackin trip and def be back in the Glens of Antrim, going up Troston was class it was like fighting your way up really high mountain with the snow and wind beating off you ;D ;D ;D
Also good to meet Paul shame you couldn't have stayed for the camp mate.
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just a basic self inflate type. But I really should have had a foam mat undernieth but you live and learn. Me, MG1 & chris had a wee dander while Andy had some kip but it's amazing how waste high snow can change even the most straigt forward hill.
I can imagine. What weight was your gear?
I never got the scales out but even with the extra gear I'd still say 10-12kg.
oh yeah good to meet you paul sorry you missed a great night.
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Got It workin now.
The 1st one is us struggling with the fire and the second is the view from my tent in the morning
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That's pretty bloody snowy. Did you all cook on the fire?
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once we got it going we cooked on it.
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There you go chaps. Hopefully that'll give you a taste although the pics dont really do it justice! And yes the snow was that deep!
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Looks brilliant, shame I couldn't make it. It's not often we see snow like that.
So what are everyones thumbs up and thumbs down gear wise for a proper winter overnighter?
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The only problem i had was my gaiters got them from a fishing shop, and they busted the first day. >:(
Other than that every thing was fine, the pd 600 did what it said on the tin. Very warm nite in such cold conditions. ;D
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The guys pipe dream bags seemed the ticket although andy told me he woke up freezing during the night but once he got into his bivvy bag he was fine. Not sure if that was due to him feeling unwell or not. I double baged it with my nanok and a snug pack and was fine. A good mat seems to be essentail as always! For kit I'd take 2 pairs of gloves, socks, trousers etc because although the snow isn't wet as such it just sits on you and melts! Gaiters are a must IMO stoped the snow going into my boots.
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Yeah you def need to double up on some clothes. It made things alot easier. Ill have to bit the bullet and buy a self inflating mat, the roll mat is done.
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gear wise all was good just need a better mat combo but thtas easily fixed.
Great pics chris.......... ;D
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My new plan is an Alpit Wee Airic at 495g and I'll take a foam mat too when it's extra cold. Together they're still less weight than my current self inflating mats which are both 1kg.
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Great pics chris, pity i missed the craic, but there will be again. Glad you guys liked this part of the world and would be great to meet up again!
Paul