I went riding around Cow Castle, on Exmoor today with my riding mate John. Great riding but a shame the ground was so soggy making the climbs a real drag ! A little too hard for me to manage on the SS realy. No rain but the wind picked up towards the end(its pizzing down now in Taunton). Oh and a nice pint of ale afterwards in the pub. Comments ?

click the above pic for more pics….

Haldon was very damp under wheel but no rain.
Did you go clockwise from Simo?

nice , still not out , the bird flu from xmas is proving a bugger to shift have been on antibiotics for 2 weeks now , the novelty is wearing off.

Great pix 🙂

Hope the MX’ers got wet feet… then drowned.

From Simo we went on the left hand bank going down stream , does that make sense ?

The MXers didnt get across…lol

Good 🙂

Yes thats anticlockwise, I’ve done both ways & there ain’t much in it – each has its good & bad hard bits!

we came back via Horsen farm and the two moors way to Great cornham.Finishing with some road milage.

Agreed- it was a bit damp on Exmoor – lovely and sunny on top though…

Which part of Exmoor is that?

Lustleigh was great today, inc nutcrackers and some new trails. Bowermans is riding ace atm, lots of new rock exposed. Lots and lots of drifting 🙂

I was a sheep today mostly, but the last pic is off the top of Dunkery Beacon… waiting for an email of the GPS data to find out where we went 🙂

Ahh I know the Dunkery areas

Snaps, i went up to Haldon today too – on an Orange 5.

Actually that reminds me, I had my first clipless *can’t clip out and fall over* fall there too 🙄

Redthunder.

Do you have any idea what an MXer is?

From your comments it seems not.

Minish – there were 7 of us, includng an Orange 5, I was on a black (muddy) Marin in a Yellow Pace top.

MXer.

Crap trail rider.

Simple really isn’t it…

Yeh I remember you. You were in a group as me and mate came up the hill that goes next to the black run. Then I saw you again at the top of the hill where you can go down the paved cycle path 🙂

That top does nothing for your figure btw 😛

Yeah, let myself go a bit over Xmas but I’ll be a race whippet by March……. possibly!

@singlespeedstu

Whatever.

This is why I’m really endeared to trail riders mx’ers whatever they what to call themselves…

A so called cycle path (once surfaced bridle way) near where I live that has been trashed my motorbikes and now 4×4’s.

I love getting to work in the mud, even though it’s on a MTB.

There’s a huge difference between an MXer riding on a closed circuit and some nob on a knackerd old bike is all i’m saying…. 😯

* warning rant content *

sorry, i mean no disrespect, I also don’t drive a 4×4 or ride a motorbike but its this sort of "look at this damage" nonsense that I genuinely cannot abide, we all share this planet and in my opinion no single group or groups should have greater or lesser access rights, the motor vehicle users now only have access to less that ONE PERCENT of our extensive rights of way networks and this causes those ONE PERCENT of RoW’s to become churned up, if access was greater then there would be less concentration on the very few routes legally allowed. And then there’s the law, if you see anyone causing willful damage to ANYTHING you should report it to the police, get a crime number and follow it up. I do agree that Trailbikes make a noise but so bloody what, the countryside should be open to EVERYONE not just a select few. Share.

Also this planet has a covering of dirt thats moved around for slightly more than a couple of months, it can be found in all sorts of different states, dry, wet and various other forms in the middle especially during the WINTER MONTHS.

FFS live and let live, so its a bit of mud ride through it or around it, if you don’t like that stick to the surfaced roads, if its a designated cyclepath then I would imagine motor access would be prohibited, that would be a matter for the Police, where as the first image looks more a matter of drainage, get in touch with your local RoW Warden and they will stick a TRO on those lanes and no doubt carry out a process of GRADING and they’ll try and improve the surface by adding a substrate that drains better and packs down rather than churns up.

Unless its the Ridgeway, then they will manufacture "traps" for motor vehicles by softening sections where motor vehicle access could be a possibility to prevent access by joe public’s ordinary vehicles whilst still keeping then passable (with care) by specialized vehicles (agricultural/4wd). I know because I was there, I saw it happen, I talked to the guys doing it. And I’ve also see the images of the softened sections used by haughty & exclusivist pressure groups in the media to illustrate the "off road menace".

grr.

sorry about all that, it pisses me off everytime, its the countryside FFS not a bloody park!

no offense intended!!

Infact that arsehat of a london mayor once put forward these shots of this "appalling damage" in true bumbling clown manner he ended up retracting that!

@singlespeedstu.

OK. I’m not using the correct terminology. I’m not having a go at you.

But do get fed up with seeing virtually every path damaged by off road motorbikes in some way :-(. Especially dedicated cycle paths and bridleways. As with any pastime there are always some that will tar everyone with the same brush.

I’m just not very tolerate whilst having (and currently) suffering off roaders etc for the last nine years. Both by wrecking everything and being plagued with noise every weekend without fail 🙁

@redthunder.

Whatever. 😉 😆

Believe me genuine MXer and Enduro rider get just as upset with nobs riding where they shouldn’t.

But they also get pissedoff with being accused of things they haven’t done…

@mrnutt.

I’m always contacting the Police with reference to this cyclepath and bridleway.

The council are going to resurface hopefully as the damage is down to the sub base.

I hear your rant. I bet you hav’nt got an illegal off road bike/4×4 park next to your house, but if you do and you think as your text then your a very tolerate person.

if I had an illegal off road/4×4 park next to my house and it was getting on my tits I’d be banging on the door of the council, I’d also contact the local paper and the police to get statements about what they are all doing about it!

@mrnutt

Yes we do…. nobody listens 🙁 It’s a constant battle.

At least it’s not an airport….;-)

[runs for cover]

have you spoken to your MP?

I will get onto my MP.

The land owners have not given permission to use the land. But they are a big faceless organization operating out of London. So they are not truly concerned as the area getting covered in distribution sheds. The only leverage is the Public Right of Way angle.

you could threaten the company with legal action, just doing that will probably result in some big ugly fences.