I usually ride the Quantocks or Ashton Court but in December I am planning a group ride down at Haldon Forest near Exeter. I've ridden there once before but not for a couple years.
What should I expect from the trails? I see there is a Blue, Red and Black section. We've got some experienced riders and some not so experienced so I was planning on riding the blue first and then hitting the red. Can anyone tell me what the black section is like? It looks pretty short on the map.
Cheers
It is fairly short, when I drive down for a morning there we usually do a few loops of the red bits and whatever we can find, with the blue bit as a warm-up and cool-down - but them i'm pretty unfit so that's my lot!
The climb back out of the bottom of the hill gets boring after the third time too...
DJ,
The blue bit is good fun when it is quiet... Gets busy with families and kids at the weekends though.
Red run is good fun.
Black run is basically a rough rock garden followed by some berms. The berms used to be really good but have deteriorated over time. it is short....
Cheers Gents. I hear there is some off piste stuff down there too. Is it just a case of exploring and seeing what I find or is it fairly simple to find?
tbh, if you're used to riding ashton court and the q's then it's not really worth any kind of major trek unless you have a local to show you the off piste stuff, in which case there's a days worth of excellent riding to be had.
although to be fair, you could just carry on down the a38 for another 20 mins to access eastern dartmoor.
suppose it depends on what floats your boat.
Hi mate , the off piest stuff is not that easy to find, when you coming , how many are you brining,
trailmonkey - Dartmoor will be for another time!
scraprider - December 3rd looks most likely at the mo. Should be bringing about 10 down if none of them wuss out! TBH though I think we'll stick to the main trails as we have quite a mix of riders, some of which are novices. I may head down again with a more experienced bunch if there is good riding? I was hoping to spot some off piste stuff whilst on the main trails. Kind of a reccy mission.
if you have novices then it's probably a good idea to stick to the waymarked stuff and they should have a really good time. the off piste trails can be a tad steep and twitchy and definately [i]'interesting'[/i] in the wet. good luck trying to spot them as you go.
i take it you are driving down and back from avon/somerset ? unless you are doing a couple or 3 laps, be prepared to spend a fair while longer getting there and back than actually riding.
yea no probs mate , i will porlly be around anyway on that sunday, drop me a email and i will try and meet you and show you what i can, we tend to use the blue as a link route type of thing for the off piest stuff, which as trailmoney says has some splendid stuff cheers.
I took a mixed ability group to haldon the other week and had great fun . A mini trail centre with no real hills .
a few pics here http://s1107.photobucket.com/albums/h392/knottie/Just%20out%20with%20my%20mates/A%20mixed%20group%20at%20Haldon/
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trailmonkey - yeah its a bit of a drive but it'll be nice to go somewhere different. I'm from Weston-s-Mare and we have a couple from Bridgwater but most are from Taunton.
sraprider - Cheers, I may give you a shout. If not this time then probably next time when I bring the more hardcore ones down.
Knottie - nice photo's, I'm looking forward to it now. Should be good fun.
By the way - how do the trails hold up in the wet?
Also chaps, how busy do the trails get at this time of year at the weeekends?
Can still be pretty busy down here even when the weather is pooey.
the off piste stuff is really worth exploring, but even if you do manage to spot it (unlikely except a couple of really obvious bits) you will need a local with you to work out how to string them all together into a proper ride.
If you feel like coming for an explore any time then give me a shout, we have a regular group up there of mixed ability (and gender) between 5-15 of us every weekend, and normally split at some point during the ride to suit tastes...
matt
Very busy at weekends, a bit quieter if it's wet, your best advised to bring a change of trousers very minimum as there is always laying water on both trails , no probs giving me a shout mate. I'm not particularly fast but can show you some good techie stuff cheers
When I go, we're usually there by 9am to avoid crowds.
Save yourself the carpark charge and park at the Gissons hotel or Ley Arms in Kenn (both obvious on google maps) and ride up the old A38 to the top. The climb is a steady gradient which will be managable by all.
That way you get to do St Andrews lane on the way down (also obvious on an OS map from the top of the A380 Telegraph hill)