slarge wrote: ↑Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:15 pm

Lazarus wrote: ↑Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:01 pm The more i read this thread the more I think you all live in more interesting areas than I do .

Don’t bet on it

No. It's shyte for off road riding around me. mostly Flat arable land. Not many BWs or byways. Nice lanes around but I prefer off road sadly.
Definitely not enough to keep me interested for long on the OS maps I live on.

I have a map that I reckon I've done most of the BWs and Fps on locally as I've always sought them out.

There was a bit of a thing early doors with people getting a grip with where they live. Great stuff. But nay new.

One thing that helps me to explore new areas is to frame my map in the house. The kitchen has the Clwydian range framed and it’s great to look for new routes etc without having to consciously go to the book shelves and open up a map.

Also did the above at uni and it certainly opened up some beautiful roads around the Bowland area

Richpips wrote: ↑Thu Nov 12, 2020 2:26 am I have a map that I reckon I've done most of the BWs and Fps on locally as I've always sought them out.

There was a bit of a thing early doors with people getting a grip with where they live. Great stuff. But nay new.

Andy at backcountry.scot started a beerienteering club during early lockdown. Basically, we hide a can of beer somewhere, take a photo of the location then post it on our Facebook Group. Maybe add a wee clue. That made folk look for new places and seek out some that other folk had used. Despite thinking I'd been up every local path and track, it's led me to find a few new spots.

Of course, those of us chasing Veloviewer squares are sort of doing this already.

Edit: I appreciate that my local choices are perhaps more appealing than others.

Yes but your access rights are crap

JackT wrote: ↑Mon Nov 09, 2020 10:46 pm Interesting sustainable travel / lockdown / covid times idea from Al Humphreys.

Kind of reminds me of this by David Nash:

https://mobile.twitter.com/commonground ... 32?lang=en

It struck me that lockdown exploration would be a good opportunity to do something similar, even if just in my head not on paper.

ScotRoutes wrote: ↑Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:03 am Andy at backcountry.scot started a beerienteering club during early lockdown. Basically, we hide a can of beer somewhere, take a photo of the location then post it on our Facebook Group. Maybe add a wee clue. That made folk look for new places and seek out some that other folk had used. Despite thinking I'd been up every local path and track, it's led me to find a few new spots.

Some folk in a Facebook group I'm in started doing that, and I thought it was a great idea, but they were a bit far from me for just popping out and they always got found really quickly.

So I started one in my club, which has an active group of riders on the local bridleways. Hid a can somewhere I thought was not too difficult to find. No takers, so that's where it ended (I went back a couple of weeks later to find it so I wasn't littering and it had gone, so either some local teenagers got lucky, or someone found it and didn't say anything).

One of the guys in the club is good at setting up little things to get us out though... in the summer he did one where he took a photo of his bike somewhere local every week and the challenge was to go out and find it. He's doing a similar thing at the moment - each week a different bridge.

There's also a "tag" thread that I started in our club group that's been running for a couple of years now, with periodic bouts of activity - similar premise to the above, but when you find the location, you take another photo at another location, and that becomes the challenge for the next person.

If you have an active group of local riders, these things give you a bit of a nudge to go out when you maybe otherwise wouldn't bother riding the same old local spots over and over.

Reminds me, I must go an check the tag thread, see if I can revive it.

We have between 20 and 40 beers out at any given time. That's in the Strath between Newtonmore and Grantown.

ScotRoutes wrote: ↑Thu Nov 12, 2020 1:44 pm We have between 20 and 40 beers out at any given time. That's in the Strath between Newtonmore and Grantown.

Clearly I need to think bigger. Perhaps the answer is more beer (I've always suspected).

You're covering a much larger area than me - though possibly similar population.

Maybe I'll have another go.

thenorthwind wrote: ↑Thu Nov 12, 2020 12:24 pm There's also a "tag" thread that I started in our club group that's been running for a couple of years now, with periodic bouts of activity - similar premise to the above, but when you find the location, you take another photo at another location, and that becomes the challenge for the next person.

We play that on the Island, it works really well here as we have very fixed geographical limits to define the area

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:09 am I'm struggling with the idea that this is something 'new'. Doesn't everyone spend large amounts of time exploring the area covered by the OS map of where they live?

You live in Wales remember Stu... I've got 3 maps which I overlap (well used to and sometime do just to get the bigger picture, all my mappings now in Viewranger you see) just to get a decent space away from the population. Bit rubbish but has to/had to be done...

voodoo_simon wrote: ↑Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:04 am One thing that helps me to explore new areas is to frame my map in the house. The kitchen has the Clwydian range framed and it’s great to look for new routes etc without having to consciously go to the book shelves and open up a map.

Also did the above at uni and it certainly opened up some beautiful roads around the Bowland area

Years ago I saw a site where you could specify an area of 1:25 or 1:50 and they'd print it on a shower curtain for you. Wasn't too expensive either... Always tried to look for it (years later) and possibly should've bought it when I had the chance.

Having a custom wallpaper printed in OS. Now there's an idea (might be expensive and I believe someone on here had a link to a place that will print you an A3 or A2 poster with your area of map on it...

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Fri Nov 13, 2020 12:57 am

voodoo_simon wrote: ↑Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:04 am One thing that helps me to explore new areas is to frame my map in the house. The kitchen has the Clwydian range framed and it’s great to look for new routes etc without having to consciously go to the book shelves and open up a map.

Also did the above at uni and it certainly opened up some beautiful roads around the Bowland area

Years ago I saw a site where you could specify an area of 1:25 or 1:50 and they'd print it on a shower curtain for you. Wasn't too expensive either... Always tried to look for it (years later) and possibly should've bought it when I had the chance.

Having a custom wallpaper printed in OS. Now there's an idea (might be expensive and I believe someone on here had a link to a place that will print you an A3 or A2 poster with your area of map on it...

OS wallpaper! I like the sound of that but think it can be done with a normal OS map, patience, paste and even more patience

Judging from his early posts, Al is using a random number generator to choose a destination grid square. Quite a nice, if long and rambling, account of his second journey:

https://alastairhumphreys.com/asinglemap-2/

I remember once going to the house of a big time audax fiend who had wallpapered an entire wall with OS Landranger sheets and had most of SE England on there (he lived in London). I remember feeling pretty envious.

I've posted this before, but this is my set up

benp1 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 13, 2020 6:36 pm I've posted this before, but this is my set up

Yes... it was your frame that inspired me to (just thinking about as the wife rules) thinking about it. Maybe one day...

JackT wrote: ↑Fri Nov 13, 2020 6:28 pm I remember once going to the house of a big time audax fiend who had wallpapered an entire wall with OS Landranger sheets and had most of SE England on there (he lived in London). I remember feeling pretty envious.

That reminds me that I always thought when I bought a house I'd wallpaper at least one wall with OS maps. I bought a house about a year ago, and have done lots of useless stuff like fixing plumbing and putting shelves up. Time I corrected this...

I used to live on a narrowboat, and we wallpapered below the gunwhale of our bedroom with maps (not all OS) It's a great effect!

I live on OS Explorer 140. I figure the lowest point is 'nobody.stews.wooden' and the high point is 'amps.assist.oxidation', so I intend to ride from low to high.

I will also try and figure out the remotest place and see about there. Looking at it, it is quite an interesting map to live on really

Oh, good game.

Explorer OL57.
Lowest point - River Spey at Broomhill Station - 199m
Highest point - Ben Macduibh - 1309m
Remotest point - how are you defining remote? Might be Loch Avon for me.

ScotRoutes wrote: ↑Sat Nov 14, 2020 10:16 pm Oh, good game.

Explorer OL57.
Lowest point - River Spey at Broomhill Station - 199m
Highest point - Ben Macduibh - 1309m
Remotest point - how are you defining remote? Might be Loch Avon for me.

Haha, my lowest point is 2m (yes, I did write 2! I live on the Somerset Levels).
The high point is 386m on the Quantocks!

I think remote is going to be furthest from a building, which on my map I figure to be about 3 km! It may be further for you.

We could have a competition to see who get nearest to the biggest hole? Which anyone living on OS Exp 140 would win, as we currently have the biggest hole in Europe on our doorstep!

MIght explain my reluctance
Explorer 286 - though i dont own it

Highest point - Not sure Parbold Hill ?not sure not much over 100m lets say its 400 ft - as much to annoy you for mixing my measures as anything else!
Rest flat but above sea level for the entire map pretty much so you have one sort of ridge down to a flat plateau to the sea, very few BW everything pretty much flat,- lowest point being sea level with half probably more only just above it.
I have never really ridden this area even when i was a roadei, and I can see no reason to take a MTB there.

if you want me to explore my map you are going to have to pay me.

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Fri Nov 13, 2020 12:57 am

Years ago I saw a site where you could specify an area of 1:25 or 1:50 and they'd print it on a shower curtain for you. Wasn't too expensive either... Always tried to look for it (years later) and possibly should've bought it when I had the chance.

Having a custom wallpaper printed in OS. Now there's an idea (might be expensive and I believe someone on here had a link to a place that will print you an A3 or A2 poster with your area of map on it...

Here you go

https://www.lovemapson.com/collections/ ... 3777917200

^^^
That is a cracking site

We're close to the edge of Landranger 103 so ...

Highest point is Pendle Hill at 557m.
Lowest point is the River Ribble where it exits the map at 18m or so.
Most remote looks like the summit of the Salter Fell road in the Bowland hills.

For the Explorer range of maps - lost the cover of it so not sure which it is but ...

Highest point is Pendle Hill at 557m.
Lowest point is the River Ribble where it exits the map at 75m or so, basically a few km upstream.
Most remote is the moorland west of Top Withens, the old farm reputedly the setting of Wuthering Heights.