I'm due to collect my wife from Bristol Airport on Sunday afternoon. I'll be driving over from South Wales and the forecast is good. I figured that I'd take in a ride somewhere along the way and a potential place seems to be Leigh Woods. Is it worth it or should I perhaps divert to e.g FoD? I'm after an easy to follow trail about two hours long, maybe a bit longer. Any ideas?
PS- not in Wales, if my wife can have a foreign holiday then I'm having one too!
Thanks in advance 🙂
easy to follow trail about two hours long
Well, that very much depends how fast you are!
That said, Leigh woods/Ashton court probably not two hours even if a casual pace if you’re just on the way marked stuff. If you’re prepared to explore then two hours easy.
I’d maybe consider a mendips loop though? Or session the Rowberrow trails if descents are more your thing? Not far from the airport.
Rowberrow in the Mendips is closest, but there is no real official route, parking place, etc, so you'd have to know where to park, where to ride and so on, basically it would be 2 hours messing about up on the hill.
Leigh Woods is pretty flat and boring, Ashton Court has a little more, but that's because they are pretty much family friendly trails.
I'd just stick with FoD, then go and pick her up, at least you can do more and have easy access and trails to follow, there's a reason more folk go over the bridge from Bristol to bike than stay around bristol to ride!
Go ride the mendips, the best riding to be had whilst you're abroad.
I know that there are waymarked trails at FoD so dead easy to follow which tbh is what I need. If I get lost and pitch up late at the airport I'm a dead man walking!
Cheers folks 🙂
Yeah, Mendips are a nice little pootle and have some tracks and features, but if you're out alone and never been before, you can get lost or turned round easily, and you'd have to find parking around the place. The good thing is it really is about 10-15 minutes from the airport though, maybe see if there's a shout out for other riders doing that area Sunday.
Another benefit is you're then heading north to the airport and can stop beforehand and wait for the landing phone call, as there's a couple of decent sized layby's at Redhill.
Failing that though, FoD is simple, but is taking you the wrong way, so less riding i'd guess?
Anyone riding the Mendips this Sunday want to show me around?
Ashton Court/Leigh woods is clay and greasy as hell in the wet, off-piste.
For the Mendips, park at the Swan inn (good food too) in Rowberrow.
Have a look here for details of the trails https://www.ridemendips.org/rowberrow
It’s also worth riding up to the trig point and following the bridleway around back to Rowberrow woods, good fast descent.
There are a lot of trees down in Rowberrow forest atm so most of the official signposted tracks linked to above are blocked. That being said there is plenty of other stuff to ride but its a bit harder to find. I was up there last night and it was still extremely wet, it might have dried out a bit by Sunday but will still be pretty muddy in the woods. If you dont have time to get lost/covered in $hit, you'll be better off riding at Fod and then visiting Mendips later in the year when its dried out a bit and tracks restored.
I wouldn't bother with the rowberrow if you want an easy two hour spin, some of the trails are closed due to trees down and the some are just a bog, out in the open its still pretty boggy but not so bad, your two hours will be spent spinning in mud. There are plenty of other off piste trails but you would need a local to show you about.
Mind the Forest of Dean is pretty muddy and has been peeing down in Gloucestershire for the last 4 hours nice day to go to the RACES.
Oooh, The Cheltenham festival eh? I don't know if I can jump high enough to enter. Will I need a mask or has Boris said it'll be OK?
It's actually rained all day today , might just about stopped now . I live about 20 minutes drive away , trust me it'll be a shit fest might dry out by about August 🙄
@oldfart, where? Mendip or FoD?
It's been dry for a few days here in Carmarthenshire. The ground is still saturated though but last tears growth on the Black Mountain is dry enough that it is being burnt off.
Mendips that mud sticks like shit to a blanket !
Bourton Combe is good for a few hours and not too hard to navigate or park. Might have dried out a bit by Sunday. Hell of a lot nearer the airport than FoD.
Bourton Combe is fun for a quick couple of hours.
It was a bit muddy last weekend (but hilarious drifting around and it’s not puddly like Rowberrow) but I think by Sunday it will have dried out. It’s not a circular route but if you want a gpx let me know and I can link you into my Strava where you can pinch a route round it.
You have 2 bridleway climbs - 1 a fireroad - the other a technical rock strewn path.
There’s one longer (for BC) trail get skirts the whole woods - it’s narrow rooty Singletrack with a slightly trickier descent bit with a small drop off. Then the rest of the trails are quite short fun down hill bits.
If it were me and I was coming from south west Wales I’d probably just drop into Cwmcarn on the way along the M4 and ride there. It’ll be far drier than FOD / BC / Mendips etc and you’ve either got marked routes or semi official off piste now. Love it at the moment and you have a proper hill to play with there.
Oooh, I love a gpx. Can you send it my way please?
@ambrose - try this link - I think it should take you to a Bourton ride I did recently. I think when I nicked a route from someone else’s Strava I saved it down then opened it in Garmin connect or something like that.
https://strava.app.link/faoq9mJQtob
Edit - I think you need to do the above on a desktop rather than the phone app.
Or Come for a ride with a couple of thousand DnB fans and The DJ on a bike (Dom Whiting). Have a look on FB if you are interested.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K6pvuCEoKd4
Anyone ridden Rowberrow recently? Want to take my lad on the blue trail from the top but is it clear of trees?
