Count me in. January bivi in a dark sky area on the Isle of Man ( which is pretty dark). Wimped out with tent this time

Numbers creeping up!

Winter Event 25 and BAM 1 Feb... 2 of 2, 38 of 38
Planned a solitary one, ended up a tremendous trio!!


Arrived late to the party, set off after midday.
Fortunately was able to catch Ben for a prearranged purchase of a nice down gillet. Thank you Ben, love it
Following my intended anti clock route of Stuart's OS points, I slowly clocked up miles as reluctant muscles warmed.
I enjoyed my first experience of using Komoot, viewing the route on the mobile, enveloped in its new case( a beautiful bodge by me!), firmly handlebar mounted.
After Aberangell, scenery changed to forest, with rising ascent.

At the 9 mile mark I virtually collided with several mountain bikers who appeared out of the corner of my eye, from my left. A cacophony of shouting and a very loud bell greeted my presence. In shock I responded, instantly recognising a couple of BAM legends, none other than Reg (RIP) and Lu (Frog at the Farriers).
Now I am seconded as crew member .

..............................................The crew: Neil, Reg, Lu.....................................................


Ironically there had been prior discussion with Reg about joining the guys for this event!!

................................................One for the Cow...............................................................


With plenty of banter we head on a magical mystical tour, courtesy of Reg, who seems able to navigate while rarely consulting a map!

................................Our kit at a potential Bivvy spot up in the forest.........................................


Through the forest and a forever uphill slog we inched towards Corris, with a brief interlude hunting for a mine entrance, hidden somewhere in thick foliage. A future visit for Reg beckons!

...............................................Reg in a quiet moment! ........................................................


Then it was downhill, and at the edge of Corris, another distraction, viewing a slate mine of some distinction, and local infrastructure geared towards slate transportation. Very interesting too.

..................................................Slate mine entrance..........................................................


....................................................The Seat of Legends........................................................


Now in Corris, as light faded, we viewed a cracking potential camp spot, a junior football pitch.
Much as was written in the scriptures we entered the portals of the Slaters Arms for beer and a meal.
Now I faced my contemporaries for lots of conversation, food and a plan for an early escape to a magical pub far away in the dark. My fear of how much the team can drink crept in!!

Two pints fuelled us easily uphill to suss Reg's proposed first choice camp spot. I am bound to 'official secrets' regarding the building!!!
At that stage no luck with access, but the pub impatiently awaited our arrival.
So we sat by the open fire in a ‘bound to secrecy pub’, more beer flowing. I was smitten, Reg had sung its praises, which indeed all came true, a veritable alternative place for alternative peeps, hosted by an affable and talkative landlord. We played out a live interactive crime scene, gleaning evidence from our victim (who lost the padlock keys!!) eventually leading to said person finding them attached to the padlock securing our bikes!! Fortunately four phone calls to our previous pub saved a monumental effort in retracing our steps.
We even reached a whisky period much later on.
Now time was short so we left with half notions where sleep would fall.

Over to my colleague’s account of how things panned out.
I will say, I wasn't happy sleeping within the building with my bike outside, so I set up my bivvy bag etc to sleep on a nice patch of grass.
Fortunately Lu scoured the building and discovered another door was openable from inside.
He called me to join them.
All bikes were now in the building.

Gratefully I set up in a bedroom which looked like the officers quarter area!
Thankfully a cold cold night passed us by and sleep came easy in our abject luxury.

..........................................A Reg 5* experience...................................................



Next morn, an earlyish and quick make up led us to cycle not too far to a bike park and cafe (see Reg’s account of his famed contacts!).
A cracking resource, for those who like going downwards.
We jested about our presence in amongst virtual aliens. It seemed they were threatened by our demeanour and obvious hard core set ups .
Another early escape to a safe haven for Boners, the White Lion hotel in Mach for a super brekky.

...............................................Lu about to tuck in.............................................


From here it was all lovely (he said), brushing over the many slogs and looooong uphills, but all in mostly good weather, and far further than I envisaged, both on and off road. Our pace dropped somewhat, but the resolve to continue never waned, faced with considerable ascent!!
We did experience a 3 person gate open/close procedure which would do justice on a You Tube video, featuring three hapless bikers!
The last leg was downhill as befits any Winter Event.
We were near as damn it last time wise, so were lavished plenty of attention from Stuart and Dee. Dee presented me with the largest chunk of gluten free chocolate cake ever. Thank you it was so gorgeous although I was tripping on the drive home!!
Thank you Stuart and Dee for organising this great event
And thank you Reg and Lu for an unforgettable trip

February done on my alternative winter event ride:

Love the moss, Phil.

Bearlegged wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2025 7:05 pm Love the moss, Phil.

Yes, there is quite a lot of this in this forest but annoyingly, FLS are in the process of felling it all. There is a load of young growth but its all super dense planting so BA in terms of the old biodiversity....

Love your tarp pitch Phil...

Bivvies in the area south of Aviemore might be a little "interesting" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8ykl5x8pvo

whitestone wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 10:34 am Bivvies in the area south of Aviemore might be a little "interesting" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8ykl5x8pvo

Calling Dorsetshire Lad - a fine roast dinner there if I'm any judge!

The illegally dumped lynx might sort them out...

Better stick me on the list too

Managed to get January in right on the wire thanks to interfering work commitments. I had to be back early on Saturday for parental duties so this was a sub 12 hour night out on the Friday. I couldn't stray too far, as I would wanted to minimise how early I'd need to get up to head home.

Quiet trails through the park


Chilly at the golf course


Edging past Countesswells


I dropped out of the forest and did a bit of back lane riding around to Westhill, where I decided to avail myself of a hot meal from McDonalds and see if I could get myself to my camp spot and sat in the hammock before it got cold

Approaching my target


Warm enough


City glow


My chosen spot was closer to the AWPR than I imagined it would be, making for a noisy spot, but I chilled out with some music before turning in with an early alarm set, meaning I would miss any sunrise unfortunately.

Packed up quick


Frost prevented me rushing too hard


Final stretch


January done and if I don't sneak out this weekend it'll be another tight finish for February, as I'm out the country next week!

fatbikephil wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 12:20 pm

whitestone wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 10:34 am Bivvies in the area south of Aviemore might be a little "interesting" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8ykl5x8pvo

Calling Dorsetshire Lad - a fine roast dinner there if I'm any judge!

Actually, I’ve got a shoulder of pork hotpot to trial for my next outing, is Aviemore anywhere near Dorset?

dorsetshirelad wrote: ↑Fri Feb 14, 2025 8:25 am Actually, I’ve got a shoulder of pork hotpot to trial for my next outing, is Aviemore anywhere near Dorset?

A mere train ride away!

Name added to list Jose

Feb BAM.zero degrees at another tholtan in the middle of nowhere. Best nights sleep in a while and looking forward to a week off work.

That looks great ^^^ I had a lovely time on the bike on IoM in 2021, plenty of potential overnight spots

Loads of spots and still the opportunity to get disoriented in mist! I recognise that spot though, nice old farm towards the top and cracking bivi spot

Yes, that picture was August! Looks as grey as today

The track was a bit of a slog with rigid bikes and narrowish tyres but it was a great day out

Finally got out last night for my feb BAM. Was up at the fort William festival so thought it would be rude not to take my bike with me. Was nothing fancy or far just a small pedal up the hill behind fort William to get the quilt out and relax. Now needing to make it up to the Mrs since she was left in the hotel herself.

Need to go find out how to add pictures to this as well.

Fair play. That's bloody keen!

Keith74 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 16, 2025 3:00 pm Now needing to make it up to the Mrs since she was left in the hotel herself.

As in "why did you dump me in this horrible comfy hotel when I could have been having a brilliant time with you in the freezing cold and mud" ?

RIP wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:56 pm

Keith74 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 16, 2025 3:00 pm Now needing to make it up to the Mrs since she was left in the hotel herself.

As in "why did you dump me in this horrible comfy hotel when I could have been having a brilliant time with you in the freezing cold and mud" ?

Think it was more that the mrs had booked a romantic weekend in for William which ended up with me disappearing for the film thing and then going bivying. Probably as romantic as it gets right enough.

I'm suffering from a series lack of motivation this year After all these years I've been to everywhere I can find on the Island and as the car ferry is around £100 for a return a trip to the mainland each month would soon add up, £1200 a year for BAM anyone?

Although the end of the month is still over a week away, other commitments mean I'm running out of time. I also had to drive to work so I had to pick a spot close enough to home to be able to ride home in the morning and then head off to work. Back to Combley Great Wood as it's only 6 miles from home. Took me a while to find the little side path that heads off the beaten track into my favourite spot in the pines as it's ideal for the hammock. The choice of trees seems to get less each time as there were more leaning over or down.

Hammock and tarp up (rain was forecast and did arrive at 1am) drank my hot chocolate and into bed. Had a great nights sleep but all to soon it was time to get up, alarm was set for 05:40 to give me time to pack up, ride home, hang all the kit up to dry/air and get to work.



That is 5 full years now, 60 consecutive months, so worth keeping the run going.

Know what you mean Sean. I had a number of absolute stonkers last year, which I'm worried I won't be able to top, which ain't good for the motivation. All my local ones are noisy which doesn't help, so like you I have to fork over loads of cash to get somewhere 'nice'. From the top the only way is....

I'm just an old wizened husk of a bikepacker, maybe it's time for us old farts to hang up the drybags and make way for the new generation of trendy 'packers with their flash gear and them there new fangled ways... Get a grip Reg.

I thought i better attempt to go somewhere other than the Malverns this month as i was getting a bit fed up of the view so after some thought i worked out a not to challenging route starting from Talybont on Usk. This involved a long steady climb up the Taff trail on a forestry road which unexpectedly provided this view as the trees had been harvested.
PXL_20250218_144802589 by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
Just before the track meets the road there is an old railway tunnel that you can apparently go through to the the other side of the hill which would have once joined the Brecon mountain railway near here
PXL_20250218_154451567 (3) by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
It was early so i had plenty of time to explore the two empty resevoirs Lower and Upper Neuadd the Upper one ia a grade 2 listed structure and they were worried about it so was drained it is certainly a very impressive place
PXL_20250218_162216623 (2) by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
PXL_20250218_162242677 (2) by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
I also found this rather impressive house in the undergrowth unfortunately it has been used as target practice by the dead of head and is nearly glassless now
PXL_20250218_162948381 (2) by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
After a look at the other side of the dam wall with a great view of Pen y Fan and with a bivvy spot located it was time to drop down to the pub in Pontsticill
PXL_20250218_164715576 by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
As i rejoined the tarmac i was stopped by a couple of lads who asked me if they could get a taxi to the Storey arms car park they had gone very wrong i left them asking a lady in her car if they could have a lift to somewhere more taxi friendly. It was getting dark and by the time i got to the pub i was frozen and had to have a cup of tea not to drink but to hold for better or worse. Peter Reg and myself had visited one of the two pubs a couple of years ago so i tried the other one the Red Cow and what a good choice great beer doing food early and very friendly result other than i was going to have to leave which i did at eight after a serious battle of wills another pint would have been nice. I had been a bit bothered about the lads so really didnt want to see them again on the way back up which i didnt so one way or another they had made it out. I set up camp on what would have been the wet side of the dam and out of the wind and listened to some stuff slept well until nature called on the way out of the sleeping bag i managed to jam the zip totally so had to deploy the quilt to help keep warm which turned out to have a mind of its own the pillow then went flat so the rest of the night was a bit of a drag.
PXL_20250219_071706598 by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
While i was in the pub a group chat broke out and it turned out Psling was in the area and suggested breakfast at the cafe in Talybont an idea which Verena also found appealing so it was up and away in the refreshing freezing cold rain i was going to take a longer way back which after the initial climb is mostly downhill all was going well until the top of the Brinore Tramroad where a few smallish sticks were across the track
PXL_20250219_100057803 by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
and then the sticks got bigger
PXL_20250219_100402734 by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
After an unpleasant reroute down a slippery boulder strewn path/river i got to the cafe just after Peter had arrived and just before V got there a very impressive bit of rescheduling on her part Breakfast didnt last long some imagination required
PXL_20250219_115648568 by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
We drank plenty of tea and coffee and had plenty to say what an unexpected and wonderful end to the trip.
PXL_20250219_115704350.MP by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
2/12 for this year

I'm suffering from a serious lack of motivation this year

Sorry to hear that, both. You have literally been an inspiration, if it helps. This is from that other little project of mine and needs work.


What May Be (Maybe)

A bivvy a month (at least), come what may
And with few rules you can play it how you like
Ride, eat, sleep, repeat, from dusk 'til break of day
Near or far (but it must involve a bike)

From the Isle of Wight to the Costa del Severn
The Carneddau, the Cairngorms, a local park
Hundreds of miles or a friend's back garden
Safely tucked up by the time it gets dark

With no fixed route or distance required
May for many means the Welsh Ride Thing
Some shod for gravel, most knobbly tyred
Smiles in the sunshine, ring a ding ding

Nearly a camp by a castle for me
And then there's Reg at a hundred and three