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.

Strava Map