[Closed] Haldon

I was chatting to the Forestry fella in his office about a month ago, he reckoned spring.

cheers dude , am free this weekend so may pop up and see them.

I saw a poster at SadsnPads saying the official opening is 29th of this month. It's not on the website, so I'm not 100% sure....

Rode quite bit of it last night (mea culpa)

It's OK.
Quite tight, but gentle. Goes with the contour, not straight down, flows ok.

SadsnPads

SadsnPads

yep

I'm working at a halfterm playday up there next week, I'll have a chat with Gemma and find out what's going on with the trail

Official opening is the 29th of October. Sections are ok, although i do think it's a blue graded trail rather than a red, anyone coming down from the Welsh/Scottish centres would fall about laughing.

It's a good addition though and fun if rode at speed, just got to hope they dont trash the unoffical stuff.

I like it all - not that I've ridden it or anything - I challenge anyone to ride it flat out and not come to grief. One section in particular is extremely good fun and once it gets eroded a little, I'd imagine that the whole trail will be pretty cool. We've just been given a brand new, well thought out trail, what's there to be negative about ?

Opens next Thursday with a BBQ and stuff.

I am afraid I live 5 miles away and I never go up there anymore - I think the lack of hardcore rock and number of users means its wrecked quickly. I can ride more all weather trails over Dartmoor or Woodbury and that are more technical and with regards to Dartmoor I can ride out from home rather than park and pay with the masses and avoid dogs, children and adults wandering over the trails and tutting. I really don't like that place IMHO 🙂

IMHO The best stuff up at Haldon are not the marked trails but the other stuff that's up there, you just need to know where it is 😉

This means you don't have trouble with dogs, children or adults wandering on the trail, although on the 'err unmarked stuff we have on numerous occasions seen some of the local deer population but they just leggit in the opposite direction.

For me the main reason I go to Haldon is the sublime St Andrews Lane decent on the way home - Woo Hoo 😆

IMHO The best stuff up at Haldon are not the marked trails but the other stuff that's up there, you just need to know where it is

CB - sorry I agree. When I said I dont go up there I meant the man-made stuff 🙂 When my mate and I go 9not been for a while) we do the other side riding not the trail centre - or go off course 🙂

Dartmoor or Woodbury and that are more technical

PMSL, Woodbury and Technical in the same sentance. 😆

Le Singe - not being negative at all i like it too. 🙂

I was talking to a FC worker up there a couple of weeks ago who told me they'd been instructed to decomission all non-official trails.

PMSL, Woodbury and Technical in the same sentance.

Oh I don't know, some of those pebbles are huge 😉

I was talking to a FC worker up there a couple of weeks ago who told me they'd been instructed to decomission all non-official trails

How are they going to do that, really? That would take an inordinate amount of effort, and people will just find ways around barriers/logs/etc. And if they go the whole hog and dig up or destroy trails with machinery they'll be destroying plenty of other stuff that isn't the odd off-reservation trail.

The non-official trails harm no-one. No walkers ever go on any of them - they're all blithely letting their dogs get under the wheels of cyclists on the 'Adventure Trail' 😆

Oh I don't know, some of those pebbles are huge

Lol @ Trailmonkey 😆

crispy: +1 st Andrews lane is the best bit of natural single track in this part of the world.

the technical bit about Woodbury? the mutant gorse

st Andrews lane is the best bit of natural single track in this part of the world.

I need to know how you're defining [i]this part of the world[/i] cos to be honest, i can think of stuff within a reasonably close radius that rips it's head off and spits in the hole 😉

'I need to know how you're defining this part of the world cos to be honest, i can think of stuff within a reasonably close radius that rips it's head off and spits in the hole'

😆

2nd that. StA Lane is good.. fast, fun... but there is miles and miles of better single track out there... It is a good finish to a ride up at haldon tho.

As for woodbury... it is not all bad over there... some fast rooty singletrack round the edge, few drops, gaps and the like over the far side... it isnt boring.

While the new trails aren’t my cup of tea, they will provide riding for a lot of people round here, and may get people in to cycling... which is a good thing.

but if the FC are reading this... please leave the other trails alone... the new stuff just doesnt cut the mustard. I agree with birchy, blue even green in grade... not red.. however.. it's not that bad on the CX bike.

st andrews is my personal favourite on this side of Haldon. leave it at that 🙂

I go out of my front door, up the lane and up Holywell lane (the bridle path behind Haydon lodge), along the top and down st Andrews lane, back via the woods and bridle path at the bottom of Haydon common.

it's an hour of devon/heaven

anyone going up there on thurs for the opening.???????

i may go but twont be til after work around 5.30.

So, I was up there today - signs saying they're shutting the Red Route permanently from tomorrow. The only available route to ride (well official route 🙂 ) on that side will be the new 'boring' gravel track. Yes it's swoopy and fast, but, well it's not really mtbing is it?

Ok the Red Route isn't great either, but why shut it? Unless they totally dig it out, people are still going to ride it anway.

And agreed that the best stuff up there is not waymarked. I do enjoy confusing other cyclists as you dip off the trail down some little side track and catch glimpses of em through the trees trying to work out where you've gone!

Well I'll be up there this weekend for a blast round the new trail. I'm not going to judge it until I've ridden it - which seems a bit unusual round here...

Stopped by the main centre in passing yesterday around 11am. It was packed! Car park full, heaving.... full of families and kids riding/falling off everywhere, and lots of harrassed looking parents wondering which part of a bike you sit on!!!!
Still, if it encourages cycling in the broadest sense then good.
Work being done on the Exeter side, where a trail runs close to the road, men were taking out branches and generally trimming back trees. Couldn't see any info about new trails or what's happening, but didn't stay too long as twas just too busy.
Q

Probably come in to its best after the trail has bedded in a bit, probably give it a wizz in a week or two.

Stopped by the main centre in passing yesterday around 11am. It was packed! Car park full, heaving.... full of families and kids riding/falling off everywhere, and lots of harrassed looking parents wondering which part of a bike you sit on!!!!

Well it is half term, so to be expected.

I might head up for a ride later - I only live at the bottom of the hill, so I can jump on the bike and ride up to the top in 15 minutes 🙂
Always makes me feel a bit smug to have ridden up there rather than driven!

Always makes me feel a bit smug to have ridden up there

always makes me feel a bit sick, but that probably depends which way you climb, and whether or not you use gears... 🙂
as for the new trail itself and what it's like, the threatened closures of 'unsanctioned' trails, and all the rest of it, i'll hold onto my opinions until we start to find out exactly what's going on.

I'm not going to judge it until I've ridden it - which seems a bit unusual round here

is this an observation of the forum at large, or in response to posts on this thread regarding the new, 'sanctioned' trail?

always makes me feel a bit sick, but that probably depends which way you climb, and whether or not you use gears

I either cycle up the road from Clapham - that top 200 metres is a killer! Or cycle up St Andrew's Lane.

Both do-able on the SS, but not what I would call fun. Geared is ok though.

Well, just got back from a pootle up there, and there is a grumpy man in a mechanical digger putting gurt big holes in the red run 🙁 Alright it ain't the best trail in the world, but it seems a pity to destroy it.

On a happier note, all the nice trails on the other side of the road, the ones that have the drop-offs, and the nice route at the bottom with all the off camber roots, are in good condition and haven't been touched (yet!)

Also St Andrew's lane is lovely as ever, especially covered in autumn leaves that you can kick up with the back wheel on the swoopy corners 🙂

whereabouts was he working on it?

Right by the top - obviously taking out the beginning of the trail. Might mean they just block the top and bottom and leave the rest?

i don't think that it's a major disaster if the old red is lost. The real ball ache will be if the unofficial stuff on the other side of the hill goes.

As above. Not much point getting worked up until we see what happens.

the new bits of the red run can be buried as far as I'm concerned( the poorly constructed bits they threw in to join up the pre-existing trails).

The rat run, bus stop and the camel will resurrect themselves when the dust dies down. Rat run is on version VIIa so far, rat run VIII will be fine too.

So, after the big build up, what's the ridge trail like?

6 mile run fast swoopy single track. the old red has indeed gone only the berms are left , in away , could they have not left it , but upgraded and done some work and called it a black or summit, the new trail will imo get better over the next months. so ride it see what you think.if they keep the unoficial stuff should all be ok , also there is a new trail going in down the back end.

Took a newbie round there last night and regardless of what people will say (and they will) it's a cracking hours spin in the dark. Good for the occasional rider and the 'expert' rider can ride it flat out it if they want the thrill. Comments will follow to say it's not techy enough, etc, but it certainly ain't without danger if you ride it at speed.

Would agree that it would be kind if the FC left the descreet off piste stuff alone

Reckon I'll be giving Haldon a miss from now on.

I went up Thursday afternoon and it was totally gridlocked - the police trying to sort the traffic out. Loads of people walking on the trails. The red run has gone partly because it was too tricky for the 'average' rider they are catering for now - and because the funding for the new trail was provided on the basis that it would replace the red run.

I agree with Shinythings, the new trail isn't exactly technical, but it's a great flat out blast, especially in the dark, and a good after work/training ride.

So has anyone actually tried the old red run? They were digging out the top the other day, but I can't imagine they've flattened the whole lot.

You never know, it might actually improve it if it's returned to nature, and gets a bit more 'rugged' 🙂