Saturday, March 30, 2019

March Bivi

March has been a busy month doing a few less wildernessy things which left me hankering for a mental recovery ride.

The boss had decided we should drink our way into Brexit but Thursday looked like a beaut evening so I left the bike bags in a colleague's car whilst we had dinner (Italians are used to people dining in bike clothing). 

At 8pm I strapped the bags back on, relieved to fine EmVee still locked to the post where I left her.

I followed Landsley's route through Eccleshall wood (pink line on Garmin tougher than following a wheel) and up onto the Eastern Moors. 

There was quite a chilly headwind on the moor so I added windproofs and gloves and watered the heather with a pint of fine Italian bierra before bailing over to Frogatt as I suddenly had a pang of guilt surrounding going back to work on Friday.

When I rounded the hillside above the crag the wind dropped so I contemplated a few heathery hollows before deciding the traffic noise in the valley was a bit much for a satisfying bivi. Nothing reinforced this more than the sound of a car alarm going off so I moved along. The closer I could get to houndkirk, the easier for my morning commute.

By midnight though, snoozies kicked in, despite the engaging boulder-hopping so I pushed away from the Edge to some trees. 2 pairs of eyes blinked back at my light. A pair of deer.

We shared a moment before I chucked my bivi down and set to sleep straight away. It was cold and not pretty so I promised to try harder in the morning 

I thought I'd packed a bit light so shivered through for 2 hours before finally getting up for another wee. 


When I got back to my bag it suddenly seemed a lot warmer and I slept 2.5 hrs to alarm at 4.30am. Hit the snooze button to enjoy the warm a bit longer.

I was rewoken at 5am by grouse barking and the blush of sunrise on the moor. 



I mostly packed before remembering my bivipic








It was tempting to brew up sat in my bag but there was no hardstanding and a lot of dry grass so over to the edge for breakfast "on the rocks" I watched the temperature inversion sloshing up and down the valley.

The unpleasant morning surprise was finding I hadn't washed up since Februbivi so the first brew was washing up water to disinfect the ti mug. Ew.
I also found a pair of heat packs in my frame bag so those kept my toes warm whilst I made breakfast. Very satisfying.


The ride home went via Longshaw and Houndkirk then the Mayfield valley. Just a few lucky dog walkers out so that was definitely the best rush-hour commute I've ever done. It was nice to be going flat to the office where I would normally have another valley to do to get home.

At 8.30 I was sat on the pavement in the city retrieving my D-lock but the progress along the canal to work got a bit slow. Still, at my desk by 10am. I'm not sure my productivity was any good but hey, they owe me.















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