Yes you read that right, I've managed two bivvies this month, thanks to attendance at the Scottish BB Spring Thing and also an impromptu trip to avoid the Dirty Reiver.
The spring thing was local to me so an easy option to bag my April BAM. The weather forecast was finally heading towards spring and the trails were looking more brown than white so it was off towards the Lomonds via Cleish, Loch Leven and Benarty hill. I'd had a leisurely start thanks to another works night out, a need to rescue my car and also to drag the Jones out and make sure it was functional, having hardly ridden it this year so far.
I caught up with fellow BB'ers Blair and Jamie at the pub (hurrah) after chasing them down on our planned route. Beers were drank and food was eaten (I had the worlds hottest chilli) then it was off to the Fife 5 star bivvy spot as per my January BAM. After a bit of persuasion the fire was lit in the stove and we settled in for a night of chat and whisky drinking followed by a fairly restful sleep. Sunday saw us heading back over the Lomonds, down past Glenrothes to the Fife Coastal Path at West Weymmss. There then followed a leisurely ride along the FCP fuelled by coffee and cakes courtesy of the café at the Harbourmasters house in Dysart.
BAM 2 was not planned. Planned was the Dirty Reiver gravel race in Kielder forest. I'd entered this in November last year in a fit of enthusiasm for an event that was well organised and shared with others. This enthusiasm waned somewhat having had to shell out 60 quid for this privilege and waned further when I realised that despite the hype it was 200k of forest roads and Sitka spruce trees, not the gravel highways of the Midwest of the USA. The final straw was the realisation that there was nearly 1000 people in for this. I go cycling to get away from people not to fight my way through them...
Hmm. No chance of a refund so I guess I had to turn up? In the event a crap week at work, an enforced late Friday finish and a total enthusiasm and sense of humour failure meant an easy decision - stuff it I was not going. I'd hoped that the ever reliable weather would come to my rescue as there was no way I was schlepping round 200k of forest tracks in the rain but even this let me down with a forecasted heatwave.
So its going to be dry and sunny and I have a choice - spend a day riding around a vast Sitka spruce plantation or go in search of mountains. Yup - its a no brainer. I was a bit miffed at writing off £60 but I could no longer be bothered with all the furore of this event. No criticism intended, this is just not for me.
So on went the bags, bike into car and 45mins of easy driving (better than 2 hrs 30 of M74 white line fever) saw me in Dunkeld for a late start at 8pm. An hour and half later I was at the top of Grandtully hill having pedalled up through the woods of Craigvinean and Griffin Windfarm hunting for a bivvy spot. A raised and dryish level area beside the track fitted the bill just as darkness was falling.
My nights sleep featured dreams of being cold and trying to get to sleep, punctuated by waking periods of being cold and trying to get to sleep..... I gave up at 5 am, had a leisurely breakfast and got going fast to get some heat into my chilled bones. So much for spring but I'd ended up at 450m so little wonder it was cold. I resisted the temptation to head straight back to the car and instead had a fine day pedalling various easy trails over to Aberfeldy, Up Glen Lyon and then over to Loch Rannoch and east to the Tummel valley. Thereafter it was the fine trail down to Pitlochry and then an easy cruise along NCN 7 / 77 to Dunkeld.
No pics I'm afraid, I was travelling light!
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