[Closed] Haldon Forest, Devon - worth going?

if you are close by and want an easy to navigate, fun blast round a trail centre, yes.

Dartmoor is always an option, and will always provide a huge range of routes. Woodbury is close by and has some interesting, easy heathland riding.. If you are only likely to get out on a quick ride then jam bo is right. Smash out some quick loops around the very easy to follow trails at Haldon and have a nice coffee afterwards. Why make it any more difficult?

The skills centre is excellent. The rest isn't so bad either. Hilly 😀

You must be from East Anglia.

Cafeside is good if you like more fun stuff (some jumps, some fun descents). It's worth checking their Facebook page, some trails are closed at the moment, but should still be plenty to go at.

I like Haldon. Didn't the car park just get expensive, though?

A few non sanctioned runs off the main blue are easy to find and worth doing. Two off the main red are very good. Little harder to find but not impossible-look for trails off the bottom of the main red then walk them up to find the start

Strava heat map is your friend. Whilst the 15k of so of official trails up there are (just about) ok, there's miles of off-piste if you know where to look.
Otherwise, head a bit further south and ride Lustleigh Cleave, you won't regret it!

I ride Haldon a lot. It's close by and convenient. Some of the off piste stuff is very good and the trails aren't rubbish. Is there better riding locally - yes. Will it be hellishly busy on a bank holiday weekend - very much so

I'd download the gpx for the MBUK big ride at Woodbury and follow that. A mixture of heathland gravel tracks and woodland single track. Either that or head to Dartmoor which for once isn't in a liquid state. There was an MBUK winter ride which started at Hound Tor and takes in some reasonably interesting trails.

As Tom says, there's plenty of good riding up there if you do a bit of strava hunting.

Better yet, head to Lustleigh Cleave and get some utterly beautiful singletrack - was up there yesterday and despite all the rain the trails are in perfect condition. Well worth the extra 20 mins in the car. Can share gpx routes if you want.

Cheers for the all the helpful advice, much appreciated.

We're planning on a family day out to Haldon on Saturday, my little boy wants to go on the Gruffalo trail there so I'm planning on taking my bike and going for a ride after the family have gone back to Shaldon. Hence no real alternative options on Saturday but it gives me other places to visit next time!

Thanks

You must be from East Anglia.

I live at the foot of the south downs just outside Brighton so no shortage of hills round here!!

As someone else said go Haldon it'll be fine, do the blue, red and black and then if you have time loop around again and where you saw stuff that looked like a line push up and go down.

Just looked at that Woodbury loop, it looks to be more fireroad then singletrack! I would avoid that loop, but not Woodbury, there are fun things up there, although they have just ploughed all the jumps at Yettington but the trails are still running there.

I went on Sunday, and I thought it was pretty good. The trail centre stuff is ok, but the off piste (had a local guide) is great. And yeah, parking isn't cheap.

Am a big fan of Haldon. Usually warm up on the light blue, followed by a high speed blast on the dark blue. A bite to eat at the cafe, then a couple of laps of the red plus the little black section, easily rideable on a hardtail BTW. Watch out for little climb back up from the bottom of the black, it will have you puffing and wheezing and any time the HT lost on the down bit of the black you will easily make back coming back up.

Haldon is very much a family venue and a very friendly place, so dont be surprised to see the occasional family group or parent and young kid on the blues. Leave the ego in the car park and you will have a blast.

On a sunny sunday or bank holiday it pays to arrive early as the car park gets very busy with families.

If you are a regular sign up for the discovery pass to avoid the parking charges.

You must be from East Anglia.

Teignmouth, actually. 😆

I was really referring to the last climb from the red route. Personally I like to sprint up it on my singlespeed, but a few red laps would make for a nice hard ride.

Thanks again for the advice. I'm half tempted to take my carbon 29er HT now! Especially as I'll have to ride back to Teignmouth afterwards then across the bridge to Shaldon. Mind you a lot of that is downhill.

When you say the parking is expensive, how much are we talking about here?

Last Summer parking was £8 i if remember.

Not too bad if the family enjoys it and you get to ride trails that someone else has built and maintained for you.

I thought it was £7 for all day on the weekend or peak time.
Anyway, not too bad if you're with the family. There is always the cheeky option of parking over by the Belvedere tower.

Painey - Member
Thanks again for the advice. I'm half tempted to take my carbon 29er HT now! Especially as I'll have to ride back to Teignmouth afterwards then across the bridge to Shaldon. Mind you a lot of that is downhill.

Have a pint in the Ferry Boat Inn for me. Great little pub!

Have a pint in the Ferry Boat Inn for me. Great little pub!

It is indeed!

Oikeith

Sorry to go off topic but who levelled the jumps and why?

Not that I can ride at the mo.

Sorry to go off topic but who levelled the jumps and why?

Not that I can ride at the mo.

Probably (almost definitely) Clinton Devon Estates, as they own or manage most of the woodland on that side of Woodbury. They tend to knock them all down every year or two when they get too built up, and then people start building again, and so on....

Same happened last year in Harpford Woods, but trails are appearing again, though no big jumps yet.

They don't seem to mind singletrack type trails too much, but when people start building big stuff and doing lots of digging they tend to move in and flatten everything. Might be a fear of getting sued, but also they don't like the damage to their 'crops' - i.e. trees.

I like Haldon, used to arrange my training so I could stay at the Best Western and join the Red halfway along. Have ridden the 'black' extension on my full rigid, a bit too small single speed winter bike (was a bit concerned about leaving the nice bike in the car) but there's still plenty of fun to be had.

Lustleigh is lovely, I'd take up that gpx offer to get best 'value' out of your time.

Probably (almost definitely) Clinton Devon Estates, as they own or manage most of the woodland on that side of Woodbury. They tend to knock them all down every year or two when they get too built up, and then people start building again, and so on....

Same happened last year in Harpford Woods, but trails are appearing again, though no big jumps yet.

They don't seem to mind singletrack type trails too much, but when people start building big stuff and doing lots of digging they tend to move in and flatten everything. Might be a fear of getting sued, but also they don't like the damage to their 'crops' - i.e. trees.

From what I can understand it was Clinton Devon Estates but because people cleared out some protected vegetation to build a jump. Apparently it was protected by a national scheme and Clinton could have been held liable. Due to this the leveled all the jumps.

The singletracks in those woods still run and two new ones have appeared which are quite fun.

Great conditions up there at the moment. I just did 2 hours of mostly off-piste and it's running a dream.

^ he's talking about haldon BTW. think the tide was in at woodbury... 🙂