Loop out from Challock, and around Kings Wood.

Another great spring day, sunshine, scattered cloud, and showers, brilliant.

So off to Challock in Kent, I parked in the Post Office car park and headed out right along the A252, towards the roundabout. Taking the left hand exit and about 400 yards on the left is the entrance to the first bridleway, muddy in sections and with a dip in the middle it was a good start.

At the end of the trail, following the road to the right and down to the next bridleway on the right, this is a great ride up through a field and through two gates and into a wooded section, paths are covered in brambles to its a bit of a trial to get through (in shorts my legs suffered a bit!). Once out of the woods and through the gate, it becomes a farm track and out onto the road. This is the Faversham road, turn right on this road and head towards Shottenden, before you get to the main road there is a byway on the right, just opposite Oast Lane, (which is the second left).

This trail was "tripletrack" in places like the London Underground, with standard 4x4 ruts and a motorcycle one in the middle. It was firm and flinty and then descended into a muddy mess at the bottom of the hill, keep in the centre of the trail to avoid the huge ruts. The route then climbs up into the woods, this is much better, and a great ride.
At the end it becomes a tarmac road out onto the main Faversham road.

I skipped across here onto Pested Lane and followed it all the way down to the A252, at the junction I'm sure there is an entrance into Kings Wood here, but I bailed and took the slog along the main road to the Dane Street Hill Byway. This is a repeat section of the route from last week, but I needed to do it again to get to the byway that runs the length of Kings Wood south side.

This trail is great, a good steep winding climb through trees with a wooded section at the top, derailleur issues fooked the climb for me so I settled for a walking section to sort it out.

At the junction I took the right hand turn and headed along the outside of the woods, this is a great trail and one I'l be back to do when the bike is better! Long stoney sections and muddy potholes with diversions!. It reminded me of the Boxley top trail but longer and more varied, I can see why the woods are a regular haunt of the SketchyMTB crowd.

At the end we're back on tarmac and the long slow drag up White Hill and back to Challock.

Day Off, great ride, great trails, say no more......

Chilham Kent.

From the free car park, its out on a sunny Friday, to ride some more of the trails in Kent. From here its out to main road (A28) and turn right, about a mile along the road on the left is then entrance to the first bridleway. This is a long incline up through orchards, and a good start.
Then at the road its left towards Shottenden and turn left into the farm (sign posted a dead end), but this leads onto the first byway of the ride, there has been some growth on the sides of the track over the winter forcing motorcycles to dig a rather unpleasant rut in the middle of the trail.
But this does wind its way down to the A28 and is a great descent (there are some handy detours to avoid larger puddles), I wish I rode this way more often as I'd know the right line to take on the trail, but no mishaps and no flint damage.
Once back out on the A28 turn left again and follow the road, on the right is the entrance to the second byway, and this is a great climb up through the woods, (Ridge Wood, and Felborough Wood), when you reach the top the downhill is most welcome, and it ends a the start of Mountain Street, which I follow down into Chilham village.
I followed the road signposted to the station, and took a sneaky foot path over the river Stour, to the restricted byway on the other side of the valley.
This has been treated well by the KCC, hardpacked gravel path, all the way along the Stour valley, alongside the railway. Its marked as a footpath on the map, but is now a cycle/horse route and is good.
At the end I turn right towards Eggerton and up and over the hill on the bridleway, which in one part seems to go through someones front garden. At the end its another left turn and onto Sole Street and follow this up the hill, left corner, right corner, small climb and another Byway on the left. This trail is closed to traffic Oct to Apr so it's in good condition, a short climb up through Barton Wood to Penny Pot Lane.
The next bridleway is on the left a short muddy section through the woods, a gate into a paddock, and another on the exit, then a singletrack between two fields and onto a junction of footpaths, at this point carry straight on but keep to the left of the woods, the next gate is down the trail. Now its through Sprats wood, back towards Chilham, out onto a short section of Mystole Lane and we join the restricted byway back to the Stour (and the footpath).

A great ride, sunshine, drying trails, and a wonderful part of the county.

Saturday, 8th March 2014, after 4 dry days, and 5 months of rain, it was great to get out in the sunshine. My second visit to loop out from Sheldwich Church, to cover some of the trails in the area. Today I set out and turned north from the church and took the bridleway on the right about 3/4 mile up the road, this is a nice grass trail and dryer than last time. At the end of the track I turned left and followed the road up to the next bridleway on the right heading towards Selling. This is a great "two-parter", a run down through the woods then across a valley bottom to the road, and a quick right hand turn to follow the trail on a slow grass hill, this was tedious today, riding along on tractor tyre tread marks, corrugating the trail and making it a rough ride. At the end of the track I turned left to head for Selling, the road to Oversland was blocked with a flood under the railway so i turned back and headed round the lanes to get to Scoggers Hill and the trail up the hill, poor signage and a confused look around the buildings at the top left me on a footpath, and a diversion to the bridleway, it was worth it, the singletrack trail down through Joan Beech Wood is great, still wet and mucky in parts, but it flows nicely and is a bit of a rollercoaster. Out at the end and over the railway (after another map/sign foobar), and down to Ensleigh, then back through the lanes to Sheldwich. All in all a good couple of hours, sunshine relatively dry trails, and another new area explored.

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