Bivvy a month 2018.

[TheBrownDog]

There's something quite satisfying in pulling off a stealthy semi-urban bivi as Tim found in Richmond Park.

Well, it's better than sticking your head in a pot of boiling chip fat, but I do crave something more adventurous. Long Mynd winter bivvy perhaps (cat out of the bag ...... )

[RIP]

'If I manage to leave' - you'll be fine Steve. You took the precaution of not having MuddyPete, Pickers or myself with you .

PS. 31st... nice last-minuter...

[BigdummySteve]

'If I manage to leave' - you'll be fine Steve. You took the precaution of not having MuddyPete, Pickers or myself with you .

PS. 31st... nice last-minuter...

Strangely enough I managed to leave, cycle another 6 miles and get set up before it was really dark.

Yes very last minute, I’d planned to be in the IOM for my August bam and birthday ( yesterday ) but new job.........
Motivation had also taken a hit due to marital strife.....but sod it,
Sometimes you forget just how invigorating it is to simply pack the bare essentials and spend a night outside, tomorrow I’m going to go home early, pick my son up and take him to the space centre ( Leicester not Kennedy)

I know the whole day will be brighter for the simplicity of the previous night.

P,S. I’m very warm, I couldn’t find my posh sleeping bag so took my old rab down, found it squashed at the bottom of my seat pack with my tent, easy to forget just how small some of our kit can be.

[summittoppler]

Nothing like leaving it till the last night of the month!
Took my lad for his first bike bivvy. He's been wild camping/under a tarp quite a bit before but it was great to take him for a pedal
Newborough beach on Anglesey always floats my boat

20180831_200320 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

[Ray Young]

8 and 9 out of 9 done. I was hoping to do the Cairngorms loop group start but the stepdaughter dumped her dog on me with some excuse or other that I couldn't say no to so I decided to take her (the dog, not the stepdaughter) to a couple of Kielder Forest bothies. She'd been walking/wild camping a couple of times before but never biking/bothying so something new for her.
Arrived friday tea time and headed to Roughside. The most direct route in is only 3/4 of a mile so I did a circuit around the bothy before heading in, about six miles. Initially the dog thought me on a bike was a new game and kept jumping up at me but she soon got the hang of it. Trotting ahead of me on the flats and uphill and running just behind and to the side of me on the downs and being a lab jumping into every bit of ditchwater possible. Roughsides a big bothy with four large rooms, three with fires. Not much in the way of furniture, three rooms with double platforms. No tables or chairs but it turns out it's a very popular bothy and you guessed it, the furniture gets burned so they stopped furnishing it. You'd think that being set in woods there'd be loads of wood to burn but again as it's popular all the dead wood has been collected for a couple of hundred metres around. Two blokes from Newcastle were there already then a lad and a lass from down south turned up later on. The dog went mental when they appeared as she is a bit territorial to say the least but I gave them treats to bribe her with and she soon settled but I kept her on the lead after that.
Next day saw us leave the car at Kielder village whilst we headed out to Kershopehead bothy, about 14 miles in all. She kept up fine and could probably do much more. Again she dived into every water filled ditch she could find with the occasional diversion into the streams when they were close. I had to cross Kershope Burn to pick up the road for the bothy but luckily the bank sides are not too steep here and the water was low so no real problem. That would be a lot different with higher water levels though. I'm surprised there's no footbridge to connect the sides but hey, everything costs money I suppose.
Nice bothy with two large rooms, one up, one down and a small room leading off the back. Also a tool shed with wood, saw and saw bench. The large room has a wood burning stove so I got stuck into cutting some wood. After that I played the ukulele for a couple of hours then ate, walked the dog a bit then retired for the night around 9.
I was up at six and away by seven. Mostly downhill on the way back so the dog ran a lot more than the day before but again it didn't faze her, just meant less diversions into the water filled ditches.

Roughsides very popular and close to the road so I'm not sure I'd use it again. Kershopehead, according to the log book, doesn't get too many visitors so I'd definitely use that again.

The dog loved it. I chose Kielder as it's a forest so no sheep to distract her and easy going. I'm not sure what she'd do on open moorland with sheep around. When walking her she ignores them if theyr'e on the other side of a fence but in the same field I put her on a lead as she definitely perks up and looks at them with interest. She does chase rabbits and squirrels when they run away and I think she might just ignore my commands and take off after sheep if they ran.

[ScotRoutes]

Andy at backcountry.scot hosted an evening with Steve Fassbinder chatting about some of his trips to Utah, Alaska and Tajikistan. Lots of fatbike, plusbike and packraft content. Ross, Paul and I then headed off for a cheeky mid-week BAM at Loch Pityoulish as Ross had to be back for work this morning. It had been chucking it down all day but magically stopped when we left Andys cave, it started again soon after we'd pitched, and carried on all night, only relenting this morning as we were preparing to get up. Other than a very wet tent, we seem to have escaped a soaking.

20180906_224736 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

20180907_071122 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

[Scattamah]

9/9 out on the TNR#3. By the side of the Finestre climb in the picnic area, in the fort on Col de Tende and on Col de Brauss with the TNR wino crew.

Room with a view - Col de Brauss

IMG_2040.jpg (119.15 KiB) Viewed 3611 times

Greetz

S.

[whitestone]

A midweek strike.

I rode over to Cath's work (having forgotten that she finished at 1700 not 1730 ) then we set off up through the woods and on to the moor







I had thought of bivvying up on the top of the moor but it was very busy with a group of twenty or so mountain bikers going the other way then a group of fell runners then it looked like a pair of trails bikers were heading along the track! It was also a bit early and actually blowing a bit of a gale so we carried on.



We headed up from Hetton and found an old quarry working that was sheltered and had some flat spots to put up the tent. This was our first BAM using a tent, it's new and Cath wanted another night out in it Anyway, I found another use for the Schnozzle bag - as a diffuser over an Exposure Joystick. Cue stereotypical nighttime shot of a lit tent ...



It rained through the night which wasn't forecast and it was a bit dreich in the morning.



A quick pack up then it was down towards Threshfield, Cath headed to work while I headed home.



That's 9/9 for us in 2018 and 11 in a row since last November.

[bgrunes]

Well September done 9/9 nice evening with a spot of rain through the night. Great sound on the tarp even if it does still wake me up. Good quality Costco sausage fried butty for Breakfast. Didn't try the local mushrooms, as the saying goes 'the only people who die from eating mushrooms are experts!'




Don't know?

[frogatthefarriers]

as the saying goes 'the only people who die from eating mushrooms are experts!'

Its a good job you didn't try these - They look like one of the Destroying Angels mushrooms - Amanita Verna?. You should know that all mushrooms are edible but some are edible more than once

[frogatthefarriers]

BAM 9/9

No time for a proper bivvy ride this month - last night or not at all - so I pedalled to a local cave, calling at a couple of pubs on the way.

On the way there. The trig point on Raw Head


When I reached the cave I found that someone had left the inner part of a 2 or 3 man tent there, so I didn't have to deploy my ground sheet.


What's missing here?

That'll be the cigarette lighter, that's what. No cuppa for me then...

It's not all bad though..


A restless night followed 'coz I'm too old to be sleeping on the ground. Give me my hammock any day, even if it does take a bit of rigging. I could hear a lot of wind in the trees outside, but inside it was completely still.

Morning:-


That's another one done then

[TheBrownDog]

Just bailed tonight. Too wet. Too windy. Too close to home to bother. Will get Sept BAM during the week.

[ericrobo]

Delayed BAM due to the Atlantic flood(s)... wise decision. Yesterday was beaut - set off at 3ish, camped about 6ish, good food + a brew then a cosy night...

IMG_2543 by Eric Robinson, on Flickr

IMG_2542 by Eric Robinson, on Flickr

Used the Photon 1 tent - it's warm, and I kept the inner and outer open, cold outside and this morning but no probs

Also I took two Klymit X-Lites - the old one (which has at least 6 patches on it, and stays up at home, but goes down after a couple of hours if you're lying on it***, ) and my new one, which did the job superbly

*** if anybody wants it, you can have it !!

IMG_2544 by Eric Robinson, on Flickr

[RIP]

Well here we are then. While you lot are sat in front of the fire with a nice drinkypoo, it's pissing with rain here and blowing a 30mph wind. Arrived at Carlisle at 5, then jumped on the next Barrow train which set off into the murk. Was going to bail out at Maryport and see what happened, but looking at the massive waves and trees blowing all over the place decided to put the evil moment off. It was finally dark by Sellafield, so no point leaving it any longer even though the waves and wind hadn't changed. Fookinell it's not looking good. Was planning a woodland tarp scenario somewhere but considered the station waiting room straightaway. Rejected due to the lighting. Cracked on into the rain past the entrance to a certain well known power station, which would presumably been warm enough had I knocked. Carried on along the lanes wishing I'd brought those Berghaus Gtex troos Dave . Toddled past a..... (contd

[RIP]

..barn which looked good but had house next door. Finally requested pub garden in Beckermet in exchange for some beers. Response was 'we can do you a halfprice room for £18'. Rejected - honestly, what I do for the cause. Oh well, next stop the woods then. Had seen something on the map. Just as I was pulling into it I looked over a gate and there it was - a luxury hen-house! In we go, sweep all the crap to one side, say hello to the nice mouse, and stuff some fertiliser bags in the windows. Mat down, bag out, sorted! It's now really pissing down and the bloody shed is rocking on its wheels!! Anyway here it is:

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Guess where . Am awaiting the black range rovers as we speak.

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Oh. The roof isn't quite as pristine as at first sight . Tomorrow? Hmm. Can we just get through the night first please? Hello Mr Isle of Wight bonfire in the sunshine man, just get up here if you're hard enough .

A Slightly(*) Damp 'Reg'

(*) Very

[sean_iow]

Epic update us on the other side.

[BigdummySteve]

Nearly as nice as the gravediggers shed

[BigdummySteve]

Should have been BAM’ing in Sussex this weekend but forgot I’d got tickets to Joan armatrading for the whole family....will see what the weekend brings

[RIP]

Cheers gents. Shed didn't blow away. Actually that interior photo looks like I'm kipping in a sauna! That'd've been a better idea really. Right, back down to Sellafield station to train it back to Maryport to see what I missed(?) last night, then ride back AGAIN I think in this direction to view it all slowly. At least breakfast was supplied by me in the end and not the nice gentlemen in black glasses and Armani suits:

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[Bearbonesnorm]

Good work all round I think

[Cheeky Monkey]

You don't get MI6 around Sellafield you get the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (like the regular ones but radiologically hotter), typically Cumbrians (bit of a closed shop) and armed.

http://www.cnc.jobs/

I'd rather have MI6 and a range rover

[TheBrownDog]

Reg seriously, you are cementing legend status with that kip in an old hen house. I love using disused buildings. Nice one mate.

As for me, I headed out rather late last night - just after 830pm as I was faffing about like a tool. Rode a gentle 15 or so miles to a spot in Weadon Hill woods that I'd spotted on the weekend. Utterly perfect night for hammocking - cold but no wind, so cocooned in my sleeping bag and underquilt I was supremely cosy. Best thing was waking this morning to a nice view, bird song and foraging deer.

Up at 6am and I rode over to the horse yard where we keep our daughter's pony. It not a flash place. I know everyone thinks if you have horses you're minted, but it's simply not true. The vast majority of horse people I know aren't wealthy at all, but work hard and sacrifice a lot to keep horses in their lives. And I tell you, there is nothing like the relationship between horse and folk.

Anyway, our yard manager took a nasty fall last week, and is not as mobile as she is normally, so Ive been helping with mucking out, filling hay nets and generally trying to tidy up a bit. I'm sort of between jobs at the moment so have the time.

Finished up at the horse yard at 11.30 and rode home via a cafe at Little Chalfont for a cheese toastie and coffee.

[middleagedmadness]

Sept BAM , rode down (well up and more up) to bouldon ,miss took what I thought was the 5 springs drop to the village and ended up being run across the hill by some
horses (they weren't piedballs so didn't understand my doctor do little impression)met scott in the tallyho ,a few pints and a bit of a feed and it was time to get up the clee ,struggled to find what little legs I have so no records were broken going up ,slight drop to the spot and nearly a OTB due to not looking and a tussock finding me , got to the spot set up realised my Garmin was missing ,too late to look for it time to sleep ,up at 6 , packed away ,went on the Garmin hunt found the tussock and found the Garmin ,drop down the actual 5 springs and back to Scott's for coffee ,then off over the top of wenlock and back home to wolves , stopping in albrighton for some scallops and a mini fish enjoyed on the village green much to the dismay of the locals

[fatbikephil]

Great stuff Reg - live bivvy coverage. Maybe next time take a go-pro so we can view action shots of the actual bivvy - how many times disturbed by odd noises in the night, how far will the slug get towards your open mouth, how many rodents appear to nick your breakfast etc.

[TheBrownDog]

Maybe next time take a go-pro so we can view action shots of the actual bivvy

Reg-Cam This must be done.