[Closed] A Quantock Hello - Some indepth Qs about the area

(*nice little [i]drop[/i])

Canopy, that trail you describe (coming in to the right of sideslope bob) is the one I tried to direct you to on the first page.

I've just re-read all 4 pages of this thread to get some route inspiration now I'm not working away and can get out more often 🙂

If anyone fancies meeting up for a ride, give me a shout.

hey, not been on here much lately, but been out every weekend this year, bar one!

yeah sounds like it now! have been filling in a few final gaps..

still have to find the other rocky horror dibbs said was between the dead womans trail/concrete block and old devils galloping. theres an obvious right turn as you head into old devils, and if it keeps off in the direction it looks it ends up exactly where dibbs said.. unless old devils is the 3rd rocky horror on the quantocks, which would make sense too (as its more rocky than the other 2).

there's a definite trail/path exit just down from the exit from the DWD/concrete block trails in holford combe that goes up the hill side.. i'm hoping thats also related. there isn't a strava segment though, or a sign on heatmaps (strava or trailforks) so its possibly rarely touched.

other main focus at the moment is a man made trail in seven wells wood that we're liking. drops you out the opposite side of the valley from the chimney.

quite liking looping out down DWD, down through "joes path" (which brings you out at a fireroad junction where mini chimney ends) down the road a bit and climb back up to seven wells wood )(follow fence line to a gate just down the trail from the sandy beds car park), then after blastingthe fireroad and doing the trail back up the fireroads to mini chimney (aka rocky shoot) and up to CPG.. its possible to add in narnia/sharki+jambos in the middle of that loop too by going up the old coach road (did that sunday)

oh and hitting bincombe regularly again now.. the tree at the start isn't going anywhere soon (its mahoosive), i guess traffic will carve the track round into a trail in the end. its running fairly slow, still not carrying enough speed to scare myself on the two 'bump jumps' at the end. once the ground hardens and the leaves in the trenchy bits are gone it'll be awesome

Sadly you won't get any more postings/updates from Dibbs 🙁

couple weeks ago was with a colleague (who's been riding the tox for 20 years and knows the name of nothing..) did a descent from wills neck trig point to the blue ball inn.. i went stupid fast..and somehow got away without dieing

starts steep, gets steeper, gets stupid steep? done it once, not been back. and its a footpath.

Sadly you won't get any more postings/updates from Dibbs

indeed. still sad about this.

yeah i already ref'd the sad news about dibbs further up 🙁

i'll explore that section next time its dry-ish, and i'm out alone. i'm now thinking that if i go up what i think is its ending near holford edge, i'll confirm that too, two birds one stone n all that.. if it looks any good i can do it on the return trip, or sack it off. pretty sure it must be as there seems to be a lot rocky ground in that whole area.. with it falling between old devils and concrete block and the DWD trail which are all rocky its gotta be it. there's also a definite crease in the topo map with possible stream in that area at exactly the right place

starts steep, gets steeper, gets stupid steep? done it once, not been back. and its a footpath.

that's the one, you won't go there unless you either parked at the blue ball inn (like i had) or lived that side of things.

its called "keep calm and scream arrrgggggggggh" on strava

probably going to explore seven wells further at the weekend, found a mostly singletrack path ('more fun than jps') that cuts out the fireroad and makes it more interesting, it pops into the proper trail about 1/3rd in, missing a few small bump/jumps at the start. there are hints there may be more on that hill, just have to do a loop of the fireroad in that section looking for ways in / out.

pictures speak..

1. is the trail exit that i don't know..
2. is where concrete block and the DWD trail come out
Fork. is where i saw a trail go the right when i rode down old devils recently
Dibbs #ref - roughly where dibbs OS ref put a dot
crease - where there is a crease on topo map and possible stream

[img] [/img]

click for bigger:

never done that.

interested to know where trailforks get there heatmap from. strava seems the logical choice but it doesn't seem to have the coverage of the strava one.

doesn't look like many have! the end looks interesting from the bottom though.

i believe the heatmap is their own from the people that do link their trailforks and strava 🙂 (which isn't a huge amount)

Just looked at Trailforks for the first time, and finally I can start associating the trails i've ridden for the last 6yrs with some names on here.

Might have a go uploading some tracks if it would be useful. Will be out again tomorrow 🙂

awesome 🙂

do it! i'm a regional admin for the quantocks on trailforks(along with the Triscombe Riders Collection user group) so i can approve / adjust / link to strava etc.. i got frustrated with the amount of editing/adding i was doing taking so long and made my case. generally i don't touch things in the triscombe/cockercombe/great wood area.

as long as the issue i've got with my rear brake isn't made worse by me fettling on saturday on sunday i'm planning to go UP the trail that i keep seeing before the holford edge/ladies combe climb. if it seems fun, i'll loop back down it and make a segment (which will then pick up anyone else thats ever ridden it..)

flavour of the month amongst my lot is the seven wells wood trail

you can use this site: https://www.doogal.co.uk/strava.php to export a strava segment to a gpx, which you can then import to trailforks.. (or you [i]can [/i]draw by hand in tf..)

you can link strava to trailforks to import all your old rides (as ridelogs) and if linked it will auto-import a few hours after each ride too.

Not a strava user, but sounds like a good tip.

If you're going up the trail I think you mean (pretty much from the oak tree clearing at the bottom of frogs Coombe, but on the other side of the stream, and heading north), then my recommendation would be that once you are just past the tree line, turn right straight up the hill for a 20m slog, and then turn right again, along a very narrow singletrack that runs South(ish) and traverses the fort. This will put you in a perfect spot for linking to five lords and Bin Coombe. This is shown as a dashed 'path' an OS, and is visible on satellite photo.

man that confused me for a moment! 🙂

- if i understand you correctly.. go up the holford edge climb (which goes north up to the fort/greenway) then instead of going all the way to the greenway there's a trail to the right. i've gone all the way up it maybe once, but can't remember spotting that trail but it [i]is [/i]there on the map. can just about make ut the start on open ground on the satellite map. if i'm right it looks like the first half of this (badly done) strava segment : https://www.strava.com/segments/4130541 and joins a not so exciting descent from the fort i've done a few times.

definitley sounds like something to add variation (i hate riding the same route over and over..). i'll do it and add a better made strava segment and a trailforks thingy

i'll try orientate things here, as thats the other side to the trail i was talking about 🙂

- standing in the clearing at end of both frog at the stream that come from frog combe. looking up frog combe. the next track around to the left an up a bit is the end of old devils galloping path and round to the right behind you is "horizon" the climb up to higher hare knap, and the route down to holford.

- under the tree branch to the other side of the other stream. to the left is the climb up to the fort (holford edge) or follow up the rocky trail to the right (ladies combe), if you keep going you end up at the clearing for five lords/bincombe.

- the trail i'm planning on exploring is the first right after the rocky bit going up ladies combe, and then goes up to the right towards old devils. so the opposite side to the fort. the second right going up ladies combe is the trail exit from doing either the dead womans ditch trail or concrete block. it bears south, to south west.

Sorry for the confusion, but yes, the start of that Strava segment. You were originally talking about a different trail.

hah. i knew what i meant, still not sure where it got crossed 🙂

(possibly when i was talking about a trail into holdford edge off of hare knap that goes behind combe houuse hotel, which i've done a couple time now)

just try talking to people on the ground about stuff. everything has different names amongst different groups of riders, very hard to communicate! for example, in my group "snakebite corner" is the end of the drove by crowcombe park gate, due to an incident there. i picked up "tadpole corner" from strava and others, makes sense as there is a pond there full of spawn right now! but until recently it didn't make that much sense. some triscombe trails have multiple names

e.g.
rocky shoot aka mini chimney,
or route 66 aka great wood dh aka sams trail
or dark tunnel aka steep turns aka witches cauldron
or puddles vs meadow

in case of any doubts.. I've ridden almost everything i've listed previously

a few little gaps to fill in when I can fit them in.

- haven't done the higher route into sideslope bob you mentioned
- or the straight over instead of right into slaughterhouse
- or the straight into the corner of somerton bypassing the first log drop

so basically none of the 'on the top' areas between ladies edge/slaughterhouse or between slaughterhouse and stert/somerton

there are a few new looking ones over int the chimey area on that fireroad that drop down the side, at least 2 maybe 3, and a possible one on the coach road too.

(i've been all round higher and lower hare knap though)

still can't find what the "esses" is, or know what knotties trails is/was.. (from something in an old post, possibly something in staple plain before it got felled?)

I think I had a look at "steep turns" aka "witches caldron" on Tuesday, and I suspect "Dark tunnel" is a different route.

From the end of Sharki and Jambos there are at least three routes downhill...

depends where you count the end 🙂 i'm only going by segments online, which differ a bit..

from coming downof sharki + jambos, part way when you cros the fireroad there is "rocky horror #1", if you follow all the way to the chimney midpoint and go straight, thats steep turns? (jono and I went down that, and both slipped on the same root near the start) and left there is obvs the bottom half of the chimney

dont know any more down's from there though?

Up in the air but its looking like a 50/50 chance i'm doing the explore tomorrow (depends if my mates out or not, otherwise it'll be a different mission,probably in seven wells wood)

I hope in 100yrs time people wonder who those pioneering quantock trail builders sharki & jam bo really were...

lol. the combined segment for narnia & sharki+jambos is already called hart hill woods downhill. so probably not.

the quantocks sessions video on the other hand..

btw triscombe is being dug again now, third dig day is tomorrow

Ha. Been threatening to drag sharki out of retirement for quantock sessions 2 for some time. Maybe a ten year revisit...

In fact just pinged him for 7th may. That'll be ten years since we filmed it...

jam bo
I hope in 100yrs time people wonder who those pioneering quantock trail builders sharki & jam bo really were...

As a Quantocks newbie local and mostly STW lurker, I know you as the Quantock Sessionsing, trail building mate of the bloke who punctured his lung in Frog's at sunset ha. I'll be sure to pass that on to my kids. 🙂

canopy
from coming downof sharki + jambos, part way when you cros the fireroad there is "rocky horror #1", if you follow all the way to the chimney midpoint and go straight, thats [b]steep turns[/b]? (jono and I went down that, and both slipped on the same root near the start) and left there is obvs the bottom half of the chimney

Oooh that one was steep. 2017 bucket list includes cleaning that trail...

🙂

Ha. Been threatening to drag sharki out of retirement for quantock sessions 2 for some time. Maybe a ten year revisit...

In fact just pinged him for 7th may. That'll be ten years since we filmed it...

today i did:

the zig zag route up the fort countour path that the00 said about (made a segment for the bit that didn't exist ( https://www.strava.com/segments/14384946 )

explored the seven wells wood trail system and found that there are 2 ways in, showed two guys the top route in (as its more fun, due to some little jumps) and found the left branch out. so there are two ins and two outs.. actually theres a third 'in' just up hill from the top entrance which has a bigger jump, but its not a used trail by the looks of things.

didn't find anything in old devils galloping area.
went 'up' what i could see from the bottom, its a fork off the concrete block/dwd trail part way down.
followed the fork to nowhere, rejoined after a ram ran across and stood in my way. ended up going down old devils galloping again, then back up holford where i chatted with a big group from taunton for a bit (explained what i had been looking for, one of the blokes knew dibbs)

also nearly had a run in with a horse in slaughterhouse combe that [i]may [/i]have just foaled.. a day for animal aggro!

also, someone who came over to me in holford said the dwd trail has logs across.

btw the00, seen/auth'd all your trailforks additions! 🙂

psst.. they're waking up..

rode two days running.. got pb's on weacombe (even with soggy bits), and bin combe (also soggy in places), and the newer trails in seven wells (as i learn it)..

guess the non-stop winter riding paying dividends (but bike is off to mechanic tomorrow...) in speed, and being able to ride longer 🙂

some showers to come this week, but its getting better week on week 🙂

I found total oblivion (aka steep coombe?) for the first time the other day, thanks to this thread. In dry conditions it was made entirely of what I believe is known as "brown pow", with an amusing lack of traction. I failed to control my speed after a measly 5 inch drop and ended up crashing! Perfectly doable though.

Anyway to set the scene for winter riding can anyone tell me whether it's worth pedalling up for in the wet? Any hope of getting down upright?

Not sure what Steep Combe is like in the wet, but the Qs are definitely worth the effort in the winter. It's gritty under wheel, but drains very well and still fun and fast in most places.

Haven't found Steep Combe recently, but might go looking for it. Heard it's a bit techy and would welcome some of that.

is that the one that drops into lady's edge just by the stream crossing?

if so, **** that in the wet. you'll get down it faster than in the dry but probably not attached to your bike....

@jonstevens agreed, I mostly ride them over xmas/new year in fact (my folks live nearby).

@jambo it drops in via *a* stream crossing but that doesn't narrow it down much for me in those coombes...

https://www.trailforks.com/trails/edge-of-oblivion/

yeah, thats it.

Visiting my mum and managed to sneak out for an hour. Stert, lady's edge, weacombe and frog Combe smashed out in just over an hour before the rain arrived.

On the bad side. Crowcombe hill seems to have killed my van, it's making some horrible noises.

I've uploaded a few more little bits of linking trail that I use on to Trailforks. The map is looking quite similar to my trail knowledge now. There are a couple I've not ridden, which gets me keen to go out again ASAP.

So crowcombe hill was the nail in the coffin for a follower and the camshaft on my t5. Expensive ride.

Might start populating Trailforks for my local area. Seems like quite a good app once you get the hang of it.

Next time park in Bicknoller. It's the best way I've found to do Bicknoller Combe, first climb and final descent 🙂

Really, I don't remember bicknoller Combe being anything special.

Really, I don't remember bicknoller Combe being anything special.

Surely Bicknoller is the best ascent on the Q's. Not much as a downhill admittedly. Although I'm told the pub in Bicknoller village is good.

Sorry to hear about the van Jam bo. That hills killed my legs a few times.

Fixed now. I occasionally used to turn left at the bottom of weacombe, follow the contour round to bicknoller and climb it but not often. Fairly steep from memory.

Used to be a fun line down the side of the quarry at the bottom.

I took this descent off Bicknoller for the first time the other day. It's not marked on an OS map so not sure it gets ridden much, but it's a fun one.

First half is a wide, grassy run with an amazing panoramic view, but then it drops into some steep, sketchy singletrack to the bottom of the Combe.

[url= https://www.strava.com/activities/1156283010/segments/28485328274 ]Bicknoller Hill descent on Strava[/url]

not tried that one myself jono, i tend to peel right earlier into the "alternate" weacombe descent that pops you out just before the gate.

not been about to ride for a while as was prepping the house for the imminent youngun - who was then taken out almost a month early. #teamdad in a few years i hope to be teaching him his way around the quantocks 🙂

i have found a long sneaky trail in deer park. crosses fireroads twice. it could develop with some riding to establish it. potential for a few small jumps in one section.

i've also noticed someones been adding more to trailforks

I went back to the quantocks Sunday for the first time since 1993 when I would have been a rigid fan with my Cannondale M2000! This time I took my Cotic flare and it was more fun!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1188086222/shareable_images/map_based?hl=en-US&v=1505673874

Still trying to fathom out various section names but the most fun by far was a seriously long and fast downhill off a fireroad down through the trees and then following a stream for a while. Surprisingly grippy over the rocks and roots but the muddiest ride in years, I'll be back it was as superb as I remember.

you did narnia / sharki + jamobos / chimney at the start (brings you the car park)

then you went down to holford the way most normally climb up! 🙂 (fits description of the stream)

if you take that holford green car park as an end point, there are approx 8 routes that run straight to it. they're all great fun,

Cheers for the info canopy, yes since speaking with my local (Chard) mate he said we did go down Holford, Christ it was fast!
Would like be to get back there again soon, even with the South Downs and Brightons Stanmer park on my doorstep there was something about the Quantocks. Probably a bit of nostalgia in me old age too

frog combe singletrack into holford combe was always a favorite. especially with 3-4 of you riding at similar speeds there are so many lines that it was always like a 4x race.