20 Miles Hiking The Ashridge Boundary Trail + Night Hiking! The Chilterns

Hi guys! Today we're doing the Ashridge Boundary Trail. It'll be 16 miles if all goes well. It's a nice day for it, overcast, it's pretty cold but that's nice. Hopefully it won't get too hot. Yeah, so we're going to start at the Bridgewater Monument and then Ivanhoe Beacon and go around in a really big loop. So yeah, I'm excited. Just recently read this book called The Natural Navigator by Tristan Gouldie and that's about looking at nature signs, so sort of telling what direction you're facing and stuff. I'm just looking at these trees and you can see they've got like this thicker root on one side, like an anchor root. Usually that would be on the southwest side because we have a southwesterly prevailing wind. Just looking at the compass and sure enough, southwest is from this direction. Yeah, southwest. That's amazing. So yeah, I really recommend that book, it's really cool. There's the little signs on this trail so that's quite nice. Don't have to worry too much about getting lost. I've got my walking poles today, trekking poles. I don't use them for the shorter hikes but I use them for the longer hikes sometimes because I'm hypermobile so while I try to keep strong and fit and whatnot my joints are like too bendy and I can get injured. Oh by the way, if you ever see me fretting about the weight of stuff as well, that's why. I don't want to injure myself but yeah, I've got them with me in case I want to use them. I don't know if I will. Nice to have the option. Yeah, I've got to get a move on because I'm spending so much time taking b-roll and stuff. I've done like one and a half miles in an hour so I'm gonna crack on a bit. Oh dear. We are out in the open. That over there is part of the ridgeway and over in this direction will be Ivinghoe Beacon, although we can't quite see it yet. So we're heading up this path now and all along the top there, we've come from that way, that's Ashridge Forest and over here that direction is the ridgeway. So let's go up Ivinghoe. A few miles in, just over. It's pretty busy. I'm supposed to be on my lonesome but yeah that's our highest point around here. So I'm getting pretty hungry now. I'm going to go down and around find my favourite lovely little bit of woods to stuff and have something to eat. He's a big boy. I've just come into one of my favourite little bits of Aerogreen Forest so I'm going to stop here and charge my batteries up a bit and have something to eat. Directions for this little hike off the National Trust website. I will put the link in the comments. There's also a little map that comes with it. It's not an amazing map but it gives you an idea of where you're going. So we started here at the Bridgewater Monument in the middle of Ashridge and we've walked through the woods, come out at the bottom of Ivinghoe Beacon, climbed up the beacon, gone along those hills we can see Nutsball Downs and then through these woods here I believe we're somewhere along here at the moment. So we've still got to go all the way around. We're on mile five at the minute so a lot of ways to go. Just coming out of our magical little evergreen forest now. So it's looking like mid-April for wild camping videos which is amazing. I'm really excited. I've got something really exciting planned. It'll be my most ambitious trip. I'm really excited about that. I don't want to say too much about it in case for whatever reason it doesn't happen. I wanted to thank you guys as well for sticking around when I've started a wild camping channel and then not been able to upload any wild camping so thank you. I appreciate you still being here and I'm really excited for the spring. Hello sheepies. Hi. It's okay you can go. We'll wait for you. Go on. It's okay. Hi friends. Nice bit of mud down here. Back into Ashford Forest. These beautiful trees. What a beautiful place this is. Love these woods. I want to live in the woods. So I think I may have lost the trail. I was indeed going the wrong way but I think I only went about a quarter of a mile in the wrong direction so I'm back on track now. This is mile eight for me. Just crossed that road there and coming to Ashford Golf Course. So we're going to follow this along for a while. This tree is enormous. Having a little sit down in this field. I had fun times in this field last time. There were a load of bulls walking around and I was like hey cows and this one massive white bull with big horns and red eyes was like I'm gonna get you and he started charging me and then all the others followed and I had to jump over this fence behind me and they would not let me out. Every time I tried to get out they were like getting angry and stomping around so I had to detour the entire thing so it went a bit wrong but they're not here at the moment. I spoke to a guy over there and he said they're on the other side of the field so I'm hoping they're just gonna let me pass and they can't smell my fear. I'm terrified of them now. Should be okay. Okay so we've just come a few miles from right over there Freelock Valley up over this field. These I think are all bluebells so five six weeks it'll be all purple in here. So I've just bought myself a top just a cheapy like three by three one. I want to learn how to make a shelter like a sort of cook under in the rain and stuff so that'll be fun but I'd love your guys advice on hammocks. I want to get a hammock at some point over the summer and I've just got no idea with hammocks so yeah if you've got any recommendations that would be great. I've got my new pink titanium spoon. I'll try that out. Can't beat home-cooked meals when you're on a long hike. I love it. So I'm over 12 miles now which should mean there's only about four to go but because I've backtracked a bit and I've been dodging them out going back on backwards and forwards filming I think it'd be more like five to go. Water's doing okay actually. I've got about half a litre left. I left with two so that's fine. If you're doing this in hot weather though like in the summer you're going to need more water than two litres I think and there's no water sources unless you use the animal troughs which I've done before but I'm not going to recommend it in case you get sick but that is an option. I always filter and then put a purifying nice full tummy and we're back on the trail again I can feel the sun going down I've been looking for it for like 45 minutes and I just don't know I don't know where I lost it but um sorry because I know where I am and I know where I've got to get to so I'm just kind of improvising the last bit. The sun's gone down now. It's a really nice sort of pinky sky. Yeah it's all good. I might have a little bit of night hiking. There's some fantastic nature noises tonight It's so noisy here. Pretty dark now. Love a bit of night hiking. Yeah so I'm taking some weird route through fields. I need to get that direction but it's all fenced off so I can't get there. Yeah hoping I will find a way soon. Okay so 17 miles. It's two degrees last time I checked so it's pretty cold now but I'm nice and warm so it's fine. I'm just stopping to have something else to eat which will be my last stop before we make it back on the home stretch now. Pretty spooky at night. I really like night hiking especially on nights like this so it's really clear. You can see all the stars and I can see the North Star just off from the Big Dipper. I learned that from the Tristan Gooley book as well. Natural Navigator. So the North Star doesn't move in the sky so you always know where north is or it's called Polaris as well. So I'm actually heading north now so I can follow the stars and that's really fun. After taking a crazy detour I'm now back on the Asheridge Boundary Trail. Yay! There's a pair of eyes stalking me. It's following me along over there. It's gone behind a tree now. Let's wait and see if they come out again. Can you see them flashing? I wonder what it is. It's probably a deer. See that little lights over there? That's the eyes. Hello! Whatever you are. Just laying down. Just laying down under a tree on a little hill thing. I'm watching the stars. I wish I could show you what I can see. It's just so beautiful. It's so still and it's just gorgeous out. I can hear the animals. I'm nearly back now. Not far to go. Look where I am. Made it. 19.87 miles in the end. I'm going to call that 20. So we're back at the Bridgewater Monument now. Amazing. So yeah, this has been 20 miles on the Asheridge Boundary Trail with some improvising towards the end where I got lost. Oh my god, it's been such an amazing day. I've loved it. So if you live locally, give this one a go. Look up the directions. Really great walk. You'll love it. Just make sure you've got enough water, food, warmth and also you'll need navigation because if you go wrong and it gets dark and you're in the woods, you don't want to be stuck there with no food and no water and not knowing how to get to where you need to get to. So just make sure you've got all that done and yeah, have a great time. Create your own little adventure. So yeah, this has been amazing. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you as always for all your comments and everything. Love reading them and I will see you next time.