Making a Wednesday night my bivi out night from now on after Gummers Howe last week I decided to up the ante and hit a hill I,ve never been up before, Wansfell Pike above Ambleside.
The ride was spoiled by a puncture down Garburn with the sealant not managing to seal a side wall cut 🙁 ,this ate into my drinking time at the Mortal Man but still managed a few pints of a ladies name that I,ve forgotten!
Managed to ride about 90% of the climb the other 10% gave me chance to seek out lines on the way down.
On reaching the top I was pleasantly surprised with the view and lots of grassy bits to pitch the tarp.A good 5 hrs kip then it was time for porridge and a brew before the ride to work the view was none existant due to low cloud but the descent was great, would have loved to have been on my full suss.Arrived at work in plenty of time for my 7am start with the normal shaking of heads as I turn up mud splattered 🙂
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JDBKgL]Untitled[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/KxgNQj]Untitled[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JDBPhm]Untitled[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/Ka2vZ9]Untitled[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/Ka2xtS]Untitled[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/KqHNyU]Untitled[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

Looks like a great trip, can’t beat a mid week work bivy

I’m in Central London now so slightly tricky. I did one in May last year when I was working out of London, this was my report

– left work at about 5.45pm and was rolling just before 6pm (having packed up my bike)
– good weather meant no tarp and no waterproofs, and nice cycling conditions
– rode for 2 hours, did 16 miles over a mixture of cycle ways, B roads, cheeky footpaths and bridleways
– saw amazing bluebells
– did a stealth bivy in some private woods
– had food (thai green curry, thai red curry, M&M brownies and coffee)
– watched wildlife and listened to birdsong, lots of deer around
– had a good sleep
– woke up early and packed up early too
– coffee and Orange flavour Soreen for breakfast
– rode just over 4 miles home over similar ground with a tiny bit of singletrack as well
– back to work for 8.15am (took my time in the morning)
– massive fry up with my team after I have a shower

Some photos from the trip

Found a quarry that I didn’t know was there, although some locked gates in the tracks/routes running through it meant I had to tweak my route slightly

There were bluebells everywhere, stopped at a particularly good spot with the light streaming through

Got to the site and sat down for a bit. Turns out I was sharing the woods with deer

Sun has set but moon is out (and almost full so barely needed a headtorch), my camp spot but taken with an iPhone so flash used

View from my bivy bag (I love the chair kit on my thermarest, really makes life good and makes it easy to stay in your bivy and chill out at the same time

View of my camp once I’d woken up, out of sight of the track running nearish (private woods and no invitation)

Camp kit packed up, ready for one final brew

Ready to roll

The track that was near where I slept

Bridleway on the trip back to work

great pics i,ve never felt the urge to camp in a wood i need a view!

Ha, if I had the option of heading up a hill, I would!

There is a well known hill between me and home, but it’s well known for the wrong reasons at night so don’t fancy bivying there 😯

Great.

I,ve remembered the ladies name Sally Birkett OSB 🙂