Hi All,
HareyDan and I did a bit of exploring last night around the Great Wood area and found some hidden gems. Some really fun stuff but not sure what most of them are called.
Ashley Combe - fast and smooth. Basically start at the car park opposite Great Bear and head down towards Great Wood, when you get through the gate, stick to the hedge on the left which is a cracking fast blast (towards Rectory Wood on the map), at the fork take the centre track (Ashley Combe) and its smooth and fast to the entrance of Great Wood.
The Dunny - This is pure speed, no obstacles and fairly straight. hard to explain where it starts but basically the bottom of it comes out by the public toilets in Great Wood. Follow the track straight up (towards Lords Ball on the map), cross the fire road continue up and around bend to right and then turn around and gun it! There is an easier climb up there but it's hard to explain.
There's another one which I don't have a name for that starts around the same place as the Dunny at the top. If you look at Multimap on the Ordnance Survey aetting then it starts just above the O for OVER STOWEY CP. Heads down to Ramscombe. Quite rocky, follows a gully, through some rhododendron bushes, which gets pretty dark and at the end crosses a stream to get to the fire road.
One more (hopefully you're still with me). Follow the fire road out of Ramscombe, carry on around the hairpin and climb towards the top of the fire road. Towards the top you will see a drop off to the right hand side which heads back towards Ramscombe. Pretty steep and fast, a few loose rocks and a tight left hander near the end.
If you know these and have names for them then I'd be happy to know.
Cheers
I don't know what they're called, sorry.
keep looking. there are plenty more hidden away....
that last ones for riding up 😆
There's loads of stuff in the woods around there and the Forestry people aren't too worried about where you ride (as long as there's no conflict with other users). Most people seem to concentrate their riding on the Northern end and never realise what they're missing.
iamhimsoiam - That's a bit of a hard climb! May try that next time!
jam bo - I'll keep exploring! I love the fast and flowing ones!
I usually just use Ramscombe to climb back up to the ridge on the fireroad, must be loads of potential there though. Is there a "non-bridleway" running down the length of Ramscombe on the south side of the stream? If there is that would be a good descent from Crowcombe.
Most of my Great Wood riding has been based around the Chimney and Triscombe singletrack and DH stuff.
cheers
yeah, you can cross over to it just after the gate, it comes out just at the bottom of the long steep drag. bit overgrown last time i was there.
will take a look this afternoon, cheers
We've named the last two desecents that I mentioned. They probably aready have names but we've been calling the third one I mentioned 'Trench Foot'. Basically cos you have to get off at the bottom and hop over a stream, and you almost always get your foot wet. Also the trail has a trench running down the length of it! It's runs parallel to the fire road if you are struggling to find it.
The last one I mentioned, we have called 'Dog Leg', simply cos HareyDan nearly ran over a dog down there and it has a sharp dog leg turn near the bottom!
last one is for going up i thaught!
my fav is probably sharki's trail
Cheers Jacko.
It's as much Jambo's creation as mine, and word is it's been neglected, so as i'm in the area for a bit, i best go and do a little work on it and sort out the drainage once and for all, only on the first berm and second drop into the gully, the section after the forest road crossing needs to be sloppy to make all the stumps more of a challenge to slip past.
Sharki,
yours and Jambo's is still good to go !
Smell you soon me Laddo !!
A top racer told me it was a little boggy in places, if the general concensus is it's fine, i'll leave it be.
Very likely you'll smell me, 4 months of washing in streams and i stink like a trout.
I've ridden the first section a couple of times and enjoyed it. The only bit I'm not confident on is the exit onto the Rocky Horror fire road. It's a little steep for me and I tend to chicken out.
A pal of mine and I made our own section of trail, an alternative exit onto the Motorway, we call it the Chicken Run. It's hard to explain where it is but there are a few berms and jumps and the old end section onto the Motorway is very steep. My mate had a bad accident down there so we made an alternative exit and it seems to be well used.
Anyone ridden it?