I can send you the GPX for the routes, though they may not be that useful as the Spot only records every ten minutes, and not at all if it cant see the sky temporarily. Happy to send them tho. Can you send / DM me your email address and I'll attach them to an email?

5/5 for me aswell. lot of new kit tested, one hole put in new down jacket, chain teeth stains on new boraes smock.
Several stove tested even though the brand new torbo light form cotswold failed big time, thankfully i had a spare diposable one.
Scenery was good aswell as the ride.
Highlight was my new exped pillow pump was actually comfy a but thin but comfy.

Got out last night to hang with the boy before trail building today. Guess that makes it 2 of 6 for me. Better than none 8-)

Yummy :?



Took me a disappointingly long time to bicycle these both.



I'd rigged my Revelation X top quilt as an UQ for the Ridgerunner. Wasn't very effective TBH as each vague breeze seemed to get between the layers and give me a chilling until my bodyheat raised the temperature in the air space again. And then another breeze would flush that out and repeat. [Cold] Arse :evil:

No shots of the fire pit and toasted marshmallows which made the boy's day / night.

I made it out on friday night, getting a May bivi v lst minute, so 5/5 despite all the setbacks this month. Here's hoping next month is better - does Glastonbury count as a bivi btw? . . . . . .

1st bivi (of hopefully many) in June. All day sat, home for late lunch sun. My favourite kind of solo BP trip, follow a nice loop out, take a few maps or route guides and explore some new areas, pitch up + bivi, then ride out into new places early morning. Found a load of new trails and a perfect 'missing link', a mile or two down then up at a gentle gradient on a gravel singletrack road and bridleway that links two of my favourite loops.

loads of miles like this


and this


4am brew


Nature show while having breakfast - red kites hunting


Beautiful light, shame about the camera phone pic.

Jameso, that looks amazing. Where abouts was it?

Thanks - it was around the Chilterns. Between Ivinghoe Beacon / Wendover end and Ipsden / Nettlebed / Nuffield area, with an extra loop around Watlington and Russel's Water.

5/5

Need to sort a June bivi now

6/6

Havent ridden as much as i'd like in the Shire over the past year, but conditions were too good to miss out on. Met up with Mike in Settle and headed up to the pub in Horton for a bit of food before heading up for camp. Bit of cheeky fence climbing to find somewhere out of the wind, to be greeted by the midges in the morning.



Up and over the top and down to the Riddlehead Viaduct and then a bit of hike-a-bike up the side of Wernside with a seemingly never ending stream of people walking the 3 peaks. More riding over the grassy plateau before a great decent down to Dent in search of ice-cream



Ice-cream found, we headed back eastward to follow the pennine bridleway over to Marsett and a bit of off piste riding which was interesting on the CX. Due to the sunny weeks water wasnt easy to find, but Mike used his charm to good effect with the locals and a plentyful tap. We climbed up to the top of the moor for an early night.

Great sunrise and back to sleep before waking later to find we were above the clouds

June bivy - 3 days, 2 nights in the Y Dales with Chew. 69miles, burger n chips and an ice cream.

night 1 by a noisy stream




night 2 bivy spot was great above Buckden

the morning started really nice, not sure chew saw the sun as it was cloudy when he woke up


After two nights in the bivy i opted for a night of luxury in the back of my motor in gisburn forest before riding the trail center before heading home!!

Looks lovely fellas!

I'm off tomorrow to take the car in for a service (needs to be in for 24 hours and is a 2 hour drive away) and so am jumping on the train up to Grenoble and will hike (no riding as the physio says no mtbing and my road bike is awaiting repair) up into some Alps to see what I can find by way of adventure.

Photos (and likely comedy story of being attacked by a marmot knowing my luck) to follow.....

Gairy.

Well.....there was a trip and bivi gear was taken but no (outdoor) overnighter occurred!

I walked/ran/hiked (/climbed!) for over 20 miles in just under 7 hours (taking in a sniff under 2000m in alt. gain) on some seriously mean trails and by the time evening had arrived my feet were so swollen and my knees so buggered that I booked myself into a hotel with a bath and had 3 baths in 12 hours (which may be some kind of record).

So.....not my June overnighter and initially I felt bad but it's now 5 days later and my feet have only just stopped hurting and so I'm glad I've gave them the special treatment when I did.

Here, for your viewing pleasure, are a couple of shots from the trip:





Lovely scenery!

Ok, will post again when I actually spend a proper night out under the stars.

Out with a non-riding buddy so we had a fairly short walk in after meeting in the pub for some scran and ale.
On the way to a site that I'd recce'd(dog walk) earlier in the week we found two loose cows in the wood only a hundred metres or so from our intended site.
It was dusk by that point and getting set up in what was left of daylight was quite important as I was using some kit I'd not used before so I didn't get any evening pics.
We had an inquisitive badger that got quite close before we shoo'd it away and some foxes that were fighting not that far away too.

It pissed it down for most of the night so it was a rather noisy affair.

So I only got a couple of pics from the morning a fairly fitful night.





After I got home I was allowed a quick shower and out to Weston Super Mud air show to see the aerobatics from the Vulcan, then we got in the car and shot off to Bristol Airport where the Red arrows were just departing for the air show. After 25 minutes or so they arrived back and I got them all taxiing in formation back to the main building. A couple of the pilots waved at the kids as I'd told them to wave as hard as they could. The kids, not the pilots.


6/6 for me now.

So i decided on the Shropshire hills for my June affair with the bivy bag, this is how it went.
I dumped the motor in Church Stretton and headed for Carding mill valley. The sun was out and warming up nicely, so was i as the climb up is horrid ( well kinda fun ).


This would make for a geat bothy with lots of room out back for a bivy to.
Across the top to Pole bank and down to the gliding club.

Hux showed me a fantastic downhill nearby however i decided this time to go straight to the end down to Plowden. Much lane bashing and lots of climbing later brought me out at the woods by Bury Ditches, i just had to go and look at the old settlement. Some great trails in the woods down into Clun village for a cuppa n sandwich.
After lunch i climbed back up the Jack Mytton Way onto some really nice sections of byways before joining the Offa's Dyke trail. My night came to an end at the summit of Stow hill where i set up my bivy by the trig point.


The night was quiet until the 4x4 decided to rotivate the byway at around 8:30 for about an hour just below the trig. Oh and then the sheep decided once they had gone to bleat till around 12!!
Next morning came at 4:40 the sun came up and i was awake, may as well just rode through the night. I headed down out of Bucknell wood on a sweet downhill coarse i came across into the village. Had another cuppa and nosh then climbed up out of Bucknell upto Hopton woods where i found myself on the red trail single track, thanks to Pearce Cycles in Ludlow for that i can highly recommend it.

Hopton Castle for a quick breather before joining the lanes back
Back on the lanes and byways i weaved through the Shropshire villages around Clun area ( well every village had the name Clun in it ) and back to the end of the Long Mynd. I climbed up on a fire road through a wood upto the glider club again and back across the tops to the downhill at Motts road. Fantastic downhill to end on and even got a round of applause off loads of school kids at the bottom??
So id rode 65 miles, god knows how much climbing i did and had a wonderful june bivy ride.

looks like a great night out!

it also looks like i'm fast running out of June and so had better get something sorted fast.....

Forgot to post my June bivi. It was part of the Tweedlove bike event in Peebles. Moffat to Peebles via the Southern Upland Way.


Tweedlove bivi ride That way by pushbikemike, on Flickr


Tweedlove bivi ride View from bivi by pushbikemike, on Flickr


Tweedlove bivi ride Some big hills by pushbikemike, on Flickr


Tweedlove bivi ride Helloooooooo by pushbikemike, on Flickr

There were 12 of us on the trip. I didnt know anyone and was the only one on a rigid 29er carrying all my own gear. Lots of variations in bikes used. One guy had a Specialised Enduro with triple clamp forks. Good fun and Good route. Only downside was a crash by me at the end of the first day. Broke my newly acquired monkii cage which i won in the raffle at WRT

Nice one Mike, did you all bivi together or go your seperate ways?

Seperate bivis. There was talk of a loud snorer. I stayed well clear of him. Fire whisky and chat before bed. We did the fire break hike a bike section that you and I avoided in December. It was a slog! Your route was steeper but the misery ended quicker.

Air is absolutely thick with midges!

But at least I'm getting my June bivvy in :?

That's June ticked off then. Didn't get eaten alive by midges, but it was a close run thing. A loop from Brecon to Llanwrtyd Wells on the EWE route, then back over the Ranges, with a sneaky bit of OOB training area thrown in too. Quiet up the at 6.30am on a Sunday
Back over Cwm Owen and through Llaneglwys Forest.
110km, 2350m ascent.

No MIDGES for me on my bivy, didnt see any all trip. I know they are there though...Damn things

I'm still on (at least) one per month. Did the second trip this month Friday/Saturday.

Left work at 6pm rode north through the woods to pick up the TPT at warncliff, followed that to hadfield then on to the pennine BW to bivy under south head. Ride home via roach clough, rushup edge. Breakfast in Edale, jaggers clough, round ladybower, up road under bamford edge. Over stanage down, through ringinglow. Home through the woods. 120km and 3500m. About 10 hours riding plus sleep and breakfast stops!

Have been quite lazy today...

CRAP!!!

I've failed this month.

I had an aborted (ended up in a hotel with swollen feet) hike/bivi earlier in the month and then was planning on doing something this weekend but my (pregnant) wife's been ill and so I've not been able to get out - buggeration!

Oh well, so far it seems that 2013 is my year of failed attempts - doesn't bode well for the Etape du Tour next weekend???

Been enjoying reading about everybody's successes - keep at it and I'll just have to settle for another year of 11/12 like last year.

6/6 for me so far this year - just back from a very windy Trans Cambrian - bit of a midge fest Friday night but Nant Rhys bothy on Saturday night was just us.
Fell in a river today but at least the wind dried me out in short order :) .
Saved from a bad bonk today (who was planning the food??) by mango juice, pork pies and jelly beans from the nice man in the Staylittle shop (open Sunday morning, unlike anything in Llangurig ).
Much respect to those that cover this ground in 12 hours :) .
Head wind most of the weekend - type 2 fun in parts!
Good company and a good laugh. Off to wash the sheep cack of everything :) :)
EDIT - afew photos from the weekend.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99percentc ... 442135066/
Packing up at Gro Hill - I was hiding from the midges in the wind!

June_TCW_Bivi-42 by 99percentchimp, on Flickr
In the woods at Gro Hill (mossy carpet!)

June_TCW_Bivi-40 by 99percentchimp, on Flickr
On the way to Claerwen

June_TCW_Bivi-48 by 99percentchimp, on Flickr

Managed a cheeky Bivi on Dartmoor last night. Very misty all night so no stars or sunrise to enjoy...

Bel Tor opposite Bonehill Rocks.

Lots of traffic around on the way up past Haytor gone 10pm...

Si