GoneCaving wrote: ↑Wed Mar 27, 2024 11:25 am So has anyone studied what looks like an inverse correlation between the time remaining in the month to get in a bivvy, and the likelihood of it being raining?

I think it's more that it rains every day (since October) but as the end of the month approaches and the time remaining for that month's BAM is running out we become more aware (should that be concerned) that the forecast is rain

GoneCaving wrote: ↑Wed Mar 27, 2024 11:25 am So has anyone studied what looks like an inverse correlation between the time remaining in the month to get in a bivvy, and the likelihood of it being raining?

It was absolutely hoofing it down last night; tomorrow is looking rather bad as well. Was thinking about going out tonight, but daughter is now needing a Dad Taxi. So might just wait for Friday night and go out after ice skating and get back in time to go for more ice skating on Saturday...

'tis a shame, as it looked like it was finally starting to dry out a bit round here.

BAM 23 March

3 of 3, 27 of 27

The Great Tommy Sleep Out

My bikepacking guru and fellow of the Bear Bones clan, Leigh from Worcester, invited me to join him in a Royal British Legion fundraising event in aid of veteran soldiers, necessitating a sleep out under the stars.
To raise vital funds to give homeless veterans a safe place to call home.
I became privileged to meet some special forces vets living on the street while on Extinction Rebellion manoeuvres in Bristol.
A great chance to include this as my March BAM.

We agreed to bivvi at a quarry on the Malvern Hills, via Brewers Arms, a community funded pub in West Malvern.
Following a cracking night at the pub we moseyed up on the hills for a dry night under a full and bright moon. Leigh in his British Army bag and me in an Alpkit Kloke.

This is Leigh's declaration of our efforts:
" Final figures are in for the Great Tommy Sleep Out. We raised £225 for the British Legion and their work with veterans. Myself and Neil had a blast doing it, and getting mildly inebriated with the amazing locals in the Brewers Arms was the icing on the cake"



Leigh sporting his fundraising beanie!


Was out on a hike during the day, back home had little time to pack everything so the Osprey Escapist 25 Litre served both ventures most adequately.

Congratulations Reg on your epic milestone

You are a Guru and a Gentleman

And indeed an Inspiration

Not forgetting an Explorer par Extraordinaire

Perchance catch you at the Comedy Festie in Mach during WRT or a shitty shed or lime kiln in Worcestershire sometime

just look upon Reg as the village eccentric in this village of eccentrics - he's probably the one sat on the seat by the pond, straw in mouth, leg swinging, cider in hand, cowshit on dungarees, watching the ducks. This village is made what it is by everyone in it and ain't like nowhere else on earth .

I think a caper Worcester way is certainly on the cards later this year . "shitty shed" - that's all I need to know, I'm in .

Top effort with the fundraising Neil - that's a nice thing to do on a BaM. Looks a good spot too, bit like an eagle's eyrie looking down on the scenery below. At night, probably an eerie eyrie too. And, er, when you next bivvy in Snowdonia no doubt you'll find an eerie Eryri eyrie . Shut up Reg.

Congratulations on your 100 Reg - great write up too. Makes me realise I need to get more café stops into my rides.

Was hoping Vegancheese would do a full write up of our March BaM trip so I could chill, but, no - he wrote 2 lines.

I put my intention of doing a longer ride for my March BaM out there and Polisherman and Vegancheese said they would join me. I was very relieved as Polisherman is great at devising routes so I left him to it. So on 17th March we set out from home on a 114km loop with the intention of riding 2 evenish days of about 50km each. Most of day 1 the riding was delightfully urban taking us through the beauty hotspots of Huddersfield and down into Halifax via a cobbled lane of slime which had us all down like skittles. The boys had been very pleased with the performance of their Mezcals up to this point.



We arrived at the pub where Polisherman had planned to eat (just 20 minutes ride from his planned bivvi spot in a grassy, flat quarry) at 3pm. He was disgruntled to find that Vegancheese and I were not in agreement with him that 5 hours in the pub followed by an early night with podcasts was a good idea - mainly due to the fact that heavy rain was forecast and Vegancheese only had a bivvi bag and coffin sized tarp. We voted on it and 2 to 1 voted to continue on.

Polisherman rode off in a sulk but soon all was forgiven after a fabulous ride in the afternoon sunshine over the moor (followed by more mincing from the Mezcal boyz) to a pub and pizza in Hebden bridge.




After beer and pizza the forecast rain arrived just in time for us to set out to find another grassy, flat quarry to bivvi in.



Day 2 was more rural, boggy and headwindy, so it was a relief that it was only 30km home. Back in time for lunch and the big clean up.

Nice work beating March there people, looked pleasantly aqueous .

Well, that's my BAM over before it really got started... My mate had suggested a couple of local days on the Sandstone Way but I quickly talked us into the Lakeland 200 over three days on the basis that at least the rockier trails wouldn't be a slopfest. That turned out to be a good call, but alas, it all fell apart..

A plan was made to leave Tyneside early Thursday, but I was woken at 3am by the sound of my wife chucking her guts up. And again several times throughout the night. I'd only felt a bit fragile in the stomach department, but basically fine, so assumed I'd shrugged it off if it was the same thing, and so after making sure she was as comfortable as she could be and the dog was sorted, I left only a hour late.

The ride over to Ambleside from Staveley was very pleasant after it unexpectedly dried up. Nice to bump in Rich in postie mode too. After a bite to eat, we carried on, but I started to feel a bit iffy. It came and went though, so we just kept going. The crunch point came at the back of Tarn Hows where I had to have a bit of a sit down. We decided heading straight to Coniston past the Tarns to sit in the pub and reassess. I felt much better rolling down the hill, but I went from bad to worse in the pub where I sat hunched over a table until Morne went up the road and got us a camping pitch at the YHA. It took my last ounce of strength to put my tent up in the rain, which had set in by then, and I collapsed shivering into a sofa in the lounge where I largely stayed till I was able to make it to the toilet and throw what little I'd eaten back up.

A restless night interrupted by weird fever dreams - trying to make some sense of some problem of three dimensional space that I can't quite remember now - and limped back to Ambleside via Little Langdale. Just about managed some soup and now sat in the park waiting for Morne to fetch the car from Staveley.

Can't seem to get a break to just ride my bike ATM ( see Cheery Friday last week). Wishing better luck to the remaining BAMers.

Ahh.. shame.. bad luck with the gut rot

Been a busy few weeks and still not posted my attempt. Look a few pages back to Reg's post that is far better than I could write. Field of Hope with Reg and Bearlegged with a ride back to Sheffield due to rail engineering works.

3/12, 27 consecutive months

March was ticked on Thursday night around the storm

Very windy at Costa del Severn so no need to pedal on the river path heading north - the old bridge ahead had blue lights flashing as it was closed to cars

Cycled out across the Severn plain and through Ingst to meet a friend in Olveston for a catch-up with beer at The White Hart that was pleasantly busy, the night before the Bank holiday and a crunch skittles match in progress.

Afterwards found a barn by the road to spend the night that even had some dry carpet pieces hidden under the dried leaves. There were no fresh tyre marks going in, so hoped not to get driven over by a tractor in the early hours



Good warm night in the winter bag, quick early start for the 6.30 train, paused under the bridge and thought about the Baltimore disaster.



Train full of bikes belonging to the Fulfilment Associates clocking off after the night shift....Had to wait for the cafe in Cotham to open and then sat and enjoyed watching the neighbourhood slowly come to life

Quick and local and home for breakfast.

BAM 3/3

After a great few days away with the Mrs in Stirling and Edinburgh, I soon waved her off at the train station for me to drive further north to Cannich, near glen Affric. It has been mentioned that this is a new one which could be called 'wifepacking'

So with not many miles in my legs these days due to driving to work since October and only getting out now and then, I wasn't quite as fit as I thought.
I loaded the bike to the hilt, food, snacks, wine, drone, chair, tent and a huge load of logs. My plan was to get to the Camban bothy at the far end of Glen Affric but as we all know, plans can change and I was fully expecting plan B.
The weather was fine, no wind, snow on the tops and patches near parts of the trail with plenty of cloud. The going was good on fire roads which snaked its way through the forestry. As the afternoon went on my weary legs were not enjoying the wonderful Glen. Bouts of heavy rain came and went which didn't do my morale any good, which made me think of pitching up the tent. I soon perked up after a good feed and after a good view of some stags.
The last hour was tough through a boggy area and I thankfully reached the bothy just after sun set.
I joined 3 other walkers there who were walking the Affric and Kintail way and they were super happy that I brought the logs and fairy lights!

The next morning was simply stunning, I returned the way I came in and even came away with a souvenir like some of my previous visits to Scotland.

I'll let the photo's tell the story.....

The old shire horse fully loaded!!


Not too shabby tbf


The western edge of Loch Affric with locked fishermans hut on the shore


He was a big fella!


The bike looked heavier than the stag!


Camban bothy, made up of two room, both with wooden platforms and a stove in one room


I woke up to the sun beaming down on the bothy, this was to be a good day


The morning will take some beating


I'm not sure why, but I quite like this one


Picked up my forth antler from Scotland trips, the trick is to just have little wander off the trail from time to time.


I could have had a pair still on the skull but other 'bits' were still attached!


This is one I'll never forget





And as per normal, they'll be a film coming soon

That looks cracking Jeff!

Headed out late last night after disco night at the ice rink. Would've been earlier but needed to chat to my wife about our daughter who has gone and given herself an eating disorder that is way worse that we first feared*. Conditions were super grippy and I had to stop multiple times to scrape mud off various bits of the bike just to make the wheels rotate so I could push, let alone ride.



So it was long after I'd anticipated that I reached my chosen spot, which turned out to me more of a bog that I remember. Thankfully I found a spot in amongst the puddles that the base of the tent would fit into. Even with the eye mask and ear plug, I just couldn't drop off and it felt like I lay awake all night tossing and turning. It didn't help that the NeoAir Uberlite was the wrong choice of mat and I was soon shivering. Rather than putting my insulated jacket on, I put it under me, which made a big difference but didn't stop the shivering completely; time to pony up for a NeoAir XLite NXT I think. Definitely the worst nights "sleep" I've had on a bivvy in a while.



My fingers were frozen by the time I'd taken the tent down, even though I was wearing gloves. This meant I didn't stop to take a photo of the vaguely exciting view as I rounded a hedgerow to descend back to the road; just enough mist to give that amazing depth of view, one I'll remember for a while. By the time I'd hit the road I couldn't feel my fingers or toes, so I just headed straight home, rather than going for a bit of a detour. Under tyre conditions had improved and the tyres didn't seem to pick any more slop, which was nice.



Once home I hung the tent up to dry, but didn't have time to clean the bike before heading back to the ice rink for another two hours of skating. My hips and lower back are now in full revolt...

https://www.strava.com/activities/11066421495
2024: 3 / 12
Total: 41
Streak: 3






* Depending on how this goes I could very well not be going to any events for the foreseeable. I'll be trying to keep up local BaM's though, as one also has to look after their own mental health.

*

Precious things, minds. Hope you can keep yours and your family's in the right place.

Good stuff Jeff- last time I was in glen affric it was 25 degrees! Currently under tarp - no wind no rain. Very odd....

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5KwAueoScM ... Yybndycw==

Meteorological optimism ("weather will be better at the end of March") and general procrastination resulted in a last-minute Utility BaM in the local woods under my favourite Christmas tree .

Despite that, it was a pleasant night with 4 hours reasonable kip until I was awoken at 05.50 BST by a motorcyclist really giving it the beans along the bypass, 1 mile away .

That woke-up the bird population, who were also giving it with some gusto, making sure there was no chance of a lie-in. So I toddled off back home in the foggy dawn for a cuppa tea and bed.

Happy Easter

What a month folks - loving the adventure reports and photos. Sorry some of you had a rough one, and 100?! Blimey!

With little energy in the tank I ticked March off the list, with a local bivvy at an old railway station not far from home. Temp was forecast to be dry and only dip as low as 5 degrees. That was nearly possible with my one season sleeping bag. Fortunately the sensible part of my brain packed my three season bag. However the non-sensible part was in charge of wardrobe. Wearing my sleep shorts for the cycle, and forgetting that gloves were a thing I had cold rides there and back. Sub one mile, don't feel too sorry for me! Temp dropped to 4, feeling like 1. Brrr.

After setting up camp, all was quiet. Until someone coughed.
And then again then minutes later. But no movement at all. No sign of anyone. Completely freaked out, I got little sleep and when I did I dreamt of waking up to be surrounded by people bivvying!

Four toilet trips in the night (I have no idea why a bivvy has this effect on me!), and I got up at 6am. Except it wasn't my usual 6am was it? The clocks had changed, so it was 5am on the old clock. Didn't realise that until I was nursing alternate hands in my down jacket on the ride home. Felt especially cheated of sleep all day!

Looking forward to the warmer months to come! And more rural, non-coughing locations...

Photo to follow, file size too big and I'm too tired to figure that out on my phone. How people goto work after a bivvy I'll never know!

3/3

Got my March BaM in last night near Gullane in East Lothian. The Internet connection in my gaff is down until Tuesday at the earliest so will upload pics and report then.

Nice one Jimmy. I was at the Museum of Flight today for the first time, getting my ear bent about Concorde. Beautiful plane. I've been looking at hillforts and castles around there so might poach a night in your manor soon.

Sorry to hear you're out of it Dave - shame the night in the YHA doesn't count.

I'm not sure why, but I quite like this one

I can see why!

Another for the last minute rush...
Been down to Mum and Dads a fair bit this month as Dad is having a very hard time recovering from a knee opp. "The last one wasn't like this!" he said. You were 56 then Dad, not 83... Anyway, he is currently safely in a respite care home and should be home, home in the next week or so so this weekend was clear. The weather up North looked a bit iffy for Saturday and I had a ton of stuff to do in any case so local it was.

Even less imaginatively I used the same spot as last month. I'd thought of heading deeper into the woods but the prospect of a rare sunny day for the Sunday meant somewhere with a morning view was needed and this one would be perfect. A mighty fine night followed relaxing after fraught family dealings and total mayhem at work. Hazy Jane helped....

Dawn brought forth a deafening dawn chorus, which was nice. Then I snoozed some more and woke up thanks to screaming motorcycles on the Glen Devon road, at 8.30. I'd no idea if is this was GMT, BST, or TT but I didn't care, had breakfast and headed for the hills


The view, faded out due to the sun!


Top spot this but it needs an easterly. That said there wasn't a breath of wind and I could hear the clank of the nearby windfarm all night.


Look, it's still winter!


Well it is on the high hills up north.

Later on I dragged the Triumph out for some pleasantly quiet burbling around various back roads in the sun - why announce your presence to the entire world?

Back to easterly dreich tomorrow so glad to have got a dry one in. Hopefully Cairngorms next month but all is in flux until fatha is safely home.

PS Judith - a fair few wild animals cough - could be deer, badger or hedgehog!

JudithG wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 9:18 pm How people goto work after a bivvy I'll never know!

Follow it with a "working from home" day with no meetings and when most staff are exercising their "flexible working" arrangements .

Stinginglip wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2024 9:02 pm My 2024 BaM is over. After bailing on the WinterJennride I've just couldn't find time or motivation for Feb. Good luck everyone for the rest of the year

O no - start again next month for a 12 months rolling year anyway?

Bearlegged wrote: ↑Sat Mar 30, 2024 11:08 pm

*

Precious things, minds. Hope you can keep yours and your family's in the right place.

Yes