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Last week I was fortunate enough to have a couple of days on my tod in the Lakes, brilliant weather and some awesome biking - Helvellyn and then Kentmere horseshoe and Nan Bield the next day. Mrs Nobeer had enquired as to where I was going, told her I was going pretty high, and as all my usual riding buddies were at work (tuesday and wednesday) I'd be riding on my own.
So, she quite rightly insisted that I leave a plan of my route, and call her both days when I was done, fair do's. But it's got me thinking, I ride on my own quite a bit, and mainly natural off the beaten track stuff, and I remember not so long ago there was a guy left out overnight in Mine woods (Stirling) due to having a tumble and there was no one around.
Do you tell your other half's where your going?.
Downside to thinking about it too much, was that I rode pretty conservatively in the lakes, I won't do that again!
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For short rides from the house I'll just give a notional direction - I'm likely to change my mind in any case.
For longer rides, I sometimes leave an annotated map.
I also have a SPOT tracker these days - mostly for the overnighters.
Yes and I try to stick to the route. Not always successfully but at least she knows what hill I am on and I have to call when done to stop her calling the rescue team out.
This is on foot and on bike.
iphone + FindMyFriends App. Job done.
When I was seriously into Munro bagging (and before I had a mobile phone) I'd have to call Mrs Scotroutes after I got off the hill and at the first phone box I came across when driving home. I'd remind her that the most dangerous part of my day out was just beginning.
I usually give a general direction. I often wonder if my position could be triangulated with my phone or somehow the police would get hold of strava in those horrible circumstances.
[quote=darrenspink ]I usually give a general direction. I often wonder if my position could be triangulated with my phone or somehow the police would get hold of strava in those horrible circumstances.
Assuming you always rode somewhere with a phone signal....
I never tell her where i'm going, it drives her nuts and i'm sorry about that, but I just don't want to. Don't really know why.
My wife would be very suspicious if I refused.
a rough indication of route and approx. return time yes
billy no mates who assumes that smart phone batteries will die 50% of the time
darrenspink - Member
My wife would be very suspicious if I refused.
......yes she always tells me what time you'll be back, never had to hide in the wardrobe yet 8)
I never [i]refuse[/i] to tell her, I just don't tell her. She probably won't even know i'm out.
Yes and SPOT here too, i do search and rescue work so don't really want to end up being the subject of an unnecessary callout !
Not always - actually probably very rarely, which is bad. I'll think about doing it more.
I did always do it walking, and once when doing the Welsh 3000s in a couple of days had the police turn up at Idwal Cottage YHA as I'd forgotten to phone in to say I'd made it (had had a bit of an epic getting benighted on Tryfan) 😳
One of the advantages of the SPOT device is that I can leave a message along the lines of [i]"you haven't heard from me, things aren't going according to plan, but I'm actually OK"[/i] 🙂
You can use endomondo to live track a position on a remote PC
Solo rides beyond the local trails yes. Anything can happen, we recently had an example of a guy who went off the side of a trail on an early morning ride and broke his leg. He had to wait for other riders to come past to get help. If they hadn't come past it would have been a long wait in a place with no phone reception.
[quote=cloudnine ]You can use endomondo to live track a position on a remote PC
If you have a phone signal and your phone battery lasts long enough - so only OK for shorter rides near civilization 🙂
When I'm working in remote areas, I just leave a note on my car windscreen (usually on foot). I also walk the dog in some pretty remote places - proper hikes really - but tend not to tell anyone. I know I should. Same with the rare occasions I'm riding somewhere off my usual radar.
Going to have a look at those SPOT trackers, seem a good idea.
Never have which in 20+ years of riding in the Galloway hills is prob a tad irresponsible, but as a kid growing up in various places in Argyll (late80's) we never told our parents what we were up to or where we were going, motorbikes/old cars/guns/knives/fishing rods/canoes and days at a time spent exploring the hills round Loch Awe and around Crinan/Achnamara etc without any major injuries or issues.
Only had one proper accident whilst out in the Galloway hills and i managed to ride 10 miles back to the car with a slight compound fracture of my elbow joint area and then drive 45 miles to Dumfries hospital to get it sorted so perhaps i've been lucky. Pretty much every time i leave the house i don't have anything specific planned as i just take it as it comes, my choice of route is dependant on how i feel at the time, weather etc so i may plan to go one place but more often than not i bimble somewhere else.
SPOTs are OK, not brilliant, expensive service but if you want people to know where you are and the ability to 'check in' manually they are a good option. Yellowbrick more accurate, more expensive and option to send actual messages.
EPIRB and plans does the same thing, you can normally set an EPIRB off unless completely broken and a note of where you are going and coming out etc helps.
Nothing i hate more than ****s who go and do stuff with no notice, get lost or hurt and then we spend ages just vaguely trying to ascertain within 1000km where they might possibly be. That's wasteful time and a quick txt to someone you know saying "Heading into X, will be out by Y and will check in when I am out" Simple.
I used the free glympse app the other day when I did southampton to Banbury. Sent the missus a location every 15mins for 4 hours. Does need signal though. Local I don't bother, though probably should given my accidents have all been local!
I leave rough times and checkpoints if it's going to be a big day and if it's something like solo scrambling/climbing/dodgy conditions I'll sometimes check-in by text 1/2 way.
probably should, but usually I'm just 'out'..
Not long after we got married, I arrived back from a long snowy day on Beinn a Ghlo which involved a 2 hour hike in the dark, through snow, just to get back to path. Should really have phoned in from village.
Returned to flat to find wife just off phone to my mate, asking how she went about calling out MRT. Since she didn't know where I was going, that would have been interesting..
When I was 17 I walked across Scotland through the Caingorms and then headed north to the top. Rung my folks twice in 6 weeks. 🙂
tbh If I'm solo I just don't ride as hard as when with friends, but where I live (Scottish Borders) I can often ride for most of a day and barely see anyone - especially in winter.
Probably should take more advantage of tech though.
Never given it any thought. Given the wifes sense of direction it would be sod all use anyway "I'm taking the path from East Ilsley to Beedon, then over towards Worlds end, back to Hermitage"... etc... would be sod all use to her.
I do make sure if I'm doing Afan/BPW etc that I ride with mates as she's not happy with me going alone to there.
A friend was riding at our local trail centre - ok it's not the outer Hebrides but at night so all closed and pretty quiet. He had a freak accident - well ok might not thank me for saying but is a little accident prone - and ended up upside down in a ditch sliding into the water and had also unfortunately broken his neck. Very luckily he was found by two dogs on a walk or who knows what would have happened.