[Closed] What is Britain's best SINGLETRACK descent??

"Slot cars" on the Mendip is smooth, twisty, tight fun.
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[url= http://www.bogtrotters.org/route/showrouteframe.php?route=83 ]linky of [/url]Cross Fell route. Have it on my ToDo list, wimped out on a solo last year. DJ has more info on routes over that way.

Cheers.

This descent was a lot of fun on Dartmoor - some of the pics here look better but it was still very enjoyable:

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stu

Yes please!! email in profile.

Ta muchly.

When people say the end of cut gate, are we talking the path forking off that ends at the gate by North America, or straight on down to the woods?

Cross fell, seem to remember tees head to blencarn being an awesome descent, was a while ago tho*. The loop round rake end was rubbish tho, one fo those proper "track becomes indistinct" moments ie bloody invisible, so next time either a push over the top of cross fell for a very short 9miler or do the boggies 30m route.

*was a weird day climbing through cloud and rain in the morning visibility down to a few metres, when that cleared the track dissappeared and we had a long push, we finally got to the downhill the sun came out and all was forgiven.

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Looking down Strath Dionard.The bit you cant see, which is behind the camera person,is even better.Parts of the Arkle loop are nifty too.

Why no carn ban mor?
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Best of anything I have done by a long way.

Torridon, descent to Annat. And the stuff I can do 5 mins from my door.

Buzz - where on the Mendips is that? I reckon I know most trails, but not by any particular names. Dont recognise your pick though?

Ambrose - cheers. Camping on the Gower in a few weeks so might check one of the routes out.

Buzz - hang on.... is that the trail down to Cross from the Vet's place east of Wavering Down?

agentd - that's the one. There's a rut down the middle for long sections of it (hence the name). One of my favourites too.

OK, definately the one not shown on the OS map in that case, not the cheeky one through Bourton Farm

Sango and TandemJeremy - utterly stunning!

First pic (Sangos) reminds me of South Island NZ.

rudland rigg into farndale, nym. no good in winter though.

Thanks Ambrose - it was LLanddeusant direction I'd been looking at.

When you say a bit vague are we talking "the paths a bit feint in places but you'll be ok if you've got a sense of direction and the weather's good" or "you def need a GPS or a compass and the ability to take bearings in a pretty vague landscape to stand any chance of finding it."?

bigsi - Member
The Lion Trail but its VERY cheeky, the game keeper carries a shotgun so if you see him apologise and be on your way.

Starts off camber with rooty corners then goes flowey and fast but never more then 2ft wide with 1ft-1.5ft kickers all the way down it plus a nice log roll half way along before heading down through the trees along some twisty singletrack getting steeper as you go.

Always have a grin on my face at the end of it

Until you meet 3 motorbikes coming up the hill and you've got to try and stop your dog chasing them!! All of a sudden the Gamekeeper doesn't seem so bad!!

bland - Member

Shooting cabins followed by Wormstones in the peaks is my current favourite

Where's Wormstones?

Carn Ban Mor is the best in UK by far

If you can class the slabs from stanage as singletrack then that gets my vote as one of the best!

Not sure if CBM counts as singletrack - but it is fun 🙂

Jocks Road from Cairn Lunkard down to Glen Doll is one of my favourites - but getting there is painful!

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TandemJeremy - Member
Why no carn ban mor?

Previous page.....

Jocks road looks like proper singletrack to me 😛

Saw it druidh - thought I had best mention it again.

Has anyone said how good Carn Ban Mor is?

i drove past coulags/torridon on the bike earlier this afternoon and further on i stopped to look back at the mountains. just stunning. sango, thats a nice pic. Arkle has got to be one of the most beautiful mountains in the country. the first time i saw it the sun was hitting it and my jaw hit the floor. luckily i had the slr at the time.

For all those people who rave about how ace Scotland is, can you tell me a good circular route from Fort Bill that is doable by mortals in a day. No one else - in guide books or STW - has managed so far. Do you just keep them to yourselves? 😉

bland - Member
Shooting cabins followed by Wormstones in the peaks is my current favourite

'Wormstones'??? wheres that then???

Wormstones is on the glossop hayfield road, take the track opposite the charlesworth road and climb till you see the trig pt, go to that and descend glossop way, naking sure to keep in the track on the right and not the flat route over the moor.

Its a bridlepath, tue afternoon type

Far

To paraphrase:
When I say a bit vague I'm talking "the sheeptracks are more than a bit faint in places but you'll be ok if you've got a very good sense of direction and the weather's really clear" otherwise "you most def need a GPS or a compass and the ability to take bearings in a very vague landscape to stand any chance of finding the way". If in doubt, stay high once past the rocky red stream crossing at SN 785 209 and then contour round to eventually drop down through the bogs to the stream at SN 802 197.

The vague bit is between Carreg yr Ogof and the Twrch. After that it is all smiles, huge ones 🙂

Alwinton - Cheviot hills, the route from Fairhaugh to Shillmoor for me is one of my favourites, otherwise Bowderdale gets my other vote.

can you tell me a good circular route from Fort Bill that is doable by mortals in a day

Bowderdale is over rated in my book.
If we are sticking to strictly "singletrack" then its a tricky one.
Nan Bield ?

stilltortoise - Member
For all those people who rave about how ace Scotland is, can you tell me a good circular route from Fort Bill that is doable by mortals in a day.

http://www.nofussevents.co.uk/event/Tour-de-Ben-Nevis/1049/#course

Bland, think I got the [url= http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=403420&y=390230&z=120&sv=403420,390230&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=756&ax=403420&ay=390230&lm=0 ]route up wormstones[/url] but when you get up burnt hill I presume the moor track goes straight on and you need to swing a left to harry hut trig point? At what point do you need to keep right?

Jock's road looks good

TandemJeremy - another vote for Carn ban Mor.....

Also - Beinn a Bhuird which is mostly single track

personally, a 2 mile (roughly) stretch of single track in Brechfa. It is not on the signposted trails, it is a section we started riding before the trails in Brechfa were done. Great descent 🙂 🙂 🙂
Don't like the climb up afterwards though 🙁

Dothie valley get's my vote

It's in the middle of nowhere
It has a bitch of a climb to get to it
It has a sod of a climb out.

on a sunny day in November though... 20 minutes of the best singletrack ever
in a stunning secluded valley. I never tire of doing it.

Ambrose - thanks for the info; I'll give it a shot when I get a free weekend and some nice weather.

In the spirit of contributing something other than questions my favourite singletrack in the UK is probably this:
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Closer to home, Crug Mawr never fails to make me smile; especially if you start all the way from the top of Waun Fach

In the spirit of contributing something other than questions my favourite singletrack in the UK is probably this:

That being where ?

funkyhooda- spill da beanz, where is this track of which you speak?

Far- your pic tempts me lots, give us all a clue please!

Sidewinder @ Afan

The picture that Far posted is up near Glen Affric. He's right as well. It is the best bit of singletrack in the UK...

It's properly lovely...

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Wrexham.
CBM gets honourable mention. There's also an 840m hill that I can see from my window. The walkers built a path on it just before the access laws changed and inadvertently built a magic long downhill. It is singletrack but it's tougher than CBM or Laggan black in places and at the wrong time is littered with redsox. Nuff said already.

That being where ?

Sorry - descent from Bealach an Sgairne to Morvich near Shiel Bridge.

We did it as a 2 day ride from Morvich up Alt Granada to the Glen Affric youth hostel then back out again over Bealach an Sgairne.

Whether you would see it [i]as an amazing 2 day adventure in some of the UK's most incredible scenery and culminating in the UK's best singletrack descent[/i] or [i]2 days carrying your bikes up rocks and through bogs for 50 mins of good trail[/i] would probably vary from person to person.

I was definitely in the first category but I don't supposed the weather hurt!

 

Ambrose - bit hard to describe, all i know is the trail sends you in the opposite direction to the way we normally go and there is an off shoot over the top, then it starts. you have to cross a fire road, twisty section through the trees out the other side follow the fireroad down about 50 yards and the hidden entrance is there off the bend. pretty over grown entrance but the track is fine. like i said, there is a monster climb up a fireroad the other side and it eventually joins the marked trails again but the climb is well worht what preceeds it 🙂

Some great ideas and pics, thanks.

Gotta feel sorry for folk who can only come up with trail centre descents on this thread. Need to get out more I reckon.

agentdagnamit

Gotta feel sorry for folk who can only come up with trail centre descents on this thread. Need to get out more I reckon.

Yep I agree 😉

not entirely sure about the anti-trail centre sentiment - a far few of these trail centre tracks started as unofficial tracks cut by the locals, or animal tracks. i remember riding aston hill before it was official - the track was permanently covered in needles, it was so rarely used!

though personally i +1 for gordimhor - the best one is the next one!

How cheeky can we be?!

I'm dying to do the Loch Muick route............it is my nemesis.......this was our last attempt!!

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Should have got the hint and stopped here but it was such a stunning day!
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Still going.......
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............and for that reason, I'm out!!
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I'm dying to do the Loch Muick route............it is my nemesis.......this was our last attempt!!

This looks like the one starting in Glen Clova? I did it last summer and it was really good. The Capel Mounth descent back into Glen Clova was particularly fun but very muddy through the woods at the bottom. I expect it will be in good condition now after this dry spell.

Lower half of capel mounth has been armoured slightly .....not sure who by but they have been building natural board walk over the bogtrotting sections . The top is getting cut up badly in the grassy section though .... The highlight on that ride is getting a clear run at the walkers path and continuing down the right side of loch muick