Since it looks like we're first back, here's humanbean and mine's Bivvy.
Too dark to take photos last night, no moon, and we only got to pitch camp at gone 11pm after a rushing a fistful of pints in before last orders 🙂
Just started raining as we got our heads down under the tarp. Phew.
Cozy night's sleep, although I think I pitched us a bit too high on the slope so we kept sliding down a bit in the night 🙂
Location: probably illegal so not telling 🙂 Just checked, yep, definitely illegal 🙂
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Morning view for coffee:
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Kit list:
Poncho tarp (£14 from Harpers Bazaar)
2x 3/4 thermarests
2x 2 season bags
1x army-sytle bivvy bag (£50 harpers bazaar - couldnt wait for the Alpkit HunkaXL to get in stock, but this worked a treat)
1x tent tarp as bivvy bag for humanbean.
Ti pan
MSR pocket rocket
BTW good tarp hanging tips from Bob on his video here:
http://backpackinglight.co.uk/product368.asp
That really is sleeping outdoors... Not sure it floats my boat, but glad you enjoyed it.
tramps!
gerrrooofff moy whitelightning!
Wot, no bikes ? 😉
some tramp stole them 😉
Location: probably illegal so not telling Just checked, yep, definitely illegal
Good job there weren't any illegal biking activities last night - would've been an interrupted nights sleep. 🙂
jimster - any illegal biking activities there go round the other direction 🙂
Would that be anywhere near a fairly well known ancient hill fort?
Aah the "toboggan run", that is fun. 😀 That is a nice singletrack climb up that way though.
Would that be anywhere near a fairly well known ancient hill fort?
you mean the one you fell off nick?
...possibly, yes 🙂
jimster - in the fog and night lights it always feels like the sewer scene in the Italian Job 🙂
british camp?
shhhhh!!!!
The Conservators are watching you know 🙄
jimster - in the fog and night lights it always feels like the sewer scene in the Italian Job
I had more "Return Of The Jedi" in mind on those bikes through the forest - there seems no end to the speed you can build up. 😀
Hats off to you two, love the "bit of wood"
You know I was up there at new year, went for a walk, a walk mind you, with my lad, I managed to slip down the hill pretty much in exactly the same place, as I was saying "I think this is where I fell off my bike...."
😳
shhhhh!!!!The Conservators are watching you know
And because of your actions they'll be posting "No Bikes, Horses or Bivvying" on these hills.
They may as well post "No Enjoying Yourself" signs.
Wow, so that's what the sun does in the morning!
jimster - way ahead of you 🙁
http://www.malvernhills.org.uk/visiting/things_not_to_do.aspx
I think Ill go and get a gun, shoot a fox and do a spot of demonstrating. Lets see how many rules I can disobey in 24 hrs 🙂
Loaded and ready to go
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Dave the instigator "somewhere near Heptonstall"
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Tucked ourselves into an old quarry, with a nice soft loamy base.
Lotsa stars up there through the trees to look at but beer and aquavit make an excellent soporific and I zonked straight out until rain on my face woke me up. Pulled my poncho up over my head and zedded through till dawn. Managed to knock my stove over which stymied the morning brew, but otherwise a great night out.
Pitch late, leave no trace and pack up early. That is the way.
wow - an armadillo - not seen one of those around for a while!
bad luck about the brew though 🙁
You missed a cracking night mr agreeable up on backwell hill.
About 6.30am a collie appeared with her owner who was quite surprised to see us then half an hour later two runners appeared who thought we were mentalists till we told them it was international bivvy night.
Stoner - it's a Compo
Regret not making it now, especially considering how jammy you were with the weather. 😉 Did you get a ride/pub stop in too?
Slightly odd camping in the bottom of a valley, it it had rained you'd have known about it! (learned that the hard way).
I'll go next then. I got back at about 8.30am but then went to tescos etc hence my late posting. My location is most certainly illegal as the large signs around the edge of the land proclaim no camping. In addition I did some map reading to check I wasn't actually sleeping in a military training area (although I was woken up by the exercise they were running at one stage during the night - sounded like someone got bumped 😀 ).
I won't say where I was as those local will recognize it.
Trails on the way out there (after my 6-7 mile road ride to get this close)
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Camp set up and a brew on.
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Nice view to wake up to.
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There's a few more on my pinkbike page (click on my username).
My first ever 'proper' night bivvying - hadn't thought I would be able to do thursday for the NdB but it all worked out at the last minute.
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coffeeking - its not a valley.
dave360 - aha, I thought it was missing a few gussets 🙂
Nice one guys.
pancake - where were you? Derbyshire way?
Great thread. Well done guys. Keep em coming!
Calderdale completed by two Daves
Standard nightride: San Francisco, Blue Pig, Peckett Well A, Stanny's Love Shack, Nut Clough City Limits.
Aquavit slammers and beers and reggae night in Hole in't Wall.
Up the Buttress, over and up Midgets Pit to bivvy spot.
Full Midget's for breakfast :o)
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/theworldofdave/
Riding at 6am, home for 7am, dropping van off at 9am
10am - tuna melt, coffee and poo at Borders :o)
I've put everything in this thread :o)
Oh the power.
I feel touched by the hand of dog.
Drove to a top secret location (SSSTu's gaf) Rode somewhere, hit a pub then rode kinda pishted to a cave. Photos show the story clicky the shot for the rest!
[url= http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3457/3751333923_a9d9ed8e39.jp g" target="_blank">
Great time what a cool idea, cheers Dave 😉
The Knights of Niche outing last night.
Just before we left.
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Sheldon making some excuse about his rack falling off so he could push up a hill. 😉
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On to a local watering hole for a few beers.
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We were having so much fun ( I was a bit p1ssed) I forgot to take any pics of the inside of the bivvi cave. 🙄
Sheldon leaving the cave this morning.
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Great night had by all.
OI Sheldon.
Trying to take pics of my ass while I was drunk.
Oi Stu get of my niche:-)
Stu and Sheldon - I am envious of your cave but methinks you protest a bit too much about your mutual feelings.... 😉
Stu's too old for me LOL
Sheldons to fat for me. 😛
Lalalalalalalalala, woteva........ you were the one that left the wok inprint in the cave flooring 🙂
Somehow I missed taking a picture of my bivvy setup
But you can read about mine here it was a day early as I had to be home yesterday evening.
That didn't seem to work very well trio, try again....
[url] http://trio25.blogspot.com/2009/07/big-bivvy-adventure.html [/url]
mr agreeable,
we didn't ride in the end as i'm carrying a knock as is Si, so we walked over the valley via my local curry house, once filled with curry it was up onto the hill with a bottle of wine and some slumber till about 6am then home for just after 7am after brewing up a coffee for our massive wander home.
weather wise we got a heavy shower on the walk up but we hid in the trees for 5 minutes and after that i was fast asleep so i don't know.
give me a shout if you fancy a trip into them thar hills.
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Neuadd Reservoir
unpacked the car at the Neuadd Res in the Brecon Beacons, chucked the relatively light bag on and set off for the push up onto Graig Fan Ddu (not as bad as it looks!)
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Graig Fan Ddu
The track around the top is usually ridable but the last few days downpours had made them megaslip, push - ride - push - ride - think oh bast*$d don't fall off!
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Craig Gwaun Taff - The cloud closed in a little!
Reached Pen-y-fan for 10ish, suprisingly still dry and almost getting my hopes up for a view as the clouds cleared for seconds at a time.
Found a nice hollow to take the windchill off the face and set to making some grub, Uncle Ben's spicy Mexican as ever, shame I forgot the chorizo. As the water boiled the inevitable ran started to come in from the West. The nice deep hollow quickly flooded leaving a 2" deep stream, with light fading and options disappearing we made the decision to climb off the 886 meter summit and find something more relaxed in the valley - A good plan.
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P-Y-F Summit.
The walk down with the bike was a little sketch! came round to the top of the Gap climb (a little more familiar) thoughts of ditching were running through my mind but the pubs were well shut by then, even in Merthyr, so we made a space out of the wind at the top of the descent and got stuck into the Whisko.
Stunning view over Brecon now we were out of the cloud, the temperature had raised a good few degrees since descending so I was hoping for a comfortable night.
Like hell, woke at 3.30ish with rain on the face, proper kicking off at one point then it just stumbled into drizzle/rain/drizzle before getting worse again, the inside of my bag was feeling as wet as the outside, decision time. Having to be at work by 8 clinched it, I had to be up at 5am anyway so I quickly packed leaving Dave with the weather and me soaked in the car. It's been a long day!
Right, wallet, keys, PUB!
Scratch - respect! that's grim weather to be doing a bivvy in!
Proper rugged sh!t! 🙂
its a hefty push up from Neuadd IMO:
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and pity the ridge was closed in for you:
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Haha Cheers Stoner, walked the ridge in blue skies in June before the weather kicked. P-Y-F's being had before the end of the summer.
Report of my trip [url= http://bit.ly/194sSE ]here[/url]. Scratch – beautiful, thanks for sharing.
meh, I am jealous.
My bivvy plans ended in disarray with slow group I was working with. The night passed with the highlight being a 2am RIB ride in the p*ss*ng rain at high speed nearly the full length of Loch Tay 8) :(, then getting up again at 5:45....
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Snowdonia in the distance, fetid pile of damp bivi kit in foreground
Solo bivi - Just me and the sheep up on top of the Clywds. Windy but dry with only a small deluge at 4ish, back home for porridge at 7 and in work for 8:45.
My bivvy story went pretty much the same as Scratch for the first part so I won't bore you with it ( one difference being that I remembered my thermarest! 😉 )
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...even some blue sky!
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Then just some bluey grey
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15 seconds of clear sky before cooking dinner (when I say cooking my red bull can meths stove didn't really do much cooking, the wind and running water took all the heat and eventually the stove itself downstream!
The slippery and blowy journey from our intended sleeping spot on the summit into the head of the valley had be buzzing and the despite a good fill of Bowmore and the relative comfort of our grassy spot I was struggling to sleep.... and then the rain came. My plan was to cover the opening of my bivvy bag with my waterproof jacket, sadly the wind had other ideas and my first experience of Chinese water torture began. The stay/go decision wasn't a hard one when Dan announced his departure, it was wet inside my bag but it was certainly alot wetter outside. After this I managed to get a good seal and prevent my bed being wetted further and slept quite happily until my alarm at 7 when I was greated by a lovely view down the valley:
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and almost a glimpse of the summit of one of the lower of the surrounding peaks Fan y Big:
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A quick malt loaf breakfast before saying hi to the neighbours on the way out:
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[img] http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2094759&id=500353463 [/img]
and having a quick wash:
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Cheers for suggesting this, it was a great motivation to get out in the bivi bag and laugh at my own foolishness, [url= http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=93921&id=500353463&l=9b97e69a00 ]The rest of my pics[/url]
seno - Im surprised you didnt run into scratch! 🙂
good stuff!
We went up together Stoner, just left at different times 8)
ah! 🙂
stoner-that's not just illegal it's right on the path. naughty, naughty!
a few days late in posting and it wasn't a night ride. more of a day and a bit ride but there was a pub stop and we did sleep out on thursday. does it still count?![img] http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3536/3755315153_1ee27621c0.jp g" target="_blank">
the story in [url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/goodhank/sets/72157621703008643/ ]photos[/url]
Your all Mental 😆 I can see the appeal on a nice summers evening, but with this weeks weather 😯 No Thankyou. Yea Yea, I know, I need to MTFU, but I aint swapping my comfy king size and a great nights sleep for a cold, wet, flea bitten night in a bin bag. 😛
Nice tent doughnuthead 😯
donut - it's not a "path" either.
tent wasn't donuts, that was redbikes she was in a bivvy bag!
Tent is a tent is a tent not much of a bivvy.
Out bivvyed by a girl he should be ashamed.
redbike is a roadie at heart, so that explains his 'cycle touring' approach....he's buying a bivvy bag next week, one step at a time 😉
Yay! Well good to hear your turning him in the right direction.
Tip my hat to all those who did this, especially those in Wales where it chucked it down all night.
I was planning to sleep out in Wales myself but after hearing the forecast i wimped out as I only have a sleeping bag and not a proper bivvy bag.
In the end pitched a tent here
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And found time for a quick ride before sun down
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As i lay warm and dry in my sleeping bag listening to the wind and rain lashing the tent throughout the night i did not regret my decision but fair play to those who toughed it out.
And now it's fixed.
cuckoo - fair play.
I dont recognise those bumps, where are they?
Rhinog Fawr, Rhinog Fach and Y Llethr west of Coed-y-Brenin.
How where the midges Cuckoo? Been wanting to get up that way myself for a while.
No problems in Snowdonia but my stay there coincided with windy conditions so not a surprise really.
Later on during the trip i was in the Cambrian mountains and when the wind dropped there were alot of them around and they were biting. Seemed to be more near areas where there was alot of bracken. The weather didn't stay fine for long though and they soon vanished once the wind and rain returned.
Judging by the way the weather is going since the start of July i wouldn't worry too much as it will probably be windy and raining anyway 😉
Gravedig...(the lightweight [url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bivvy-kit-need-to-lighten-up-thoughts-please ]bivi thread[/url] got me a-thinking...)
can we push this to September this year? still generally reasonable weather in the UK, all increases the chances of it happening elsewhere - like here in Australia - as it gets us out of winter, into early spring
Do you have the expression mtfu down under?
🙂
yeah, we do (though the ferals normally have it with a few more f's in there).
but that doesn't mean we have too!
and that is easily said when you have nice dry cave to wander off to - not much bivvying there really was there?!! 😉
Just checked our Singletrack Calendar and the Nuit de Bivvy Internationale is once again July 23rd. This year it's a Friday night, so no excuses... 🙂
So, where and when then? Anyone planning on it?
I noticed that when I turned the calendar over this morning. Coincidentally, my Alpkit Hunka bivvy bag arrived yesterday 🙂
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I probably won't be out on the Friday night, because the Saturday's my birthday, but I might aim for a night close to that.
have a sleep over in the hills for your birthday.
presents to only include bivvy kit.
Mendips - A top secret location allowing the clearance of new singletrack AND drinking of beer.
It clashes with 24/12 but I'll see what I can do. I might have to crash-out just outside the tent on the Friday night to fulfill official bivvy criteria 😉
Ooh I'm on holiday that week might have to plan something in.
Long Mynd probably