 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I'm going bikepacking at the end of July. The first 3 days are with friends and will be on road. Once they head back towards Bristol, I have 2 days on my own, and actually want to do a bit of off-road. I will be on an Orro Terra C with 40mm tyres. Can anyone recommend any novice gravel routes from Yeovil to Weymouth, and then Weymouth to Hinton St Mary?
Thank you
search on ridewithgps with keyword "gravel"
Follow NCR26, it has some gravel sections/bridleways. After a quick scan doesn't look like much else unless you head Cerne Abbas / Puddletown direction and down from there.
Yeovil not my area of knowledge, but I can get you from Weymouth to Hinton St Mary.
Obviously you need to do a lap of the Portland coast path (I'd suggest anti-clockwise) before you leave Weymouth.
From Weymouth itself, get up onto the Ridgeway then drop down through Came Wood toward Dorchester. Lanes through Bockhampton and into Puddletown Forest from Hardy's Cottage (good cafe here). Ride anything you fancy in Puddletown Forest, then pick a bridleway and make it over the A35 to Higher Waterston. Take the bridleway through Dole's Hill Plantation, over the lane, through Nettlecombe farm and up to Dorsetshire Gap. Get onto the Wessex Ridgeway (be ready for a full nettling this time of year) up to Rawlsbury Camp, follow the road/Wessex Ridgeway along the top of Bulbarrow Hill to just above Ibberton, then fork right off the road staying on the Wessex Ridgeway route. Follow that until you come to a junction of multiple trails and take the left fork dropping down a steep one through Eastcombe Wood into Shillingstone. Find your way over the main road and onto the old railway line and follow that to Stur Newton.
Thanks for the info. I think I'll take NCR 26 to Weymouth. I'm leaving my friends at Cerne Abbas to heads towards Yeovil, so will look at some of the off-road sections heading that direction.
Brilliant, thanks Dyffers