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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
Scienceofficer Mendips - A top secret location allowing the clearance of new singletrack AND drinking of beer.
...and other illict liquor please
😳 😛
Enjoying our break are we?