Loop out from Longfield

Loop out from Longfield 11:30 on Saturday, 26 April 2014

19 Miles, approx 1400ft climbing.

This loop begins from the car park at the St Mary the virgin Church on the
Longfield to Fawkham road, (Free parking).

Turning left out of the car park you head towards Fawkham on the very nasty
lane, be careful of cars passing as it's a bit narrow, and not quite enough
room for passing traffic.

Approx a mile along the lane take the left on Scudders Hill, this is a cheeky
hill that creeps up the side of the valley and can catch you out early on in
the ride. Stick with it.

Over the apex and just down the other side on the left is the entrance to the
first byway, this is a muddy but well maintained and follows the line of the
ridge southwards. Leading out onto School Lane, turn right here and head downhill
towards Horton Kirby, turning left on Lombard Street towards the A20.

A quick dash down the A20 on the right, and then a left onto Eynsford Road, and
ride into the village, keep riding along this road, until you see Priory Lane
on the left, take this and it becomes a byway, at the time of writing it was
closed to vehicle traffic, but it is a good open ride over the hill to
Beesfield Lane.

Beesfield Lane is back to a single track road, and a pleasant ride, follow this
lane and it becomes Maplescombe Lane, on the right at the junction to Botsom Lane
is the start of the bridleway, this heads up the hill and into the woods, the first
section is full of stones and overgrown, at the gate halfway up it turns sharp left
and up a small slope, be ready for it! Once on this it's back to a single footpath
type trail up into the High Castle woods and out onto Cherry Tree Grove. The track
through the woods is ok, but very muddy in places with diversions into the trees at
the side. Stick with it, it ends, out of the woods over a low (horse) gate, and onto
a tarmac road.

We're then back onto tarmac and following East Hill Road, past the farm on the left
is the entrance to the next bridleway, well signposted, it starts as a farm track and
reduces down to a single trail (well used by horses).
This kinks to the right and starts downhill, be carefull here, the downhill section at
the top is a set of steps (best attacked on the left hand side), once you've takled
these it's aquick run down the hill and through the barrier at the bottom onto
Knatts Valley Road.

Opposite the exit take Knatts Lane, and then the left had entrance to the next
bridleway, this is a strange one, a steep concrete path through overgrown hawthorn,
(I ended up pushing the bike) leads out to a good trail through the woods to over
Kingsingfield Road and into Stacklands wood, finally meeting School Lane at
"the Grove".

Turn right here and follow School Lane. The entrance to the next restricted byway
is on the left and is a bit odd, starts out at a trail along a fence and between
gardens, and then loses it's way a bit over gates and a field, not really a good
route.

It ends when it meets St Clere Hill Road, and we turn left here, and head south.
Knock Mill lane runs across the top of the downs, with great views and we follow
this and take the junction to Exedown Road, this drops down the hill towards the
road to Wrotham, as the lane heads left there is a sharp right hand turn, the entrance
to the bridleway is here and runs back up the hill, its steep and full of large stones.
This makes for a bit of a slog up the hill, but takes you over a bridge across the M20,
then over the field to the A20. (it would be better coming the other way!).

To wrap up the loop, I headed back along the A20 to the Fawkham road and then straight
back to the start.

A good ride out with some surprises, and again more great trails.

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.

Strava Map

Clear skies, winter sunshine and the chance to get some of the older routes mapped out.
It was still very muddy in places but a good ride, with some great trails.

Starting from the car park at Ranscome Park, I rode over the M2 bridge to the North Downs way that runs parallel to the Euro rail line and the M2, it is a good tarmac and type 2 trail, leading to the Bridleway that climbs up through Monk Wood to Common road on the top of the Downs over Chatham. It is a great and well looked after trail.
From there I dropped down onto the byway on the right, that heads towards Burham, this is now deeply worn and water damaged, chalk, flint and some "interesting" downhill. It stretches out then at the bottom to meet the Rochester Road, and tarmac part of the pilgrims way in Burham. At the junction with Rochester Road, head straight over to meet the off road part of the pilgrims way, byway.
This is obviously a busy section well worn and very muddy, at the end turn left and head under bluebell hill to the trail behind the shell garage.
This is the continuing pilgrims way, slippery, muddy and covered in huge puddles, but a good ride if you can avoid dog walkers! Its a good roller coaster leading to a tarmac trail and out onto the Boxley hairpin. Straight over here towards the pilgrims way on the turning on the left.
At the junction near the Detling sign, is a byway on the left that climbs the Downs up to Hermitage lane, its a great climb long and slow and after the recent rain is worn and muddy, making it more of a challenge, (many of these routes I've done in the poor weather I will be back to do in the summer).

Just before the end of the lane is a bridleway on the left, this is a classic trail from Detling back to the Boxley Road. It's a smooth gravel trail but again the weather and horse traffic have not been kind, my rear cassette here filled with thick mud and slowed me down, but it is still a good ride.

Crossing the Boxley Road onto Harp Farm Road, follow this small country lane, to Bell Lane on the left, this starts as a normal road and is marked as a dead end, it's not.
There is another byway at the end that leads back down towards Blue Bell Hill, its again rain washed and chalky and flinty, with concentration needed to avoid the slippery parts.
At the bottom I turned left onto Warren Road and remember quite soon why I dislike this road, its a steep climb and made harder by the bike being covered in crap and grinding its way
up the hill, there are deceptive corners until you reach the top.

At this point you'll join Mill Lane, and cross the road onto Common Road, and pass the trail you came up earlier, keep on this road to the end (it becomes Hill Road), and there is the final Bridleway on the right at the last left hand corner, this is a great sweeping downhill passing Shoulder of Mutton Wood, great singletrack over roots, and out onto an open trail through the field to the gate near the Euro Rail track.

Here, you're on the downhill to meet the North Downs way that we covered on the way in, back along the road, over the M2 bridge again and its all over, nearly 20 miles and most of it off road.
#bike, #bridleway, #byway, #garmin, #gps, #kent, #map, #mountain #biking, #strava,

after all the rain of the past few weeks there is no hope of an easy route out at the moment. I went out to cover some old ground I hadn't recorded from last year, and add in two new bridleways into the ride.

From Camer park, out onto the road back towards Sole Street, the first bridleway is on the right about 500 yards along the road. It starts as a gravel farm track, nice and easy and then cuts sharp to the left onto a muddy rutted, and heavily used ride. But it is downhill and a good ride down to the road out by "The Cock" pub. Turning left I'm heading back to Sole Street and then over towards Longfield hill via Round St. and left onto Copt Hall Rd.

The next bridleway is on the right, and loops around to join the main Wrotham road, its a great trail, and will be excellent once we have a drought and hose pipe ban, to clear some of the water away.

Turning right and left through Longfield hill down to Nurstead Lane and onto Longfield road, turn right towards Meopham the next bridleway is on the down hill on the right hand side. This promises to be a great trail, but is one of the worst routes in North Kent, its thick clay mud, with loads of horses using it this is almost un-rideable in the wet. My bike was clogged to the point the wheels wouldn't turn!

Once I tried to clean some of the mud off, the rear derrailleur got choked and bent the rear hanger, a quick and dirty bend and pull to get it working was needed. My gears now limited and not wanting to do any more damage I turned back and headed to Camer.

Lenham, Stalisfield Loop, the last ride of 2013

Great winter sunshine and a clear day, and I'm off again to Lenham for another bash at the trails around the downs. From the car park behind the Dog and Bear, Lenham, its up to the A20 and then onto the Doddington road, the pilgrim's way crosses this road so we turn right onto it and along in front of the war memorial. That part is open grassland, and then it dips down into a tree lined track.

After the recent storms its suffered from a few fallen trees. Its muddy and slick with chalk and clay, but a good start, the trail crosses the Faversham road on a slight hill and you pick up the pilgrim's way further up the lane, this is a great track (although slippery and muddy with heavy motorcycle and 4x4 use), and is open on the right hand side looking down towards the A20. Just past a few houses on the left there is a byway that rises strait up the hill, this was a complete shit of a ride, trees across the track and no grip, had to walk and carry the bike. 
At the top of the hill the trail levels off on to the road, I turned right here, and followed Waterditch road to the byway on the left, this is the other end of the trail from my last trip out to Lenham and is a good farm track, dual tyre tracks (sometimes rutted), leading to a hedge lined trail (brambles are growing into the path), it leads on a pleasant descent to the junction with the old railway track byway, up the hill over the crossing, and we're back on the road. From here I followed the Ringshill road, to the left hand turn onto Stalisfield road, the bike was getting heavy with mud and the new DIY front mech cover was struggling to keep the mud out. 
The bridleway entrance is on the left in the valley, the signpost from this direction is a little hard to see at speed and I missed it. But once back on the route I was not disappointed, this is a cracking trail through some open fields (2 x gates) and down into a small wood (Bowl Wood, Kennelling Wood and out into Spuckles wood), at the end the path forks with a footpath going to the right, take the left fork, it goes slightly uphill to a trail across the field. 
Through another gate and cross the Hillside Road, to continue on the bridleway through to Church Road, the trail is a farm track with a great small descent through a wood to the road. Turning right at the road junction there is an entrance to the next bridleway about 200 yards up the hill on the left, this is a bit of a treat, a wide open grass valley crossing, up the other side of the valley is another gate (see view from the top in pic), this leads through a small wood, and out to a farm, and we are back on the road again. 
This was the last trail for today, time and energy were running out, a month out of the saddle and the excesses of Christmas taking a toll. I will be back to finish these off soon, and will also return when it's dry, as some of these need a return visit!