3 Nights Alone in the Wild! Mountain Camping Adventure in the Snowdon Range | Solo Backpacking

Hello you guys, I'm here in Snowdonia in Bedgella. I've got three nights alone in the wild. My confidence was shaken a little bit after the last time when my tent got flattened by the wind but I'm back and I'm ready for a bigger and better adventure. Let's go! Hi you guys, I'm here in the Snowdon Range this weekend. I've planned a gorgeous circular route. We all know how plans go in the mountains though, we'll have to see what happens with it. I've really lightened my pack, I'm down to 9.6 kilos base weight. I am much lighter, lighter than I've ever been in fact for a backpacking weekend so I feel like I can just bounce and jump around, it's great. So the route that I've planned for this weekend is the Fisherman's Walk down from Bedgella, that's the part we're on right now. It's absolutely beautiful, it's all blue water, rocks and ferns, great fun. So we're going to keep heading up here until we get to a beautiful waterfall, cross a few miles of rough ground towards the lake and then I'm hoping to make my way up Yeoran on the next day. I haven't been able to find any information on the route that I want to take up Yeoran so I don't know how that's going to go. If I can make it up there I want to have a camp high up somewhere, make my way around Craig Gwen and back down to Bedgella. So a gorgeous circular if it all comes together. Let's do it! We have come off the Fisherman's Walk now and head into the little waterfall. This is a really gorgeous little waterfall, lovely crystal clear blue water, really pretty. I've been here with my son before so it'll be nice to see it again. I need to get a move on a bit now because we've got only three hours of daylight left. It's six o'clock, sun's going to set at nine and I'm using a trekking pole tent for the first time ever so I don't want to be messing around trying to sort that out in the dark for sure. We are out in the open again now, travelling across Kwimbochan according to the map. Absolutely beautiful! I'm just having the best time. Compared to the last trip this is an absolute dream. Well it's an absolute dream anyway but you know. I'm just gonna get these next couple miles done and get some water and I will see you when I've found a pitch. Mines, old mines. That might be for the copper mines. There's a lot of copper mines around here. I'm wondering if there's somewhere up there that's flat and without a view. Trouble is getting to it from a massive rock cycle. What is that? Look at this. Oh my god. Oh Jesus. Wow. I don't like that. Hold on. Try not to drop me GoPro. So that's what's up here. I don't think I want to camp near that despite the metal railings. Oh look. What about that? Looks good. I found my pitch. It's amazing. Out of view from everyone else. Out the wind a little bit. Beautiful views. Nice and flat. I think that'll be great. There'll be no sunset because the sun is behind that big rock and it's cloudy anyway now but the sun will rise over there so that'll be amazing in the morning if it's clear. All right let's get this tent up. I mean it's by no means perfect but I think it'll do for tonight. That's pretty cool. Look at my little house. I love it. All set up. I love it. I really like this. This is a really light tent. I think it's 690 grams or something like that and you use your trekking pole to put it up. I've always avoided these sort of tents before preferring a security of like a pole tent because I've always used pole tents but it broke last time so I guess on this there's nothing to break. My trekking pole's not going to break and even if it did by some weird fluke I've got another one so. It's so quiet. Like it's actually silent. It's weird. Let's have a look at the map and we'll see where we've been today and where we're going tomorrow. So we started here in Bergella and then come all the way down here. This is the and then I've taken a left and this is where the waterfall is and then come all the way up here through Kumbachan and at the moment just here. So that's been four miles today. So tomorrow I'm going to come down to Lindinas. I might have a little dip in there if I'm feeling brave and then I want to try and find a way up to Yaran. I haven't been able to find any information about this route up Yaran. I don't know if I'll be able to do it or not. There's no path marked on there. We'll just have to wait and see. See what happens. I need food. I remember my stove this time so that's handy. Some noodles and jerky. That's pretty much what I've got for every meal. That's fine. I like noodles and jerky. Just having a lovely hot drink, charging some stuff. Then I'm gonna chill, go to bed. It's been such an amazing day. I feel so blessed. It's been perfect. So tomorrow is the big day. Getting up Yaran on a route I don't know. So I'll be going into unfamiliar territory tomorrow. It'll be interesting. We shall see what tomorrow holds. See you in the morning. Breakfast. It's been a gorgeous morning so far. In and out of the clouds. I didn't sleep very well because I'm having some allergy issues. Couldn't breathe very well. So I've taken antihistamine. Hopefully I'll sleep a bit better tonight. The condensation in here. Just taking a bit of getting used to. I'm really glad I bought the bivvy bag. I think you need one for sure. Every sleeping bag in this kind of tent. It's drying off now. I used a sponge just to wipe over it in the morning. Thanks to Martin on Facebook for recommending a little sponge. That's been really good and it's pretty much dry now. So yeah, gonna get packed up and get on. Summit's clearing now. I think it's gonna be a beautiful day today. It's really warm already. Let's just have a look and see what we can see. All right, Yaran, we're going up today. That is that one there and that peak behind, that's Snowdon and just there, those heads in the clouds, that's Craigwen. So today we're gonna head down to the lake first, Lindenus, make our way up to Yaran and then cross to Craigwen. I'm down at Lindenus. There's a few dog walkers around so I didn't want to go in the lake in front of them but I've come around the corner to the river and I'm gonna have a really quick dip. Rude not to. Oh my god, amazing. That's a gorgeous little dip, set me up lovely for the trip up the mountain. I'm on my way up there now. I'm at 100 meters going through this lovely woodland with bluebells, absolutely beautiful. This is unknown territory for me now so I've never been here. It'll be map and compass going forward. All right, let's get up this. Opening out now, got a nice view and you can see where we were camped last night, just up there behind that writhe. That's really far away and that there, that's where we're headed. Isn't it pretty? Mountain's looking amazing, the clouds are clearing, had a nice bit of lunch. I'm at 200 meters currently so only 547 to go. Gonna be a bit of a slog now, lots of uphill and carrying lots of water because it's hot so yeah, I'll see you up there. 300 meters, 400 meters, past disappeared now so the rest of this might be a find your own way kind of adventure. 500 meters, getting nearer, 600 meters. Look at these views, makes my tummy funny. 700 meters guys, my fear of heights is really getting to me now. I'm just having a sit for a minute, see what I want to do. I bottled it. I got up there really high, just over 700 meters and I started feeling like I was gonna throw up. I just wanted to sit on the floor so I didn't fall over so I've come down because I'm having a really nice trip and I don't want to be doing stuff that makes me feel like that. I'm not good with heights, just feel a lot happier now that I'm down a bit lower. I'm pushing on to Craigwen, weather's turning in a little bit, clouds coming in so I'm gonna do this bit now and then try and get a bit lower. Craigwen, 587 meters. At least we've got one summit done today, even if it is a diddly one but look, see up there, Yarran's in the cloud now so I'm glad I didn't go up there. There's been a change in the weather, it doesn't feel the same. It's windy up here, I'm gonna get down that side a little bit, find somewhere sheltered to camp, have a rest. What a day. I've walked eight and a half miles today, 12 and a half total since I got here and we're camped at 350 meters and actually we're on the opposite side of the valley to where we were last night. I can see it up there and a little bit higher. I'm ravenously hungry, my food bag's getting raided. Right, let us look at the map. So yesterday we went around here and then this morning we've come down, stopped at Lindenhurst, had a little swim on the river here and I've come up here through the woods, followed this round and stopped up here for lunch and then from here, this is why I had to draw it on the map because there isn't a path there, got to about there. So close to the summit, I got to 700 meters, summit is 747. I've come down to Craigwen and made a way down and I've stopped to pitch up here and tomorrow I'm gonna make a way down, again it'll be pathless and I might have a look around Bedgallop Forest, see what's going on in there. It's so amazing to just lay here with that view right there, so beautiful. I'm feeling kind of dozy guys so I'm gonna say goodnight and I will see you tomorrow for what looks like it might be kind of a crazy weather day. It's gonna be fun, bye! It's a beautiful morning, I thought it was gonna be horrible this morning but it's really nice. I've had such a lovely sleep, I must have had eight hours last night. I went to bed quite early for me, about 11 and didn't wake up properly till about half seven, so yeah really nice and I slept last night with the door open so I had the mesh closed but the door open and there is no condensation at all, it's completely dry. Breakfast today is a squashed croissant, chocolate coffee, orange. I'm gonna have that and then start thinking about packing up. So I've decided today to make my way down from Craigwen and head down into Bedgallop Forest which looks really beautiful and have a mosey around there. We're on our way to find a way down off this rock. If I can come down over here somewhere, there is a lake right up there which looks really beautiful. I am down from Craigwen, across the river and I'm just entering this most beautiful forest so I'm gonna keep heading up, see if we can find this gorgeous lake. Imagine living there. Today is absolutely gorgeous, we're back up at about 240 metres now at this little lake but it's really easy going, nice easy track all the way up here through the forest. What a spot for lunch, I'm all fed and I'm gonna hike on now, do a few more miles see if we can get a bit lower down, see if we can find somewhere really nice to pitch tonight. My bag's getting really light now but the food's already going down, proper spring in myself today. I found my beautiful pitch for the evening, I'm on the low slopes of Moilhebog, it's just up there and you can see all the mountains all around in every direction, it's so beautiful and I've pitched the tent so that hopefully if we get a sunrise, because that would just finish off this trip completely if we got a sunrise, we'll be facing the right direction. So we're up at 200 metres here, it's quite windy so we'll see how the landscape does in some wind but seems to be holding up fine. So yeah I'm just gonna chill out for a bit now and take in this loveliness. So I've walked just over five miles today, most of that's been really nice going apart from coming down Craigwen which wasn't too bad actually, I've had a lot worse. So far the total miles is 17.7 and I think once I get back down to the car we'll be looking at 18-19 miles. All right let's have a look at the map. So that was last night's pitch and today made my way down skirting around Craigwen, across this river and made my way by these beautiful tracks through the forest up to this gorgeous little lake and that's really lovely up there. Came down again following tracks that's really easy going around down to here somewhere at the moment. So that's where we camped, so tomorrow I've just got to make my way down back to where we started. And it's amazing actually the view from here because I can kind of see the whole route I've taken starting at the Fisherman's Walk, going up King By Chan, Dazzling Dinners and then up through the forest to Year Arran, Craigwen, camping on Craigwen and coming back down again crossing the river and then up through that beautiful forest today. That's the perfect place to finish the trip. I'll see you a bit later and we'll see if we've got a sunset. I don't think I'm gonna get that sunset I was hoping for. I do think we're gonna get loads of heavy rain which is really exciting because I love being in a tent in the rain and the weather's been so beautiful this weekend. I feel so blessed and it would just be perfect to finish it off with some real heavy rain. It'd be really fun. Although I had to seam seal this tent myself and I'm not sure I did a very good job of it so we'll find out I guess. Yeah look it's starting now, that's a few drops. I'm so excited. It's so cosy down there, all the lights and the vans are so snug in here. I love it. Anyway I'm gonna go to bed now guys. See you in the morning. Morning you guys, it's sunrise. It's beautiful though, got a nice puddle. The bottom of my sleeping bag is also a little bit damp so the bivvy did not entirely do its job. Yeah let some water in through here, not waterproof unfortunately. All right guys that's me, this has been an amazing trip, it's one of my favourites so far. I was really apprehensive about this one actually because I've had a lot of trips that have been really difficult with the weather, with gear failing or with me breaking stuff. I was nervous about the route I'd planned because it's so off the beaten track. It's been incredible and it just goes to show if you can put yourself a little out of your comfort zone, embrace taking on a bit of the unknown, you can see such beautiful things. You can climb to heights that make you feel dizzy, find secret pools and immerse yourself in cool mountain water. You can sit and make a hot drink under a moon so bright that you don't need a head torch. You can stand on ridges and watch the clouds dance around you in the sunrise and walk among tall silent trees. But maybe more importantly you'll learn that you're so much more capable than you thought you were. Even if you don't always achieve everything you set out to do but that's okay too. And even just for a short time you'll be really and truly free. I'm so glad I came here. Thank you so much for coming along with me.