Piemonster wrote:

We ate cake

Pffft, no mention of friendly hill runners.

I’m offended!

Oh aye Blair mentioned they'd met a BBer running (I wasn't present at the time) but you ran off before they could ask your name

That was a long conversation for me, and pretty much fills my social quota for this quarter

Some words even had two syllables.

April ticked off.

Left just as the sun was setting, and pootled up the hills and out into the Peak District to meet a couple of friends (who'd travelled by car!!!). As I neared my destination, they alerted me to a minor change of plans as out intended site was already occupied! That's what nice weather will do to you!

Rendezvous was made, and a bit of bike wrestling later I was at the site. Here, utter disaster unfolded, as I discovered that my pack of stuffed vine leaves had ruptured, spreading vegetable oil all over the contents of my frame bag. Judicious application of baby wipes and swear words brought things under control, and the treacherous nibbles were soon dispatched, washed down with a rather potent coconut imperial stout (put me in mind of being mugged by a Bounty).

A half decent night's sleep passed, and I awoke to a glorious and misty vista.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bhyiz1XHoc0/

As I headed back home, a short climb brought me up out of the mist, and into a glorious morning. I grinned my way back home, laughing out loud with the sheer joy of being out there.

3rd bivvy of the year, 2/4 months in 2018.

4/4 and a lovely afternoon and evening it was too. I took the Grand Union canal through Berko to Cow Roast, then picked up the Ridgeway to Wendover before wending my way on lanes and bridleways back to the Chalfonts. There's still a bit of mud out there but its amazing how fast it dries out. Dinner in a pub. Slept in the woods. Woke at 430 and decided to head home for a proper coffee rather than muscling a Nescafe 3-in-1 past my gag reflex. Perfect.

3/4 The NDW Edition

A diary mess up in march meant BAM never happened so I was determined to get April's in early and make it a bit more of a local adventure rather than my usual bear minimum effort in order to BAM qualify.

For a change I was organised and desperately wanted to try my new Exped mat and slimline bar bag. With the help of STW members I devised a circular route heading west from home along the Basingstoke Canal a trip south to the edge the South Downs National Park before heading north through the Devils Punch Bowl and then returning home via the North Downs Way.

The trip was a great success despite losing the arranged route on several occasions, only one resulted in a sense of humour failure when I was stuck in a private wood near Liphook at 10.30 at night. I could see where I wanted to be but couldn't get there for a number of locked gates were preventing me rejoining the route. With Stu's MTFU from an earlier thread ringing in my ears I cleared the gates and was on my way in time to reach the Hungry Hoss to refill my bottles and get a well earned pint just as the pub was kicking out. I dossed down on the common near Lynchmere. My new mat is amazing. The morning was a quick start (45mins to pack, coffee, porridge and ablutions) before heading east to Haslemere. After more navigation woes eventually picked up the trail to Hindhead for second breakfast at the NT cafe but only after some drag a bike up a cliff (for Surrey). Onwards through the lunar landscape of Hankley Common and eventually picking up the NDW above Tilford. The home straight eventually became familiar at Newlands Corner where it is a well worn route back home via Wisley and the Thames.

A great trip and proves even in the densly populated SE of england with the right attitude you can have a bit of an adventure. I still don't understand my Garmin and struggle to find my way even when combined with an OS map but I had fun and made it home.

https://imgur.com/a/QMoyw74

4/4, a nice evening ride along the Firth of Forth then cut inland to the Union Canal and bivied in some woods then home by ten for breakfast.

I made the most of the great weather on Friday afternoon and bagged my 4/4.
Dinorwic quarry, North Wales....

Views over to Snpwdon
20180420_182322 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20180420_175450 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20180421_082008 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

Jeff what did you use to take those photo's?
Excellent

RobMac wrote:Jeff what did you use to take those photo's?
Excellent

Thanks for liking them. There's a gizzilion more.
Just taken on my phone mate, Galaxy S7 mini.... tbh the light was pretty good
Video coming soon.....

Friday night 20th, (4/4) again local, a beautiful spot. Tried to get there before it started going dark but left it a bit late and ended up picking a very lumpy spot...
It was cold because of the 'beaut' day and clear skies, and guess what that bloody Klymit lost air AGAIN

IMG_2331[1] by Eric Robinson, on Flickr

IMG_2334[1] by Eric Robinson, on Flickr

IMG_2336[1] by Eric Robinson, on Flickr

Saturday morning headed up Winter Hill (that was hard work !) and after a long chat with Paul from Chorley on his CX bike, then onwards for 300 yards to meet Jordan from Bury on his full sus, another long chat.
Finally reached BG Cafe (about a hundred noisy roadies there on very expensive bikes... (tho not as expensive as mine ), then up Leadmines Clogh, refilled water from stream (Sawyer) then on to White Coppice, then Brinscall and another cafe stop.

Through Tockholes and the climb up to Darwen Tower then one and a bit miles of crafty, 95% I rode.

IMG_2338[1] by Eric Robinson, on Flickr
Then across the bog which is drying out nicely (first third of a mile some philanthropic mtb'er or retiree or somebody has done a great job of improving the ST - lovely to ride.

IMG_2340[1] by Eric Robinson, on Flickr

Then I met John, single speeder who rides a lot over here, so a few words and onwards to the Straw Duck for a wonderful pint at about 5pm...

Went round Wayoh and a hundred yards in front something was going on... a bloke and his wife... there was a pine tree straddling the track... "When did that happen ?" Just now about 5 seconds ago, right in front of us !!!, but it fell quite slowly so they could have dodged it... think..

Another 5 miles and home for a nice brew, shower etc.

About 37 miles all in and about 3600 feet (but I've recorded over four and a half thousand feet on this ride, so it's probably due to pressure differences.)

And now Monday, trying to find where the leak in the Klymit is but the valve will not stay locked, so I'm contacting the supplier and they can replace it...

I'm sure Stuart is wrong about summer, even if that was it for spring... naw ! "Always look on the bright side of life...)

Emergency visit to local woods. In our woods the bears are the least of your worries:



Chairs too. Or maybe it's me that's shrunk? Made the mistake of partaking from the bottle labelled 'drink me'......



All sorted:





The three main food groups sorted too:



(Yeah I think that bottle must've shrunk too. What is this, the Enchanted Forest or something?)

G'nite, 'Reg'

4/4
Fighting the temptation to crash on the sofa after a long days overtime i threw some kit on the Fargo and headed out.
Essential supplies of pot noodle and wine secured en route and i headed up the oxford canal.


After a short stop at a the The Brasenose Arms in Cropready i continued another 5 miles up
cut and pitched up next to a nice lake, pot noodle made with water and a a splash of wine
made for a gourmet supper However the blue skies were darkening...



Just as darkness fell the promised storm arrived, it was quite spectacular, lightning
bouncing off the lake and plenty of thunder and heavy rain. Great night out

Nice one Steve.

Oh. Schnozzels aren't airtight then. Back to proper pillow after all .

Nice one yourself, pulled one out the bag! The storm was great fun, I set the tent up tarp style with the inner dropped and the door supported open with one of stu’s poles. Huge amount of room and very little condensation considering the weather. An added bonus was a much better view of the weather show. If I can sort it in time for the WRT I might give semi-tarping (c) a go.

See you at stu’s, are you at the star?

BAM 4/4 Alwen forest

last Saturday myself and a grandson were to meet up with a pal and his son for a ride around the Alwen reservoir. Grandsons are keen to try bivvying so it seemed like a good idea to camp in the forest and ride the next day. Only one grandson though, the other one was out camping with his mates.
So, on Friday night we chucked some stuff together and headed out.

Sunset over the llyn...

A calm night was had, with the half moon shining brightly through the trees, and, for a change, no owls, crows or pheasants making a racket.
View from bed in the morning...

Camp for two...

Breakfast on the go...


This must be the prettiest bivvy I've ever had.
Second breakfast in the visitor centre at the Brenig reservoir before meeting up with my mate.

Yep Steve, am at the Star on Friday, from about 4pm onwards - maybe you and me will be the first there again, desperate for a drink .

Tarp - go for it, you know it makes sense . Last night was the first time I've ever bothered trying an "A" configuration - purely in the spirit of experimentation. Flying-V always seem so much quicker to "get it up", ooer, and much easier to move around inside. Also first use in the field of "BBB Hyperstove" plus 400ml pot for porridge/ovaltine, which worked very well.

Amazed to hear about your weather. I was only a bit SE of you of course, and it was a nice sunny evening, with tweety birdies and whatnot. Then again, I prematurely threw caution to the wind and took my full "summer" bedding (1.2kg : tarp, g'sheet, bag, pillow, mat, poles, pegs, etc), which, although probably weighing less than the vino and chocolate, turned out to be a slightly chilly decision.

4/4 over the weekend

Woke up Saturday morning at 5am like a kid at Christmas. Bike was packed up, *summer* had started, Jack had set off driving down from York. We were going on an adventure! Set off at half eight hoping to make it to Nant yr Arian for 3pm to see the red kite feeding.

We had a vague route scribbled in my notebook but brought maps along as we had an actual destination to get to. After a few flowing fields of sheep we were hit with the curse of the disappearing Welsh bridal-ways. Walking is a nice break from cycling anyway. We most definitely found the bridal way... but it was full of sideways trees so we continued with our boggy tussocks round the wood. The temporary geographical mislocation did lead us onto a great decent ending in a splashy river crossing. I feel the fact that we had bikepacking gear with us transformed what could be a frustrating day ride with nice views, into a top trip with extra exploration.

With a blast of power in our heavy legs we made it to the visitors centre with 5 minutes to spare before the cafe closed. Fed ourselves on warm sausage rolls while watching hundreds of red kites dive around in some ordered chaos. Reassessing the maps we plotted our route to the Nant Rys bothy. “About 10k” I reckoned. It was three hours of painfully steep climbs and 25km. Is it still called hike-a-bike if it’s crawling up a very rideable road? We finally made it in with a nice rocky double track roll in which was a fitting end. I slept an easy nine hours in the luxury accommodation. Knees definitely squeaking we opted for the shorter easy route home through Hafren Forest, which threatened to eat us up as we met dead end after looping dead end but we did have some fun on the motocross trails. Made the obligatory stop off at Y Star Inn for some much needed hearty grub. The bridal way short cut from the unimpressive misty viewpoint was an incredible 10 minutes of solid downhill along an old 4x4 I track. I can definitely recommend for anyone plotting a WRT route, not sure how it links any grid references but who cares about them anyway.

This definitely felt on the dream end of the bikepacking spectrum, sun out, arriving at facilities exactly when you need them, then almost instantly transporting back into wilderness. Maybe it’s all about mindset, maybe it’s the location, maybe it was pure damn good luck. Who cares, we had a blast! Bring on the WRT

Looks good Ben. I think I'd still be in The Star . Do forgive my gentle wee-take here, but "bridal way" :-

Hahaha fair cop

I can’t understand her disapproving look though, those orange mudguards have done an excellent job

April done — Overnight in Fenlandia. A long night out bagging Explorer Squares and less time sleeping than I would've liked. It's incredibly flat around here — Strava smoothed the climbing to less than 2m per kilometre! Climbing Welsh hills next weekend, with more climbing in 2km than I did all night this week, is going to be somewhat character building

A moon helped, but I was able to ride safely with just a little £12 light and a £15 head torch for most of the night. At 100g for the pair, it's an easy decision to take those for WRT, rather than packing the 800g of lights and batteries I took last year



Learnt a bit, like rim brakes and fine black sand (like the stuff you get on emery paper) result in very clean rims, but rather thinner, too, as a measurable 'notch' has appeared in just one ride Long-overdue new bike has been ordered, with disc brakes, and should arrive Monday to replace my 22-year-old full-susser — surprisingly similar weight to both, though



32 Explorer Squares bagged — the route looks a bit weird, but that's all the there-and-backing down farmers' tracks to bag isolated squares — one advantage of doing the ride overnight is there aren't many farmers about to tell you off

Bigdummy, serious question

How is the Brasenose these days? Used to be one of my locals, no pub in the village I used to live in so had to cycle out or lift share to neighbouring villages.

I used to like the Red Lion as well, less so after they got rid of the pool table.

Snuck out again for another not quite last minute BaM.

Trundled down to a different bit of my local nature reserve on the fat bike, arriving at about 10pm last night. Found a good spot and all set up and in my sleeping bag with a flask of tea by 10.30.

Set the alarm for 6 to avoid sny early dog walkers, and home by 6.30 for a cuppa!

Good end to a weekend / start to the week

4/4

Piemonster wrote:Bigdummy, serious question

How is the Brasenose these days? Used to be one of my locals, no pub in the village I used to live in so had to cycle out or lift share to neighbouring villages.

I used to like the Red Lion as well, less so after they got rid of the pool table.

It’s great always, an eclectic crowd with the boat folk and of course the fringe at festival time.

Last night of the month, time to go!
A short jaunt in the lanes and bridleways up to the local bluebell wood for a bit of a kip.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/107347896 ... 950093928/ by Richard Picton - Flickr2BBcode LITE

Bluebells definitely out now

https://www.flickr.com/photos/107347896 ... 950094728/ by Richard Picton - Flickr2BBcode LITE

Some nice early morning sun too

https://www.flickr.com/photos/107347896 ... 950094788/ by Richard Picton - Flickr2BBcode LITE

Job done 4/4. Colder than I expected though. The cars in the village were all frosted over when I got back this morning.

Just realised that despite managing to stick to my BAM again this year I don't think I've posted any up, my head's been somewhat up my backside! Not done much riding since the spring thing where I fell off and turned out I tore my rotator cuff so it's just been easy commuting. Anyway I'm on 4/4 so far with a possible night out on Sunday, will post up some pictures of all this years bivvies later on