Walsh Enforcers

Light weight waterproof  fabric boot made by Walsh of Bolton.  This is my first pair of Walsh shoes, just don't seem to see them stocked in most shops when I have seen them they been the old school trail shoes. 

I was looking for a light pair of shoes\boot and have always been curious about the Walsh brand with them being cheap £50 as well I thought with not.

First the fit.  Well for my feet they are "bob on"  no hot spots or rubbing straight from the box.  Most of my other shoes have always been through a braking in period the worst being my scarpa which gave me pain across the top (silly amounts of padding)  of my feet and almost blister, a say almost as I would be constantly stoping to adjust laces and socks. Yes a pain in the ass.

The grip of the Walsh enforcers are a bit mixed, great on anything other than than wet hard stuff.  Which isn't surprising really as the  style  tread used is of the square knobbly type or "Prya-Grip" as Walsh calls it.  Not all bad though they grip like limpets on other terrain. 

Walsh claim these to be water proof  which sadly they aren't a weekend walking in the peak district in mizzle wading across a few streams resulted in two soggy feet.  Warm soggy feet so wasn't all bad, have used inov8 in the past so I am fairly use to wet feet.  

I wouldn't class these boots as waterproof   water resistant  maybe.  It was only when I took to wading across the stream that seemed to let the water in.

So to sum it up they have poor grip on wet rock, aren't waterproof  yet have a great fit and are cheap.  But would I buy another pair?  

Hmm there's a question and I think that would be a yes and a no, the fit for me is great but I think I will give the Walsh Spirit shoes a try.

Sportshoe.com of Bradford is where I bought my boots from, never seen so many shoes under one roof!

Scarpa "Not So" Epic

I bought these Scarpa Epic a few months ago as a replacement for the much worn-out  Inov8 Terocs all down to the Shitty durability of Inov8 soles. 

At first glance they seem upto a replacement for the Inov8  light, grippy and comfy. All is not as it seems with these shoes though, sadly.

Firstly the sizing, it's odd as they come in Euro sizes, so good luck on that.  Padding, there is just far too much, on the tongue  especially and all this foam padding once walking compresses, which allows my heel to move and start rubbing.   I've tried "normal" socks, thinner  x-socks and even those nice Alpkit socks, all resulted in a sore heel.  I've haven't had any blister yet however, I put that down to stopping undoing and re-lacing the shoes more than a few times on a walk.

So the Scarpa Epic are far from epic, if they had alot less foam padding I recon they be alot better.

If Inov8 would only improve the durability of there shoes I would be more than happy to buy some more.

Blink and ya miss it

I spotted this the other day, when is was sunny.  I have seen them before but that was further up the canal just passed the M6 bridge.  Amazing that it still alive, as Warrington council love to hack these canal tow paths.  It was only the other week that they were cut.

I'm no expert, but, I think that it looks like an Orchid.  Possibly an "Orchis Palustris"

Long way to Keswick

With a few people off on long distance walks, I was wondering how do people go about deciding of what route to take.  Maybe it's just a matter of joining the "know" long distance paths together in some way.

Messing with my iPod touch and using the maps apps it lets you plan route either by car, train or by foot,  This is what the map app came up with from Lymm to Keswick.

Out with the new in with the old..

I've always been intrigued by Rangefinder type cameras; how ever, the only digital ones that I know of are Lecia M's, and believe it or not Epson did/do make one. All very nice but cost far too much.
Cosina make film Rangefinder still, but that still worked out at about £600 for just the camera.

One night reading about these cameras I came across information about the rangefinder cameras of the 60s and 70s. Funny really as this type and style of camera is what "they" say people want today: Small prime lens camera with large sensor(35mm film)

So off i surfed to eBay just to have a look to see what was out there.  And now three weeks later I now have 3 which cost £6 at the lowest and £30.  There might be a forth, those Olympus RC do look nice.

First thing I noticed about these cameras are they are very well made, this is 60s and 70s tech here and yet they still function (photos to come ..when I develop them) all I've had to do is replace the light seats. 30+ year and they have turned in to a sticky mess. I had to buy some batteries too, zinc air batteries seem to be the best, as you can't get hold of the Mercury batteries anymore.

These are 99% metal cameras so aren't light weight, the one on the right, Canonet QL19 I'm sure could have been used to club baby seal in its days.  Must say the Konica cameras is okay weight wise, turns out that this little camera has a great lens from what I've read in the camera forums.

This is the first time I have ever used eBay, been a bit cynical about it.  But turns out I was too hasty in my judgement.

Lymm Dam with a dusting of snow

Lymm has had about six inches of snow on Monday night,(another four on Tuesday) which resulted in the roads being too bad to drive on. Well for me at least but a walk in to Lymm village soon showed the chaos: roads closed, cars wheel spinning in the snow and getting no where. A few people just gave up and left their cars by the roadside.

Tuesday seemed like a Saturday in Lymm, lots of people out and about taking advantage off the "Bad Weather" and so did I :-)
Was nicer today as the sun was out.

Never been so orange

Nope not my skin after a too much time on a sun bed, my Paramo Veleze smock. It is one of the first gen ones so it a little bit heavier
than the ones on sale today, Forest green and Lava, although the Lava parts were starting to look gruby despite regular washes in Tech wash, also the cuffs tended to 'wetout' quickly. So I bit the bullet and washed both the coat and pants in Bold 3, then nipped to Adventure
centre Aka 'cheaptents.com' suport your local walking shop! To buy some Tech and Tx wash stuff 120 minutes later I had and shinny nicer smelling coat drip drying.

One thing to note, the tech wash seemed to me to be thicker, used the same amount as I always do, but this time the I had soap suds bubbling from the soap powder draw.

Tried my coat yesterday and it's as good as new the rain was beading off as good as ever. Not bad for a 7 year old coat

Sent from my iPod