Yeah cheek required
Velvet bottom: Trail through the valley from Charterhouse with the old mine workings toward Cheddar. I think people are now permitted to ride horses and the padlocks have been removed from the gates. But bikes, in principle, not permitted :roll:. Best to do it early in the morning.
Cheddar Rock garden: When you get to Black Rock gate on the gorge road, carry your bike up the other side for 300 metres [stupid]. This trail, following the cliff top down toward Cheddar is a bridleway but you’ll never see a horse on it! The ridable approach is to turn left at Black Rock get up the road for 1km until you see a gate on the right with a gravel farm track (FP). Follow that until it turns grassy and continue until it joins the cliff-top bridleway. Again, best done early to avoid friction.
Badgers Arse: named by the Shipham lot… Is an twisty woodland FP that runs parallel with the Shipham Gorge road, starting close to the quarries, climbing a bit, then descending toward the petrol station at the junction with the A371.
Santas Grotto: aka Christmas trees, is in Rowberrow Wood. Much of this good stuff was wrecked by forestry but it’s starting to show signs of repair. I reckon if we have a dryish summer it may all come back to life!
The prob with Cheddar is that there aren’t enough bridleways so you have to get cheeky and explore which requires care. But when you do, there is some decent stuff.
