Today I headed out from home on a 15 mile road trip to my nearest legal wild camp spot. I’m lucky enough to live just 6 miles from Dartmoor National Park and Hound Tor near the village of Lustleigh is the nearest wild camp spot to me. It’s also conveniently on the way to work so I’m looking at factoring this in to my Mid-week commute. I’d never been so wanted To check it out to see if it was doable.

Hound Tor lies at the end of a ridge between two steep valleys and as such provides panoramic views of the moor and surrounding countryside, ideal for a bivvy. Steep, rocky and overgrown approaches and limited parking also mean it’s not hugely popular with visitors.

The road from Exeter to Moretonhampstead is pretty lumpy but not outrageous. There’s a stiff climb towards the end followed by a good stretch of hike a bike up an overgrown bridle path, if approached from the North East.

Once you’re out of the tree line the views are spectacular but the site is exposed and very windy. There are remains of an Iron Age hill fort and decent dry stone walls to take shelter behind. As for bivvy there are patches of flat grass along the top but it’s mainly gorse.

I had a brew up there and took in the view before descending through the ancient woodland via the route towards Lustleigh. This was a lot longer and extremely rocky, totally unrideable.

Weather permitting I’ll be returning on Wednesday with my tarp



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The most impressive thing there Jim is the speed with which you must have hared over to that rock after setting the 10 second camera timer!

Looks a nice little spot that, enjoy Wednesday's bivvy.

Are you sure that's Dartmoor? It's not raining

sean_iow wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2020 10:31 am Are you sure that's Dartmoor? It's not raining

It did threaten and even spit with rain whilst I was there
Sean, Two mates are cycling the IOW Randonee route today. One lives in Norton Green, beautiful place

RIP wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2020 9:15 pm The most impressive thing there Jim is the speed with which you must have hared over to that rock after setting the 10 second camera timer! .

Like a Gazelle

Did you drop down to Becka Brook and have a go on the rope swing? It's really good fun, but you can get surprisingly wet if you mess up the timing of the landing

Cheddar Man wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2020 4:26 pm Did you drop down to Becka Brook and have a go on the rope swing? It's really good fun, but you can get surprisingly wet if you mess up the timing of the landing

Not this time but sounds like one for the future

Been given permission by gold command to head up Thursday afternoon

I managed to get out after work on Thursday. Cycled up there around 5pm, takes about 1.5 hours. It was a really windy evening so tried my best to find a flat piece of grass that was sheltered enough from the wind but this proved harder than I imagined. In the end had a pretty bad nights sleep with the tarp flapping around. Was better after I spent more time in the night putting in more pegs and guys. I think I’m going to go for a larger tarp for more protection. New pillow was great however.

Packed up at 0700 and was at work for 0900

Nice pics! I'll bet it felt good to be out there. Not sure a bigger tarp will solve the perceived problems - is that a 10x8? Can't quite work it out from here. More material potentially meaning more effort to keep flap and sag under control. 10x8 should give ample protection, is there anything in particular that gave you a feeling of lack of it? People always take the wee out of my 'large' 10x8 (although I've reduced to 9x7 now). Still, experimentation is all part of the fun isn't it, so worth trying larger if only to get a comparison.

It’s a 2.8 x 1.5m which I think is 9x5 feet roughly. What I thought re a bigger tarp, probably square 3x3, is that it gives me a few more pitching options with ability to have proper sides and sometimes a small floor. Appreciate the flapping won’t be necessarily better, that was down to poor pitch and location I think.

Try some different pitches first, that A-frame looks like a veritable wind tunnel 2.8mx1.5m is pretty big, heck we used the smallest Alpkit tarp (2.4x1.4m) for a couple of years and got two under it with no soggy bottoms

I've gone from "dropped tail a-frame" to "Holden tent" to "Asymmetric Holden". The advantage of the latter is that the tarp material is higher at the head end so not so much in your face plus you have room to sit up without brushing the material which is awkward with the standard Holden.

Have a look at papa hiker's youtube videos - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... V5TbDmSPYx for some ideas.

whitestone wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 4:10 pm that A-frame looks like a veritable wind tunnel

Yep you guessed it!

Ok cool thanks for the tips will take a look and get some practice in

Using an upturned bike as the main support will always make producing a flap-less pitch tricky. Using a pole as the main support then the bike as an additional lifter will make life much easier.

The perception of coverage is often just that - perception.

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Sun Jul 12, 2020 9:41 am The perception of coverage is often just that - perception.

Ah, precisely. The perception of protection from precipitation