HARD ROUTE
CHEDDAR, MENDIP HILLS, SOMERSET
DISTANCE 34.4KM (21.4 MILES) | CLIMBING 1,120M (3,674FT) | TIME 2HRS 30MINS TO 4HRS
Route summary: After a play on the pump track and a spin along the cycle path to warm up, Rowberrow Warren has some manmade and natural singletrack trails to explore. Afterwards, a fantastic descent leads you back to Cheddar and the optional adventure up Cheddar Gorge
Start/finish: Cheddar Reservoir car park (postcode: BS27 3DR, grid ref: ST 447/535)
1 Headback to town up Shapham Road but go left just before the T-junction. Join the Strawberry Line and follow it through Axbridge and over the A371 to a minor road. Bear left off-road again soon after. Just before a tunnel, bear left (walk) up the footpath.
2 Go right at the T-junction and right through a gate to pass through the car park. Join a path over the road opposite, which goes right, parallel to the tarmac. At the main road go left beside it, then quickly right over it, before the garage, onto a bridleway, uphill.
3 Keep left on the bridleway, up, ahead and down to a road (there’s a cafe here). Ride straight on the one opposite. Pass Mendip Camp and contine ahead onto a forest track when the road bears right. When the track goes left, either join a tougher one ahead, which cuts the corner, or follow it left and down, then right and up.
4 At the track crossing, go straight on, on the middle track. Climb up to the ‘Christmas Trees’ trailhead and follow this to its end, going right on the forest track and sharply right again, before Warren House, back uphill. Proceed until the marker for ‘Pump Track’ and go left on it.
5 Continue on ‘The Chippy’ (or ‘Twins’) and ride over another track on ‘Yee Haw’, then go right at the end. Keep right on the forest track to climb back up to the top (where you where earlier). Go left, out of the woods and keep ahead, around the right flank of the hilltop.
6 Go left around the hill and left again, joining the ‘Limestone Link’ trail. After crossing a couple of brooks, head over a bridleway and go left on a wide track, uphill. Keep ahead and down through a gate off the moors. Go straight on the road at Tyning’s Farm, onto a bridleway.
7 Head right at the bottom, to a crossroads. Turn left and into Cheddar. Make a left at the roundabout and climb Cheddar Gorge. Look for a bridleway near the top, with a layby on either side. Go right, into the trees, for a steep hike-a-bike up the hillside. Keep ahead up to the top and follow the path down, bearing left by the lookout tower.
8 Bear right on the tarmac, then left past Edelweiss Cafe and ahead/left at the roundabout. Go right at the T-junction, then bear left at the next monument, signed Wedmore. Turn right along this road and rejoin the Strawberry Line, then go left, back to the car park.
THE LOCATION: The Mendips provide great MTBing, from waymarked trails to exposed moorland hilltops and technical rocky riding.
GETTING THERE: Cheddar is off junction 22 of the M5, along the A38, then the A371. Use the car park at the end of Sharpham Road, by the reservoir.
MAPS & BOOKS: Ordnance Survey Landranger 128: Weston-Super-Mare. Mountain Bike Rides in & Around Wiltshire & Dorset by Max Darkins (Rough Ride Guide).
FACILITIES: Stay at Gordon’s Hotel (01934 742497), Cheddar YHA (0345 371 9730) or Mendip Camp (01934 251783). Eat at Lillypool Farm Cafe, (01934 741244) or in Cheddar. For bike stuff, Bad Ass Bikes in Burrington is good (01761 462011).
CHEDDAR CHEESE: The most popular cheese in the UK dates to the 12th century. The good stuff is still aged in the caves of Cheddar as it was then.
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MEDIUM ROUTE
BAKEWELL, PEAK DISTRICT
DISTANCE 19.3KM (12 MILES) | CLIMBING 550M (1,805FT) | TIME 1HR 30MINS TO 2HRS
Route summary: A great little slice of classic White Peak riding, with cycle paths along converted railway lines, singletrack through woodlands and fast blasts across grassy fields, while passing pretty villages and a stately manor house
Start/finish: Hassop Station car park, on the Monsal Trail (postcode: DN45 1NW, Grid Ref: SK218/706)
1 Go out of the bottom of the car park to the Monsal Trail and turn left on it. Rise for 1.5km then turn off at Bakewell Station car park. Bear left on the road and immediately left again, over the bridge/Monsal Trail, steeply uphill. Ride over the top and, as it starts to descend, bear off right on a wide track. Follow this downhill, to and through Edensor village. Turn right by the main road along the grassy bank, cutting the corner off the tarmac.
2 Follow the road until it starts descending. Go right after the cattle grid, past Calton Lees car park and garden centre. Bear right to a crossroads, where you keep straight ahead, through a gate on a bridleway, uphill. After a zig-zag between buildings, stay on the main track, through a gate, and turn left along a field edge.
3 Turn left at the end, through a gate, and follow a faint track across the field, to a gate in some woods, where the trail becomes more obvious. Follow it left, then go left again on a wider track. Bear left then turn right before a gate, downhill, leaving the woods on a wide track.
4 Go right at a T-junction. When this track bears sharply right by some farm buildings, keep straight ahead and follow the bridleway across a field. Rejoin the trail and head left on it, around a right-hand bend. Fork right as it bears left, before a bridge, through a gate on a bridleway.
5 Continue across a field, then bear right to a gate. Join a good track, turning left on it. At a junction, turn left then right to join the Monsal Trail back to the Bakewell Station car park, just after passing under a bridge. Go left to and on the road, down to the A619, and either left over the bridge into town for refreshments or right to continue.
6 Turn left towards Riverside Business Park (on a deadend road), but then bear right on a track at the end, keeping ahead, uphill. Go across some fields and through some gates as the track becomes narrower, back down to the Monsal Trail. Turn right on this, back to the car park, just under the next bridge.
LOCATION: The White Peak area of the Peaks offers lovely countryside, great trails and good facilities, catering to many different kinds of rider.
GETTING THERE: We kicked off just to the north of Bakewell, at the Hassop Station site, on the B6001 off the A619. There’s a big car park, cafe and bike hire available here.
MAPS & BOOKS: Ordnance Survey Landranger 119: Buxton & Matlock. White Peak Mountain Biking: The Pure Trails by Jon Barton (Vertebrate Publishing).
FACILITIES: Hassop Station Farmhouse B&B at the start is good (01629 653831). There’s also bike hire and a cafe there, plus loads of options in Bakewell itself.
BAKEWELL TART: This English classic of pastry, jam, frangipane, chopped almonds and icing dates back to the 19th century. Not to be confused with the smaller cherry Bakewell.
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EASY ROUTE
PETER TAV Y, DARTMOOR
DISTANCE 15.8KM (9.8 MILES) | CLIMBING 480M (1,575 FT) | TIME 1HR TO 2HRS
Route summary: Some lovely moorland riding in a quiet part of Dartmoor National Park, offering great views and a variety of trails at the home of the cream tea
Start/finish: Smeardon Down car park (postcode: PL19 9QL, grid ref: SX 521/779)
1 Turn left out of the car park then left on a bridleway signed ‘Stephen’s Grave’. Climb steeply, turning left shortly past a tor and beside a boulder, on a wide grassy track. Aim for the corner of the wall and go through the gate here, then proceed to the left of the farm.
2 Follow the stone wall to the left, through some more gates, as the track improves and comes to a road. Go left to a T-junction and go right here, uphill. Keep ahead on the dead-end road, signed ‘Wapsworthy’, until the tarmac ends. Follow the track right, signed ‘Merrivale Range’.
3 Go past a military hut, through a gate. The trail becomes grassy and you fork right, uphill, with a small valley and stream on the right. Keep ahead when the wall ends, and near the top, turn right on a more defined track, now aiming towards the corner of a wall.
4 Keep the wall on your right and descend, aiming for the mound of White Tor, past a standing stone. The trail becomes a stone track with drainage ditches. Ride down to a road (with the car park to the right). Go left over the cattle grid, into the farmyard, and fork right. Follow this track through Higher Godsworthy Farm, over another cattle grid, and stay on the tarmac.
5 Follow the road right and soon, when it veers slightly left, turn right through a gate on a bridleway. Bear right at a fork, through the wall. Cross the field and head left, to Great Combe Tor. Proceed on the track to the right, behind the tor, and follow it down through the trees.
6 Cross the stream at the bottom and bear right to climb back up the other side of the valley to a road. Turn right on this, back to the car park to finish.
THE LOCATION: This route on the western edge of Dartmoor boasts a selection of remote moorland tracks.
GETTING THERE: Exit the A30 southwest of Okehampton and follow the A386. Turn left to Peter Tavy and turn right on a dead-end road to a car park.
MAPS & BOOKS: Ordnance Survey Landranger 191: Okehampton & North Dartmoor. Mountain Bike Rides in & around Exmoor & Dartmoor by Max Darkins (Rough Ride Guide).
FACILITIES: Stay at Harford Bridge Holiday Park (01822 810349, www.hardfordbridge.co.uk) or Eversfield Organic Dartmoor Inn (www.eversfieldorganic.co.uk). There are shops in Tavistock, including Tavistock Cycles (01822 617630, www.tavistockcycles.co.uk).
CREAM TEA: The English cream tea is claimed to date back to Tavistock Abbey in the 11th century. When in Devon, it’s cream before jam!
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