Bivvy a month 2022

[Blackhound]

Pete / Reg thanks. I never really thought bam would take off as it did. It is both simple and difficult to achieve. Chew and Taylor also managed a full year in 2012 and I do enjoy reading people's adventures each year and sympathise when they fail due to life happening. A couple of times I have been out and about and people have just said they are doing their #bam and I do smile inside. Stuart has always been a supportive getting a post out in January after the initial year.
Looking to be around 10 completions this year.

[Johnallan]

12/12
I headed out on 1st of December as a 'place holder'. Just an hour's ride up the hill, found a flat spot next to a quarry and bedded down for the night. Very foggy and a bit chilly but mostly un remarkable.




This weekend I was supposed to be heading out with some friends to a bothy. Despite my best efforts to convince the group otherwise, they decided it was too cold.. so I'll use the placeholder

BaM 2022 done. Really enjoyed it and surprised how tricky it can be to fit it in around a fairly busy life. Worth the effort though!!

[sean_iow]

Completed this year's BAM Friday night before the SWWB. The expense of leaving the Island is hard to justify for one night. In the end all of us did the two nights,

After dinner in Crickhowell it was an easy spin along the towpath next to the frozen canal, taking care at every bridge do make sure I'd ducked low enough.

Some excellent recon by our ride leader had identified a suitable shelter.



Unlike our soft northern brothers, our bothies have no doors, no windows and no stoves to keep the chill off

Overnight temperatures weren't too bad considering we were in a hollow and next to a frozen canal.



Despite the proximity to the road and two lads walking along the canal after midnight I slept well.



Then it was off to breakfast and brace ourselves for the same again Saturday night.

That's 12/12 this year and 32 in a row.

[Taylor]

I never really thought bam would take off as it did. It is both simple and difficult to achieve. Chew and Taylor also managed a full year in 2012

Think Chew managed 5 years before throwing in the towel, I kept going for another 10 months but without Chew being neck and neck with me I found those last few harder to do.
Since then I've not managed a full calendar year.

[Verena]

Got my December one done as well, and with that the full year, as above from Sean, except I was in the opposite corner of the barn ...

12/12

[Verena]

Completed this year's BAM Friday night before the SWWB. The expense of leaving the Island is hard to justify for one night. In the end all of us did the two nights,

After dinner in Crickhowell it was an easy spin along the towpath next to the frozen canal, taking care at every bridge do make sure I'd ducked low enough.

Some excellent recon by our ride leader had identified a suitable shelter.



Unlike our soft northern brothers, our bothies have no doors, no windows and no stoves to keep the chill off

Overnight temperatures weren't too bad considering we were in a hollow and next to a frozen canal.



Despite the proximity to the road and two lads walking along the canal after midnight I slept well.



Then it was off to breakfast and brace ourselves for the same again Saturday night.

That's 12/12 this year and 32 in a row.

When you say "suitable", by that you mean it had a whopping great big sign on it saying Hazard/ Keep Out?!?!?

[sean_iow]

It had a roof, which is quite a bit more than one of the possibles we considered for the next night

[Raggedstone]

December done on Friday night in very close proximity to Verena and Sean. I parked at Talybont on Usk and after tea and cake at the café I headed off down the Canal towpath in the direction of Crickhowell . I had heard a rumour that there may be a suitable location for the night en route so i thought I would check it out on the way I found it quite easily . I went on to the Dragon where I bumped into three rough looking characters and joined them for dinner . I then returned to the building I had seen earlier but there was a big sign saying Danger do not Enter and having had a quick look I decided you would have to be a bit daft to sleep in there so I dropped down into a dip below and put up my shelter i had a big tree trunk just beyond the doors as I was lying there looking at the moon behind said tree I noticed a few patches of what appeared to be luminescence on the trunk I had only had two points so it couldn't be that and the moon was behind the tree so it wasn't reflected light . I am now convinced after some research that it was a phenomenon known as Fairy fire or Foxfire now I know that I am going back asap for another look .
PXL_20221210_074330071 by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
PXL_20221210_074214968 by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
I thought I would go up and have a brew in the ruin only to be confronted by a sight that would strike the fear of God into normal people fortunately there were none around
PXL_20221210_084929209.MP by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
And so another year of Bam's comes to an end and a SWWB begins

12/12 and 48 consecutive .

[frogatthefarriers]

December BaM in progress.In my hammock, hoping for a dry night because I've forgotten my tarp. Oops!

[summittoppler]

Unlike our soft northern brothers, our bothies have no doors, no windows and no stoves to keep the chill off

Aye, softer than a Marshmallow up ere!

[sean_iow]

I did put a winking face, but having seen the snow you had and the snow at the Scottish bivi perhaps 2 winking faces were required.

Great film as well, looked hard going in the snow.

[frogatthefarriers]

December BaM in progress.In my hammock, hoping for a dry night because I've forgotten my tarp. Oops!

Update: BaM 12/12 for 2022.

Left home at 7:30 pm heading on back lanes to a place I visited probably six or seven years ago, looking for a geocache. I remember thinking at the time that this would be a good hammocking spot. It's changed a bit - there's a lot more undergrowth/brambles/nettles than there was, making finding somewhere to hang a bit of a challenge.

Pitched up at around 9:30....


I realised that I'd forgotten to pack a tarp after I'd hung the hammock . A bit of an embuggerance but not catastrophic as I'd been unsure if a hammocking spot would be available, so I'd packed ground sleeping stuff as well (belt & braces). I started to take the hammock down but then thought I might get away without the tarp - it looked as though the frost was in for the night and no rain clouds to be seen, so why not give it a go? My luck held and the frost stayed and it didn't rain. There was frost on the bug net but none on my quilt. No condensation either, except where I'd been breathing.

Here's my bed-time snack before turning in...


A tin of beans warming up in the water to make a cuppa for after. I take the label off the can first but I worry that the glue might have something horrible in it - to make my teeth or hair fall out - but no, it doesn't seem to. A win-win. I use one fill of meths and don't have to wash the pot before boiling water for tea. I went to bed with a platypus bottle of water to warm my feet. I had my Cumulus 350 quilt, with a Cloud Cover quilt from alpkit inside, down booties and a down hoodie to keep me warm through the night, but for all that, I didn't sleep all that well because the wild geese on the lake kept an almost continuous honking. And there's me thinking a few owls were bad..


Morning...




A dog-walker came past while I was packing up. we got talking - as you do - and he told me that yesterday there had been a party of swimmers in the lake. They'd had to break the ice to get in. I don't know if winter cold water swimming is dafter than Bikepacking. Probably not - they're in and back out in a few minutes, whereas we opt for multi days in the cold and wet.


Yup! Still frozen!

So 12/12, 96/96 ( yes really, I started in 2015). Just four more Bams to make a century.

[frogatthefarriers]

Sean..

I'm having an acute case of thermometer envy. Where can I get one?

[sean_iow]

Sean..

I'm having an acute case of thermometer envy. Where can I get one?

This is it

https://www.thermoworks.com/thermodrop/

But carriage to the uk is the issue, I had to call in a favour with a friend in the USA and get them to buy it and send it over.

[slarge]

Have a look for digital thermometers on ebay -£4 buys a combined hydrometer and thermometer

[Verena]

having seen the snow you had and the snow at the Scottish bivi perhaps 2 winking faces were required.

At least!!

[RIP]

Due to circumstances, bit of a placeholder this I'm afraid. Still, can't be on top of Pumlumon or an aqueduct every month or that would be too much of a good thing I suppose. So it's up the country park again. Just to vary things, it's Brompton and a very rare outing for the peerlessly bombproof Macpac Microlight tent. Rainy and windy tonight, so sod it. Reading material is "Places To Hide" by Dixe Wills, which I think is singularly appropriate. Bit of a toilet-adjacent "dip into" book normally, but it's perfect for accompanying an actual attempt at hiding. Every bikepacker should have one, and here it is for the princely sum of two quid:

https://www.awesomebooks.com/book/97818 ... 0dEALw_wcB

12/12, 12/12, 84/84

R.

[Verena]

Enjoy!

[RIP]

four more Bams to make a century.

WRT for the ton then..... hmmm.... thinks...

Enjoy!

Ta. Will conk out early I reckon. 'Twas a dark and stormy night....

[sean_iow]

'Twas a dark and stormy night....

I had an inckling the weather had changed from cold to wet again, the water level being above the top of the wheel* on the cycle path was a clue.

You've answered the question of 'how do you secure your bike when biving' take a Brompton and put it in the porch

* To be fair it's a 660b wheel so not as deep as over the top of a 29er but it did make the flood really come alive

[RIP]

'Twas a dark and stormy night....

You've answered the question of 'how do you secure your bike when biving' take a Brompton and put it in the porch

Aye, just enough room next to the umbrella stand, shoescraper and aspidistra.

Had nodded off but awake again contemplating hiding places and shelters. This tent is warm and dry (inside!) at the moment. But as said in the past, the "security" that some people proclaim in favour of tents is a complete illusion of course, and in some ways more dangerous for that. I prefer a large tarp because at least it's obvious that the big bad world is out there and one is more conscious of having to stay safe. Also the tarp has far more room to move about and more storage space.

Flippin' windy at the moment I must say. Feels a lot more than the forecast 20mph.

[riderdown]

I take the label off the can first but I worry that the glue might have something horrible in it - to make my teeth or hair fall out - but no, it doesn't seem to.

The worry back in the day was metals leaching from any solder used to seal the tin together. Not sure if that is still relevant these days

[Verena]

I had an inckling the weather had changed from cold to wet again, the water level being above the top of the wheel* on the cycle path was a clue.

Nothing escapes you does it?

[fatbikephil]

Phew managed to sneak a bivvy into my trip south...
Nothing special, in fact my lamest BAM this year - I parked the car at Boreland, not fat from Lockerbie and pedaled up an easy fire road to Dryfehead Bothy. As per, 1 minute after departure a dense drizzle came on so I was soaked by the time I got there. For the first time in ages (for me in a bothy that is) it was occupied! Fortunately by three decent chaps from Peebles rather than bawbags, and they had a fine fire going. They were happy for me to join them and a convivial evening followed. Turns out one was part of a popular small scale bike manu, the other's wife is in for the Highland Trail and the other was an American mate of theirs, so much bike and bikepacking chat ensued.



In the back room, now wood paneled and with bunks - I'd humpfed up three (3!) fire logs so these went in my own fire rather than the stove as the others had brought plenty coal with them (I told them of Bridget aka Borderer's efforts to drag 15kg of coal up from Eskdale muir to here in 2019)


Twas a somewhat damp morning but I took a slightly longer route back to the heap via more forest roads and Black Esk reservoir.

2022 BAM done

[RIP]

Very nice that our Phil.

9 days to go... hopefully there'll be a little competition-within-a-competition (although we're not competitive at all are we kids?) for who bags the last-minutest BaM of the year.... I managed a 23:59 departure on 31st December a couple of years back so the precedent is there....

I can only apologise for being rankly incompetent with the other "awards" this year (*)

(*) although I think I'm stuck with the "Most Bonkers Spot" Award if I remember....