Planning the horseshoe

Planning any trip for me at least involves a certain degree of activity followed by procrastination. Not so long ago I knew I was going to go to France for the Le Mans 24 hour race so packing the night before was fine for me. It went against the grain for the XYL as she'd have everything laid out somewhere weeks in advance, but for my Ennerdale horseshoe series of activations for WOTA and SOTA  I've taken a leaf out of her planning book. Or rather list as it is in her case.

Usually when I'm going to go out on a fell or summit I'll look at the map, go for a stroll through the Wainwright book and get a picture of where I'm going and the various inevitable criss cross paths that are about so I head in at least some semblance of the right direction. This mini expedition requires a bit more thought and preparation.

Firstly the route. This is oddly enough the easy bit. Pick your way through the various paths for the most visually attractive / quickest or simplest route. Just take your pick. I was brought up on a diet of OS maps and have yet to invest in a mapping GPS. I use on for retrospective tracking but I've never used one for navigation but recently have had a hankering after one. As an intermediate step I invested in Memory Map for one of its features. 3D mapping of OS maps. Yes I know it can be done in Google earth but the detail you get from an OS is different and comforting. I've plotted the route I plan to take and have 'walked' the route several times looking for features and exit points just in case I'm not getting to where I need to be when I need to be there or I've just had enough (probably weather related here). This is an excellent system and has given me the opportunity to explore further areas where the terrain is going to slow me significantly and areas where I can move across the ground relatively quickly. In effect this is visualising the route and understanding where it is you are going when you've never been there before.

Secondly and not something that always goes hand in hand with amatuer radio is physical training. I do like a good physical challenge and this is definately going to be one of those. A traing schedule is only a guide to me and measuring performance on the way through that schedule is just as important and following the numbers. So far I've been running the 9 miles over St Bees head and back into the village to get a start once a week with cycling and 'indoor conditioning' interspaced within the week. Later on I'll be upping the mileage on foot to about 14 or so round Dent so it covers a few ups and downs. Whilst it isn't exactly marathon training it should give a good grounding for the physical task ahead. Feeding and watering has to be sorted out as its going to be a long day and I'm not going to make it around on cereal and a banana.

Thirdly is the radio gear. I spent a bit of time looking at the two rig choices. FT817 or VX8, for me the choice was easy VX8. The APRS functionality and two battery packs with a third for AA's mean I should have plenty of power to go round the horseshoe. Antenna wise its got to be the SOTAbeams MFD which fits neatly into my ruck sack. I've thought about recording all the QSO's so I don't miss out on any of the contacts as I'm expecting around 100 or so but I think pen or rather pencil and trusty notebook will do it for me. Still might record for posterity though or a back up as the memory of losing the log from Goal Fell was a touch annoying.

So plans going ok and I'm looking forward to the activations. I'm going up to Scafell Pike with the XYL at the weekend to meet the IMechE president (hopefully) and plan to activate that summit and possibly Lingmell but I'm not sure what I'll get away with. Going to try different footwear this time as big boots are a little cumbersome.