CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
@nedd1e_h
I reckon, yes. Madame has a traditional weekend away with her coven of extreme knitters that should fall then - I'll check and report back.
Glen Avon with a side-expedition up Glen Loin to the glacial meltwater channel of The Castle is what I'm thinking at the moment. Sling tent at Faindouran. 600m brrrr. Two sleepos maybe?
So, yes, on the night of the 30th of September I intend to sling tent and pegs at Faindouran (or a bit beyond if it's hoatching with climbers) for this here ride;
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1761749684
or, if anyone wants something a bit gentler, some variaton on this;
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1761756611
which has lunatic climb options on the north side of the glen for the hard core.
Looks like fun IWRAT, tragically I'm out of the country taht weekend.
Though I've bookmarked those routes and trying to workout if I can combine them with a train rather than a lift and go the previous weekend.
Next time, @steveo, no worries.
trying to workout if I can combine them with a train
Just a regular reminder that ScotRail have a formal ban on transporting trailers on their trains. Probably easier just to cycle.
I can get my overnight kit in my Carradice and a camelbac so I'm free* to use Scotrail.
*Provided I don't mind potentially hanging round platforms hoping that this next train will have a bike space.
I can get my overnight kit in my Carradice and a camelbac
I'm such a lush. Can't bear to be cold, wet, lumpy or sober overnight in the hills so snail's pace glamping it is.
Mayyyybe, but I'm very slow uphill and last time I used a mountain bike I ended up in an ambulance (so it's the Surly or nothin'!). On the other hand, any opportunity to use one of the expanding collection of camping stoves that occupy the bottom shelf of my wardrobe is welcome...
@unhurt
I am the world's slowest bike-packer. Think Nan Shepherd towing her entire house behind her.
You know you're coming.
I'm not a bike packer* though! I shall be using panniers, as the good Lord intended. (Why do you think bikes evolved rear racks?)
*ok, fine, I may have pinched the handlebar attaching drybag thing my brother got from Alpkit and never used, but that's arguably just a squishy bar bag with no map case.
I might also bring what I consider to be the traditional beverage of the bike tourer: a wine box, cardboard outer removed.
Bivy and tarp keep the shelter size to minimum, I tend to avoid midge laden/overly wet trips. Down 'bag keeps the bulk of the pack volume down and an inflatable mat rather than a self inflating mat gets rid of the rest of the bulk at the cost of some insulation.
Leaves a few litres spare in the bag for stove/food/whisky, clothes go in a dry bag under the "long flap" and waterproofs go in the loops on top.
Tools and stuff go in the pockets, water and snacks go in the camelbac. Though with the filter bottle one can avoid carrying too much water at a time.
"a wine box, cardboard outer removed"
Drink it all before bedtime and you get a free pillow too.
I'm not a bike packer*
Yeah, that phrase has come to mean hard and light sleep under bubblewrap beardy titanium spork and amphetamines stuff.
I carry cutlery and a decanter.
Drink it all before bedtime and you get a free pillow too.
That is my standard pillow! Took years to realise it was best putting it under the inflatable sleeping mat.
hard and light sleep under bubblewrap beardy titanium spork and amphetamines stuff
@steveo didn't say anything about amphetamines...
More practically, am I correctly understanding the proposed plan as: arrive Tomintoul some time Saturday morning/before lunchtime, ride up to (vicinity of) bothy and put up tents / tarps / bubblewrap, then on Sunday reverse the process?
i need to go shopping
For boxed wine?
(I can borrow you a tent if you're stuck.)
For reasons of personal responsibility all I will put on here is that I will aim to be at NJ 083 062 at 17h00 on 30/09/2017 and will warmly greet any member of CCE who turns up.
Anybody gets lost, falls in a river or kills themselves trying to get there is invited to reflect on their mountain craft.
So the inaugural CCE Overnight Capable outing was instructive in a number of regards. Great fun, arduous and memorable. Truly wild territory.
However I have to recognise that it was too late in the season to draw in less experienced bike packers (ice on the bikes overnight) and not quite enough notice for those with conventional lives to reorganise.
So, who's up for an expedition next midsummer? I suggest giving a campsite again and letting folk sort their own logistics out. My suggestion is to sling tents near the Ruigh Aiteachain bothy in Glen Feshie on a Saturday night in late June or early July. The bothy itself is being renovated at the minute but it's always busy anyway. Lovely spot, but a wee bit of hike-a-bike required due to washed-out river crossings.
There's a tonne of great cycling around there for riders of every bent right round to Abernethy. Rail accessible from Aviemore.
Anybody interested? Any other suggestions?
"So the inaugural CCE Overnight Capable outing was instructive in a number of regards"
Was there a trip report somewhere?
Ice on the bikes is pretty brutal, crisp, clear and cold I take it?
I'm up for it, late June before the schools break up or mid-July after the English schools break up would be better for me. Basically excludes my summer holiday window.
I’m planning to do some more bikepacking next year and getting some semblance of bike fitness back, just trying to work out how to do that without losing my hard won running fitness as I did last time when I switched back to the bike.
@cb trip reporting is the privilege of the planner, but I can proudly note that I only fell off once (uphill & slowly). Fun Types 1 & 1.5 (shading into Type 2 if you squint/have an inexplicable aversion to pushing a bike up very steep, loose surfaces into sideways rain).
NB Still not a bikepacker. Is #panniers4life a thing?
I'm late to the party, what did I miss??
I have various tentage options from tiny home made Gore Tex bivis through DD Frontline Hammocks to 6 berth monsters*
I'm keen to try out my hammock and need to reproof my MHW Trango 2 from the 90s**
* Non cycleable
** needs a mixture of PVA & White spirit to respray the outer inside with PVA.
Ice on the bikes is pretty brutal, crisp, clear and cold I take it?
Yeah @steveo and 500m up. Full moon too... Changed instantly to a mild wet gale at 04h30. That's the Cairngorms for ya. No two minutes the same.
Why don't you pick a weekend that suits you for next year?
Much as I’d like to go, randomly meeting up in the middle of nowhere, doesn’t sound conducive nor attractive to “less experienced” bikepackers.
What could possibly go wrong?
(Maybe I’m just not getting into the right spirit of it)
@nedd1e_h
Excellent point well made.
Just putting ideas out there at the moment. What I wouldn't ever do is attempt to organise an off-road ride, but I certainly would incite people to bikepack. I'm not qualified or insured to lead and I know that what amuses me would bore other folk on here. And I wouldn't want to become be responsible for anyone else's fate - this is a matter for robust, independent people like us.
What I'd expect is that, once a date is chosen, folk would organise rides amongst themselves leading to an agreed location. For Glen Feshie they could start from Kincraig, Abernethy, Fort Augustus or even Braemar depending on how nuts they are.
That's the Cairngorms for ya. No two minutes the same.
haha yeah. Probably shoudn't mention the time I was woken by the rain bouncing off my roll mat on to my face in a bivvy bag, having gone to bed in a nice calm summers evening.
Let me check when the schools break up and I'll propose the one before, unless anyone is wedded to school holidays then we can work somthing else out.
Finally checked the school holidays, they break up on the 29th June so any weekend between the 9th and the 23rd would be fine with me.
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