January - Bach to Bach (2 nights in two different bothies)
February - Welsh fat bike excursion (3 nights bivvying).

2/2 [5]

With all this talk of N+x/N I can see bivvies becoming traded like commodities

"Today, 9 March bivvies were offered on the futures market ..."

It's Bivi a month so it should only be x/x not y/x

Good to see a good group of people getting out and about this year.

Indeed. A beer induced observation

I'm 2/2 so far. Can't remember what I got last year but since I only started in May/June it was never going to be a full set.

Chew wrote:It's Bivi a month so it should only be x/x not y/x

Good to see a good group of people getting out and about this year.

I thought I'd just keep count of the total nights out this year, but I've put the total in square brackets so people don't get confused

Finally got my tally started!

1/2

https://punkrockbikeclub.com/2016/02/west-wind-ride/

It was windy!

2/2 with Ian and John - A tale of four ferries.
Hythe to Southampton, Southampton to East Cowes, chain ferry to West Cowes for Fish and Chips, 13 odd miles up onto the downs heading west, sheltered spot for a bivvy, woke up in a cloud! More biking to Yarmouth, ferry number 4 to Lymington preceded by great coffee and bacon sandwiches from a cool cafe called PO41.
14 miles home off road across the New Forest - Done. It blew a hoolie - we had to pedal down the golf course descent...

2/2 for this year

Opportunity knocked last night as nice split between 2 days working from home. Headed out about 8:30pm, little loop done and pitched up at the top of a hill.

It looked better in the morning, a little cold packing up but nothing a brew didnt fix.



Sleeping in the wind in the lunar solo reminded me firstly of just how roomy the thing is, secondly of the fact that I still hant put any guy lines on it....

Top of Cheddar Gorge with Taylor
Chilly night but good views this morning.

2/2 Overton Heath, Malpas

Another hammock photo


I tried something new this time by hanging my new Alpkit quilt underneath the hammock. it seemed to work well, but around 1am I woke up feeling the cold from underneath. No problem, I pumped up the Neoair. Problem solved. Until around 5 am when the cold woke me again. This time I folded the (under)quilt into a quilt proper and put it inside the top quilt. Toasty.

Another interesting discovery. I've been taking a few sachets of Nescafe instant cappucino for a breakfast brew to go with my muesli. As an experiment, this time I poured my first cup into the muesli to heat it up as a kind of porridge. Surprisingly, it turned out quite tasty; tasty enough to do again, anyway.

2/2

It was the big 50/50 this month, so i had to do something a bit different.
Those of us looking the the Explorer Score on Veloview will find theres some awkward squares where theres little on the ground and impending tussocks.
With a dry and cold week, with overnight frosts and a cold forecast it was time to put the plan into action.

A ride from home up towards Stoodley, bedding down for the night and hoping for a hard frost.



No hard frost (although it was still bloody cold) but enough to firm up the ground and to head out with a vague plan and see what i could find on the ground.
Mainly tussocks, half frozen puddles which were axle deep and a few other bits of trail i havent ridden before.

All in, another 3 new squares and up to 12x12 now

Next month is set to be alot warmer.....

2/2

20 miles out into the wilds - Started snug but eventually got that sinking feeling - New mat for a warmer back now required.

Another one for feb saw me n stu on a 3 day northern route - iv added pics to my post on page 2 here

Yeah, that really does look as bad as I'd feared.

Did the sheep enjoy it too?

Did the sheep enjoy it too?

Think she was relieved I had my bibs on

1/2 (2) for me now which is good going for me at this time of year. Just a few miles of bridle paths and farm tracks to a local wood Id not bivvied in before but quite fancied as the ground drains nicely as its a bed of pine needles. It was my first night on my new NeoAir and Im not sure Im going to get on with it as its a lot narrower than the imploding Exped mat it replaced. I did however get on with my little Alpkit quilt used to boost my Big Agnes top bag. Worked fine, though the combination of narrow mat inside top bag sleeve with a quilt inside the bag and then all inside my slidey Borah bivvi bag on top of a slidey tyvek ground sheet was interesting. Every movement felt Bambi on ice.

2/2 thanks to John's cyb bothy event.

Matt was that top pic a jump gone wrong

2 fer 2...got lazy and bivvied in a mates back yard by the wood shed. Used the Hunka and quite enjoyed it but could do with a good ground sheet now.
Greetz

S.

2/2 for me. Got out on Friday night after work and took Mrs 512 along for her first ever bike packing trip. We left late after having to go and buy lights for her bike and then my Hope R4 packing in as we left so I had to strap my head torch to the front of the bike! 5 miles or so saw us out of town and into the local woods, we picked the first flat spot we found and threw the tent up as quick as we could, it was getting on for 10 o'clock and we hadn't eaten yet. A tin of Stag chilli and some boil in the bag rice made an excellent dinner washed down with a couple of tins of Stella each. Neither of us slept particularly well as it was really cold but good fun was had all the same. We took a slightly longer route home in the morning stopping off at the Falkirk Wheel for breakfast on the way. Another cracking night out and I think Gill might even come out again, I promised her it would be warmer next time though!

WP_20160226_001 by Blair Caldwell, on Flickr

WP_20160227_08_02_12_Pro by Blair Caldwell, on Flickr

WP_20160227_11_52_11_Pro by Blair Caldwell, on Flickr

Mike wrote:Matt was that top pic a jump gone wrong

Yeah
Styled it a bit just like at the pub.

Bearbonesnorm wrote:

Did the sheep enjoy it too?

Think she was relieved I had my bibs on

On the Ford Fiesta last year I rescued a sheep in a similar predicament, stupid had its head stuck in the fence. Not knowing sheep, I wasn't brave enough to stand at the back end, I stood next to it and leant over to grab it's legs - I was worried about getting kicked in the crown jewels

You're either braver than me, or have more sheep charm. Probably the former, or maybe both...

That's me out, missed out on February due to the wife working away. Hey ho, I'll aim for 11/12

I managed to miss February for no particular reason, but mark and I went out friday night and bivied in the monsal tunnels. Quite a dry place to stay when there's soggy snow.