[Closed] Dartmoor - Nutcracker

I don't have a video, but rode it with Carl Philips on Thursday. He can offer a cracking route that uses it.

there is a vid on youtube that claims to be of the nutcracker but it seems to me that the posters' geography is a tad off and the trail in the vid is on the other side of lustleigh cleave to the nutcracker and is actually a trail known locally as a bridge too far.

i don't have a vid but do have some recent pics that you might enjoy.

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the last image should give you some indication of the gradient as the trees are all obviously vertical. in truth most of these images flatten the trail out a little.

great fun.

Hi there trailmonkey - it's Brian here from Friday. Thanks for posting the pics of the nutcracker - wanted to show the route to my partner and your pics hit the mark. Great to ride with you - hopefully do it again some time. Good luck with the new job and I hope you gain fair resolution for the thing we may not talk about!

hi brian, you can talk about that. it will get sorted out. 🙂

nice to meet you both. pity the weather closed in as there is so much more that we could have shown you. maybe some other time.

enjoy the rest of your time in devon 8)

I don't have a video, but rode it with Carl Philips on Thursday. He can offer a cracking route that uses it.

with most of the best bits courtesy of Trailmonkey 😀

@TM i spoke to sharki last night who described a techy line out around a boulder with no option of failure!!!! would like to have a go at that!!

Hmm, now that's curious (albeit in a small way 🙄 ), as the trail I know as 'nutcracker' really doesn't look like that one ? Admittedly I've not ridden it for ages, but I'd be pretty confident that it's not that one.

I can only assume that we were misinformed / someone misunderstood back along, and it just stuck...

Would any locals be able to guide me around Dartmoor for a while? These trails look too good to miss out on 🙂

To be fair.. it's a fair bit steeper asnd rockier and scarier than those photo's suggest.. 😀

There is another Nutcracker stone/ridge marked on the OS maps about 10 or so miles furthur south but from what I know of it that one's a much more exposed, open and flat terrain..

I'm gonna be riding the one in the pics over the next day or tweo.. cos I haven't ridden it in a fortnight and I'm getting withdrawal symptoms..

I'm happy to do a bit of guiding but I'm only available on quite random weekdays usually.. If we can arrange something that suits though I'm game..

rode it again yesterday, and there was a solo fella looking for it... seems everybody wants to know where the crackers are!

I'm free on weekdays because I'm on holiday down here from the frozen north, so weekdays are fine. Let me know what days you're free and we can sort something.

anyone out today ? meeting at hound tor at 10.45. not going too far just doing all the interesting bits of singletrack in the immediate area.

sadly although I'd love a moor ride today, I've got kids twaekwondo this morning, and D.I.Y this afternoon...

will be up there friday evening though after work, yarner CP around 5-5.30pm.

once my D.I.Y is sorted (2-3 weeks hopefully) im free all day mondays for riding wherever anyone fancies as long as im back in plympton by 3pm to pick up the kids from school.

will be up there friday evening though after work, yarner CP around 5-5.30pm.

once you discover how much is around there, it's hard to think of where else you'd rather ride isn't it ?

once you discover how much is around there, it's hard to think of where else you'd rather ride isn't it ?

Cmon woody. It's good but its not that good....

not just talking about the nutcracker. you need to do a full ride in the two valleys jim.

can't think of anywhere else i'd rather ride around here. each to his own but i rather suspect i'm not on my own.

I'm really keen on exploring more of eastern Dartmoor, i've been out once or twice but i always get the feeling i'm missing out and not finding anything.

I work shifts so i get random days off, quite often week days. My email is in my profile, i'd love to join anyone willing to put up with me.

Bucko

at the moment TM its my favourite place to ride, not only in terms of access as its on my way home from work and doesn't take much time to get there at all, but in terms of upping your technical ability it has heaps of riding...i find the climbing a particular challenge but that'll come and i accept with 1x9 its going to be tough at times, but the descending is pretty much my cup of tea, interesting technical and flat out in places, always easy to pop out onto open moor from there too...

you need to do a full ride in the two valleys

Fantastic as the Nutcracker is there are descents in the immediate area that are just as high on the must do list, not least the already mentioned "a bridge too far" Although we've always known it as "Water" ,as marked on the OS map, if you're looking for it. A bridge too many would be a better name , anyone who's ridden there for a few years will know why. Then there's the warp speed run down to Trendelbere through Houndtor Woods, Hayne Down past Bowermans nose and many more. I'm with Trailmonkey, there aren't many other places I'd rather ride!

Nutcracker (about) 2001
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Nutcracker 2011
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I know how good it is. I just like variety...

Been finding some fun stuff nr tavi recently.

ive never explored tavy properly..;.done a bit out around peter tavy and surrounding area but never really found anything massively worth the trip over...

Grenofen woods is good for a couple of hours, round pew tor, vixen tor and cox tor there are some fun trials.

You can also link up tavi woodlands and gawton.

used to climb around vixen tor before mary alford got in there, and interestingly ive never even considered riding around there...will go check my maps and have a looksie...
there is an xc route out from where we live to gawton/chipshop so could thread the above into an extended route i guess...will check.
cheers

i find the climbing a particular challenge but that'll come and i accept with 1x9 its going to be tough at times, but the descending is pretty much my cup of tea, interesting technical and flat out in places, always easy to pop out onto open moor from there too...

yup, that pretty much sums it up. it's not just about the downs. you've got to think your way through the climbs and the traverses too.

for me though, it's the huge variety that makes it such a great place to ride. you've got fast swoopy stuff like the drop down into the rupp from the neck of the valley (plague), tight steep switchbacks, rock gardens, technical boulder fields, flat out open moorland stuff like the top of hunters tor, even manmade DH runs. there's even two types of rock in the opposite sides of the valleys, grippy granite one side, that horrible black stuff that's super slippy in the wet on the other. of all the stuff that we ride over there, i can't honestly think of two trails that are the same.

can't imagine why i'd ever get bored of riding something that i have to think about every time i ride it 8)

Here's a few shots of todays pleasant little spin round a few fairly interesting trails
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I was out of shot keeping any ovulating ladies out of range of TM's manly gnarr
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hmmm..
We could see the gnar shimmering in the sky on the horizon..

They rang the church bells in our village and all the maids hurried to the vicarage to pray until you boys were off the moor..

where's that last shot..?

Nice, my mum lives in teignmouth but never been riding on dartmoor, does anyone have gps files of the route i could try out next time i'm down?

We could see the gnar shimmering in the sky on the horizon..

we put sandbags outside our front door..

used to climb around vixen tor before mary alford got in there, and interestingly ive never even considered riding around there...will go check my maps and have a looksie...

Very little is even on the map and if it is, it's cheeky....

@yunki,
the last shot is hookney tor. it's the stone road that comes down from the tor top to meet grimspound. you can just see the pound over shiny's shoulder in pic 3, although you'll be forgiven if you can't make it out as shiny's aura was bending the plasma and making the photography pretty dificult.

@ianpinder
don't have a gps for that route, it's known as the warren house inn bike park. it's just a case of climbing hamledown from hound tor and riding down anything between there and the warren house inn that looks remotely interesting. always lots of rides going on. just post up when you're down and join in on a ride.

Aphrodite's evostick.

genuine [s]lollage[/s] manly gruntage

aah it'll be a wet weather exploring day set aside for that then!
forgot about the doublewaters area too, thats nice.

Looks awesome, next time i'm down, sometime in september I'll post up and have a good day out :0

Aphrodite's evostick.

As Trailmonkey said we are always happy to invite people on our rides.

Yunki, not sure I've seen many "maids" in Liverton 🙂

aach..

It could have been the welsh male voice choir for all I know..

they all look like maids to me when they're dressed in their gnar-proof wetsuits.. 😳

Then there's the warp speed run down to Trendelbere through Houndtor Woods, Hayne Down past Bowermans nose and many more. I'm with Trailmonkey, there aren't many other places I'd rather ride!

I managed to find both of those last week - excellent trails. I then dropped down a nasty landrover track to the bottom of the valley below Houndtor woods and got fairly miserable. Because of time constraints I wasn't able to ride Lustleigh properly, just a bridleway on the west side, before time trialling back to Bovey Castle before my wife called out the emergency services!

trailmonkey - Member
@yunki,
the last shot is hookney tor. it's the stone road that comes down from the tor top to meet grimspound. you can just see the pound over shiny's shoulder in pic 3

I thought I recognised Grimspound. I must have missed that trail by 10s of metres but I was also going in the opposite direction, climbing up the hill.

I thoroughly enjoyed my Dartmoor rides last week. Nominal plans are that we'll be back in October so I'll be able to finesse my route then...

On the way home I did stop at Haldon and rode the red and black routes. Obviously there must be better stuff there as the car park was full and I saw nobody on the trail at all. The trails were very disappointing I thought, especially after the 'natural' stuff I'd been riding all week. I also have to admit to being puzzled about why anyone would load the car up to drive to Haldon when they could go a bit further and ride Dartmoor.

Anyway looking forward to riding there soon, and maybe I'll persuade my riding group to do a long daytrip down to Dartmoor....

Ok..
I'm gonna be riding out of Bovey Tracey around 10.30am tomorrow if anyone's interested.. 🙂

Any plans Yunki? I don't want to hold you back on some all day epic but if you don't mind i'm certainly up for joining you for a few hours at least?

Bucko

I was planning to hang around the Cleave and head back into Bovey for 4.30ish.. so nothing concrete
I can work around you if you like..

That sounds good to me, it'll be a test for my fitness but I do need to be home in Exeter by 5ish for my night shift. I've sent you an email

😥

Anyone around this weekend that could show me around the best bits? Not looking for an epic, just 15-20 miles of fun riding 🙂

sambob - tomorrow is my only free day now til next monday..
TM - chin up son.. evening ride soon..?

😀

Bucko - you got mail

Next Monday also works yunki. Any ideas for a start point?

Coming at you like a northern breeze, Wow fantastic bit of trail, nowhere to difficult just nice and technical all the way down, chuffed to clean it on first attempt, yep you southerners really have some good stuff down your way dispelling the myth.

were you up there today Fergal..?

We had a pleasant morning up around those parts.. very satisfying.. 8)

Not today, middle of last week, dry and dusty, just perfect, still buzzing now and had a few rides in the Quantocks, absolute peach of a loop on friday. The thing that is so good about these areas is that it's all natural and seems to hold up really well, the countryside is just stunning, will be frequenting more often as my other halfs olds live in Taunton!. Thanks for those pics whoever as they inspire, but the riding is as good as it looks.

no problem, glad you enjoyed the pics and the riding.

try and grab a guide next time you're here (dartmoor) as there's lots of stuff that you'll never find otherwise 8)

Tis a myth Fergal and thats just the well known stuff, you could quite easily spend an entire day on techy trails within a couple of map grids in that area alone 🙂

Just to say, some of us Buckfastleigh chaps, jumped in the van and headed over to the cleave last night. Nice route down from the back of Haytor, through the cleave, up water then lanes around to Barracott farm, down the Nutcracker, back over the top and down to the stoney bridge / river crossing, then back up to back of haytor. Felt like a really tough ride. But Nutcracker is just great isn't it!

Nutcracker is just great isn't it!

not that good - apparently, but that's just a side issue. the important thing is, why are you starting so high up on a ride that takes you into the bovey valley 😯

crazy fools

when are you gonna be up for an evening session Mr T..?

looking like next week now, thursday hopefully. been out in the vans this week and probably will be most of next week. doesn't leave much time for play 😥