Strava heat map doesn’t show any more trails, so I guess it’s either turn straight down, or miss the area out completely until forestry work has finished.

there’s definitely scope off to the left after crossing the rocky horror junction.. i know that in thge area past chimney a few trails have appeared and been closed down.  The FC don’t like exits into quantock combe or by the great wood camp due to higher horse+ people traffic. all trails along that edge of the coach road (scriptures union, dark tunnel and chimney) have had their exits altered to account for that.

narnias changed a lot even in the last 18 months. in the quantocks sessions video goes a completely different way in the gulley half way through –  wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that otehr trails have too. annoying thing is that narnia doesn’t line up with sharki + jambos anymore. (and bone yard is a 200 m to the side of it)

I can’t wait for the seven wells wood trail to dry up, probably my favourite right now after bincombe for different reasons. love the little jumps/drops and twisty bits. it has a lower section that seems rarely used too.

bet it doesnt look much like this anymore. 11 yrs ago…

yeah it’s barely recognisable even less so than in the ballroom blitz video.

found a recent-ish narnia video hero from just before the ending was changed early last year. what he calls witches cauldron is aka Steep turns and aka dark tunnel …. its a very steep alternate route avoiding lower chimney. i can’t do it. Its too darn steep for me.

the signpost is just before the gulley, i’m assuming top part hasn’t changed much as there’s little issue with other users there

there are three routes to it.

1) do top of chimney and hang a right into it instead of doing lower chimney

2) do sharki + jambos / chimney link then go straight over instead of left into lower chimney

3) do another trail further up the fireroad from chimney called sweep or fudge packing  which is also challenging and you can go left to lower chimney or go down it

so strava lovers.. just like coming from triscombe car park you can do “though the wardrobe” (which is just the road) -> narnia -> “shark + jambos” -> “lower chimney”, you can do.. “sweep” -> “lower chimney”  🙂

Tried the straight down route a couple of weeks ago after I broke my chain. It was actually a pretty good fun high speed blast. Rockier than many of the local trails.

I have a new bike which has given me enthusiasm to find some new climbs. I rode up Dead Woman’s Ditch last week, which was better than I’d feared it might be. Next I will be exploring some trails up to Dowborough Fort.

Oh, and the forestry work seems to have stopped too.

Yes, Forestry work has been stopped for a while. Dry as you like up there at the moment.

Qs featured in Singletrack this month by the way. Weacombe and Smith’s included in the route, but some other stuff too around Dowsborough and what looks like Five Lords / Bincombe.

i also as of yest have a new bike… I’ll now be on new a black and green marin b-17 650b+ jobber..

i should be out on sat morning,  probably up from holford, bincombe, seven wells and something like higher hare knap/rocky horror or slaughterhouse after. depends how i’m getting on with the new bike and what fettling needs doing. want to ride a mix of familiar stuff to get it set up  to my liking.

the00: i’ve hear numerous times the dead womans ditch trail is closed off and that logs have been put across near the top by the bumpy part?

there’s not much around the fort but there does appear to be an alternate route down into the start of bincombe  instead of the usual clearing / through the wall start? the route from the main road to teh north is wide and more fun to go down than up. i do sometimes prefer the track that goes left… errr the zig zag on strava / holford edge on trailforks (i do edge->contour to get to the bincombe trail head clearing)

Dead Woman’s Ditch proper is blocked by trees / branches, but that has meant that a new trail has developed out of the ditch, on the right hand side as you go down. It is brilliant down, and a real challenge up.

I’ve taken two new routes up the Fort from the road near Bin Coombe / Greenway. Both were steep and tough going even in the dry, so I doubt I’ll add them in the the regular rotation though.

I now wonder if there is a rideable route back up Bin Coombe? I’ll probably be out next on Friday morning.

we tried riding parallel to the road last time we came up bincombe but quickly ran into holly bushes so had to climb up to the road.. there might be a way without riding up the main trail.. i’ve ridden on to the shervage wood/fort side before – pretty hard going as its not used much

I was thinking maybe the other side of the earth bank.

That’s probably not a bad shout – not explored there much but I’ve seen there’s a trail that runs into it from the south – off of the lower great bear crossing

Sunday I rode from the bottom of Bin Combe a quad ‘track’ on the Southern side of the earth bank. Quite ridable, pretty and nice alternative to the very steep trail up through the holly bushes to the road.

From the bottom of Bin Combe I did see another trail up to the south, which I will have to investigate another day. I did ride along lower Great Bear, but couldn’t see any trail heading down toward Bin Combe.

I found a nice fun trail from the SE end of Great Bear that links to the centre of the lower Great Bear trail. Riding on from there was actually a really nice way to approach Bin Combe singletrack, so I will add it to Trailforks.

I also tried a trail in to Rectory Wood, near Seven Wells Wood, which I would like to ride again.

i auth;d what you added to trailforks.. but for one of them you didnt add a gpx? (goldilocks?) so had to fail the request

btw hoping to out saturday. probs with at least 1 other

OK so a thing happened..

Someone was asking about quantocks riding groups on facebook and although there is one for Triscombe, and there is a xc & kids oriented group there’s a gap. I’ve thought about it for a while, but am short of time. Turns out Jono thought the same. So I created a FB group, set as both as admins and first social ride is this sunday (23rd sept). Tthere will be different types of rides run by us, and hopefully others. There’s also chatter about routes and trails.

Quantocks Trail Riders Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/231012140901430/?ref=group_header

Sounds good, sorry I missed it. Keep posting on here any future dates and it would be good to meetup sometime. Seeing more riders up there than ever these days. I even saw a couple of ebikes yesterday.

Where’s that second photo taken from @the00 ?

Found Oblivion the other day. Having ridden it I can now concur that it definitely isn’t a trail for winter ha.

^ hah yeah oblivion is nasty, and in summer the entrance is so overgrown you can barely fight through (like slaugtherhouse has been this year and then some..

my guess at picture is its on the track that parallels the main halways to bicknoller path on the minehead road side looking towards minehead (paradise combe side)

the00… theres a ride sat morning 10am starting at DWD going to session the seven wells wood trail

following weekend jono is doing a ride, smiths mentioned but not much else yet?

there was a group out this morning too.

the e-bike guys met via the fb group as well

I reckon that photo is near the top of Bicknoller Combe. I spent a while there last month, searching for a track into the combe.

nah, its just past the start of smiths combe. looking northwest towards minehead with the deer park at west quantoxhead in the foreground.

Jam bo has it. Not far north from the trig point on Bracon Hill in the first photo. Just a short ride to watch the sunset.

I’m away for a few weeks, but maybe one day…

11yrs ago last week since I moved away from taunton. still miss those hills.

I’m away for a few weeks, but maybe one day…

and you don’t do facebook? there are going to be fairly regular rides once we’re out of winter

bump..

bit of bad news. Narnia has been trashed by latest forestry works, bone yard probably too.

the works stop in april, wont know how bad til then the but the first couple 100 metres are out for sure. it will be rebuilt, but until we know the extent of the damage…

managed a quick spin up there on saturday morning while visiting family, parked at west quantockshead, up onto the ridge, down slaughterhouse for the first time in a very very long time, up to bicknoller post and down weacombe and back to the car.

ice in the puddles, but pretty dry overall. saw some fresh-ish tracks but not another rider out there.

I’ll be riding there for the first time in months this weekend. Anybody fancy joining me?

cant this w/e 🙁 should be out somewhere 19th but been mostly ridden away from quantocks over the winter as i’ve not been out on my own much and on winter rides my gang have preferrred the more guaranteed stuff at haldon. not organising another QTRG one until the weather perks up.

word is narnia may not be as bad as feared and a few people are actually riding it. (its still supposed to be closed until april due to felling). the first section has been trashed by machinery two tracks so but, i have permission from the forestry to go in with a few mates and reinstate things. there is definitely scope to improve the entrance. even just a basic levelling. i also think after reviewing old footage the small drops and berms in there have sagged/collapsed over time most likely due to rain/water erosion. so could probably do with a closer look.

quick update. so far narnia may have gotten off lightly but seems half of bone yard (parallel trail next door) is gone. probably scope for something there

Hi all! Found this (fairly) recent thread so decided to keep it going with a question. I’m looking to check out the Quantocks either tomorrow or Sunday. This will be my first time there, I was wondering if this MBR route would be a good introduction to it?

Quantock Hills, Somerset route

Also, sunny weekend – how quickly do the car parks fill up? Just so I know how early to get there. I’ll be driving from Bristol.

Yeah thats an OK route, if you start from Holford there’s plenty of parking – ride up Hodders combe to pick up that route.

Just a heads up if you do follow that route, the Chimney is out of bounds due to Forestry work.

If you can do Sat I’m leading the 5th QTRG social ride from Desd Woman’s Ditch at 10.

heads up: the whole bottom of The Chimney after the corner and i think just after the bit where you drop from left side to right) from about 4/5ths up has been turned into a logging road.

as more work is happening this might not be the end of it.

(this is after mini chimney suffered the same fate last year and over winter, and narnia + bone yard which are still rideable are criss-crossed with machinery tracks.

I remember an old boy I used to work with in taunton telling me how he used to drive up & down the chimney. great woods has always been a working wood and things come and go.

crazy! i guess as it was obviously formed by water actions it will happen again.
from all reports right now the flattened section only goes up to the bottleneck where you swap sides from right to left after the loose right corner.

everything south of dead womans ditch is unnatural planting for the war effort. seeing pre war pics of ramscombe really drove that home. ironically now the FC have realised that planting ona scheduled monument isn’t brest practice.

i remember walking dogs with a mate only 12 ish years ago and didnt notice anything on the road side of cockercombe/triscombe trail wise and people were building shelters in there.

btw sharki+jambos. nowadays the bit between narnia and chimney has been affected heavily at narnia end.. and in between on the wider part too. will get up and explore later in the year once the felling is over and use the good weather to explore the new mendips trails and other local-ish bits

5th QTRG ride where spotted this had 14 people. we did seven wells, narnia, ‘route 666 -> scriptures union’ (once known as wagon wheel i’ve been told?).. bone yard then a few triscombe runs.

I don’t get up there much anymore and only really ride the Combes north of the crowcombe road these days.

Great woods was never that great. That trail me and sharki built was a few bored days maybe 15yrs ago, I’m amazed it’s still there.

the original triscombe DH track was awesome though. i’m guessing its long gone.

i believe geex/GW may have had a hand in building it…

might still exist? was that the one with the road gap? the road gap was lost but has been rebuilt better and bigger. there are a few new DH trails popping up even now. know of at least two this year.