have been meaning to see if it’s possible to ride to the moor from home and back, so the weather being as it was, i thought i’d give it a whirl. planned to meet yunki on route, so left in good spirits but as soon as the door shut, i’d a nagging doubt that i’d forgotten something.

dartmoor didn’t look too far away – no problem

at teigngrace, reached the (geographical) low point of the ride, 10 metres. i’m sure i’ve forgotten something though.

hah, new i’d forgotten something. scored some monkey fuel. nothing can go wrong now.

meet yunki at bovey. as you can see, we’re hardwired for gnarrrrrrrr

our climb continues. sadly we’re only passing today but lustleigh cleave is adored from afar.

yunki enjoys the first descent of the day.

then scores some sweet singlybob………

…….. before becoming lensman for the incoming chimp.

it’s a good job i’d bagged those ‘nanas, otherwise this fella may have been trail snackage

the highest point of the ride. hambledown conquered. 534 metres.

as you can imagine, this endless dartmoor singletrack was becoming a real chore

actually, at this stage, the climbs were actually becoming a bit of a chore

the descents however…………

i thought we would have to engage the cloaking device as we were about to peel ‘off piste’ right where this np ranger was parked. luckily, he was reading his paper and was obviously beguiled by kimberley, 18, from dorchester and didn’t seem bothered by our reckless hooliganism

i check back to see if an irate ranger is hunting yunki down but all seems well.

yunki heads off to leave me with the remainder of the journey

i arrive home – banjaxed after 78 km and 2769m of climbing according to my gnarrrmin.

idave diet means that there is only one option for post ride celebrations, hardly a chore.

top day out but today i am a corpse.

you big gaylord. if you’d done 78km on your back wheel only i might have been impressed.

Looks like you had fun. Where was your starting point, often think about riding up from Exeter, its the riding back thats a problem!!

denbury south devon. into n.a then onto the cycle route to bovey.

Nice caterpillar. looks like a cool ride!

he’s a funky fella isn’t he ? it was both cool and staggeringly hot. i can take the heat but have to admit that it affected me yesterday.

yunki = buff.

Not bad, train to Plymouth and home across the moor next then. 😉

Epic fail on forgetting the monkey fuel though, your lucky there was a well positioned chimp friendly establishment en route!

nice one chimp!!! Need to get down your way again and meet up with you and Tim, outshines my local gnarlfest last night, a mere 62km and a whopping 392m of climbing 😀

hmmmm, plymouth to denbury sounds like a challenge.

votchy, would be great to see you again. lots of new stuff to show 8)

looks great. I’m jealous.I need dartmoor trail newness in my life

Arse, shame i missed out on that wee jaunt, got your message and invite last night 🙁

I’m currently still held hostage at Jambo’s attempting to revive his kitchen and put it back together.

Seemed like a lovely day out there yesterday, but normal West Devon weather has returned which should dampen the ground nicely again.
See you soon on the next one when i return to sort out Tims place.

And a nice fat and juicy fella that, the grub is also quite cool.

Nice, not at all jealous.

Plymouth – Denbury eh… could start at mine.

hmmmmmmmm, i sense a plan emerging, ending with beer and food obviously 8)

hurry up then and I’ll unlock your bike from the shed… 🙂

In work now, mail me your monkey musings.

🙁

And i’ll put up those pics of your Lycra and carbon road bike.. 😈

Brilliant photos. I’m missing those lovely trails!

if you are starting at plymouth I’d be interested in coming along….

ok we’ll keep you in the loop if anything materialises.

On the subject of Dartmoor loops, we did a nice 42km loop route riding from Buckfastleigh on Saturday.
Buckfastleight to Kings Wood [surely we should get a group together and build some cheeky trails in there???]
KW to Cross Furzes.
Then follow the Abbots way up to Pupers Hill.
Descend to Lud gate, descend to Chalk ford, follow track to scorriton.
Via Holne to Venford. Out to Bench tor, descend down into valley on non OS map trail which loops under Bench Tor back up to Venford.
Climb to Combestone Tor
Descend to stepping stones on west dart near hexworthy
Climb up Dartmeet on road
Down Dr B.
Home via Hembury woods….
Took 4 hours, seemed to be a lot of climbing though, but some nice riding.

Its 100k from Plymouth station to Exeter, get to ride Haldon aswell…

Del could do the food and beverages 😆

i’m in either way.

@ julioflo: sounds good. i really like the steep dart valley stuff………..

and the more extreme of the descents down from bench tor is outstanding.

done some exploring in that general area recently and found a cool way down to spitchwick from buckland beacon and a lovely descent from the end of dr. b’s down into spitchwick, going past leigh tor.

the area that i really want to unlock though is ausewell wood and holne chase.

Its 100k from Plymouth station to Exeter, get to ride Haldon aswell…

have to say, plymouth – exeter has more cache than plymouth – denbury and we get haldon too 8)

i suppose you’ve already got the route planned too ?

Looks like you had fun. Where was your starting point, often think about riding up from Exeter, its the riding back thats a problem!!

I’ve done it by getting a train down to Newton Abbot, riding a loop from there, train back. Cuts down the miles slightly, although it’s not a particularly nice ride from Newton Abbot – too busy and too lumpy. Haven’t done the ride out from Exeter to Dartmoor on the mtb, only the road bike, but it’s pretty hilly.

Great pics TM, looks like a nice route. Can’t wait to be back.

Sort it whilst i’m about and i’ll bring the trailer loaded with cake and bananas.

i’ll bring the trailer

*quickly phones burchy1 to ammend route to include dart valley switchbacks and nutcracker*

No monkey grub for you then. 😉

that was a grand day out TM… thanks for that.. flippin’ hot though weren’t it..!

I don’t know how you managed to miss all the one handed 360 tailwhips in those photo’s though.. bring on the next one

@trailmonkey the zig zag path, is that the one from the track under Bench tor that drops to the river, down to a nice big pool and slab arrangement? Have walked it but never ridden it yet. I did enjoy the single track and rock chute on that path! I haven’t riddent the Leigh Tor to Spitch descent, have walked it with the dog, we always peel right off Dr B and follow the single track down to the path from newbridge, love that bit of singletrack. Where is Auswell wood?
We should get together soon and explore. There are a 3 of us [me and 2 mates] who hail from Buckfastleigh that are trying to get together to ride weekly on a tue or wed evening…

you must of had a real nightmare cleaning your bikes 😉

can someone enlighten me on Dr B ?

Ive done a bit of walking/bouldering/climbing ages ago around the bench tor side, never really thought of making it into a loop though..will scour my tracklogs and see if a route can be made…. does anyone ride the steepness the other side of the valley (lucky tor/eagle rock side) (ace bivvy spot there too)

@julioflo.

ausewell wood is the high ground the sticks up behind holne chase on the western side of the dart.

i’m intrigued that you’ve found some singletrack that runs from dr b’s to newbridge. we’ve been on the lookout for something on that side of the river valley. i think we should try to hook up and swap trails 8)

@ carlphillips.

dr b’s is dr blackalls drive. it’s a victorian carraige track built to carry the well heeled across the spectacular dart valley. look on your map just south west of dartmeet. it’s nothing special but offers great views and could be a way of getting from a to b.

with regard to eagle rock, if it’s what i’m thinking of, then i’m keen to explore that whole holne chase/ausewell area. fantastic steep contours.

I’ll be up for a bit of exploration around holne, newbridge and dartmeet. It’s on my way home from work and a damn sight easier to get to than the cleave.

TM found it, cheers,
FYI eagle rock/lucky tor is roughly OS 684722 really steep side directly opposite bench tor side, nothing legal there and havent been there for ages and ages not sure if any rideable sheep trails but would like to find out!!
we used to walk in from clapper bridge to bivvy/climb the 40ft outcrop there. that bit isn’t really rideable but not sure what the footpath downstream is like.?
after you do the zig zag track from bench tor where do you cross over the dart to the north side for DrB leigh tor etc..?

@TM and julio if either of you fancy wasting time riding aimlessly around looking for new stuff then bear me in mind, I’m fairly busy working on my extension at the moment but in case i am free I’d love to hook up and do some exploring for sweet new singlybob.
I’d be grateful if you could drop me a mail (in profile) if you plan to go out.
free for evening rides after work too..!!

after you do the zig zag track from bench tor where do you cross over the dart to the north side for DrB leigh tor etc..?

this is where it starts getting tricky. as a rule we start at dartmeet, cross the river, do bench tor then climb back out and drop back to dartmeet then venture out towards bellever and make it a figure of 8.

i’ve yet to weave bench tor and spitchwick into the same ride.

ooh on the back of this thread im literally just scanning over bellever routes now, i haven’t done the rock garden in yonks!!
…will look at that fig 8…cheers

no problem. in order to make the long haul out to the rock garden worthwhile, climb up to bellever tor then find one of the singletrack bits that run off westwards off the summit and join onto the top of the rock garden

i suppose you’ve already got the route planned too ?

Aplogies boring work stuff got in the way…

Old railway up the Plym valley to Burrator/Princetown (Although Bagpuss may know of a better route with more Singlybob) then the worlds your lobster across the moor until you get down into Bovey, round the road to Chudleigh Knighton, up the teign valley, turn right, up past Trushham and onto Haldon, St Andrews, Dels. Beer.

this thread is turning out to be quite inspirational.. I’d love to tag along on some of these rides if I may..

I put it all down to our eye-watering good looks and blistering gnar..