A continuation of last years thread. Aim is to get us out more and use all that expensive kit we have just bought.

- Only rule is to get out and spend a night in wilderness under appropriate cover.
- If regular one night is an issue maybe go for 6 months of 2+ nights to get 12 nights that way. What ever is a realisitic target for the individual.
- Report back here with occasional photo or report.

Do El-an_back, WRT and BB200* and that is a quarter of the year booked already.

* Sitting on a rock for 5 minutes on Carddeu eating a Mars bar does not count as a night out Ian;-)

Happy New Year

Brilliant - there's no way I'm failing at this one this year!!!

Here's my plan (made public to increase the pressure on me to achieve it):

1 night out per month sleeping under the stars (and quite likely a tarp) in a bivi-bag (not in my tent or in a bothy - though there's no worries if others do this obviously)

I didn't manage to get out for my 6 hour ride today as the wife is still too ill to look after the little 'un and so I'm still on a grand total of ZERO miles for 2013 - rubbish!

Maybe I'll get out for a night ride tonight???

Looking forward to reading all about everyone's adventures and hoping to contribute a few myself!

Let's get to it.....

I'm planning on doing it this year after a terrible preoccupied year last year :(

I'll probably be using a 1 man tent and the odd bothy.

I'm up for this. Been getting out once a month since August.

restlessnative wrote:I'll probably be using a 1 man tent and the odd bothy.

Same for me And a bivi bag/ tarp. Whatever suits. What tent are you using Restless?

Mountain Hardware Sprite 1, not used it in heavy rain yet but it has stood up to a pretty windy night fine. I don't even own a bivi bag at the moment.

* Sitting on a rock for 5 minutes on Carddeu eating a Mars bar does not count as a night out Ian;-)

Do Snickers count?

Count me in for sure. Its good to have in your mind to do I think. Lookign forward to the first one at the weekend.

I'm up for this. I've even run it by the missus who I think found the idea of me suffering outside quite amusing.

I'll go for a combo of one and two+ nighters, should easily get 12 in :D .

Quality ) I'm in, minimum one overnighter a month. Last year I think I managed 22 between April and Sept but 2 holiday trips helped the total along.

Boom - 1 down 11 to go!

Yesterday evening, after getting myself all motivated reading/thinking about the 2013 bivi a month challenge (sad, i know!), I decided that instead of just going for a night ride I'd get some kit together and head out for a stealth bivi.

So.....I put the little lady to bed, made dinner for the wife (who was still sick in bed), served dinner and promptly buggered off! I rode for a couple of hours (taking me to about 22:00) before selecting a suitably soft looking spot and setting up camp.

Here's the bike all loaded up:



Check out my new (2nd hand) Lumicycle light:



My new home:



Now that's a nice taught tarp:



This morning's breakfast spot on the way home:



All-in-all a massive success (especially seeing as it was a spur-of-the-moment type affair).

Whenever I bivi (as opposed to tent/bothy) I am reminded how little I have a dialled routine - I really always feel like it's my first time and that I'm stumbling around like an idiot until I finally decide that it's as good as it's going to get and go to bed.

One reason for setting myself the challenge of doing my monthly night out with a tarp/bivi is to finally get over my mistrust of the tarp/bivi set-up and get comfortable with them.

Cheers, Gairy.

P.s. it was about -6 last night - COLD - but my sleeping bag delivered once again. That's the downside of sleeping out in winter at 1000m alt I suppose!

Good work ... sometimes spur of the moment stuff is so much better.

Nice one Gairy. I'm heading out on Saturday for first bivi of 2013.
Are you using a Hope light mounted on bike helmet?

Mike

restlessnative wrote:Mountain Hardware Sprite 1, not used it in heavy rain yet but it has stood up to a pretty windy night fine. I don't even own a bivi bag at the moment.

Looks a good tent. Is this the one you will get a foot print for? I was thinking of doing the same. Nice size shelter and pretty lightweight.

Mike,

Yeah, the Hope 'Vision 1' is now helmet mounted. It's not light but after a few minutes I forgot it was there.

Gairy.

gairym wrote:Yeah, the Hope 'Vision 1' is now helmet mounted. It's not light but after a few minutes I forgot it was there.

Same experience for me. Got myself a christmas present of one of those lights that S8tannorm reviewed. Brightest light i have ever used. :) I used that on my helmet and the Hope on the bars for my last outing and had plenty of light when needed. :D

pushbikemike wrote:Looks a good tent. Is this the one you will get a foot print for? I was thinking of doing the same. Nice size shelter and pretty lightweight.

Yeah I found a place doing lightweight tyvek ones which I think should be water resistant enough so long as I don't camp in a bog

Howdy...

Am new here but on NYE I decided a bivvy a month (not necessarily always by bike) was a good plan. I'm in London though so some of this will have to be in the overpopulated North / South Downs - so if anyone has recommendations on handy locations to get me started, let me know!

Have a lightweight-ish tent (Hubba Hubba HP) but have just bought a tarp that I aim to use with my bivvy bag. I spent a week doing a Ray Mears bushcraft course in September with my brother (a hard week but amazing!) which included about 5 nights out under a tarp, and I loved it - I was really disappointed to wake up in my tent again when were were back at base camp on the last night.

So, here's the commitment to one bivvy a month made public....

*gulp*

Right, I think I'm gonna give this a go.

The challenge is to get out and sleep in a bivvy (I'm going to allow a Bothy, because as I live in Essex, it's quite a bit of effort to actually get out to a Bothy, and the idea of the challenge is to get out of the Urban-ness, so finding a Bothy fulfills all this), and hoping for 1 a month, but I'm not gonna beat myself up about it.

I started NYE/NY at the posh Bothy (the one where I met flatfishy and sillybigfella and some other bear bones members) with 5 of us, had a freshwater swim and a general road trip http://www.flickr.com/photos/zippyonlin ... 450148775/

I've done a few Bivvy trips in the past, including the West Highland Way on a fairly minimal setup (did blog-it, but my website has since gone down..). Hopefully gonna manage 1 a month, quick stealth ones will also count. Have bought a couple of bike-packing bits of kit to make this easier now too :)

Welcome all.

InspiredRamblings - London is easy, what about St Pauls;-)


Occupy London by jsbissett, on Flickr

There's some quality tentage there ^^^^

Blackhound wrote:Welcome all.

InspiredRamblings - London is easy, what about St Pauls;-)

Haha thats funny... I could just bivvy in the street outside work, save myself the commute and get as many overnighters as I want!

im up for it, starting this tuesday but not sure ill be able to post any pics as dont know how folks?

13/13 for me

120k with Kevin to El-an back, with us getting to 93k on the first day before bedding down for the night.


Pont Elan
Kevin trying to stop his teeth chattering after the freezing headwind up Cwmystwyth road.

Are we carrying on with numbers?
13/13(1/1) for me too. See pictures for El an Back.
Nant Rhys bothy, now with underfloor heating and a very drunken, rampant, lady!