[Closed] Surrey Hills recommendation for going it alone

Which hill(s)? Have you ridden the Surrey Hills before?

Off the south side of Pitch/Winterfold probably best for a bit of tech/sessioning. Pitch probably easiest if you're not familiar with finding the trails...just head up to the top and look for the trails off the south side

I've done a couple of rides out of Peaslake in the past. Remember doing Telegraph Row, Yoghurt Pots, BKB, Labyrinth... Could probably find BKB on my own, not sure much else though.

Open to other suggestions, doesn't have to be the exact same area I've been over before. Just not too hard to navigate.

If you are looking for Labyrinth you would probably be better off at Swinley. The others are on Holmbury Hill though. Lots of good trails around so go out and see what you find! You won't get too lost!!

Are you crazy?! No human can possibly ride 'the hills' alone!!!!
(mainly cos they'll be rammed as usual)
If you know trail names, just ask other bikers. Mind you, that's no guarantee of success either!

If you have a GPS download this: http://app.strava.com/activities/41272557

It pretty much covers all the trails on Winterfold/Pitch/Holmbury/Leith.

GB

Yoghurt pots is only about 70yards from the top of Holmbury on the right as you head down and Telegraph is less than 50 yards from the end of it, just chuck a right and you can see the telegraph lines from the green bench.

You could waste a bit of time and energy if you get lost,session-ing BKB is always good fun. I don't use strava but I find it's quite useful just to locate new trails, just log in and explore, type in Pitch Hill or winterfold surrey and you'll find what you're looking for. Or go on the Nirvana ride on a Sunday and then just break away when you find something you want to session.

shortcut
If you are looking for Labyrinth you would probably be better off at Swinley.

Fair point - I meant Curly Wurly.

Thanks for the pointers.

I'm just going outside. I may be some time.

Nice day for it, very envious.

Pop into Pedal & Spoke in Peaslake, they'll point you in the right direction.

It pretty much covers all the trails on Winterfold/Pitch/Holmbury/Leith.

Just don't do the bit north of the North Downs, or you'll end up at George's house!

It's busy up there, and plenty of folk will be willing to help you find bits, or tag on with them. You won't get lost per se, but could spend hours riding around on fireroads missing all the best bits.

[i] http://app.strava.com/activities/41272557 [/i]

I would like to follow gee on Strava but frankly seeing the distances he does would depress me...I'd be happy with that offroad distance in a week 🙁 😉

He did that same ride on Saturday and Sunday too. A part of me dies every time we ride together.

I'd stay in Pitch as you'll find stuff more easily, unless the logging has put paid to a lot of the stuff...

Winterfold you need to know where the trails are though there are some obvious ones like gunbucket...

Holmbury.. think you should find BKB, YP and TR fairly easily.

Not sure what trail conditions are like but knowing the masses that ride around there I would imagine pretty cut up...

As rewksi says if in doubt pop into P&S and they will sort you out

[i]A part of me dies every time we ride together.[/i]

😆 I saw his distances in the first week of Jan and vowed not to look again but every now and then out of morbid curiosity I have a look and realise its just best not to.

Hunta the best trails for sessioning in my opinion would be as follows:

On Pitch Hill:

Eric, Rob Nav, Thick & Creamy and The 19th all of which start more or less from the trig point on Pitch Hill and then Curly Wurly and Rad Lane, which start close to the main cross roads on the climb up from Peaslake.

On Winterfold:

Northern Monkey, Evian, Three Amigos, Lovely Legs and Charles Bronson.

Gee - that is a bloody impressive ride there!!!

Geetee - those are interesting, one day I will learn the names to the Pitch trails!! Lots of people suddenly talking abut curly wurly but I am still not sure which trail that is, i think i get this confused with either T trails one one side or supernova on the other. Is CW the trail that starts flat and windy from nr summit and then drops off a short, steeper shoulder. Quite rooty direct but bail out on RH and a mossy one on the left. Soon runs out on to fire road??

I only re-found three amigos quite recently as the bottom used to be covered in lots of fallen trees.

Sorry back to OP - no problem up there especially at weekends. Only issue IMo will be conditions esp on Pitch. I started riding there mid week and on my own and found most stuff relatively easily. Fun that was as the odd surprise hits you (eg the little drop on evain which became a slight bug bear of mine!!)

Currently sat at a deserted Peaslake bus stop in glorious warm sunshine, eating a brownie and half way through that ride again. Trails are amazing - barely a puddle. They have just logged the bottom of Supernova (again!) and the T trails have gone under felled trees but the rest is fine.

I don't ride off the top of pitch much - mainly as the fire road to get there is currently 2 gigantic flooded ruts. Summer...?

Half term WIN.

Just out of interest - when you click on my Strava link above can you actually see the start/end outside my house? I've got the privacy turned on so it should be blocked out around my house.

GB

Have a nice ride, weather is perfect and great to hear that the trails are in good nick. Have three days of demos coming up, so I hope it lasts. The Strave link starts at the end of the lane when I look at it. Btw what do you ride - interesting mix of XC and trail riding. I do a similar ride (but much shorter) with longish XC at either end and the usual stuff in the middle. Normally 4 hours or so which leaves my back on a HT a little bashed in!!

I'm officially jealous. Stuck in an office in the city when I could be out living life.

@gee it starts on a bend on a minor road, to the east of a water feature, and finishes A322 with a green feature on the east

But if you've used your address as the middle of the exclusion zone you can zero in on your house.

But if you've used your address as the middle of the exclusion zone you can zero in on your house.

Knowing where he lives you'd be hard pushed.

Btw what do you ride - interesting mix of XC and trail riding

As he's out enjoying himself and I'm stuck in an office I'll answer on his behalf! He's got an array of Salsas, weapon of choice for those rides is a 29er El Mariachi ti hardtail.

Usual plea to leave YP alone until the dry weather to avoid turning it into the second battle of the Somme...

The new diversion avoids all the wet bits anyway, it's one of the best trails up there at the moment!

New diversion?

Annoying not having a bike when weather is this good!! Where are the best conditions trails wise for late this week/ early next week? Is Pitch still generally crap?

Usual plea to leave YP alone until the dry weather to avoid turning it into the second battle of the Somme...

That's like saying "It shouldn't have been ridden from last April to yesterday". Not realistic I fear.

Good point.

I've not been up there since Saturday, the trails were riding alright actually, although the fireroads were pretty wet. T trails were crap, I'd avoid them, but the other trails on Pitch were alright.

Winterfold was fine, bottom of Three Amigos was pretty wet and Northern Monkey wasn't brilliant. Avoided the top half of Clawhammer as that'll be a bog. They've rebuild Evian. Riding up from the very bottom was like a river though.

Holmbury was generally fine - they've diverted YP, avoids the wettest bits. Secret Squirrel was wet. Telegtaph and BKB were fine.

Trails were all good ish on Sunday certianly not to be avoided. What was a bit of a surprise was people riding over the war memorial outside the shop, only clipping the edge of it mind you, but that sort of stuff infuriates the locals I reckon..

I had a cheeky little pre-work ride this morning there, as I was in the area, so thought I would get up early & head out.

The fire road up from the Walkers Bottom carpark is wrecked, loads of logging machinery thundering around in the woods too. They have made a real mess of it.

However it was all riding really nicely. Noticed a lot of new trails have popped up around the view point where 'Eric' is. Someone has been busy building some fair jumps there. I hope they don't attract the attention of the rangers & level that whole section of hill.

Nice to see some work on Evian & NM too. I might get a chance to ride there Friday too if the weather holds, so fingers crossed. That's probably the driest it's been for me in the last 12 months.

Those 130k rides! 😯 Blimey! Fair play, that's got to take some serious fitness. Wish I could do that multiple days on the trot!

@teamhurtmore - yes, as Nick said I usually ride an El Mar ti 29er. I've never liked full sus bikes, seems like cheating.

I've also never considered that ride anything other than a ride... XC or otherwise. So which of those trails are more 'knarr' than XC?

GB

Also - thanks for checking the security settings. I have set up several blackout zones at random places so you can't zero in on my house.

Will be keeping a eye on this one.
Got a weekend booked for Easter .

Hunta, did you make it up there today? If not, I was surprised how good the conditions were (although I missed out much of Pitch). Only two trails were muddy and neither excessively so. If you are going tomorrow, have fun!

The new Yog Pots took me by surpirise especially in a big gear!!! Well some to the trail builders. That's a lot of fun. I guess BKB has mixed reactions but the quality of the building is obvious when you consider how well it has held up to the weather.

Mmm, I was impressed how dry it was, big improvement on last week, which itself wasn't horrendous. Long may it last!

Hi all, I am wondering if you can help me. I am trying to find out the name of the trail at the top of Winterfold hill, starts on the left (if you are looking out at the horizon) goes past a bench, then is steep switchbacks, and drop off, corners round to the right, another drop off then out to the road. Any ideas??

Thanks

@hausey - send me an email (there is no address in your profile)

Sounds like Thick & Creamy to me.

@Hob Nob just had a look and think you're right. Not much on the net bout this trail, but was a good one for practising my technical riding. Thanks