Bivvy a month 2015

[Bearbonesnorm]

come on stu , u know u may as well get a full susser also!

Last one I had was 6 years ago, every now and then I consider another ... but the notion only lasts a few seconds

[Mike]

yeah but stu u could add it to the rest of the collection

[Mike]

Needed a trip out on the bike this weekend, decided to take the yeti over to the Long Mynd for a blast out on the downhills. Originally i was going it alone till i mentioned it to Hux, didnt take him long to decide it was a great idea.
The idea was this...... pack what we need for an overnighter in some woods put in the yeti's and go and have some fun. We left the packs in the car and went and rode 30miles round the hills putting in as many descents as possible and as many as ours legs would carry us back up to the tops! Discovering that if u wait tlll dusk when all the walkers have gone down ul find probably the second best descent into town via a cheeky footpath iv ever ridden there. Even though we still got a telling off from some proper pompuse old bird. Hux put her straight though. Calling at the car to change into bikepacking mode we picked up our stuff and head for pub no 1, followed by the chippy ( highly recommend the chippy in town!! ) then onto pub no 2 where we sank a few more pints, put the world to rites got some more chips ( this time free from the kind bar owner ) and then headed for the climb up into the woods. Now by this time it was getting on for around 11pm. I remembered a spot in the trees the Scattamah had told me about on the edge of some trees East facing. This was spot on Scott, had a great night. We were woken up at 4 by the birds and then the sun came up not long after so all was good. We finally got up about 9 and headed along the ridge to do one last descent across the golf coarse and back for a breaky in the cafe...

Smashing our way through fish chips n mushy peas for dinner

Morning sunshine

Having had about three hours sleep, and abit of a headache

[ctznsmith]

4/5 This is the Sneppen shelter just south of Copenhagen. If you're ever in Denmark download the "Shelter" app. It's in Danish but from the icons you can work out what facilities you can find at each Shelter/campsite.

[ctznsmith]

Has everyone given up?

5/6 odd 'loft' shelter above a campfire site wood store in Estonia.

[TheBrownDog]

This is the Sneppen shelter just south of Copenhagen.

I'm loving these things. Worth a trip to Denmark just to use one. Must be brilliant with a bunch of people and a big fire in the middle.

[Bearbonesnorm]

I'm loving these things. Worth a trip to Denmark just to use one. Must be brilliant with a bunch of people and a big fire in the middle.

Bit like an open air bothy ... think I might have to build one

[sean_iow]

May and June

We were struggling to find the motivation to do one a month, the Isle of Wight is not really full of 'remote' spots and living near the middle of the Island we are never far from home. Having started a ride out in the rain recently, and then abandoning for the lure of a warm house and cold beer in the fridge we thought we'd plan a trip further afield. If we were off the Island we'd be committed and have to carry on! As it happens the trip was over the weekend of the 30/31st May and 1st June so that's 2 months covered? We planned to ride a section of the South Downs Way. I'm afraid we opted for camp sites as not knowing the areas we'd be in at all I didn't know what the bivi options would be like, but having now ridden it, and seen yeti342's write up we could of opted to bivi, although that would of also meant no hot showers!

Day 1 involved 2 ferries, although one of them only runs from Cowes to East Cowes and this is attached to both sides by chains The second took us from East Cowes to Southampton. We then rode national cycle route 23 to Otterbourne and cut across to Twyford and on to just east of Winchester to the first camp site.



We passed Twyford Waterworks on the way, which I must visit on an openday at some point. I have been there with work but not had a proper look round. The weather was kind to us on the first day, with clear skies if a little windy.



Day 2 saw us ride 40 miles east along the SWD in rain and wind. The going was not too bad as only one section was claggy, but with the water coming over the cranks in places it did mean wet feet all day It did stop raining at times, and when the clouds lifted the views made all the hard work worth it.



Arrival at the camp site meant a chance to have a shower and head for the nearest village to the pub for dinner. I had not researched this as I'd thought I'd follow Stu's OPRA advice and not over plan. On arrival at the village one pub was shut and the other had stopped serving food, so we planned a liquid dinner, only to be advised they were shutting in 5 minutes A quick pint and 2 packets of crisps each would have to do.



Day 3 saw us climb back up to the SDW (the camp site was located off the SDW at a lower level) which involved a long push as it was just too hard to ride on the loaded bike, and it also saved energy for the day ahead.

We then rode back to Portsmouth, passing near Goodwood and stopping in the first pub we found which was open and serving food A hard ride into a headwind along the coast and we were at Portsmouth for our third ferry of of the trip. Once back on the Island is was an easy spin home. So just under 110 miles and 7900 ft of ascent in 3 days. It was the first time I'd ever ridden a bike off the Island, which aged 45 seems a long time to have waited!

Sean

[Mike]

Junes BAM entry started with me originally heading for Scotland for ten days, however since the weather looked crap up there i decided to stay closer. I put the idea to Hux that we should try riding Ian's wildcat200 route. I downloaded the route to my gpx and that was that.
We got to LLantrwyd Wells Monday at around 10am dumped the car, faffed around then headed off. I will put it out there right now and say this route isnt for the faint hearted! Our first 25miles was one of the hardest routes with loads of climbing ( however i will say well done ian on using some fantastic trails ). That took us 3 hrs. The tracks after this im fairly familiar with as ive ridden most of them before, we made our first nights bivy at a carpark/viewpoint up in a plantation. The weather was brilliant however the wind eased off when we stopped at 9pm and out came the little bleeders! Smidged to the hilt we saw them off slowly. A great nights sleep in just the bivy bag, we had decided to chance the night without the tarps and it payed off. Next morning we were up at 6 and off for what became a very hard intense day. We made a few stops for refreshments - the shop at strata florida does vaguely exciting coffee and ice cream. The shop in Pontrhydfendigaid does vaguely exciting sausage rolls - i had three! Following this stop we rode some nice flat old railway line which is part of the sus82. We pushed on with the aim of getting to nantsyddion by lunchtime however the route isnt so direct and does alot of winding up through the forests. We sacked that stop off and had a brief snack at the top of the climb behind the bothy before making our way to the garage for anything that contained more energy. At this point i asked hux how his legs were as i was priming him for maybe a short cut but he said he was fine so we committed to the route once more. The route from here worms around the hills and makes its way back to nantymoch then on upto towards Stu's neck of the woods. Passing glaslyn about 8pm we decided that we head for the carpark in Hafren for the night and stop. Now i know alot of the BB contingents have stayed here overnight so thought we would give it a look.What a great spot, short grass, benches, toilets that stay open all night oh and thousands of MIDGES!
Bivy bags out, dinner and bed just to get away from em! Wed morning was fine no bugs, off we went after a lye in. We were feeling it now. In llangurig we decided to call it a day the route was just so hard going and we had to be back at the car that evening. So i worked a route out that wouldnt involve so much climbing and would cut down the miles??
Back via Elan estate around Claerwen down a descent to Strata florida, up the climb and down the Byway through the river crossings ( this is an vaguely exciting track for those who havent yet rode it ) with very wet feet we choose to do the climb up the back of devils stair case by which time my achilies was screaming. Its near enough all down hill then on tarmac back to the car. We left LLantrwyd at 7pm. Both totally exhausted from the heat and the climbing.
We covered 193miles and climbed 6340m. Not a bad few days riding

The only downside to this trip was i left my camera at home so had to use the phone which is pants!! but heres a few

seems to be alot of these signs since i was last there.

well earned cuppa at ty n y cornel

bivy spot 1

nice to wake up to sunshine

bivy 2

[Ian]

Nice one Mike. I had to laugh this morning when I got your texts, with phrases like "bloody hard going", "loads of climbing", "I'm battered" and "we're both ruined". Priceless

[HUX]

Jeez mate. What have you done to my face in that last pic. I look like Peter Kay!!

[Mike]

It was all the above. But it was also a lot of fun!

Hey hux that's bloody funny I'd not noticed pal. U look like Craig David in bo' selecta sketch. Either that or its all the biscuits u eat for breakfast

[HUX]

Yes, thankyou for the route Ian. Last nite my ass looked like i'd been sat on a belt sander! Not a pretty sight..............cracking couple of days though.

[Ian]

Glad you enjoyed it fellas. Superb weather too
I think "ruined" is my new favourite term with which to describe ones physical state

[Mike]

I thought to myself I need to take the bb shirt out of wales for a change. So im now currently sat in dorest having a coffee in the hot sun before heading off to ride charlie's gravel dash route. Should be a good one at a nice steady pace too

[Zippy]

Let's play catchup on this thread:

January 2015 - Moel Prysgau on New Years, including the dog.

February 2015 - Local woods on foot, had just handed in my MSc diss.

March 2015 - Different local woods, on foot again, tested new tarp (forgot bivvy!) and tested new Garmin.

April 2015 - Little bikepacking trip in Wales, start & finish in Tregaron

May 2015 - Welsh Ride Thing (Nant Rhys and Lluest Cwm Bach), and Cairngorm Loop (Fords of Avon Refuge Hut - unplanned but the weather had turned and I was a bit unprepared for that)


AP1030958 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr


AP1040123 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr


P1040225 by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

June 2015 - not yet happened!

[Ian]

6/6 - Another night under a piece of cuben on the TBB :)

[Taylor]

6/6
No tarp for me this month, just a bivi bag until I was awoken by small children's asking what I was doing.

[Scattamah]

6 n a bit fer 6...

Bivvied in the park in Banff prior to TD grand depart. 2nd night on route bivvied at the top of the Galton Pass portage. 3rd night out bivvied 3 miles from top of Red Meadow Lake by a creek. Last night pitched up with the legions of mozzies at Holland Lake.

Do we score stripes for almost running into grizzlies on fast blind corners? (Diving down crane mtn I almost hit one)

Greetz

S.

[johnnystorm]

6 n a bit fer 6...

Bivvied in the park in Banff prior to TD grand depart. 2nd night on route bivvied at the top of the Galton Pass portage. 3rd night out bivvied 3 miles from top of Red Meadow Lake by a creek. Last night pitched up with the legions of mozzies at Holland Lake.

Do we score stripes for almost running into grizzlies on fast blind corners? (Diving down crane mtn I almost hit one)

Greetz

S.

You do from me, and have another stripe for half crippling yourself in the pursuit of pleasure!

[frogatthefarriers]

6/6 Minera Mountain.

All my bivvys so far have been in my hammock. For a change, I thought I'd try sleeping on the ground out in the open so I could look at the wonders of the heavens away from light pollution. To this end, after tea, I pedalled (about 23 miles) to the top of said mountain and found a flat spot close to the trig point at the top. The grouse keepers had cut or burnt the heather off to provide food for the grouse and I was able to pitch up on some soft, short, springy whinberry bushes for my bed.



I'd had a big meal before leaving home so all I needed was a brew and a biccy before waiting for sunset. It was quite windy up there so I had to set up my stove in the lee of my tent, in a little gap in the herbage. So water boiled, tea bag in, brew, and while looking for a camping teaspoon (twig) to fish my teabag out, I spied something unusual/unexpected. A spent .303 rifle cartridge case. Then I found some more, eight in all, most complete but some half eaten away by metal worm.



You don't see that every day!

Stargazing didn't happen because the wind had blown clouds wall to wall so to bed I went, in my £20 Aldi Trekker tent. Had an uncomfortable night what with the hard ground and the wind flapping and banging the tent, and trying to stay on my thermarest. The morning was sunny, as the weather forecast had predicted and by seven o'clock I was packed up and ready to go. I think I'll be back to hammocking for a bit.


You can see our house from up here.

From my camping spot, I had thought to try to signal my Lady with my little signalling mirror to see if it could be seen from home. It's about 9 miles as the crow flies, so stretching it a bit, but waking herself up at that early hour to look through the bedroom window is a bit like poking melted butter up a tigers' bum with a red hot needle (doable, but fraught with danger), so I've left that one for later in the year when sunrise is at a more sensible hour.

On the way home I called to see my mum in Wrexham ( Got a bollocking. Did I tell you she thinks I'm mad?) and I was back home by 10 o'clock.

Edit :- Bugger, my pictures have come out too big. Don't know why; they've always been OK before

[slugwash]

6/6

Friday night saw the second June Dartmoor bivi take place (although the first one of the month by bike). After a trawl through the freshly sprouted, trail obscuring bracken to Jim's recently discovered "Secret Valley" we found a bunch of D of Eers on our intended bivi spot, so ended up next to a deer park a bit further down the valley. The next morning we went our separate ways. Jim to collect his family he'd dumped at a nearby campsite. Si & Sharki to do a day long moorland MTB epic, and me to cycle 50km home, by way of Halfords in Torquay to collect a dynamo USB power convertor I'd picked up in a sale. I finished my ride with a hop on the ferry across the river Dart and a short hill climb back home. Coincidently, the next bivi will be starting with a ferry to Brittany (after a 30 mile ride to Plymouth) to catch up with a couple of TDF stages and a blast around the French countryside

url=https://flic.kr/p/u278RJ][/url]P6200006 by Richard Lowerson, on Flickr
6/6


P6200012 by Richard Lowerson, on Flickr

P6190002 by Richard Lowerson, on Flickr

Windmill Lane #thelongwayhome #torbay #bikepacking #onone456 by Richard Lowerson, on Flickr

One More Hill After Disembarking! #dittisham #greenway #riverdart #bikepacking #tenminutestilcoffee by Richard Lowerson, on Flickr

[Chew]

6/6 at the weekends Less is More event

[adjustablewench]

Me too at the less is more . . . And just about to decamp to Glastonbury for the week - which will be like roughing it to music

[Charliecres]

6/6 for me. Short local trip to a favourite spot. Beautifully warm but nature's avant garde orchestra was playing all night. Ear plugs next time.