Bivi tips Yorkshire Dales

I am using a tarp so I could do with some trees, but they seem to be in short supply.  Can you use a stone wall to pitch a tarp as a lean-to?  There seems to be plenty of those.

How high you wanting it? I don’t do civviy camping but you could get some extendable bivi poles and use bungees as guide ropes.

Standard squaddie fix for a basha when there are no trees. For a lean-to and any other configuration that tickles yer fancy.

https://dragonsupplies.co.uk/dragon-tactical-basha-pole-medium

Most drystone walls have smaller rocks in the top layer, not sure you’d be able to tension it up too hard but you could probably bodge something.

Upturned bike and front wheel?

Whereabouts are you thinking of stopping? There are trees around in most places..

Watch you don’t pull the wall over (or just pull a stone off the top), but a lot of them have wire fences attached to increase their height which should be usable – often fixed via wires though the wall tied to a stick on the other side as an anchor.

Whereabouts are you thinking of stopping?

Well that’s the question really. Normally I’d look for woodland but there isn’t a lot on the map.

You don’t need much. What route are you doing?

I haven’t planned one yet. That depends on available campsites, which ideally would have trees because I don’t have a tent, only a rectangular tarp which is much easier to sort out when there are trees to tie it to.

Oh sorry, thought you meant wild camping, which gives you a lot more options. Campsites round here often are just a wide open field bordered by drystone walls rather than having lots of trees.

Use your wheels or one wheel and frame.

Has the added advantage that you get woken up if someone tries to nick it.

This is my version using the smaller alpkit tarp https://photos.app.goo.gl/T3ncJPdkbquxecqf9

thought you meant wild camping

I did 🙂 wild camping still needs a site at which to do it…

I think you’ve said that your tarp isn’t very large. That being the case, you might find that having it tied up against a wall doesn’t give you very much space and of course the higher up the wall you have it, the less ground it’ll cover. If you decide to try this, use 2 or 3 guy lines along the lower edge of the tarp to lift it off the ground a bit. This will also let you tension it better.

I did 🙂 wild camping still needs a site at which to do it…

Can’t think of many areas of the dales where you can’t drop down a bit relatively easily and find a stand of trees. It’s only if you’re determined to stay right up high that you’ll struggle. Taking a pole or working out in advance if you can rig something using the bike isn’t a bad plan though.

Pole and front wheel, small tarp on the summit plateau of Cross Fell. Pitched transversely, rear to the wind, bivi bag legs sticking out. Loads of room to brew up and pack away comfortably when dawn turned nasty, with thick dense mist and mizzle streaming over the tarp. I’ll probably do something similar on the Solstice Bivi in a couple of days.

I was thinking about that earlier, with one wheel and one pole.

My tarp is only just longer than I am tall, which. means if I were to lay under it my head would be right near the opening which isn’t really want I want – I want it in the middle to be as far as possible from wind and rain.

I think I need to get creative in the garden and see if I can come up with a good solution.

If up high look for shooting butts.

Based on this morning’s hasty dawn decamp, take a midge headnet…