Outdoors on Kelvin Nicholson

Coastal Class 2025 Retrospective

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 21:30:00 +1100

Background

I typically don’t do many races, but signed up for the Coastal Classic - my first race in a year. There were some things that worked well, and others that could have been improved. This isn’t meant to be a recount of the event, and instead notes for next time.

The Course and Result

It was a new course this year, so roughly the same distance, but more elevation; around 31km, with 1000m of elevation gain. I’ve done this route quite a few times, so was pretty familiar with the entire course. Great atmosphere, and a feeling of community.

Travel and Health

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 23:34:00 +1100

Background

I remember reading somewhere that what a country deems as important changes as it becomes more affluent: people want a scooter, and then a car, and then move on to intangibles like clean air. It feels like longevity is the pinnacle of affluence, so it is worthwhile reminding myself that some of what I experiment with comes from a complete position of privilege.

This post comes from that position of privilege.

State of Health: 2024

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 21:41:00 +1100

Background

A few years ago, probably in late 2022, I was doing some self-reflection and was pondering what the next constraint was for improving my health. Depending on whom you ask, there are generally several areas of focus when it comes to health:

Exercise
Nutrition
Metabolic health
Sleep
Testing or screenings
Supplementation or pharmacological interventions

The conclusion I reached after some reflection was that nutrition was the next area for me to focus on. My approach has typically been to deep dive on reading books, and since then I’ve read the following books related to nutrition and longevity:

Post Backpacking Trip Clean-Up

Sun, 25 Apr 2021 10:19:00 +1000

I have the privilege of being able to afford all those random little backpacking items, and while I don’t baby my gear, I do try to take care of it. Especially things that keep me safe. Here’s what I do after every trip with a few of the items.

I have what are probably the two most popular water filters on the market: the Katadyn BeFree and Sawyer Squeeze. The point of this article isn’t about comparing filters, but I recommend both: I use the BeFree for solo day hikes / fastpacking or if water is plentiful, and the Squeeze in pretty much every other situation (e.g. if I need to filter for other people). If buying now then I would be super keen to try out the Platypus QuickDraw.

Katoomba to Mittagong (131km)

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 08:22:00 +1100

Where: Katoomba to Mittagong (via Hill Top for reasons below)

When: 2020/12/27 18:00 to 2020/12/30 morning

Distance: 131km, with maybe 30 km of buckwhacking (details below).

Conditions: Day 2 was pretty weird, as it started quite hot, probably around 27C, and then it just opened up and poured. Forecasted to unload 20mm, and I think that felt about right.

Useful Pre-Trip Information or Overview: I found a few GPX tracks and added a several backup tracks in Gaia GPS, but opted to follow the boring “quicker” route. I think the GPX I used was not one that had been recorded, but just one that had been created. This was one of the planning mishaps for my adventure: I overestimated possible pace. The GPX had 5km/hr average. I read previous trip reviews of people saying they could jog the track. It quickly became apparent there was no way anybody would be able to do parts of the track that quickly, so either I went a different way, the track got more difficult, or I haven’t mastered bushwhacking.

Cox’s River return via Narrowneck

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 23:50:00 +1000

Read below for a long list of warnings. After reading some of the comments below, e.g. from Des, it seems like the track can vary significantly depending on when you do it.

TL;DR - in winter, after bush fires and floods, this track is a 7/6. Left Katoomba Railway Station at about 10:00am on a Saturday in early August, so I guess technically still winter. I packed quite light and intended to do this in two days, and hopefully even get back to Sydney by 5pm. I had all the topological maps offline in Gaia GPS, and created a route based on the maps in Wildwalks; I couldn’t find a GPS trace. For the record: not a single time did I ever feel lost. It is very simple from a navigation perspective: keep Cox river to right. Walk in Breakfast Creek until it forks to Carlons Creek - go left. Now, go up. And up. Here are my notes and where things got slow. Six Foot Track - beautiful and very, very easy. First 11km (starting at Katoomba station) average pace was around ~10:15/km. The next 7km was a tad bit slower, maybe around 12:00/km.

Ultralight Backpacking - Food & Electrolytes

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 20:11:00 +1000

In about 2001 or 2002 I read a book called “Beyond Backpacking - Ray Jardine’s Guide to Lightweight Hiking”, which set me on a path to being as light as possible. It came in very handy when I did my first section hike of the PCT, about 7 days, and I vaguely remember a total pack weight of about 25 lbs - with 4 litres of water. I was a broke college student then, so I guess clipping toothbrushes and straps really paid off. I also used a weird mesh hammock thing and I think a tarp of some kind. I have been “ultralight” ever since, even when renting equipment in Patagonia.

My First Aid Kit (Backpacking)

Mon, 24 Jun 2019 21:23:00 +1000

Background

I have two first aid kits: one that is in my bag when I go to work, and another when I go hiking. The one in my bag has more stuff in it, but overall the contents are pretty similar. In particular with the hiking kit I am only carrying what is likely to be used, items that cannot be improvised with what I can find, and items that I know how to use. It would be easy to pack my fears and include a tourniquet or triangle bandage or EpiPen, but if I allowed myself to fear that level of risk I would also wear a helmet while walking across crosswalks. The reality is I am much more likely to get blisters, minor cuts, and lots of sore muscles.

Overland Track Lighter Pack Tips

Sun, 02 Jun 2019 21:53:00 +1000

Background

My hiking companion and I recently completed the Overland Track in Tasmania, and they posted a picture of our packs on a related group on Facebook. There was an overwhelming response, ranging from good job! to you’re a liar or you surely didn’t have a tent or you must be on a tour and didn’t bring food.

I can understand the skepticism. Upon inspecting what people brought, and never used, there is definitely a preference for people to pack their fears. Considering this track seemed to be the first time many people have done a multi-day backpacking trip, there were a lot of things they likely would not pack after gaining a little more experience.

Beers of Myanmar

Wed, 30 Apr 2014 19:00:00 +1000

While in Myanmar on a recent trip I did a brief taste comparison of the three main beers available in most supermarkets.

Andaman - Not to my taste, perhaps like XXXX, VB, Natural Light, or a light Steel Reserve.
Myanmar - Quite refreshing, a bit like similar beers in the region, e.g. Chang, Tiger, or Laos Beer.

Some QS Numbers

Thu, 25 Jul 2013 08:26:00 +1000

There is the possibility I will be giving an interview on the Quantified Self “movement”. What follows is a brief summary of QS, the things I track, and some pretty charts.

What is Quantified Self

I suppose it depends on who you talk to. Wikipedia states that it is “a movement to incorporate technology into data acquisition on aspects of a person’s daily life in terms of inputs”, but I side more on the idea that the movement is “a collaboration of users and tool makers who share an interest in self knowledge through self-tracking.” It is at this point that it is probably important to interject that most people are self-trackers: weight, height, reps at the gym, hours worked, and so forth. If you have ever made a goal, you probably tracked how you could reach it. What makes us QS folk a bit different is that we tend to track lots of things, correlate between them, and share our results. So, with this theme, let me share what I track.

Hiking the W Circuit (Torres del Paine)

Sat, 29 Jun 2013 13:33:00 +1000

I have just returned from hiking the “W”, a famous circuit through the Torres del Paine, in Patagonia. Although I did some research before doing the trek, it turns out I made a number of assumptions that turned out to be incorrect. I will detail in this entry what I learned, a few things that worked well, and a few things that did not work so well.

Lessons Learned from Kathmandu

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 23:34:00 +1100

My first trip to Kathmandu is now over, so there are some lessons learned I should scribe. Some of these are obvious, and which I abide by whenever travelling, and some I simply forgot in my (very) impromptu trip to Nepal.

When agreeing on a price, make 100% sure the other person states the price back to you. I thought a price had been agreed to when the other person responded “ok ok, you are a lucky man”, but this does not count. As they say, reconfirm, reconfirm, reconfirm.
When arriving at the airport, make sure you have small bills, too. I had 3x 100RS, 1x 10RS, and then a few 500RS. The price I negotiated was 440RS, and it would have been nice to have paid the exact amount.
Kathmandu is polluted and dirty. I cannot emphasise this enough. It is dirtier than probably any other city I have been to. If I come back, I will be bringing masks. I know this sounds silly, to wear a mask, but any local on a motorbike or in a taxi wears a mask, and many just walking around. Instead of the normal cloth masks that many people use, I would probably bring a make with finer grained material - probably N95. I ultimately tried to avoid walking on main roads, but having some activated carbon absorb something would have made it a little less unpleasant.
Bring old cloths, and throw them away after the trip. Or just bring black. If you have nice jackets or clothing they will likely come back pretty dirty.
Bring some toilet paper. Similar to other parts of Asia, the bathrooms don’t have any.
Bring a flashlight. The load shedding makes the city dark, and if you go out, you will want a flashlight. There aren’t any lights. I only used it a few times, but I am really glad I brought two flashlights with us.
Bring vitamin C and lots of hand sanitizer. I did, like I always do when I travel, and I’m really glad I did. Everybody is coughing or sick, and everybody spits. It is similar to the situation in China, i.e. everyone spits. Then everybody gets sick. Bring hand sanitizer.
If you take a bus somewhere, try to ask when you buy tickets to sit on the left side in the middle. The front is a no-go for me. I typically had seats in the rear right, but on the curvy roads I think the left middle would be safer, as oncoming buses won’t hit you. One bus on the way back had the left side decimated. If you do a search on “nepal bus crashes” in images.google.com, you will quickly see why you don’t want to be in the front row.
My hotel rooms all typically had just one power outlet. If you bring multiple electronic devices, bring some way to charge more than one at a time.
Bring clothing to stay warm at night. I travelled to Nepal in winter, and all my rooms got pretty cold at night.

Enjoy!

Lessons Learned for Lightweight Travel to Europe

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:55:00 +1100

Now that my Europe trip has ended, I need to leave a note of things I wish I had done better, both travel-wise, and the stuff I brought along.

I like to travel light, and find it a little comical when I see people struggling with giant 70L backpacks; I always do carry-on, no matter for a two week trip, or two months. (This means my packs have to weigh less than 7KG). Even in winter it is possible to pack light. The trick seems to be only packing what one will use regularly, with no duplicates, of appropriate size, and hopefully reusable for other purposes. Don’t pack anything you would be gutted if it broke.

My Portable Travel Stick

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:30:00 +1000

This will be my last post from Taiwan, and I’m placing it in my tech section. Shortly I will be flying to Hong Kong, and then traveling into China. I’m not bringing my laptop with me. I’m always a little wary of using public computers, especially in many of the poorly run internet cafes. Often the logged in user is the administrator, and we all know the computers are obviously crawling with worms and keyloggers. What can I do?

An Upgrade in China

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 20:30:00 +1000

Status: ✅

Time has come to bring another network on the VPN, and perform some more upgrades. The usual by now, I guess.

Get China on VPN
Limit access to other locations
Update all systems
Perform security audits
Upgrade wifi
Setup video conferencing

Ian and I set off for our China office out of Hong Kong, and the next day started working. Total preparation was around a month, maybe a little large, mainly due to red tape. We first acquired assistance of IBM China, who were of a great help aiding us in finding our desired Cisco. One of the most important factors, which we couldn’t resolve by purchasing the Cisco in the States, is support/warranty contracts (if the Cisco totally dies, what then). Through our contact we were also able to find some local vendors that would support Wifi and the Cisco, in case of an emergency.

An Overseas Update

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 20:30:00 +1000

Status: ✅

Kuala Lumpur represents a new adventure for me, and a new project. The goals were simple: update/clean the systems, upgrade the internet connection, give pseudo-voip capability and try to get them on the VPN.

Before leaving the states I had to make sure several things were in order. First, I needed to order the rotuer I was going to bring out with me. Next, I needed to make sure KL had arranged the appropriate DSL upgrades, and last: pretest the connection. Before leaving L.A. I had the opportunity to test the new router and have it connect to the VPN. All is good to go.