September Great Outdoors: Watershed Conclusion & Hiking Trousers

On the Scottish Watershed in the Fannichs

The September issue of The Great Outdoors magazine has just appeared. My backpacking column, headed 'From storms to drought on the Scottish Watershed', covers the second half of my walk, which I finished just a month ago. In the gear section I review 12 pairs of hiking trousers, including the ones I wore on the Watershed (as pictured above), which, unsurprisingly, are my Best Buy. Also in the gear pages are reviews of six backpacking rucksacks by John Manning, six trekking poles by Cameron McNeish, two insect repellent shirts by Daniel Neilson and the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 tent, also by Daniel Neilson.

The big feature in this issue is by Mark Richards, author of the Lakeland Fellranger guidebooks, and covers less popular ways up Lake District hills. Elsewhere Mark Gilligan talks to Terry Abraham about his forthcoming film on Scafell Pike; Simon Yates answers questions in a feature called 'My Hills'; Jon Sparks looks at the Eiger; also in the Alps Ed Byrne fails to climb Mont Blanc; James Reader goes scrambling and camping on the gritstone edges of the Peak District; Keith Fergus describes the River Tweed and its attractions for walkers; Aaron Millar follows a sea kayak route up Scotland's west coast; Roger Smith comments on the HS2 high-speed rail link; and Jim Perrin praises C.E.Montague's The Right Place (a book I've not come across before). The Hill Skills section has a good illustrated guide to wading birds by the RSPB's Grahame Madge; David Lintern on pack rafting and safety advice on river crossings by Mark Chadwick of Glenmore Lodge.