This post is designed to recount and warn about those exploratory rides where they’ve not transpired as you hoped.

Perhaps you’d spotted a potential loop on an OS map and went out to give it a try? Seen a random bridleway sign and set off in the hope that it yielded buff singletrack? A riding buddy planned a route but he or she doesn’t understand the significance of contour lines?

Yesterday’s ride was the former, and the inspiration for this missive.

At 1pm we drove over the Big Road Climb to the start of the loop, and my riding partner remarked that this would be a painful finish to the ride. Having had a glimpse at the map of the route he’d planned, I joked that it would be worsened by the fact we’d be doing it at 7pm. This was a play on the fact that we had an agreed 5pm curfew put in place by our other halves, and the distance of the route surely couldn’t require that long in the saddle.

Once we’d scaled the final crag (it was actually a crag which required climbing – in Sidi race shoes – and I’m not exaggerating for the sake of this post) and endured numerous false summits, we crested the top and could see the village miles below in the bottom of the valley, and I began to feel slightly more positive about not dying on the hill. I’m being quite genuine about this; at several points, I really was fearing my ability to continue.

To spur myself on and raise morale (primarily my own), I turned to look at my mate’s salt-encrusted face, reddening in the baking sun, and sang my own take on Van Morrison’s words;

“Have I told… you lately… you’re a ****?”

As we rode the Big Road Climb at 8.15pm, we reflected on the 2500m of completely unrideable ascents, and the similarly unrideable descents. I recalled my mate, as we pondered the map, saying, “We’ll fly up that bit” and the subsequent “I thought this would be more rideable” whilst we carried our bikes up another 1 in 2 boulder-strewn mogul field.

This was a bad ride, but, if I’m honest, it was a bloody good day out nonetheless. There’s absolutely no way I’ll ever ride it again though.

Only had one, mate of mine said that he had seen an awesome looking descent on an OS map. We get up there and it’s a misty day…there’s nothing but big rocks everywhere and the descent is purely made up of rocks too big to ride properly. So we decided to do it anyway and I fell off straight into the middle of the rocks, cue a large amount of pain and huge swelling on my shoulder, 1.5 months later I went to the hospital and apparently have herniated muscle or fat or something along those lines! Never even knew that was possible.

We rode Crossfell today. Mega wind and halestones 🙁

Anyhow, if anyone else is riding up from Garrigill towards Greggs Hut, gets a little bored and decides to take the doubletrack turn to the left towards Rake End and up to Tees Head, be warned its horrible. Must have walked for 40mins through the wettest, boggy marsh around.

I found a lovely looking 5 mile singletrack descent on the map in an area I really love. Set off to do it – did the climb – only a very faint quad track down the first bit – thought we would try it anyway – flew down the first couple of hundred yards straight into a deep hidden bog where we fell off spectacularly. Nearest we have come to serious injury but nowt broken. sit for a while to recover then look for the continuation of the track as marked on the map – path – what path!. Ah well – there is a sheiling a mile down the valley – maybe its better from below that – walked to the sheiling. No track. It must follw this valley down surely.

Nope it did not – five mile walk thru deep heather wearing shorts thus getting scratched to pieces. an utter waste of time!

Was cycling along a new bridleway we’d found from the map. It was quite a wet day, so lots of puddles. We were riding next to each other, and my riding partner went into a puddle.

And I mean, into. It was over 1.5 meters deep. We think some kind of underground stream had caved in or something, then filled up with water. Looked exactly like every other puddle. Scared the sheet out of me, cant think what it was like for him.

TJ – West of Glenfeshie by any chance? Done that too…

Thats the one! I believe JOjo has done it as well. It looked sooooooooooooo good on the map

wish we had OS maps here… I have to rely on GoogleEarth and ‘that looks rideable’ have some great stories though, and for me, makes it part of the fun.

The track from Bendronaig to Pait Lodge. Supposedly & controversially upgraded to a landrover track a few years back but which disappears into a grassy, boggy wilderness a few miles short.

An Caorann Mor – the track from Cluanie to Alltbeithe. Sucks you in by starting great, then deteriorates into an unrideable, boggy, heathery mess once it’s too late to turn back.

Classic pic there druidh

a recent one of mine – why don’t OS maps display cows?!

because they are herbivores?

Cows move though when you get close. They’re only inquisitive (he says from the safety of a keyboard).

Did a ride in Pembrokeshire near the Preseli’s, and thought I had found secret nuggets of singletrack, only to find shoulder high marsh grass which ended in a 2 foot deep stream, and barbed wire fences all round. Took me 90 minutes to get through that 1/2 mile stretch. And the rest of the riding wasn’t up to much (apart from the Preseli’s themselves, which I always love riding).

From 5hrs bitter, freezing cold Brecon Beacons experience, I now understand that “My brother knows a route” actually means that he has a well out of date, scrumpled page from a magazine which bears little resemblance to what’s actually there now.Other signs may be “Somewhere up here we should join the Sarn Helen Road.”, when you’ve been riding it for the last 10 minutes.

yeah they were only being inquisitive. we pushed out bikes through that muddy field so we didn’t frighten them (and cover ourselves in cow poop) and for a while we had a cow convoy. the OS map showed a bridleway going right through, next time we’ll know to go another way!

not exactly a life threatening situation unlike the start of this thread!

They will have only followed you thinking you might give them food

Will you seriously not take the same route because there might be cows grazing next time you pass through?

(Bear in mind this was in Western Australia where there are no OS maps – not many decent maps at all actually – and lots of dirt roads)

I had already ridden 90km that day. The road was on all 3 of my, admittedly rather crap, maps. It was also on my GPS, google maps and possibly google earth (street view hasn’t reached Woop Woop, WA yet).

I found the start of the road ok. Nice wooden sign with the road name on. Smooth, graded red dirt road for about a km which then abruptly ended in the densest bush (ooh err) imaginable. A bit of a loop to the south and I picked more of the road, which was again sign posted and again ended suddenly.

I gave up at that point and did a 20km detour around on the tarmac.

Have done lots of rides like that, and I’ve actually got a bit of a reputation for looking at OS maps and planning routes. One particularly memorable one being a loop around Ben Lomond:

The ride did get better…

HH – is that the track that runs from the Aberfoyle-Inversnaid road?

HH – is that the track that runs from the Aberfoyle-Inversnaid road?

Close; pics were taken as we picked our way through Loch Ard Forest – making our way along Bruach Caorainn Burn. NN39002 or thereabouts.

Someone had suggested a route from MBR; I looked at the route and it was short and two-thirds on track/road – so I ‘modified’ it somewhat!

This looks pretty ridable huh?

It’s a firebreak, and is part of a local ride as mentioned in a Campo de Gibraltar mountain bike book written by the bloke who runs the LBS in Algecieras.

Except I fail to see how even the riding Gods and Goddesses of STW could do this descent. Just on the horizon, it get’s both steep and any visible path dissapears. It’s ultra rocky, and any kind of track seems way too narrow to get pedals through, i.e. you just end up cycling for a metre or so then you cant budge as your pedals are up against rocks.

And then to make matters worse, 3/4 of the way down, you just run into major undergrowth and there seems no discernable pathway out. I had to climb over barbed wire, and then through thick undergrowth, cutting my legs to shreds, and then through a farm yard and what seemed to be a private driveway.

On the cow front, the only ones to watch out for are Charolays (the white ones). They can be very aggressive, especially when they have calves around. I read about at least one death and several nasty injuries last year somewhere in Surrey or Hampshire from being charged.

househusband – Member

> HH – is that the track that runs from the Aberfoyle-Inversnaid road?

Close; pics were taken as we picked our way through Loch Ard Forest – making our way along Bruach Caorainn Burn. NN39002 or thereabouts.

Aye – thought I recognised it. I was (walking) along there earlier this year. Conditions were a bit drier/colder though. Path looked 80% rideable I thought?

Just realised I got the OS grid wrong, missed a digit – NN 397 002. It had been rather wet so was rather boggy and did involve rather more walking than I’d hoped. Took a while to pick up the path up/down Ben Lomond.

My brother and I did a nice looking ride (mapwise) on Exmoor a couple of years ago… Cycled up onto the moor and then started on a traverse. About 1km in we just started hitting babyheads and sheep tracks. Constant hitting of pedals on the ground as the sheep tracks got deeper led to some walking. The increased wetness led to some submerged legs – in the end we walked more than we cycled! The last 4 or 5 km downhill at the end were rideable but wasnt the best place to go biking specially in december!

Went to Les Gets a couple of years back and we had a few moments of it looks rideable. Our guide was nuts, even the mountain goats thought we were f**king mad to attempt half of the stuff we did.

I nominate Dunsop Fell in the Forest of Bowland. We pushed up 700 ft of zigzags and waded through a peat bog. By then I was so dizzy with exhaustion, I walked down a relatively easy descent

>>CaptainMainwaring

Killed by a cow …. LMAO. That has to be the sh!ttest death ever!!!

The bridleway N of Crossfell that comes to the Alston road, turned out to be an hours hike but was followed by a v. bumpy down hill.
If we didn’t do these things we’ld end up like the MBR crew who were moaning this month about having to ride in Cornwall and E. Yorks. They get paid to ride FFS! They obviously will only visit trail centres or trails with a signed certificate from some top rider stating that it will be ‘interesting’

Cheers for that HH that looks like it was a route i was planning on giving a try.

Think i will give it a miss now

Esgair Garthen, the ridge over the other side of the Claerwen reservoir track. An awful nightmare of steep bogs and tussocks. Never again. There is a sunken car close to the summit. Helicoptered in?- I dunno!

Cheers for that HH that looks like it was a route i was planning on giving a try.

Think i will give it a miss now

Don’t be put off – am sure that it’d be fine (certainly better) in dry conditions. Email me and I’ll send you further details.

and decides to take the doubletrack turn to the left towards Rake End and up to Tees Head, be warned its horrible.

cheers, I have indeed been thinking of trying this as an alternative to the downhill to Kirkland! BTW, looking at the map, I see the top of Cross Fell is 893m, making it nearly as high as the highest Lakeland summits!

Of course, I’ve been warned off other BWs which turned out to be good …

The ‘French National’ downhill course in Avoriaz, in the wet. The top is OK as it’s gravel surfaced but lower down it is smooth polished limestone and sticky clay. Could hardly walk down it ! Bet it’s fun in the dry though

I nominate Dunsop Fell in the Forest of Bowland

Oi! Dunsop Fell is great fun 🙂 (unless you’re a tart, obviously)

The bridleway N of Crossfell that comes to the Alston road, turned out to be an hours hike but was followed by a v. bumpy down hill.

I’ve ridden that twice, and it was OK, in fact I’m intending to do it again this summer. I thought the ‘bumpy’ downhill was fast & furious fun 🙂

Myself and Rickmeister (who lurks about on here) spotted a great little piece of singletrack off a fireroad we were on with a bigger group up near Loch Maree. We dived down it and the others kept on the fireroad. The first 200 yards were brilliant, then it was an hour and a half before we were able to get back in the saddle, which included a thigh high wade across a cold river because the bridge was out.

Loads of other examples too. I also have a bit of a reputation within our club for spotting unrideable trails. On the other hand, every now and again it throws up an unexpected cracker, which makes it all worth while.

This one just disappears into a bog & then knee deep heather with hidden drainage ditches NW of the arrow which is a pity as it would make some nice loops & the first half of it is lovely

Morpheus00 – Member
>>CaptainMainwaring

Killed by a cow …. LMAO. That has to be the sh!ttest death ever!!!

Yeah, I bet the bloke’s family were pi55ing themselves at the funeral… 😕

Clowner – give it a go, it’s a gudden.