8/12 32 in a row

I headed off to deepest north Devon after work on Friday, predictably the traffic was crap.
Finally i made it


after a few beers in the local pub i was up early the next morning heading for simonsbath

Easy going at first




Still a bit damp in places




Tarr stepps


I rode over the clapper bridge which was slightly nerve wracking in clipless pedals, it was still little early for a cream tea so i settled for a coke





love this old tree, definitely an Ent


somewhere on Exmoor


New secret fuel, peanut butter and nuttella wraps, good as EPO and currently undetectable, team sky have expressed an interest


Then it was gentle climb up to Dunkery beacon, the highest point on Exmoor.


heading towards Minehead


Minehead itself was a bit of a shock to the system after Exmoor, i escaped rapidly along the seafront.


Then along the South west coast path






All the hard won height lost in one frighteningly steep decent as i dropped down to Porlock


Pizza, pint and a mooch on the beach.




Escaping porlock was a challenge, first obstacle was a bridal way which ended at someones garden, you know the type, changed the name to whatever 'Manor' and the ROW is such an inconvenience. I opened the horse gate and investigated, all means of transit had been blocked but i managed to hurdle a small fence and was away

Also a traumatic push up the side of a cliff

After six further miles along the coast i turned inland and followed Badgworthy water, past the tempting campsite with its bar. It soon became quite remote again and dark, my target was the site of a medieval village marked on the map. id figured that with all this space available our ancestors wouldn't have chosen anywhere crap to pitch up..

quite agreeable


Next day started well




This is where it went very welsh, at the top of the slope is a track, the map says so.
After an hour and a half of swearing, pushing, dragging swearing and being eaten by black flys i finally traversed the 1.2 miles of exmoor. monster tussocks they were, i survived only by following pony tracks, of course these ore only the width of a pony leaving the choice of easy dragging or easy walking The tracks were also useful in crossing the many streams on exmoor, Not daft these ponys.

All turned out nice again


I think Billy must have followed the same OS track



A great weekend, about 65 miles and 8500ft of climbing loose following the B150 route, HUGE respect for anyone racing this route.

Great write-up Steve

When Javi and myself got to tarr steps it was heaving, we got across and there were loads of people clapping and cheering with shouts of "well done" and "keep going". At first I thought it was for us but it turned out there was a sponsored walk on that crossed our route at this point

It's a great area to ride. I've got it on my list to ride the B150 route over 3 days with the wife, stopping at all the tea shops. I'd spotted that old settlement on the map and have it down as a bivi spot, looks good

Nice trip there Steve!

Pickers wrote: ↑Mon Aug 05, 2019 7:58 pm Nice trip there Steve!

Cheers rich, it was a good ride, bloody hilly though. I’ve been going there for about 15 years (we have a place in kings Nympton) but have had little opportunity to get out on the bike, my wife doesn’t drive so if I go off they are stranded and it’s 6 miles for a pint of milk. I’d like to ride the full route sometime, three days would make it pleasant, 25000ft of climbing would kill me over two,

Nice to see Steve, I think I did most of it in the dark!

TrepidExplorer wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2019 8:31 pm Nice to see Steve, I think I did most of it in the dark!

Much as I admire the fitness of anyone who races events such as this course I’d much rather take the time to see the beautiful landscapes we travel through. I’ll revisit at sometime and ride the Devon half

With a rather dire forecast for the weekend we decided to get a mid-week bivy done. With a brisk west to south westerly we'd need a spot reasonably sheltered so settled on Thieves' Moss above Austwick. We'd used this spot some years ago so knew it was OK.

With this being an after work hit we drove to Austwick and road the five km or so up to the bivy spot.

Rather threatening clouds


Curry and rice for tea, and rather a lot of chocolate then a bit of investigating down on the Moss itself where we came across a cave entrance we'd not seen before so a bit of tentative exploring, i.e. Cath going in by about a metre and shining her torch! With it being cloudy it was getting quite dark so time to crash out. Even though we were sheltered it was still rather windy and there were regular gusts pushing against the tarps.

This was my morning view, Penyghent in the cloud:


There was a lot of condensation overnight with both inside and outside of both our tarps being very wet.

Cath seems taken with my Gatewood, she uses it more than me


My tarp with Thieves' Moss itself behind.


Then we headed back to the car.




I decided to ride home, basically a mixture of the Pennine Bridleway and the YD300 routes. Above Settle on the northern bit of the Settle Loop I noticed a couple of tents, well I thought there were two tents but one looked a bit "space age". It wasn't until I got to the next gate and looked back that I saw this:



Someone's off-road driving ability obviously didn't match reality! I'm not sure how they got there as there's no public motor vehicle access for a couple of km in all directions and I didn't see any obvious tyre tracks on my route.

Once on Mastiles Lane it was a matter of choosing which set of bridleways to take to get home. I settled on Weets Top, Calton, Airton, Bell Busk, Gargrave. I was going to go along the canal tow path but it was shut for works so did the last few km on the road.

That's 8/8 for the year for us and 20+ in a row.

With holidays coming up, my only chance for an August bivvy is tomorrow night. The forecast here in the Peak is dire, so I’m posting my intentions here to stop me backing out
Planning to head somewhere with a roof, trouble is it’s 4 hours ride from work.

Compliments on your fortitude and spirit . We'll be right behind you in our, erm, well our, er, nice dry armchairs!

It'll be ace. Sh1te weather = stories. Look forward to hearing them.

PS. Small tip-off: spots below dams are not always an optimum choice apparently.

It’ll be fun I’ve headed out in storms out of choice, most recently at the end of July on the ridgeway, the plan was it sit at waylands smithy and sit out the storm. Sadly there was only heavy rain there’s a great sense of satisfaction in being comfortable inside a tarp or tent while nature provides the entertainment

Thanks for the encouragement
Just getting ready for the ride in to work, windy ‘n wet already (the weather, not a description of me).
Have only got a water resistant bivvy bag (and quilt), no tarp or tent. This is to make me do the longer ride to the shelter up at Ladybower. (A safe distance above any dams Reg).

After driving to work today, take a snorkel

I got caught in a biblical deluge just after setting off. After a couple of miles it eased off to bog standard pissing it down.
I live a couple of miles down the valley from Whaley Bridge. Hoping we don’t get a repeat performance.

Update to my last post: https://www.cravenherald.co.uk/news/178 ... rs-settle/

There's karmic retribution, eh?

Still alive Mr F?

whitestone wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 5:19 pm Update to my last post: https://www.cravenherald.co.uk/news/178 ... rs-settle/

Looking at his tyres and what he did, I suspect being stupid will be at the top of his charge sheet.....

Based on what I saw yesterday, I'd be extremely selective as to where you bivvy if torrential rain is forecast, i.e. nowhere near any kind of water course.....

by RIP » Sun Aug 11, 2019 10:22 am
Still alive Mr F?

Certainly am thank you Reg The weather gods were very kind after the delugional commute in the morning. Aug bivvy done 8 out 8.

I got an early finish from work Friday, bike waiting for me in the shed at work:
Untitled by Chris Farley, on Flickr
I had a few miles along the airport bypass (well, the bike path to be accurate), much noisy traffic and looking into the distance wondering where the bad weather was hiding. Then came the canal to Buxworth (this being the usual way for me to get out to the Peak on a Friday). Weather still looking kind:
Untitled by Chris Farley, on Flickr
I had the choice of the flatter or hillier route, took the hillier one, this looking back down Beet Lane, clouds massing in the distance and some rain spots arriving. Here we go I thought:
Untitled by Chris Farley, on Flickr
The rain didn't get started before it went away again, heading up the cobbly ramp from Roych Clough:
Untitled by Chris Farley, on Flickr
And down into Edale on Chapel Gate.
Untitled by Chris Farley, on Flickr

To the Rambler Inn where I enjoyed a Farmer's Blonde, and could happily have got through a couple more, but still had some climbs to do and weather to dodge. Rumbles of thunder rolling round the valley now.
Untitled by Chris Farley, on Flickr
A couple of climbs and STILL the weather held good. Evening light on the Ashop Valley.
Untitled by Chris Farley, on Flickr
The rain finally started in the last 5 minutes before I got to the shelter, result!
Next morning, rain kept passing through and I took the easy way home. Morning view from the digs:
Untitled by Chris Farley, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Farley, on Flickr
The moral of the story, dont always believe the weather forecasts!

As a side note, I saw a rabbit on Friday evening that didnt dart away when I approached, when I got near I could see it had swollen eyes, just like the myximatosis bunnies I used to see years ago. I didn't realise it was still a problem. Then on Saturday morning I went round a bend to see a weasel eating a rabbit, the weasel dashed off sharpish, when I reached the rabbit, it was still alive, another one with swollen eyes, poor thing was also partially eaten. I put it out of its misery and rode on. Nature raw in tooth and claw I suppose.

Lucky with the weather aye. As you say, roll with what you're given and embrace it .

That's a good old trek, ChrisF. How was the shelter? I've never slept there, but it's always struck me as feeling a bit chilly.

I’ve used it a couple of times, it can be a bit breezy as one side is almost completely open to the elements. No colder than a tarp and bivvy though!
It does have a very nice bench, proper mod cons. And a stream only a few metres away.

August ended up being a bit of a repeat of July, albeit this time with company (wife), a different route and a different bike.
We have plans to do a long slow tour somewhere in Europe next year so we decided to dig out the panniers, load a ridiculous amount of stuff into them including a new tent to try out (thanks Karl) and a repaired sleeping mat to test and set off back to the Island of Gigha for the night to remind ourselves of how loaded touring feels.



3x9 mountain bike gearing saw us up the hills and onto the ferries without too much bother, on road all the way until the last section down to the beach. I'd forgotten how much of a pain heavy panniers are when it comes to narrow paths and bits that need lifting over, but also nice to able to carry stuff that will make a difference (beer, chairs) when you're on the road and in a tent for weeks on end.







Getting away from the beach in the morning was a case of carrying panniers up first followed by the bikes, and then pushing up to the road. From there it was just a steady retracing of our route home (with a short stop at the Lochranza distillery for food)




We learnt a lot that we need to do before next year, but for now it's definitely back to bikepacking luggage for the rest of this year
8/8

Nice bit of lemon drizzle there by the look of it, always good to get the details right .

If I stop tonight then August BAM is in progress