Bivvy a month 2018.

[RIP]

Fair cop guv.

[Pickers]

You don't really need a sticker. The headgear normally gives it away.

[Ray Young]

Currently quaffing a can of Bud whilst gazing over the sea to the Isle of Mull after cycling from the Bridge of Orchy down through Glen Kinglass. 6/6 for me but got to put a tube in my rear tyre inthe morning as a slit in the wall is not sealing.

[Bearlegged]

a can of Bud.

Commiserations.

[Dr Nick]

Realised we were approaching the end of the month so snuck out with the fat bike to my local nature reserve.

Sleeping bag, mat, inflatable pillow and a bottle of water.

Lovely.


Currently in my local station enjoying a bacon sarnie and a cuppa before heading home to freshen up, grab the folder, and head back to the station to work

Not a bad way to start a Friday, and today's the first day of work's new rule of at 4pm on the last Fri of the month you go to the pub or go home (rather than 5.30).

6 for 6.

[middleagedmadness]

trip down to scotts last night ,left scotts place had a ride through the lanes and gravel tracks down to the tally ho ,midges were out in force and it felt like getting hailed on by the little black beasties,after a lovely burger and a few pints of cider it was time to get to the top . only done this climb once before in the ice ,its still a bit of a pull in the dry, good weather , pitched up about 01.30 and proceeded to drink a 10oz flask of jura between the 2 of us , woke at 0530 to quite a nice sunrise , looked over at scott and he was slightly cold due to his extreme tls (sure he will be along in a bit with the story behind it). had breakfast packed up and had one of the best 1.5 mile decents ive had in along time through the 5 springs, back to scotts for coffee and that back home to wolves
only remembered to take one photo and that was just as i was packing up ,think scott said he has photo of camp before i decided to empty my kit everywhere, chuffed with the climb up the clee 1min 18s behind mikes time but 5min 20 behind mr i am not that quick scott
IMG_20180629_055653 by Stuart Dean, on Flickr
4 out of 6 missing jan and march
also starting to really love the simplicity of the helium bivy

[RIP]

Nice one Stu. Looks like a WW2 flying ace has crash-landed behind you in the clearing - flying helmet, goggles, the whole caboodle .

Not entirely convinced about that there Helium in the p1ssing rain, but maybe it'd be a home from home and I've no idea what I'm missing .

[middleagedmadness]

Lashed down in the lakes mate , as the boy had most of the tarp I was mainly out on the rain and yep its definitely waterproof just a bit of condensation as I had the clam shell closed fully , better with a tarp for cooking and keeping your kit under though in the rain

[RIP]

Coolio! I just need a bit of room for the drinks cabinet at my age I guess..

[middleagedmadness]

Coolio! I just need a bit of room for the drinks cabinet at my age I guess..

The way we got through the whisky last night I think I may need one too

[Scattamah]

Nice night out with MaM last night...even though my selection of sleeping gear was a sh!tshow of the highest order. I maybe got 2 hours sleep testing a travel blanket + silk liner on Neoair and groundsheet. It may have been 11 degrees C, but the wind snatched away any semblance of heat. That's one combo I won't be trying again. It was nice to ride sans saddle bag though - total bike weight would've been ~ 25lb. Has given me ideas. Alas those ideas are hidden behind the fuzz of playing sleep catchup right now.

6 from 6.

MaM hiding from the wind - the smarter of the two

bam6.jpg (105.12 KiB) Viewed 4430 times

Greetz

S.

[Ray Young]

a can of Bud.

Commiserations.

It's all they had in single cans, they wouldn't let me split any of the other 4 packs.

[Bearlegged]

Come the revolution...

[RIP]

"wouldn't let me split any of the other 4 packs" - and that's a problem because?

Reg 'Dipsomaniac' (*) Perrin

(*) this is most unfair on myself, I never visit pubs unless I'm on a BaM, or with MuddyPete who always leads me astray (**) .

(**) which is also unfair on MuddyPete 'cos we lead each other astray probably

[Blair512]

a can of Bud.

Commiserations.

It's all they had in single cans, they wouldn't let me split any of the other 4 packs.

Sink 2 and stick the other 2 in yet Jersey pockets Ray, don't want to be getting dehydrated in this heat!

[summittoppler]

A quick 12 hour getaway for me on Tuesday after work. After a 20 minute drive saw me pedal and push up tp the summit of Carnedd Llewellyn (Snowdonia). As per the weather around the country atm it was a clear mild night. A cracking sunset & sunrise and I was back in work for 8am. 6/6

20180627_155017 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20180626_212216 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20180627_053053 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20180626_213831 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

[Pickers]

this is most unfair on myself, I never visit pubs unless I'm on a BaM

Err actually I believe you do. Getting served though..... different matter

Anyway 6/6 here as well. Managed to sneak out to the local woods last night. Pleasant night but not the sunrise I was hoping for, certainly not as good as Jeff's pic. Just sort of got less dark. Warmish though so mat and bag only needed.

Room with a view by Richard Picton - Flickr2BBcode LITE

[bgrunes]

Got a DD super light hammock, quilt, under blanket so had to get out there asap, nice Friday evening spin out to the pine woods on the coast. Slept well, temps dropped in the night which made it a comfortable nights slept, not a fan of this hot weather at night. 6/6 sorted.

[JoseMcTavish]

6/6 for me. I'd been relying on the HT550 to tick off May and June for me, but I finished too quick! Ended up leaving it late and couldn't stray too far since I was on call, so I went up the coast and followed tracks leading through the golf courses to get me to a dune bivvy.







Got up early to avoid any golferist interactions and made my way home linking up different trails through the city.

[bgrunes]

Well 7/7 sorted early on with plenty of days to play out through the rest of the month. Nice evening ride out to meet up with fellow bivvy bikers and walkers to watch the evening display for the Southport Air Show.

Nice warm evening chatting and putting the world to rights....again.

[Lawmanmx]

Nice one Bri, Good to see you lot again, enjoyed that pal

[JohnClimber]

7/7 - 27th in a row.

Great night with great mates, see the 2 posts above. This months wild camp was south of Southport and it's airshow.

[fatbikephil]

7/7 (actually 9/7!)
This was meant to be a Borders 350 / 220 bivvy but my dodgy knee put paid to that.... In the event I still wanted to get out as this was my first opportunity to do an over nighter near to the Solstice. I fancied having a crack at the Monega Pass in the eastern cairngorms - its the most westerly of the Mounth roads (The mounth being the name for the hills east of the main cairngorm massive, which stretches all the way to Aberdeen). Its also the highest with a substantial portion of it over 900m.... Maybe not the best thing to tackle with a duff knee but it was the only significant climb of the route and would be a straight push from bottom to top which would actually do my knee some good. Or something. Anyway I departed a scorching Pitlochry at 4, headed south then east over a moor covered in a network of tracks and trails which takes you into Strath Ardle

These trails are famously boggy. Thanks to the extreme dryness there were only a few muddy puddles here and there. The hills above Glen Shee in the distance.

A quiet back road to Glen Shee, a bit of the A93 and some fine wee roads took me into Glen isla. Heading up here the road slowly narrows, then becomes a track and then leaps straight up to Monega hill


An old Scotways sign points the way. There is an alternative up to the plateaux from the back of Tulchan Lodge which looks to be a better track, but I felt honour bound to stick to the correct route. http://www.heritagepaths.co.uk/pathdetails.php?path=37 gives all the details....



At the top of the worst of the push - its not too bad I suppose but the flies were horrible and the midges joined in until the wind got up. In the background is lower Glen Shee and in the far distance the Lomonds. After this bit I remounted and the going was surprisingly good. Its one of those ridge climbs that just keeps giving - every time you crest one horizon, another presents itself.



Finally at the top of Monega hill (908m) looking into Cairnlochan glen, but there is more to come! You drop down a ways then climb steeply up to little Glas Maol at 973m. Amazingly you are following a vehicle track which provides easy riding. You can actually bag Glas Maol itself (1068m) but I've done this twice by bike so didn't feel the need this evening. You do break the 1000m barrier however! The track skirts round its summit and suddenly the top of the Glas Maol pommer lift appears, the highest point of Glenshee ski centre. The Monega pass descends above the red run down a ridge to the A93. I've done this before but tonight was keen to trace a longer route I'd scoped out into Glen Callater. I kept my height heading for Cairn of Cleise (1064). I faffed around a bit here as there is a walking trail and the vehicle track. The walking trail gets a bit rough, unrideably so, but the track misses out the summit. I've also been up here before so no big deal. I had one more navigational faff round the back of this peak as the track faded into the rocky landscape for a bit. None of this is marked on the OS map and I'd meant to sort a gpx track out using bikehike before this trip but as per had forgotten. Given the altitude and the various wide backed ridges descending in all directions (and some big drops if you got it wrong) I was painfully aware that I had no back up to the GPS and not much kit with me. I'd thought of bivvying up here but it seemed a bit un-hospitable despite the sunny evening so was keen to press on and drop down to pleasanter climes.

After a bit of nose following I regained the track and bombed down (and up at one point, all the best descents have uphill bits) into Glen Callater.

Looking back to Cairn of Cleise and Glas Maol.

It was 9.30 by this time and the cloud was building. Given that I only had a lightweight bivvy bag with me this was of concern. In the event I bottled it into Callater Stables bothy. No-one else was in it, remarkably, so plans to ride into the dark (I'd also forgotten any form of lighting) were dropped and I sat reading and drinking cheap whisky until flaking out at 11.

This is a smart bothy and has a composting loo to boot! No fire tho but not needed on this warm night. I had a leisurely start the next morning and then headed down to Braemar for breakfast courtesy of the co-op. I was seriously TLS this trip and hadn't got a stove so caffeine came from a horrible 'iced' latte (ie a carton of cold coffee for 2 quid, yeuch...) My bivvy bag choice was piss poor though as it had actually drizzled a bit in the night and I caught a few drops heading into Glen tilt so just as well I'd gotten into the bothy. Hey ho.

Anyway the Glen Tilt descent was a peach as usual and (mostly) dry. Despite weeks with little or no rain I was surprised that all the burns were still running and there was plenty of water in the rivers. Scotland rarely runs out.....

[Scattamah]

July's BaM has been dealt with early, catching a night out on the RTTS ride. Glad I took my tent as the midge were out and fecking annoying. 7/7.

Greetz

S.

[middleagedmadness]

July courtesy of rtts ,5 /7