… and my shins are shredded from gorse, OUCH!
Some cracking singletrack hidden in the bit north of the crossroads though – any pointers for favorite bits in the southern half?

I was there yesterday exploring too . Search the forum for woobury and you’ll find I posted a map a couple of weeks back.

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http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/route-help-needed-woodbury-common-devon#post-3477237

I shall remember the gorse, “woodbury rash” and subsequent dettol baths for as long as I live.

there’s a good rooty flowing descent alongside the southern edge of the ponds at the quarry eastwards down into the woods.. also in a similar area there’s a very rooty descent from the pines ridge road down towards bystock and along the edge of the nature reserve to bring you out at squabmoor reservoir.. (this may be cheeky)

If you’re into a bit of jumpy freeride action there’s a wealth of stuff at Pines Ridge although parts of it may be underwater at this time of year

I shall remember the gorse, “woodbury rash” and subsequent dettol baths for as long as I live.

+1. It was strange never really effected me too bad but I did have a sense of humour failure when I had to crawl 100m or so through it.

I used to cycle at Woodbury in my teens, great place, however be aware that there have unfortunately been some deaths linked to goorse scratches at Woodbury. The goorse up there sometimes carries a flesh eating bacteria, can be fatal and has unfortunately killed the odd Marine here and there. Also this from 2006 for example:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1518810/Grandmother-dies-after-scratch-from-gorse-on-dog-walk.html

Cheers Bennyboy – bit paranoid now 😉

Keep meaning to get out there, will watch out for flesh eating bacteria now though.

They’re hard to spot apparently 😉

From what I can see there have only been a couple of cases and they were strep A related, a bacteria that is on your skin etc normally anyway.

I think the Ticks that are there (and everywhere) pose a much bigger risk.

I know plenty people that have ridden/run/dogged/walked dogs/played kisschase/raved their moobs off/slayed dragons up there every week or more for decades with only a quite small percentage* of them losing limbs or dying from gorse related illnesses..

*0%

I wonder how many of those things one could combine at once yunki?

I’ve never died from riding there.

Yunki,
Can you let know more about this ‘playing kisstouch’ on Woodbury?