Bivvy a month 2019

[ScotRoutes]

Stopped at Dalwhinnie. Rain came on so thought I'd bed down rather than ride for another 3 hours or so.

[ScotRoutes]

August 8/8, 33rd consecutive month.

Piemonster (Shaun) had a plan that we should do a 2-day ride from his house in Burntisland to mine in Aviemore. I left all the route planning in his hands, other than adding a compulsory stop at Stewart Tower Farm. Shaun booked annual leave, I booked a train to Burntisland. Then Shaun contacted me the day before to tell me he wasn't feeling too well. Rather than let the plan be wasted I decided to do it solo, though Shaun accompanied me for the ride through Dunfermline.

Bikes on trains are great. It always spells a.d.v.e.n.t.u.r.e.

DSC_0596 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

Weather on the day turned out to be much better than forecast. It was weird to be looking at Edinburgh after having lived there for over 50 years.

DSC_0598 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

We had a second breakfast at Aberdour before hitting the delights of Dunfermline (lots of houses but almost continuous cycle path), whereupon Shaun headed back and I headed up and over the Cleish Hills. It's a gradual climb up but gives great views over Loch Leven and a nice descent.

P1050950 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

Soon enough I was on the shores of Loch Leven, following Shauns carefully mapped route and thus ignoring shorter/faster options

P1050952 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

I saw lots of these signs on the byways near Glenfarg

P1050953 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

Almost every one was right before a climb



Before long, I was thinking about food again and considered stopping in Perth but I still had a goal in mind.

DSC_0600 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

For those that haven't been, the cows that make the milk used in the ice cream are in the field next door. It's as close to zero food miles as you can get so I always "support their business".


Some of Shauns route choices were, err, eccentric.

P1050954 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

I'd no idea of how deep this was going to be but escaped with just damp soles.


Not a bad gateway for a Sustrans route.

P1050956 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

Just don't expect the same standards everywhere.


At Killiecrankie I took another Shaun bypass option.

P1050962 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr


By this time, I'd already planned to stop for food in Blair Atholl but was now left wondering what my next step would be. With no sparkling and witty banter to be had, I didn't fancy hugging the bar for a couple of hours, so the original plan of bivvying in Blair and then heading for breakfast at House of Bruar was cast aside. It was all now about how far it was worth pedalling on. I even considered just riding home. I'd likely arrive about 1 am. However, I really enjoy sleeping outdoors so, after finding out that the Newtonmore Grill opened at 6:30, I decided to head north and see how the legs were.

P1050968 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

You can check out, but you can never leave.


I obviously had a tailwind coming over Drumochter as I found myself reaching Dalwhinnie before 10. And then the rain started. That made up my mind and I decided to find somewhere to pitch. With two roads and a rail line to consider I reckoned on a spot at the end of Loch Ericht for a bit pf peace. While it hadn't been too windy, I now had a wind coming right up the loch. Ignoring thoughts of recent dam bursts I found a sheltered spot on the dam wall.

P1050970 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

In fact, it was so sheltered that I was even getting midged.

What followed was, I think, the worst nights "sleep" I've ever had. I was comfy, warm, tired and sheltered from the wind I could hear gently roaring over the dam but I just couldn't get to sleep. I reckon I had maybe 2-3 hours in total, broken up through the night. I was also getting various cramps, possibly from dehydration. Maybe I was subconsciously just wishing I'd cycled through the night and gone home.


By 5 am I was ready to strike camp (in the rain) and head north to Newtonmore.

P1050971 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

I arrived just as the cafe was opening and sat eating my roll surrounded by drowsy truck drivers, obviously all wondering what the hell I was doing there. A constant light drizzle followed me home, with me getting there at 9 am.


All in all, a funny old trip. Not as planned and a lousy nights sleep. Still, all good miles though and enough nice food to help make up for it all.

[fatbikephil]

Pity I was at work, I would have joined you.... I suspect I know most of that but interested in the variations (particularly the Ice Cream parlour!)

[RIP]

Enjoyed reading that with my toast just now. 'Trains+bikes = adventure', aye, am a great believer in that maxim as you know. For some reason I was 'there' with many of those photos - maybe the slightly curious light in the Burntisland and Leven ones, the chilled (ho ho) ice cream moment, etc. Armchair bikepacking! 'Cycling and walking friendly road' immediately followed by a 'flood' sign . Bet you never tyre of that Killiecrankie view, even famous as it is. 'subconsciously just wishing I'd cycled through the night and gone home' - I think we've all had that strange feeling at times .

[fatbikephil]

August done 5/8. I think my ongoing knee niggles seem to be seriously knocking my motivation as after planning this one I nearly couldn't be bothered...
However I headed out yesterday into a stiff and cool breeze (Its Autumn ) with the plan to wander my way North east through Fife, bagging some of the recently completed and opened Pilgrims Way. The bit near me is a bit dull so I did a more interesting route to Glenrothes, pretty much the reverse of one of my many commute routes home. I stopped on the climb up Benarty hill to listen to a track being played at the nearby music festival (not sure, an SLF track I think but its name eludes me) I contemplated waiting for Bad Manners to come on but a looming cloud persuaded me to keep going.

I missed the first cloud, ran smack into the second and caught the tail end of the third. Thereafter it seemed to brighten up considerably.....


Looking up Glen vale in the Lomond hills


View back the way I've come (ish)

After bombing down to the edge of Glenrothes I picked up the Pilgrims way after food in a sunny Markinch. They seemed to have chucked a lot of cash at this with a lot of new path construction and other sections on farm tracks and field edges. After a few miles of this there was a bit of road riding through Kennoway and then a long section of old and new trail past Clatto hill including one particularly fine bit of singletrack down by a burn


One of several sections of totally new path


Clatto res


Spillway and reservoir house

After this was a bit of backroad and then some field margin path that was a novelty....


Then more old paths and tracks to Ceres. I briefly contemplated a pint here but the pub was full with a birthday party so I figured a muddy bikepacker wouldn't be welcome. I also had a change of route plan. It was blowing a South westerly gale and the more north east I headed the longer ride home I'd have back into it. So I gave St. Andrews a miss and headed north then west to Pitmedden forest via a mix of back roads and trails. I narrowly missed another monster rain cloud along here but as the sky was darkening generally I figured a cop out was in order. In the event it worked well - I rode down to Strathmiglo, grabbed food and beers and then headed up to the posh bivvy spot in Falkland estate. A huge rain shower came in justifying this. No-one else was in residence and I managed to get the stove going (it was remarkably chilly) then sat and ate food / drank beer / read book before turning it at 11. My sleep was disturbed by dance music fading in and out of earshot depending on the wind. Not sure where or what this was all about but it went on until 5. I woke up to go to the loo and noted with horror that several slugs were closing in on me. Glad I'd zipped up the bivvy bag....


Morning view, slugs all gone


The Fife 5 start bivvy spot.

[ScotRoutes]

Meh. That looks close to cheating

[fatbikephil]

Meh. That looks close to cheating

Close is fine

[ericrobo]

August 20th - just !

Severe attack of CBA lately probably some of it being brought on by my idea of 2 months ago of building a wildlife pond !
Severely affected my bike riding.

i had tussocks 2 feet tall, and with just a shovel I cleared everything and produced a deepish pond (3 feet at deepest, then a shelf, and a higher shelf (for 'marginals'), about 1 metres by 3 and a bit metres.

Backbreaking work as there were lots of stones to dig out, and it was only in the later stages I decided to buy a pick-axe.

In about week 5 I wrenched my back pulling heavy pond liner. Had felt proud to do so much digging and earth shifting without any back problems.

Took a week to recover from that.
The pond by Eric Robinson, on Flickr

Pond's nearly finished now, so yesterday loaded the Scott and set off about 7:30pm to a new spot about 5 miles away.

Had a real tiz waz trying to get my Trailstar up... I'll have to do some practice in the garden.

BAM 21st August 2019 by Eric Robinson, on Flickr

[Borderer]

8/8 in 2019 for me and Borderer 2.

I'm still not right after I took a tumble OTB in June. My physio says I am only allowed to do 5 miles max, but I can't be doing with that. Still, I am not able to do a proper ride yet, so once again we loaded up the bikes in the van and drove to a jump-off point, this time the village of Eskdalemuir. I wanted to stay overnight in Dryfehead bothy as we had only visited during the daytime before, which felt a bit unfinished.

From the village we rode past Samye Ling Buddhist centre and then turned west on the Romans and Reivers route.



We had left a bit late as we were waiting for the rain to stop. Joe asked if this sunset was a forest fire, it was so intense.



We climbed gently up to Dun Moss where we were briefly in the cloud, then had a wonderful long descent where we hardly turned a pedal. Bombing 4km downhill in the darkness with our world reduced to the circle of light in front of us was brilliant fun. I didn't even fall off once.

We arrived at the bothy at 9.30 and went to bed not long after. There was one other person there who had already turned in for the night, leaving the stove warm for us to sit around.



Its a great place to wake up.





We took a southerly route home, past Black Esk reservoir to Sandyford and the road back to Eskdalemuir. The rain was light at first, then we got a complete drenching.







By the time I got back to the van I was shivering pretty badly. I really need new waterproofs. Good wee trip out though, we both enjoyed it.

[Ray Young]

Dryfehead is lovely. Only been once but definitely plan a return.

[Borderer]

Yes, the three rooms are a bonus - you are pretty guaranteed a room to yourself. It also has a composting toilet now.
It's a lovely spot there by the confluence of the streams.

[ScotRoutes]

Another luxury stopover. I'm going to have to up my BAM game

[Borderer]

I will admit that it does feel a bit like cheating to go to a bothy (particularly in summer) for BAM, but until I am fully healed I have given myself a pass from crawling in and out of a tent.

I am also starting to have difficulties getting my teenager to come with me on these trips, so going bothying (something he really enjoys) makes it easier.

I do yearn to be out in our tent again though. Not so much the bivvy bags, which I think we might give up on.

[ScotRoutes]

Oh, trust me, it's mostly jealousy. Most of the bothies I pass seem to be dark and dingy in comparison.

[Alan63]

Yes, the three rooms are a bonus - you are pretty guaranteed a room to yourself. It also has a composting toilet now.
It's a lovely spot there by the confluence of the streams.

Thanks for posting. That's another location added to Fraser's list.

[Piemonster]

Oh, trust me, it's mostly jealousy. Most of the bothies I pass seem to be dark and dingy in comparison.

Trip (push) to the Tarf Hotel?

[Piemonster]

I really need to go and find HT Riders posh bivvy site!

[Borderer]

Thanks for posting. That's another location added to Fraser's list.

It would be a good one for little legs alright. About 40km round trip. Samye ling is also a fantastic place for young minds. There is more about it on our website on the greensykes trip page.

[Borderer]

I really need to go and find HT Riders posh bivvy site!

Me too!

[Alan63]

I really need to go and find HT Riders posh bivvy site!

Me too!

Us too. If I remember, Ray Young and Blair512 went there a couple of years ago.

[Alan63]

Thanks for posting. That's another location added to Fraser's list.

It would be a good one for little legs alright. About 40km round trip. Samye ling is also a fantastic place for young minds. There is more about it on our website on the greensykes trip page.

We went there after our Greensykes trip in January. Really impressive.

[Escape Goat]

Some great posts since I was last on this thread! That bothy looks great!

As work gets in the way of life, I could only manage a one night in the lakes Friday night. Routed a 55 mile loop for the 24 hours I was there and was determined to stop before 3am this time.

I can never get enough of these views;

IMG_20190823_190854-01 by Escape Goat, on Flickr

IMG_20190823_201120-01 by Escape Goat, on Flickr

These two waited for about 2 minutes whilst I couldn't unlock my phone to take a picture...then I took about 30 of them;

IMG_20190823_202631-01-01 by Escape Goat, on Flickr


it got a little dark;

IMG_20190823_214620-01 by Escape Goat, on Flickr

I slept so well, 11.30 was lights out, but then I seen it looked really rather nice up in the sky;

IMG_20190823_235356-02 by Escape Goat, on Flickr

hell of a morning view, 11.30 was lights out, then I woke up about 6am, and stayed in my bag till 7ish!

IMG_20190824_060156-01 by Escape Goat, on Flickr

IMG_20190824_054853-01 by Escape Goat, on Flickr

IMG_20190824_065338-01 by Escape Goat, on Flickr



came through a VERY busy trail centre;

IMG_20190824_122133-01 by Escape Goat, on Flickr

Two targets where met, icecream and alpkit before closing;

IMG_20190824_152426-01 by Escape Goat, on Flickr

BAM done for August, 8 in a row, 9 in total since November.

[gallowayboy]

Some nice trips indeed - I can only add another scrambled month end trundle to the local woods, but very nice it was on a still, warm evening with suspiciously few midgies..
Anyway, bedded down at 11, wood mouse in the tent for company briefly, woodpidgeons for alarm duties in the morning - slept until 7am, if only every nights sleep was as good. Up and of to work, which does indeed get in the way of life!
8/8 so far - three tented, two uncovered, one cave, one bothy and one woodshed.

[paramart]

went to the peak district, no route, no rush, lovely weather, 9/9 for me

[Bearlegged]

That's where I'm heading tonight!