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So, in the area for a coupla weeks. Which layby/carpark would you recommend dropping the van in to easily drop onto a few good-ish trails...? Not necessarily looking for all day epics, just get some pedal strokes in. 🙂
TIA.
holmbury yha carpark's a fine starting point, fairly central
"walking bottom" is always popular, but probably even too busy at weekends
holmbury yha carpark's a fine starting point, fairly central
/thread
Another vote for walking bottom, mainly because you can end your ride with a pint/cheese straw/cake....and it is more central for the winterfold/pitch/holmbury. If you're going to take in leith then maybe holmbury. Depends on what riding you want to do really, playing in the woods on your five inch trail bike or more of an xc loop.
just bump it up the kerb by the war memorial. The locals love seeing your smiling faces bringing money to their rundown local economy. Don't forget to wave at Crossfire80 in particular!
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Walking Bottom is a central option, I prefer the Quarry (near the Windmill PH)
Westcott Village or top of Redlands on Coldharbour Lane, easy access to Leith Hill and Redlands. Ranmore Common is a pretty good starting point too if you want to venture over to Box Hill area, check out the[url= http://singletrackworld.com/trailguide/uk/south-east/the-north-downs/ ] routes[/url] on this site, they're more bridleways that cheeky singletrack though.
How badly do these trails suffer after, say, 2 days of non stop rain, similar to, say, the last two days...? 😆
Take your swimming trunks and a tractor to extract you from the mud.
It'll be 'kin orrible up there at the moment. With the amount of surface water on the road when i left this morning the trails will be a quagmire. The steep stuff on pitch might be ok but other than that i personally wouldn't bother.
shitter than shit at the moment....
It's bad. You can still get some miles in and there are one or two interesting trails that aren't too bad if you know where to go but many of the more popular routes are best left alone at the moment IMO
Holmbury holds up better, and bkb is pretty all weather.
I'd park at Coldharbour and ride over to Winterfold taking in Leith, Holmbury and Pitch on the way. That's a nice ride and you can always add Redlands wood in if you want a bit more.
It drains quickly, the better trails are still getting rutted and muddy. If it's rained in the last day or so it will be wet but it's peaty mud not clay so it doesn't clog you up. The hills aren't a trail centre so you'll be doing much climbing for some pretty short downhill runs especially if you don't know your way..
easy access to Leith Hill and Redland
But of course, don't ride Redland otherwise a) you'll drown in a swamp and b) as you drown, the landowner/ranger/police will come and stamp on your fingers and take your bike away.
Yes nothing to see in Redlands...
Right now, conditions are about as bad as they get.
Actually I mean yesterday. And today, it rained some more.