After a night camping in the garden I told the kids my vague plan of a camping/riding weekend with them. Go somewhere, ride, fish and chips and a fire at a camp site, sleep, ride, go home. They thought that was a good idea.

So now, logistics. I’m in Cornwall and don’t want to go *that* far. My eldest has ridden the Minotaur at CyB and the trails at Cardinham, but my youngest isn’t quite up for that so I’m after relatively tame blue trails (or good off-piste stuff). My initial shortlist is:

– Somewhere in Dartmoor. Lots of trails there.
– Haldon Forest. Presumably there’s camping close by. This is probably the furthest east I’d want to go.

Any other suggestions?

Have you though about ridinv the exe estuary? Whilst not exactly mountain biking it is off road, family friendly and well serviced for campsites and fish and chips.

You could even do half of it on day one, finish on day two and get the ferry back across the estuary to the car which should add some excitement.

When it’s all open again I’d be looking at Dartmoor Bike Park (Ashburton)?

Fish and and chips nearby, and an absolute gem of a little campsite at Beara (if still open, it’s been a while!)

Also Gunnislake may be worth a look?

What about a loop around the coast/ hills on the Lizard or Penwith?

I should make it clear when I say camping I mean camp as a base, not bikepacking. I don’t have the kit for that.

Isn’t the bike park at River Dart pretty small?

A lizard loop was tempting as I’ve not actually been down there yet, but I don’t know any good loops.

Not done this, just a sugestion.

Start at Helston, ride down the River Cober to Loe pool then around the coast path, stop at Coverack for the night. Ride on next day, ice cream at Roskilly’s then turn up the Helford River to Gweek and back accross to Helston. (current opening permiting and you have to use footpaths)

Edit – scrub that – I misunderstood – You could try a campsite near Coverack then ride along the coast towards Penzance one day and Helford the next.

there is a campsite on the camel trail nr grogley that they based one of the old enduro races from, trails in the woods right next to the campsite, grogley/bishops etc on the other side of the valley and the camel trail straight through the middle.

cotton something maybe>?

Cottonwood. It’s a little holiday lodge that you can camp at if you book the lodge.

That said, maybe I should recce Bishops/Hustyns for a kid friendly loop as there should be a good loop in there and camping nearby.

Have a look at the mineral tramway, Devoran to portreath, there are bits you can add on to truro and we did that and we used the river ferry to make another loop to malpas and back, not sure where the campsites are tho

I should have said we live in Truro so that isn’t really an adventure, but the usual weekend ride. 🙂

We haven’t yet done the entire thing in one go but will often do Twelveheads – Mars – Unity and back.