The longing to get out on a Bike Packing trip has been strong ever since I stumbled upon various cyclist’s blogs last summer. So come October 2012, I decided to start collating camping equipment and building a bike. The steed would be specifically designed to carry all of this equipment whilst remaining trail worthy – no barges allowed. I wanted to be able to ride to a location with decent trails but also enjoy the journey by straying away from roads as much as possible.
So this is what I ended up with
Rigid, geared, Singular Swift – Ready to be laden with luggage and ready to set off for an adventure!
But where do I go? It saw a few weeks of daily use to go here, there and soon to be everywhere, so I was hankering to test it for its intended purpose. With work commitments and only one day off, it seemed logical to initially do an overnight stay in familiar territory; camp out at one of my local trail centre trails. Result!
The Ride
Everything is packed, strapped onto the bike and my legs are shattered from the 8hr work shift earlier on that day. I finally set off at around 2100 for a scenic ride through Pendam (with some off-piste decent along the way) and some 16km later eventually get to a spot where I would happily pitch up for the night at around 2330. By this point you can appreciate that it is quite dark, even with the piercing beam from my helmet light and the big, beautiful glow of the moon sitting on the still surface of the lake.
I chose to take my Tarp instead of my tent to save weight and after all, it’s only one night and not due to be a particularly cold or wet one at that. I found some relatively flat ground in the long grass, flipped my bike upside down and pitched the tarp over the lot. Hey presto! Wriggle inside (whilst avoiding getting a pedal in my face or derailleur in the tookus), organise my effects and then climbed into my sleeping bag and bivi. One toasty maggot.
Time to crack on with dinner. Now I do have a stove set (alcohol burner) but it was OTT for the one night, so I made do with cheese and piccalilli sarnies, Spar’s finest pocket sized strawberry cheesecake (reduced to 29p – get in!) and a flask of black coffee. With dinner done and the cogs of my over active imagination turning away (best friend / worst enemy), the noises of the forrest at night where somewhat distracting and I found it a wee bit difficult to sleep. So I cracked out my iPad (prepared camper) and started to watch Black Adder – Back and Forth. My mind was now distracted and sure enough I started to drift off, with one of the final things I hear being:
Baldrick “Oww dear, do you think it’s safe?”
Black Adder “I don’t know. Does this look like a dangerous place to you Baldrick? This empty wood?”
Come Fly With Me
Awake at 0530 – I always seem to be an early riser when I sleep away from my bed. I scurry out from my abode, stretch like nobody is watching and admire the fresh scenery. Early midweek morning, not a person in sight. Just the sound of the birds in the trees gossiping to each other. I take the short walk down to the lake and wash up before returning to dismantle the tarp and have some breakfast.
So that wonderfully ideologic lake side camping spot looked astounding in its vast emptiness last night but I can assure you I had a lot more company in the morning. The moment that I dropped the tarp, out came the insects. Repeatedly bitten, my efforts of swatting and flailing my arms were very much in vain. Im sure that if there was anyone watching from afar, it may have been quite amusing, appearing like some slap-stick style comedy – hopefully any such witnesses didn’t catch the accompanying profanity too.
I did eventually manage to pack everything back onto the bike, some 30 minutes later. Have you ever tried packing a sleeping bag on the move?…because pacing up and down was the only way that I was safe. A running jump back onto the bike as soon as the last strap was done up. I was on the move – breakfast had to wait!
I had done about 13km before finding somewhere safe to stop for a snack, at which point it would be safe to say that feeling famished was an understatement. By 1000 I was by the trail centre restaurant just in time for food. Sadly the taste of cheese and piccalilli sandwiches, Ethymol toothpaste and warm black coffee lingering in my mouth for the past 2 hours did not constitute the correct start to the day.
Lovely view from the breakfast table at the Trail Centre Restaurant.
For the rest of the morning till early afternoon, I rode some off-piste tracks, wheezing around with the tail end of a chest infection that had been lingering for some days . Lemsip, honey, orange juice, cough medicine – I had been taking the lot, all with rather immediate but short lived relief. Fortunately, the most effective remedy lay just around the corner.
This pub serves some of the best libations I’ve ever tasted, my frequent and most favourite fancy being Guinness.
Still room for more food and this time a few Butty Bach’s (which I highly recommend!) As a non-meat eater, I thought it silly that I forgot to ask for my wonderful risotto to come without bacon, so when it arrived I was a bit dumfounded as to what to do. My morals tell me that it is criminal to waste food, especially a dead animal, so I chowed down and ate every last bite. Now would be a good time to acknowledge Al Murray’s bacon related views by saying that it was average – I could not taste the reawakening experience that he spoke of. Sadly there was no room for dessert. Stomach distention was running at full capacity and I didn’t have a top button to undo or belt to take off – don’t wear lycra kids, it’s not cool.
After a quick telephone catch up with my mum, I was back on the bike and toddled off the 10km home – beer legs and saddle sores ahoy. The whole route was just short of 80km and for any curious chaps and chapesses, my Garmin stats for the route are here. Stay tuned for Bothy visits next week!
NoTime.RideBike 