Excellent weather meant that my attempt to test out my new Alpkit Tarp on our annual Autumn Dartmoor bivvy ride were tharwted. Huh, bloody sunshine and clear skies and all that bollox 😉 Anyway, we left Princetown late morning and rode 50 or so kilometres (according to top map reader Shinythings) and ended up in the Warren House Inn around 7 in the evening for rabbit pie and beers before wobbling down into a deep, dark, Dartmoor valley for a bit of kip under a sea of stars, galaxies and space debris streaming across the heavens. No proper accidents, only a couple of punctures, and the only mechanical was my forks locking up. Cheers to shinythings for organising the whole thing & apologies to the riders whose photos I haven't posted up here. You were either too fast for my camera or not photogenic enough!

Pictures…….

Anna near Princetown

Ed

Del

Chris

Near Sheepstor – Chris clears the leat

Trailmonkey escapes certain doom by millimetres

Bikestylebilly on The Widowmaker

Headcam equipped Neil – Post up yer footage!

Shinythings

And they ride off into the sunset leaving me halfway down
The Widowmaker with a pair of knackered forks 🙁

Beddybyes

Bikestylebilly metamorphamises into Bedtimebivvy

Dr Chris and his five season Hollofill pillow
Note ear defenders to silence out Sweetjumps, Ed 'n Slugwashs' snoring.

My Hammock

The Morning After

Brill photos. Did you guys leave all your kit somewhere then ride? Seems to be more kit than there is on people's bags.

that looks great ! Any chance of the route ?

Fantastic! We were at the Warren House Inn last night (group of 9 of us) – I came out to identify a bike (Whyte) leant against a car (following heated discussion inside!) – presume that was you?? We had fab weekend staying at bunkhouse at Runnage Farm. We walked back from the pub 'cross country' and spent ages staring at the heavens too – sky was amazing. Up on moors by 8 this morning too – can't wait to go back. 😀

Hi Clink, we were the group sitting across the room from you by the window. I was the sad bugger sitting by myself for half an hour waiting for the others to arrive. (I finished the ride early 'cos my forks locked up tight).

Simon R – Hi, we left our sleeping gear in our cars until we needed it. Don't forget to let us know when your'e down in Totnes.

Yep – 1st October – put it in your diaries! Am looking after the Southern Scottish chapter of STW then am all yours. Really looking forward to some Devon rides.

Also, I think there may be some bivvying as part of my MSc so may finally get to use my Alpkit bivvy bag I bought a few months ago.

that looks great ! Any chance of the route ?

Knottie, shinythings or TM can probably give you the route. Most of it was new to me.

Top day out and some nice pics Rich. I notice that you got a pic of my perfectly executed landing 😳

Any chance of the route ?

Err, go to Princetown and ride everything 😀

Seriously, I'll mail you a MM file if thats any good ?

I can safely say last night in the bivi was one of, if not THE most uncomfortable I can remember, as well as having Paul (sweetjumps) snoring like a pig next to me all night… then in the morning he tried to say it was me!

Loads of fun all the same.

There's a small issue with getting my headcam footage onto the interweb – the camera itself doesnt have a firewire port on it, and i've lost the docking station which does :oops:. But I'll borrow another camcorder for the transfer or something.

Cheers all!

Great stuff Rich, Gold badge for snapping duties. Will award you at the Thurs mans coffee morning.
When I woke up and was admiring the world class views and sky I suddenly had an urgent desire to have a Black Widow catapult in my hand after seeing you over yonder in the tree 😀
Neil trying to get into a 'WAY' too small Dossbag was classic (nice to meet you), as was Pikey saying he'd had a cracking 20 minutes sleep!
Wasn't to keen on Billy pretending to be an Elephant seal next to me and there were far too many mentions of 'Morning Glories', personally I don't rate those frames :roll:.

Clink, you should have muscled in on our party. Pikey and the others would have been happy to hurl abuse and mislead you all 🙂 Yes, my Frankensteed bike is just about barely a 46, built for Dartmoor granite.

The Monkey took us to a section we hadn't done before, which was a good inclusion on a brilliant overall ride.
Just goes to show how easy it is to be complacent about what we have on our doorstep, because we will all probably mention this ride in the future.

that looks great ! Any chance of the route ?

You were invited on this ride!?

Well the photos were really selling this bivvying malarky but reading the posts now I am not so sure!

Bivvy night rocked once again, I hopwe everyone near me last night gets a good nights kip tonight, it must have been that last glass (plastic beaker) of red wine that made me snore!
Thanks Jimbo and all the Dartmoor crowd on an excellent day out.
Good photos Slugwash.
😉

ah man, with the kids away and me having loads of mantime i'd have loved to have done that!!! didn't even know you lot were planning that.

fatmuthacupboard wrote

i'd have loved to have done that!!! didn't even know you lot were planning that.

Yes you did you lying hound 😉 I personally invited you in your recent post requesting Dartmoor routes. Maybe next time then Carl on our mid-winter fullmoon bivvy ride up to Redlake.

great pics Rich.
well done for organising the ride Jim. shame i couldn't bivi but i'm glad i went home. was falling asleep on the sofa in the evening!

Err, go to Princetown and ride everything

twice!

I'm a little confused – at some point everybody appears to have been trying to get some sleep next to somebody whose snores sounded like an amorous wookie, but in the morning everyone claims to have not slept a wink! So who on earth was it making all the noise? Perhaps we really were being stalked by a creature of the night? Or was it an amorous Pikey we heard & nobody wants to own up to being on the receiving end of his attentions?

And why did it look like Buzz had been dragged half out his tent in the morning? Hmmm…..

Clink – think you lot were on the table behind us. I did clock a few snippets of your conversation & thought you sounded like bikers. But to be honest we were all too knackered to make friendly conversation. Very rude of us. We did see you checking out Shinythings car outside – he was worried you were a gang of professional car thieves who'd been asked to steal a clapped out old Citroen to order.Next time have a go at bivvying, then you can fall asleep looking at the starts as well. Fantastic.

Cheers to Jim & his Dartmoor crew. Great ride as usual. Excellent photos Rich – one rare good picture of me, quickly followed by one where I look like some kind of gurning catepillar. Cheers.

You all have a full years notice for next years ride which will be on the east side with a meal in the Kestor at Freeland/Water and Bivvying on Raven's Tor in the Oak forest.
So, plenty of time to confirm or manufacture pathetic anti-bivvy or Dartmoor not 'core enough excuses 🙂

no way am i bivvying, i only live down the road

ha! dont remember that i'll go check my posts!!!
i'll be up for the winter one, done loads in fort william over the years so dartmoor in winter should be lovely and warm..