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If you’re looking for a proper outdoor backpacking adventure on your bike, but don’t have weeks to spend away, then a spot of bothy bikepacking is the perfect solution. Rather than staying under canvas or stars, you bed down in a remote mountain hut for the night. For us, it’s one of those things that sounds like a great deal of fun, but just never quite happens. So we decided to stop talking about it and actually give it a try.
Turning a ride into a two (or more!) day adventure, being self-sufficient, and carrying everything you need including food does add a brilliant element of adventure to a ride. And of course the weight you save by not having to carry a tent can be used on other things: cheese and wine for example!
Step 1 – Find a bothy
There are many bothies throughout the UK – concentrated mainly in Wales, Scotland and the north of England, and all maintained by the volunteers of the Mountain Bothies Association.
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The Mountain Bothies Association website has all the information you’ll need to find a suitable bothy, you don’t need to be a member to use one, and you don’t need to book one either. This does mean you may arrive to find other people staying there, which is part of the adventure.
We headed to a bothy in the Towy Forest named Moel Prysgau, deep in the wooded vales of Wales.
Another part of the joy of using a bothy is that you don’t need to carry a tent and if the weather is particularly inclement you do at least have four walls and a roof over your head.
Step 2 – Get kitted out
Step 3 – Choose your food and drink
Step 4 – Tweak your bike setup
Step 5 – Choose your route
Step 6 – Know where you’re going!
Step 7 – Bothy etiquette
Step 8 – Eat, drink, be merry (and get up early!)
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
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