Two fantastic rides on the Quantock Hills, Somerset

I've been thinking about a trip to the Quantock Hills, about 35 miles
away from here, since moving daaan saaaf last September but until the
other week I'd never quite gotten around to it.

Two weeks ago I finally managed it, and wound up spending a sunday
afternoon racking up 13 miles on the muni. I only took the 24" because
two days before I'd put the new Big Apple on the 29er, and couldn't be
bothered to remove it already. I planned (very loose use of the term) my
ride based on the OS map, which showed a large expanse of Forestry
Commission land to the south, so I headed for that. Forestry Commission
land is generally excellent for enjoyable and well-maintained trails.

I kept thinking how I should have made the effort to put the knobbly
tyre back on the 29er... unfortunately the vast majority of the ride was
on fire roads around the valleys, which made a 24" a bit of a slow beast
to guide around. A 29er would have been a much better choice for the
ride, being able to ride everything but the occasional super-steep bit
with more speed and less leg-flailing.

The only time I ended up walking was on discovering the mother of all
downhill courses; I would have been severely impressed by anyone
managing to ride it as it looked positively lethal! As if the steep
gradient wasn't bad enough, some of the obstacles were extremely
daunting... large jumps with no run out at all, or immensely tight,
steep technical sections with a handy tree or large drop waiting to
catch the unhinged.

The last section of the ride crossed the road into the northern section,
after an ice-cream stop. This half is not Forestry Commission, and is
much more open with more variety of trail sizes. Here the more nimble
24" came into its own! No fire roads to be seen, the tracks ranged from
rocky doubletrack to super-fun singletrack winding down into the
valleys.

This section made me want to come back and see what else was waiting to
be ridden on this side, as I'd only scratched the surface. This I did
last weekend, again taking the muni in the hope of more rooty,
challenging trails.


This time I roughly followed a route I found in What Mountainbike
magazine. It didn't venture into the southern Forestry Commission land
at all, remaining solely on the area to the north.

What a route it was! A fairly easy start along the fairly level top of
the hills before screaming down to one side of the hills along a grass
track, trying desperately to slow down to avoid catapulting over the
rapidly approaching gate half way down. This was followed by a short
section of singletrack amongst the trees along the bottom of the hills,
bouncing down a very rocky track before beginning the long drag back up
to the top.

This was the worst bit of the ride, and something I think I'd leave out
if I were doing it again, even if it meant missing out on the fun
previous section. It was too steep, bumpy and seemingly never-ending to
ride, and in a sheltered valley facing the sun so was scorching hot. By
the time I got to the top I was dripping in sweat and thoroughly
knackered.

While stopping to get my breath back and eat sweets at the top a trio of
walkers came past and we started talking. He had apparently seen two
other unicyclists up there, one or two years ago; I'm guessing this is
you, Paul and Sarah?

He turned out to be a keen cyclist who had done John O Groats to Lands
End. He mentioned something that truly amazed me; that the record for
the fastest JOGLE time is 1 day 23 hours. Is that true? That's
incredible! The AA website says it would take over 16 hours to do that
by car, so on a bike that's some serious cycling.


After that my route descended to the bottom of the hills again, this
time into a wooded valley on the north side. This was the /really/ fun
bit. The track starts out as a narrow groove winding its way through
patches of gorse until it reaches the trees, and from there on down it's
a solid blast right down to the bottom. The track had everything, from
excellent swoopy singletrack to log jumps, rooty sections and stream
crossings nearer the bottom.

The stream crossings were great fun, ploughing through the water while
other people stare in amazement (or possibly bemusement, but hey)... but
they obviously got bored of making the track cross the stream, so for a
stretch of about 30 metres or so you end up cycling along the stream
bed. Truly mental... your feet and legs are getting wetter and you can't
see the rocky bed you're riding along through all the splashing, so you
have no choice but to keep going and hope you don't come off! Excellent
fun.

On reaching the bottom the route moves across to the next valley (past a
little cafe - a few cyclists drying their feet in evidence!) and up to
the top again. More watersplashes; there are several bits of path
criss-crossing the stream most of the way up, so you can choose either
to stay on one side and keep your feet dry or see how wet you can get.

The path then leaves the stream and gets really steep once more,
although under the cover of trees so it's not so punishing, and the
rideable bits were much more fun than just a long slog upwards.

I got back to the car after 10 miles horizontally, but my legs felt that
the vertical distance definitely wasn't negligible.


The first ride was good, but the second was one of the best muni rides I
have been on in a long time. I will definitely be going again... those
last two valleys were just too awesome to be only ridden once. Or
twice... or...

For the intrigued a map of the area is 'here'
(http://tinyurl.com/2gqp6). The hill to avoid is Bicknoller Hill, just
off the left edge of the map. The really fun bits were Hodder's and
Holford Combes, the north-south valleys meeting at the top. The Forestry
Commission land is to the south east, to the south of the road.


Curious: In Halfords yesterday (I went in for a tyre pump adaptor, I
ended up looking at mountainbikes... how did that happen?) I noticed
they had a helmet named "Furnace". Given the extremely pleasant British
weather of late, they can't expect to actually sell any of these,
surely?

Phil


--
phil - ex-studenty type

"Cattle Prods solve most of life's little problems."
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SOoooooooooooo Loooooooooooong........Must focus...aack! I give up.

Mind giving me a five line summary?


--
Murde Mental - Unicycling Martyr

"Cyclists of the world unite!
You have nothing to lose but your other wheel!"

~Owen Kirby

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SOoooooooooooo Loooooooooooong........Must focus...aack! I give up.

Mind giving me a five line summary?


--
Murde Mental - Unicycling Martyr

"Cyclists of the world unite!
You have nothing to lose but your other wheel!"

~Owen Kirby

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phil wrote:
*
He had apparently seen two other unicyclists up there, one or two
years ago; I'm guessing this is you, Paul and Sarah?
*


Probably. We had a good ride up there last year.
Some nice stuff in the Forestry - other stuff on the open
hills and in the Coombes. Good place to ride.

--
Paul


--
paul.selwood - Oook?
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phil wrote:
*
He had apparently seen two other unicyclists up there, one or two
years ago; I'm guessing this is you, Paul and Sarah?
*


Probably. We had a good ride up there last year.
Some nice stuff in the Forestry - other stuff on the open
hills and in the Coombes. Good place to ride.

--
Paul


--
paul.selwood - Oook?
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1 Not too long at all. It's all in the attention span, you see.

2 On the day that Phil's brother rode all my favourite difficult
3 bits on a Coker faster than me, Phil writes up a better
4 sounding ride than I've ever done.

5 But I'm not bitter.

That was five lines.


--
Mikefule - Roland Hope School of Unicycling

Well, it all depends on what you mean by "semantics".
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1 Not too long at all. It's all in the attention span, you see.

2 On the day that Phil's brother rode all my favourite difficult
3 bits on a Coker faster than me, Phil writes up a better
4 sounding ride than I've ever done.

5 But I'm not bitter.

That was five lines.


--
Mikefule - Roland Hope School of Unicycling

Well, it all depends on what you mean by "semantics".
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phil wrote:
He turned out to be a keen cyclist who had done John O Groats to Lands
End. He mentioned something that truly amazed me; that the record for
the fastest JOGLE time is 1 day 23 hours. Is that true?

No, it's actually less than that. The official record is 1 day, 20
hours, 4 minutes and 19 seconds, set in 2001 by Gethin Butler. The
previous official record, set in 1990 by Andy Wilkinson, was 1 day, 21
hours, 2 minutes and 18 seconds. AIUI the shortest route is 861 miles.

Andy Wilkinson still holds the unofficial record, at 1 day, 17 hours, 4
minutes and 22 seconds. Unofficial because his fully faired Windcheetah
recumbent wasn't UCI legal:
URL:http://www.windcheetah.co.uk/record.htm

FWIW, the unicycle record is apparently 14 days, 12 hours and 41 minutes.

--
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

phil wrote:
He turned out to be a keen cyclist who had done John O Groats to Lands
End. He mentioned something that truly amazed me; that the record for
the fastest JOGLE time is 1 day 23 hours. Is that true?

No, it's actually less than that. The official record is 1 day, 20
hours, 4 minutes and 19 seconds, set in 2001 by Gethin Butler. The
previous official record, set in 1990 by Andy Wilkinson, was 1 day, 21
hours, 2 minutes and 18 seconds. AIUI the shortest route is 861 miles.

Andy Wilkinson still holds the unofficial record, at 1 day, 17 hours, 4
minutes and 22 seconds. Unofficial because his fully faired Windcheetah
recumbent wasn't UCI legal:
URL:http://www.windcheetah.co.uk/record.htm

FWIW, the unicycle record is apparently 14 days, 12 hours and 41 minutes.

--
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

Sounds great Phil - nice description - any pics?

Simon


--
Cumbria_Muni&Trials_Club - The home of Mountain Uni in Cumbria

Welcome to Cumbria - take only pictures, leave only one wheel track

CumbriaMuni (dot) com
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