Figured I'd have a go at this and last night was the last chance I'd get in January.
Following an incident last weekend, the bike is now without gears. Not ideal really but it is what it is.

95km/2,250m of Pennine trails straight from work in Huddersfield, arriving at a spot nr Hebden Bridge around 7pm to meet my fiancé for a romantic night under the stars... Sort of
IMG_20220128_133119-01 by John Allan, on Flickr
IMG_20220128_152540-01 by John Allan, on Flickr
IMG_20220128_161243-01 by John Allan, on Flickr
IMG_20220128_175915-01 by John Allan, on Flickr
IMG_20220128_221730-01 by John Allan, on Flickr

I did have to drop the shelter right down at around 3am before it blew away in the storm-force winds, but it survived OK
IMG_20220129_092556-01 by John Allan, on Flickr

February next

A loop around the Eastern lakes. Shap, Ullswater, Kirkstone, Thursday night on Garburn, then a wild windy wet return over Gatescarth.

Hi All,

I'm a bit out of practice, but I think I'm getting my Mojo back. Left about 2030 Saturday evening by the time I'd faffed. It had been a bit blowy all day, but had settled a bit by the time I left, found a spot in some local woods that I sorta think was mostly out of the way. It was about 7 degrees C when I bedded down and was in my sleeping bag by 2200 - some noisy animals about. Didn't sleep that well, maybe just because I haven't done it in a while... Got up a bit after 0700, it was 0 degrees C and I was wearing everything to compensate. Was quite dry though and I was bivvy only, had a bit of condensation in the bivvy but I think that was self induced from tucking up inside and breathing in, not that big a deal for one nigh. Took a fairly direct route back home in the AM, but took in a few tracks I hadn't done before.

Let's see if it continues. https://www.strava.com/activities/6603878490

They are coming in thick and fast! Keep 'em going folks.
Anyway I finally got out after getting the dreaded lurgy courtesy of an Austrian ski trip. Mild man flu symptoms only so other than being a PIA, no hassle. Anyway this allowed me to squeeze the January bivvy in to a window in the weather between gales.



My TLS skills are slipping..... Mind you my water filter appears to have gone AWOL (last seen on the river spey....) so given the paucity of good water sources on route I had to hump all I needed with me as I still needed to avoid shops.

Twas still rather breezy but the sun was shining and the wind in my rear. I had a headful of vague plans with a goal of scoping out a few future bivvy spots as well as doing some nice riding. All on familiar trails but I threw in a couple I'd not done for a while. Dry trails were a pleasant surprise, normally in January it's either snow or mud. The last time this happened was 2017 as I'd just thrown the Jones together and its first few rides were in similar weather and on similarly mud free trails. Hmmm, its actually the Jones 5th birthday!

Glen Devon forest was my main recce area and I found a few good spots with an especially fine one on 'Fanny Hill' which I will make a point of visiting on a future bivvy, given the somewhat puerile slant to the humour that's pervaded this forum of late. Thereafter more climbing into the gloaming.



Next up some technical tussocks then a fine descent to the road, one more spot scoped out as darkness fell. More trail and a few empty back roads later and I was in Pitmedden forest again. Fallen trees scuppered one spot (Fridays storm seems to have dropped a load more) but a bit of nose following and undergrowth bashing found a good, dry and sheltered pitch. Up with the tarp and into the bag, tea making and eating followed. This was shaping up to be the most benign January bivvy I've done to date. The breezy conditions had persisted and my spot was a bit draughty at first but the wind finally dropped to leave a clear, cool and calm evening.

January Insect interlude. I'd just got settled in when I noticed this chap clambering up the bar bag.



There were a few spiders about as well as some random flying things, all thanks to the mild weather of late. At this rate we'll have a bumper midge year unless we get some hard frosts in March and April....



Morning view, kettle on. I had my usual leisurely morning before getting up and going



Official bivvy shot. Flat tarp a bit wonky, possibly due to the pitch being on a slope which I'd missed the night before. Just down from my spot was a totally level area, missed in the dark.

Home ended up being another 5 hour ride given how dry the trails were. Scored a bit of 'medden single track then headed over to the Lomonds to trace a hilly but fun route home. Dreich had come and gone a bit, finally dumping on me for the last few road miles; but I'll score this one as dry!

1/12
25 month streak.

Lovely to see everyone out and about and in full swing. Ladybird in January - weird

1/12
I had intended to have a night or two out in Wales over the weekend unfortunately my back decided to intervene so I will have to use the W E night instead . It was spent on lofty knoll with Psling that took a bit of effort to get to but somewhere Peter had had in mind for a while unfortunately it was a cloudy and windy night so the views were limited . No pictures as I promised to keep the location to myself .

Just squeaked in there gents, nice one.

'Live BaM In Progress' here as they say.....

Seems a bit excessive to set off on February's caper when it's still January, but we are The Young Ones and we just don't care!

Actually we are The Old Ones, and, yes, it's.....

The Pensioners' Charabanc Day Out

Eric, Lu and meself had hoped to do this in October 2020 but Events overtook us, so here we are only one and a half years late. Lu has offered to show us round his parish up round Llangollen, and with our combined physical age of 423 (combined mental age - 30) we'll probably only get as far as the Llangollen day centre.

So, I've packed my truss, hearing aid, incontinence pants and pacemaker and set off on the 18.41 Milton Keynes to Wrexham direct train. It's a curious train that splits in half ( in the middle not lengthways) at Chester, half to Wrexham and half to Holyhead. Only one train each weekday goes direct. As usual ridiculously fast reaching Wrexham in under 2 hours. Just having a nice cup of tea while speeding through Nuneaton at 120mph. The tea is nicer than Nuneaton in fact.

For some reason they wouldn't let me reserve the bike to Wrexham so I had to do it to Holyhead. Maybe we should head for Anglesey instead!

Bit of a Last Of The Summer Wine job this is. Plainly I'm Compo so Lu and Eric will have to fight over who's Clegg and Foggy/Blamire.

Oh, and no charabancs were available so we'll have to go by bike and take two days instead of one.

Let's see which ditch Lu has reserved us tonight......

RIP wrote: ↑Mon Jan 31, 2022 7:24 pm Just squeaked in there gents, nice one.

'Live BaM In Progress' here as they say.....

Seems a bit excessive to set off on February's caper when it's still January, but we are The Young Ones and we just don't care!



Let's see which ditch Lu has reserved us tonight......

Err... this is the last night of January. The first February BAM can't be until tomorrow night...

Oh nooooo-o-o-ooo.... cock up!

No not really... note "take two days" . Tonight's is a Brucie Bonus Bivvy.

We're getting stuck into February with no mucking about. Must be a record actually - BaMming at 00:01 on the first day of a month . I managed to start at 23:59 on New Year's Eve 2020 which was literally an absolute last-minute BaM, so now I'm trying for literally a first minute although of course strictly speaking I shouldn't be leaving the house for 4 hours 47 minutes....

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Sun Jan 30, 2022 7:17 pm Lovely to see everyone out and about and in full swing. Ladybird in January - weird

Isn't it.

Still my favourite thread.

Ruabon.

Guard: "where you off to next then?"

Reg: "well..."

31 January...Just completed my January bivvy in time last night. Following a late in the month decision with my pal to partake in Bivvy a Month we chose Saturday night 29th, but his plan to finish work early evaporated so we decided to go for the 31st and meet at a localish pub for starters. I reached the pub in good time, happy my newly fitted panniers were handling well as a test for when I start cycling to work. Checking my phone a message from my pal, apologising profusely, said he had just heard his need to self isolate. So am now sat in this gorgeous pub supping pints with no knowledge of that area or his proposed camp site. 3 pints downed, my revised plan to head for Malvern Hills was scuppered by a flat rear tyre. I faffed around with that then chose to aim nearer to home in case of another mishap on the back of numerous recent puncture incidents! Seemingly turbo fuelled I flew back to what i call the 'Suckley Triangle' a place of magical scenery in my world. My chosen camp was an area bounded by trees and a brook, left to nature with tussocks, coarse long grass and juvenile trees. It was gone 11 by the time i dived in my bivi and hoped for sleep!! I did sleep, i think! A fox was barking for some while during the night. And morning heralded calls from several owls. I struck camp early. I cycled home thinking how the panniers obviously allowed me to bring soooo much gear. And historically i do bring and carry far too much. On that note there's plenty of opportunity ahead to experiment with bikes, equipment, stowage and clothing for the weather conditions.
My equipment:
Giant Trooper
Vaude 1P Bivi tent
Thermarest Roll Mat (not the lightest and bulky but fancied some luxury)
Terra Nove Elite 350 Down Bag
Hi Gear flannel pillow

Always remain flexible Neil

Managed my first ever bivvy before the end of Jan (25th) so feel I could be on the bandwagon for this year. Didn't think it was going to be much different from tenting but absolutely loved it.

Took it easy for my first go in case I'd forgotten something crucial. Finished work on the farm at 2230, headed out across the fields and into the woods where my open-sided woodshed is (I work on the farm but don't live there so hopefully this doesn't count as my back garden - that's 20 miles away!). Laid out the bivvy bag, climbed in and slept like an absolute baby (the sleeping kind, not the screaming kind that needs cuddling all night), packed up my stuff in the morning and pedalled back to the farm to start work again at 0700.

Apart from having an actual crash on a bit of blue water pipe I tried to ride over at an angle, during which I fully ploughed my face into a field, it was perfect. Next time I'll be trying a little further afield, probably into the Forest of Dean or along the River Wye a bit.

IMG_20220125_224620 by David Pearson-Smith, on Flickr
IMG_20220125_231101 by David Pearson-Smith, on Flickr

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Tue Feb 01, 2022 2:59 pm Always remain flexible Neil

Thank you Stuart, i will indeed remain flexible, it comes with the many cockups i suffer/endure/put right, such as arriving home this morn to find my carefully hidden door key out of reach under my water butt, no choice but to drain the butt to access my key doh! Ok so i am not fit yet but cycling under the influence can push those legs beyond what they wanted, testament today legs are very tired.

Looking back through my pics from last years WRT I was horrified how much gear my bike carried. That is untenable now, my laden weight was close to the heaviest recorded that year. I carried 2 litres of water all day before using! And 9 nakd bars, possessing virtuality the density of lead.
But old habits die hard.
My saying for flexibility is thus: I am overly fed, too warm, cater for unlikely eventualities, double or even triple up on stock , and happily drag my combined load faithfully at a snails pace. Time to be hungry, chilled, longing for luxury, crying out for a hostelry for replenishment!!!
Watch me on February BaM lol

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Sun Jan 30, 2022 7:17 pm Ladybird in January - weird

We saw a queen bumblebee in Glyn Ceiriog today.

We saw a queen bumblebee in Glyn Ceiriog today.

It's all gone mad. Hopefully things will stay mild, so everything has a chance.

BBB Pensioners' Charabanc Day Out.... continued....



....................^ Lu ^.......................^ Reg ^.........^ Eric ^

Being so late in the evening I had my own private train from Wrexham to Ruabon, and disembarking there I met Lu FrogAtTheFarriers on the platform. It didn't take us long to make the short spin round to Trevor canal basin where we were due to meet Eric EricRobo. Lu had mentioned that we could scope out some bivvy spots from there all the way along the Llangollen canal to Horseshoe Falls, but after a quick check of the toilet block (busy ) and a few areas near the marina, we soon homed in on nice grassy spot next to the canal, after which we retired to the pub to contemplate life, the universe and everything. The landlady made a very detailed interrogation of our backgrounds, jobs, riding etc but one advantage of this was that, as ever with landladies, she tacitly gave us permission for our bivvy spot.

Not far short of midnight we set up our shelters and crashed out. I made a minor technical error with my Gatewood by not attaching the two extra lifter lines half way up the sides, as a result of which when the wind reached 40mph+ in the early hours I ended up with the tarp touching my bag. Not a big deal with its DWR coating, but what was more of a deal was a while later I noticed my ceiling had dropped somewhat. Oops, the pole's sunk 3" into the ground due to the wind! Solved that one by putting the pole end into one of my boots as an emergency measure. The problem with that was soon the front peg pulled out of the ground and I had to replace that as well. What a load of schoolboy errors. After that I managed a bit of sleep.

Waking in the morning light we inspected each other's setups - Lu's R1g 3.5, Eric's brand new MSR Thingy, and my Gatewood. Here's Eric looking happy with his new gear:



I had taken our love of sleeping in ditches a little too far and chosen to kip next to about the biggest ditch you could think of, which also seemed to be full of water for some reason. In the morning it became obvious why :



Well if you're going to hide in plain sight you might as well do it properly, right next to Telford's famous Llangollen canal Pontcysyllte aqueduct

A nice morning ride along the canal brought us to Llangollen where, as ever in Wales, nobody seemed very keen to sell us anything, in this particular case a good breakfast. After two or three recces up and down the High St we finally found a cafe next to the river which in fact turned out to be the first one we'd actually passed upon arrival. Doh. Suitably replete, we continued along the canal feeder stream to the Horseshoe Falls. Here are our intrepid heroes, I mean old codgers:



There's also a particularly peaceful little chapel next to the falls, where we paused a while to consider our advancing years, and play "spot the water tap" which Reg just won by a whisker.



To avoid the A5 to Corwen we ambled along the lane on the north side of the River Dee, named after a famous BearBoner, which might have been quiet but it was also very steep in places, including one of those pointless bits of road that climbs a few hundred feet up from the river then straight back down to the river for no fathomable reason other than to knacker cyclists.





Corwen provided a lunch stop in a cafe, then it was round to Cynwyd for the start of the fabled "Wayfarer" track up over the Berwyns to the Ceiriog valley. Time to stock up on choccy bars and more incontinence pants, so into the good old Spar we go. The start of the track was incredibly steep, certainly a push for pensioners, and we each used our own different techniques for hauling ourselves up. Mine involves pushing for 30 paces, a quick deep breathing stop, pushing for 29 paces, more breathing, 28 paces, and so on down to 2 then 1. After that it's back up from 1 again, and by the time I'd got back to 20 again the track was rideable.



We saw nobody at all during the whole crossing, which allowed some quiet contemplation of the many who have gone before:





An amusing blast down the other side through all the babbies' heads and 4x4 ruts brought us to our pub for the evening, where we suitably lowered the tone of the proceedings as usual. Lu had previously found a disused chapel which was to be our spot for the night, and after a post-pub ride up hill and down dale we arrived and installed ourselves via the unlocked door. An absolutely superb choice Lu, and it didn't take me long to switch into "28dayslater" mode:













We slept the sleep of the righteous, followed by a leisurely breakfast.

Toaks 500ml Ti pot, MYOG Ti windshield, Morrison's yogurt "bowl", Ti spoon, BBB 12g stove, 36ml bioethanol:



It's not quite Bach's Toccata & Fugue but still uplifting in a strange sort of way : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts7A58QsKL8

Lu entertained us for a while with his organ (playing), whilst I denounced and fulminated about the perils of communication devices from the pulpit.









A few sharp climbs brought us onto the moors above the valley, generally following our noses across tussocky fields and bogs, again not seeing another soul about.





Glyn Ceiriog sported a number of cafes and pubs, with our favoured one being the Christian cafe to continue our ecclesiastical leanings of the trip, but predictably all were closed so we ended up as usual in the old faithful Spar. On our way back down the valley poor old Lu noticed he'd left his backpack behind at the village so he returned to fetch that whilst myself and Eric went off for a brew at his pals house near the aqueduct, leaving me the final few miles to the station to board my train home. I walked into the shelter to the surprise of finding Lu there on his way home too.

An excellent "weekend" away in the quiet mountains, and no pensioners suffered in the making of this escapade. In fact we all commented that we felt no different from when we were blasting down hills as our 25-year old selves.

The Gatewood did its understated ultralightweight (295g) stuff as usual, even better if I'd remembered to pin down the lifters . I'm still sold on using any old crappy boots with waterproof socks to keep the tootsies dry, and the Showa Temres waterproof/breathable "washing up" gloves along with silk liners do the same job for the pinkies. My Steripen handled water duties without fuss; not much to add about gear other than that I don't think.

Many thanks Lu for showing us round your parish!

2/2, 2/12, 74/74.

Lovely Reg and I'm glad to see that you took adequate steps to stop the light fingered from stealing the railings ... do you know how much scraps worth at the minute

Worth more than my good old P7 I'm sure!

Our combined ages were 215; with Eric a sprightly 79, Lu 73, and me the young shaver at a mere 63 give or take a few days. When I was the aforementioned 25, I can remember looking at 60 year olds and thinking how ancient and wrecked they all were. Obviously bikepacking keeps you young albeit slightly more creaky .

Great stuff Reg
The Wayfarer - a right of passage for any self-respecting bikepacker

... do you know how much scraps worth at the minute

Worth more than my good old P7 I'm sure!

A frame that's increasing in value, surely. Can't beat it

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Thu Feb 03, 2022 4:12 pm Lovely Reg and I'm glad to see that you took adequate steps to stop the light fingered from stealing the railings ... do you know how much scraps worth at the minute

Oh and you'll be pleased to know that your 0.5mm dyneema lines on the Gatewood stood up to the 40mph gusts with nae bother whatsoever .

Excellent write up Reg the pitch looks slightly more perilous than Peter's table
Looks like an excellent trip I must do something similar

Great stuff