[Closed] Leith Hill to Redlands

Not directly into Redlands there isn't. You can drop into the Wood over Wolvens Lane (Norbury, Nower or what ever it is), climb out of there and over the road into Redlands. No direct routes though - look at a map it's all disected by roads.

Walked the dog around the other day between Wolverns and Coldharbour lane looking for similar. Personally I'd stick with going into Coldharbour... firstly there's lots of paths but no obvious bridleways (none on my map) that will take you the direction you want and secondly you lose a load of altitude for little reward and then it's a steep climb back up to the road...I rather save my energy for Redlands

I thought Redlands was out of bounds these days? As in very anti-MTBing?

Lot's of these signs...

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To be honest I haven't ridden Redlands for ages but have been doing a lot of walks around there...its a lovely area on bike or foot.

I saw those signs a couple of weeks ago and thought the accusations of criminal damage were well justified when you consider they let a film crew in recently to "rearrange" half the woods.

What is so wrong with people simply wanting to ride their bloody bike?

It's clear that a minority of bikers are determined to create new trails....by chopping down trees?

Really.

**** off. That's just not true. The trail builders may be altering the ground but they are NOT cutting down trees, at least not on Redlands.

What has been happening on Redlands however is they've been blowing shit up with pyrotechnics and charging the film production company for ther priviledge.

So it's OK to destroy trees in pursuit of money but it's not OK to build trails in pursuit of a healthy activity?

There seems to be no end of trails blocked or destroyed this summer, all over the surrey hills, from Winterfold to Redlands. Even the 'sanctioned' trails seem to be in a bad way with logging and so on.

[i]**** off. That's just not true. The trail builders may be altering the ground but they are NOT cutting down trees, at least not on Redlands.[/i]

Sorry, but it is true that trees have been cut down on Redlands. A new trail appeared last summer whereby the builders cut a swathe through young trees. A lot of us locally knew that one was going to cause problems and it has. If you read the old and new signs, there's an underlying tone referring to that trail as none of the other trails had trees cut down to make them.

Situation on Redlands until fairly recently was that if you built a trail that followed natural features and was away from the main walking sports, generally it got left alone. Anything that looked 'built' (wooden structures or the use of nails etc) got trashed.

There's 2 main issues up here at the moment...
A) There's a new group of builders who are building trails that are too obvious and doing a lot of digging.
B) The Forestry Commission has now started felling work up there.

Combine these 2 together and you can see why Redlands is more contentious now than it has been for years.

Gut feeling for the future? - leave it a year and Redlands will settle down again. It's very worth while keeping a low profile up there for the time being though.

Yes, shame they cut those saplings down. They do build a good trail though!!

I was talking to the FC guy up there the other day and some areas are due a 60% clearcut in the next month - to try and attract the ground growth and wildlife etc. there are some pretty dark spots in there right now.

Agree freeridenick - tis a great trail, one of the best up there.
Think the area they're planning to clear is the main top part (that will make sense to people who ride there regularly), the sort of triangular area boxed in by the 3 bridalways. As said above - low profile please to all on Redlands for the time being.

trees where cut only small ones though

"Agree freeridenick - tis a great trail, one of the best up there." [blushes]trail is called 'light side mkII'

the problem was that to cross the most contours and therefore make the best use of the hill, through the young trees was the best route. to be fair the minimum number were cut as anyone with wide bars will testify.

bridge near the bottom is embarrassing but considering its liable to get sawed up I (sorry i mean the builder who is a casual acquaintance) thought it best not to put too much effort into it.

things seem to be heating up there right now i will tell 'the builder' to direct their attentions elsewhere for a year or so.ive always fancied cutting down some box trees

*were [slaps forehead]