Hi everyone, I’m new here, i’m local to the Qs having grown up Taunton and moved a bit north of Bridgwater now. I explored the southern edges as a teen (in the late 80s) and i’m now a couple years deep into exploring the delights they have to offer. This year i’m riding a lot more already, and I believe I’ve explored all the obvious routes, and some less than so I should understand any vagueish directions given.

Am hoping to share any tips on lesser explored spots.

In previous googling I’ve seen Sharki and others old posts on various parts but I’ve seen things mentioned or spotted stuff i’m not sure about. I consider myself familiar with most things north of dead womans ditch, and either start at hodders combe, or staple plain depending on the days mission.

if anyone can shed some light on these it’d be most appreciated, and if anyone has questions about the area, similar or another wise I, or anyone else might be able to answer feel free to ask!

– Longstone hill -> ladys edge/sheppards combe. In travelling around (rather than over) longstone hill up from the holford memorial trees there are some really nice views, part way up threes a lower plateau that looks inviting. I believe short combe is in this area. I’ve seen some stuff on strava any tips on this area? (i tend to end up here after doing smiths combe)

– on the opposite side coming from lower hare knap (i think) there are some routes in to te bottom part of somerton cvome rocky horror? and routes off the other side into holford edge

– frog combe – the only of the super obvious ones i’ve not done, partly because I often ride up holford edge and want to travel a bit before coming back down. there seem to be two routes in, is there a preference for one of the other?

obviously i know i can “go ride” but time is at a premium and it would take a few adventures to explore all this

Short combe is a fairly straight run down, not very interesting.

The run from Black Ball Hill into Slaughterhouse Combe takes you into Somerton Combe. Thats a good one with a fast run across the top, down a flat out cut-in slope, through a hairpin and fast run into somerton. The start of this isn’t particularly obvious, its down a bit from the highest point on teh main path at teh top.

If you’re over Frog Combe way, have a look at Bin Combe – definitely one of my favourites. From Dead Womans CP take the left road fork. After about 100 yds take a track on the right. There’s an open area on the left after a further 100 yds, with a track in a ditch to the right of this. Follow the gulley going as fast as you dare, turn left at the bottom. Along to the road, straight across and round to the right. In the opening past the muddy patch, turn right. This takes you down a fats descent to the road (watch for cars). Straight over, wide sweeping left, jump the roots, and keep left above the ditch. Just follow the singletrack keeping as far left as is obvious, along the top of the bank with the collapsed bits, then where the track cuts left and up either turn off right after 10 yds and drop onto the main path or follow it up until you get to the fence line and turn right for a steep drop down to the gate. Ride back up and do it again, but faster!

thanks, i dont think it gets used much as i’m currently fastest this year down slaughterhouse on strava after going down it again this w/e just gone 🙂 (was guiding someone, and a sheep was in my way too!)

thanks for the tip on bincombe – i’ll try to compare what you’ve said against a a map & strava. i’ve been across ‘great bear’ quite a few times. sounds like you’re describing the open area part way across there?

only other fun thing ielse in that area apart from what strava calls “joes path” which someone i work with showed me a few years ago. i go down to the the wall near Dead womans, follow it left, at a big opening there’s a stile just up hill.. and fly from there down to ramscombe area before heading on fire roads towards the quantock farm area

+1 for Bincombe, found this one last year and is one of my favorites, make sure you stay above the ditch especially in wet weather. Always deserted down there as well.

Great Bear – yes

I’ve not found much else that side of Great Wood, but there’s loads of new runs in the woods around Cockercombe.

I’m not local but visit a couple of times a year staying in the scout hut at Aley, so have got to know the Q’s fairly well over the last 10 years or so. Always a great weekend. Was up there a couple of weeks ago – I’ve found the perfect bike for Quantock action, my fatbike with Blutos on. So much grip, I was way faster than on my full susser! Even got a beach ride from Burnham on Sea up to the fort on Brean Down!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/FDfpCx]P4237551[/url] by Allan, on Flickr

ah!.. i live in BoS.. the down is fun riding from the uppermost point down to the top of the steps over those “ripples” (jumps) in the grass.

+1 for Bincombe, found this one last year and is one of my favorites, make sure you stay above the ditch especially in wet weather. Always deserted down there as well.

its surprising how quiet a lot of the quantocks are.

triscombe aside, north of crowcombe park gate & dead womans i rarely see other people on bikes in places other than the main ridge route, stert/somerton (must be those two jumps), ladys edge, weacombe, smiths, and frog combe (think thats where i see them popping out from on my way up holford edge)

There is also two routes down the hill / across the moor between Slaughterhouse Combe and Steart Combe – an area on the map near the label ‘Lowsey Thorn’. It is only a sheep track, but good fun blast. At a trail cross about 200m before the trees you can go left to drop into Slaughterhouse Combe, or continue straight on down the ridge to end up in Somerton Combe. The right-hand trail option isn’t worth riding in my opinion.

There are at least two ways in to Frog Combe too. The obvious one down the combe bottom is great, and there is a steep and narrow entry in on the Western side, starting approx ST148386, near a little stunted tree. I usually do both 🙂

ah found lowsey thorn on the os map ( http://www.streetmap.co.uk uses OS map at right magnification).. straight over sounds easy to remember, like the fast fast route from the visitors cairn on higher hare knap -> lower hare knap -> hodders combe descent on a smaller scale 🙂

i’ll have to give both frog combe ones a go.. just need to work out a way of integrating it into a loop. not actually ridden back down holford edge either now i think about it.

Just been looking on Strava and it appears I haven’t been down Slaughterhouse Combe since 2011. Looks like I’ve been spending too much time on the CX bike, Slaughterhouse used to be one of my favourites.

happy to remind you 🙂 i really like it, especially that first bumpy section. certainly enjoy it more on my the full susser i bought in the new year than i did on my hardtail

…as I’m currently fastest down slaughterhouse this year on strava…

Or it could be that some people just go riding without the need to have strava accompanying them everywhere they go… 😉

…as I’m currently fastest down slaughterhouse this year on strava…

Not any more it looks like a couple kicked your arse yesterday.

Slaughterhouse

Hah – a guy I know and his mate.. Who I think I may have met a couple times 🙂 looks like they were gunning for the real KOM. not too arsed, I wasn’ t trying, as was guiding guy behind me, and a lamb got in my way.. I was surprised at how quick i was. I’m riding tomorrow (Sunday) but depends on where I take who I’m with wants to go if I hit it again.

Looks like they’re reading this thread as they hit bincombe together too.

Art : lol – Mainly used to tell where I’ve been if I get a bit off track. Been a great way to nail my inner gps down.

well.. revisted slaughterhouse today.. sadly the really heavy rain we’ve had, in the early hours, over the last few dayshas caused it to be super slippy. so i know to gauge conditions for that one

did the north side frog combe route though. bit gnaerly going in.. my mate fell off apparently.. nothing major.. nice proper singletrack twisting through the trees 🙂 and made a change to be flying down holford edge

did go across great, bear, might have spotted the bincome trail heade but wasnt sure. will swot up on bincombe properly for next time i expect

I went down there late this afternoon, it was pretty dry by then.
I found the is video I made, can’t believe it was nine years ago.

[video]https://vimeo.com/15705725[/video]

🙂

well it was certainly a lot wetter than last week. my strava time is double last weeks. even though also i went faster! because.. i stopped at the point around the 1:30 mark on your vid to put clear lenses on and drop seat before going down 🙂 still. a good way to familiarise myself with it some more. the friend i was with was on his 3rd ever quantocks ride 🙂

I video’d yesterday’s ride, if I remember I’ll post it when I get home from work, it’s amazing how much video quality has improved.

did the north side frog combe route though. bit gnaerly going in.. my mate fell off apparently.. nothing major.

that’s where sharki punctured a lung and dislocated his shoulder.

on his own.

at sunset.

ouch!

not close to it, but i was riding solo and went OTB near the top of smiths in march (wasn’t even in it – was cutting across the rougher ground to get to it) i was really enjoying getting fitter. fortunately only the only things bruised were my ribs and ego, couldnt ride for a few weeks. taken a while to get my fitness and confidence back.

bump:)

ok.. still not found bincombe.. in two attempts. 1st time i was trying to come down from the upper most great bear track, but couldn’t see a way.. and yesterday i did the first section from ladys wood to the road, then kept going straight across the lower great bear track instead of hanging left. so.. next time!

yesterday i did also find a nice bit of singletrack running down into holford combe from lower hare knap.. got stuck behind some people on horses on the way up so took a detour, glad i did. i went over the stream pretty much as soon as you get into the grass area in holford combe. I cleared the fallen branches on my way up, only to get stuck looking at a bobbing sheeps arse for a section. didn’t much enjoy the climb up.. but it paid off on my return journey 🙂

after doing the “descent from the stones” (hill bomb from the cairn on high hare knap) you can turn back around to get to it. i went over over lower hare knap, like going towards hodders combe car park, then took right across a pair of tracks, rode back up a bit, then hang left by the hanging fire beaters

i did do short combe, last week maybe? (i know i rode with a mendips group the week before that – which resulted in new cassette, chain, mech hanger and rear mech!). i liked the ride down from longstone to the plateau, but after that it was a short-ish slide through leave mulch, avoiding deadgall to the bottom. no free rolling or pedalling 🙁 so pretty much what 40mpg said above

further south from the main quantocks i explored some really nice looking singletrack up in buncombe wood coming from cothelstone – so that might get ridden soon. didn’t see a tyre track in sight there, but i remember riding up to it from taunton

so i’ve got bincombe on my list.. the bit between slaugtherhouse and somerton, concrete block and to investigate are routes the other side of hare knap and other off piste bits 🙂

check out paradise combe as well at cothelstone. there used to be a DH track in there built by the guy who lives in the house on the corner. he’s moved away but it might still be in use.

Anyone here fancy getting together to share some trail knowledge? Email in profile.

i’m down 🙂

check out paradise combe as well at cothelstone. there used to be a DH track in there built by the guy who lives in the house on the corner. he’s moved away but it might still be in use.

cheers. i’ll have a peek. looks tricky to loop in to my usual sunday dawn raid… but everythings doable eventually 🙂

btw.. i wonder if our paths have crossed..honiton post seems we grew up in the same area of taunton. at roughly the same age.. (i don’t recall meeting sharki, but he’s mates with two people i grew up with on facebook and only a couple years older than them, and i know a handful of others on his page too). i left foxes in ’92.

check out paradise combe as well at cothelstone.

Shh!! it’s a secret. 🙄

A lot of hard work has been done there lately.

I didn’t grow up in Taunton. Worked there from 2000-2008 at the droggy.

droggy? lived in north taunton til i was in my mid 30s (40 now), place i mentioned from 1983-2011.

would ride from home up through kingston st mary to buncombe & cothelstone area and lydeard hill, and across to fyne court and spent many many days in the woods at hestercombe – now publicly opened, but it was barely managed woodlands with ruined buildings and a man made waterfall when i was there in the late 80s

might be heading up to try that cothelstone trail on thurs, as for a change i’ll have my bike with me when i visit my parents, and a mate who’s up for an evening ride 🙂

check out paradise combe as well at cothelstone. there used to be a DH track in there built by the guy who lives in the house on the corner. he’s moved away but it might still be in use.

There are hints on the triscombe facebook page that it is in use this year. I’m not sure DH is my thing.. i’m more a fast n flowy guy.. no “jumps” too large. I like going pretty fast down singletrack and don’t mind the rock/rooty bits (e.g. I love Smiths apart from the last part of the rocky section..) but as I ride a short travel full susser that isn’t slack (’10 Santa Cruz Superlight)…

I finally found bincombe, it’s really nice.. its not quite clear where the trail goes near the bottom, but you basically have to keep left of the bank (i learned on here) and head up hill after a certain point to get to the walfords gibbet junction. later review on strava showed I went the right way. since there were hints elsewhere on here and have seen that other people have had trouble finding it I’ll re-iterate. Also did the ‘other’ more obvious frog combe entrance I prefer the one proper narrow one with the less than friendly bumpy start though..

So here we go.. bincombe..

Coming up from holford edge.. at the muddy section instead of proceeding round right to the wooden post and going straight over the road to the upper great bear track go left about 10m, and go through a gap in an old bank (wall?).. there’s a 1min fun stretch of twisty single track and that pops you out opposite the lower great bear crossing.. do not go straight over into the trail marked with the post (mistake I made the first time i went there), and go downhill slightly into the more opened out trail that drops away from you.

Coming downhill from the ‘concrete block’ pass the obvious first road crossing, ignore the second on the right (that has a way maker post) and take the third right that is much more opened out that you can hop right down into. theres an area i’ve seen cars parked on the LHS opposite it.

luckily its aon street view https://www.instantstreetview.com/@51.143189,-3.196118,-216.77h,-36.41p,0.67z (notice the layby directly behind, and other (lower) great bear traverse slightly uphill with the marker post mentioned above)

As i’m solo this w/e I’m going to do some bits I’ve never ridden in reverse (like hodders combe car park -> hare knap) and explore/find the two routes to the north of hare knap into to the somerton/slaugterhouse area

There are hints on the triscombe facebook page that it is in use this year

I don’t think it was ever not in use, just not ridden regularly like the stuff at triscombe.

Some of the d/h guys I was riding with at triscombe recently said they had built some new stuff up there but apparently it had been vandalised by the local chavs 👿

before planning tyhis w/e iw as tempted to explore paradise combe.. i came across old posts here saying it was left for the lydeard kids to use

hopefully now back in to my regular quantocks routine.. explored a few places yesterday. i tried to do a non-conventional day where i didn’t use a route that’s been in any “guidebook”.

found “steep combe” which is found by coming straight down into/over ladies edge plateau from the summit of longstone hill and keeping straight (instead of going left into “short combe”). way too steep for my riding ability, some knee high jumps too. way too gnarly for me.

after crossing the stream at the bottom i carried on straight over in a straight line and popped out on “rocky horror”, which is the mirror image of the singletrack i found that runs off the middle of lower hare knap, higher hare knap. after some riding around the top i went to the high hare knap cairn, waited for the sheepo to clear, and hit that fast descent and hung a left straight into “rocky horror” – really liked it, will definitely be doing it again. followed by a climb up ladies edge and tried one of the further along weacombe descents (meh).

next week (if i’m not elsewhere with people) i’m planning on hitting Willoughby Cleeve for the first time (which has a good rep on here), wrapping round to hodders, going up and doing the descent down from the fort as not hit that for a while. (and not when its not covered in leaves)

I enjoyed Black Ball into Slaughterhouse, which going by Strava doesn’t get used as much as the other combes.

Have you found Bin Combe yet Canopy? It’s such a perfect piece of singletrack, at that perfect gradient that just keeps giving you the right amount of speed.

I love the Quantocks. Wife and I are in the process of applying for jobs in the area at the moment, can’t wait to get down there.

Sounds like we have similar taste 🙂

Bin Combe – I finally found it about a month ago, really nice! not a fan of the ending and climb back to the road though, a bit like Smiths which I love but also has that unfortunate thing about ending in a place that isn’t suitable for a loop.

Slaughterhouse – Also love it, I think at this time of year its going to be pretty overgrown as the bracken is high elsehwere I and recall it gets like that at this time of year. The first slope shouldn’t be too sloppy. I might make it down there on way back around next w/e if I think I have enough energy left in the tank to get back up ladys edge. (when its less windy I’m favouring starting at staple plain, climbing to up the trig point on beacon hill (above smiths) and heading on out from there so i’d have to go back up this week. week after, maybe I’ll start at hodders..)

Good luck on the job hunt. I work in Taunton (as I grew up there) and live in BoS. Quantocks has a decent catchment area townwise so hopefully some options for you 🙂

Anyone know what the eastern lower stert/somerton combe route is like? (it avoids the cross moorland entrance with the rooty bit down to the smaller jump & switchback. I spotted the entrance riding across the western side of higher hare knap.

Anyone know what the eastern lower stert/somerton combe route is like?

i rode it once.

only worth the once to strike it off the TODO map then?

Do it for completeness. I lived there for 8yrs and never did it again.

there were a few like that that never really flowed or put you in an awkward place. It’s why I don’t really like smiths. Weacombe is a much better descent if you are at that end and the climb out is better.

I think what you refer to as steep Combe used to be called oblivion.

i will if i’m feeling particularly knackered or it starts chucking it down and i need to get to hodders car park quick 🙂

i called it steep combe because that’s what its called on strava. can’t find a video of it under either name, and its not named on any maps. i’ve looked on google and all the old posts on here from you and sharki 1) confirm the location and 2) describe its layout and difficulty accurately. don’t feel so bad about climbing down the last part of it now 🙂

smiths will be OK once i get fit enough to climb out more easily. need to try it again before the weather turns as everything seems to be a touch faster now the grounds drier

when i park at staple plain i often do the weacombe descent and the easier fireroad route back up round the plantation.

Did Willoughby Cleeve for the first time yesterday.. really nice, and what I’d start to call technical compared to some other descents.. plenty of roots and small drops and careful thought about line choices when heading towards trees etc. I can imagine how it’ll ride when its wet as slaughterhouse has dried up in a similar way.

It’s like a longer version of the first part of Slaughterhouse, more steppy but without the fast run-out. def one of the more challenging descents north of dead womans ditch. did Slaughterhouse later in the day, and had a puncture 😡 also did the Dowsborough Fort descent to top of holford descent, wasn’t as long as I remembered, and forgot to unlock both shocks after the climb up. was fun though 😀

did Slaughterhouse later in the day, and had a puncture

Pinch puncture on one of the stream crossings? Used to get one nearly everytime I rode down there before I went tubeless.

Is the corner before you go into the trees still overgrown with ferns, last time I rode it there was hardly even a gap there.

i don’t recall willoughby cleave being another other than a pretty straight run with a couple of small steps in it.

dousborough fort is only worth it if you all the way to the a39 layby for the greasy spoon van. it sucks big time if the van isnt there….

Pinch puncture on one of the stream crossings? Used to get one nearly everytime I rode down there before I went tubeless.

I think so, didn’t look at the old tube in too much detail as my policy right now is to replace with new. it did seem to be leaking on the underside. some of those stream crossings are hard I know my pressure was pretty low and they are pretty harsh hits – even on a full susser.

i don’t recall willoughby cleave being another other than a pretty straight run with a couple of small steps in it.

I guess being less well known it hasn’t been widened by usage like other singletrack in the area? its dried right out and very rooty/stepppy and tracks you towards a tree on the left at one point if you aren’t paying attention. certainly a little more challenging than the first part of slaughterhouse, and bit longer to boot. fairly unique for a quantocks descent, at least north of DWD where I’ve been concentrating my efforts.

Is the corner before you go into the trees still overgrown with ferns, last time I rode it there was hardly even a gap there.

At the top of the slope (the right-hander) from the top – yes pretty overgrown with gorse and bracken (ferns). down the bottom (the slightly banked left hander) its not as grown up as last year where i got surprised by around 8 jersey cows sat hiding in chin high bracken!

depends on the time of year though – in april/may when there was no bracken it was nice n clear and a much faster ride in.

dousborough fort is only worth it if you all the way to the a39 layby for the greasy spoon van. it sucks big time if the van isnt there….

yeah i just hadn’t been up there for over a year, and wanted to strike it off the list. after doing willougby went down to hodders car park and climbed up from the a39 layby. most interesting things were 1) the view over to higher hare knap 2) a dew pond with lots of tadpoles in. won’t be back in a hurry. actually, first time i noticed the van there was passing again on my way back home from where’d i’d parked at staple plain.

We used to use Willoughby Cleave climb as a challenge for the kids on the Ralphies Saturday rides back in the day.
It’s hard enough as a climb alone but you also need the skill to get over the root steps (I could never get over the third one).