Muddymoles mountain biking in the Surrey Hills and Mole Valley

Ride report: Sunday 3 November – Lots of ups, some down, and no rain

Posted by Dandy | November 5, 2013 | 19 comments so far

Gathering at the Bocketts car park were a ‘legs eleven’ of the South East’s finest mtb’ers; Akak, Big Al, Dandy, Dave C, Dave Dub, Karl, Kev, Lee, Lloyd, Nick J, and Tony (arriving fashionably late).

Nick had suggested (via the forum) a lengthy route taking in Leith and Holmbury hills, before a refuelling stop at the Peaslake Stores, then a straight blast home.  As nobody showed any inclination to disagree, off we headed up the Admirals Track.

The recent rain (did I hear we’d just experienced the wettest October for several years?) was making its presence known with plenty of mud and some deep puddles requiring avoiding action.  Ranmore was reached via Yew Trees, and we risked the Landrover descent towards Westcott.

Tony headed down a short way to take some photos, and we guessed correctly that the shout we heard was ‘Ready’ and not the sound of a biker crashing into a fallen tree.  Though I nearly heard this thirty seconds later as, leading the downhill charge, I realised that the fallen tree leaning across the track half way down was well below head height.  Going too fast to stop, I managed to limbo beneath catching only a glancing blow on my rucksack.  Recovering, I then spotted the next fallen tree that fortunately was leaving enough of a gap to just sneak around.

Taking pity on the suckers behind me, I did the decent thing and ran up the track to hold the tree up above head height.  It still distracted Lee sufficiently for him to run into the other fallen tree twenty metres further down the track though.  Unfortunately, this tree was too well attached for me to drag it away from the track, so be warned.

The Rookery climb up to Wolverns Lane was even trickier than the week before, with kudos to the singlespeeders, Big Al, D-Dub and Lee for cleaning it comfortably (well, I think they looked comfortable).  We left Wolverns Lane to head down to Simons Copse, before starting what seemed a never-ending climb to almost the tower on Leith Hill.  Half-way up we met George from the Dorking Cocks, who seemed to have lost his riding buddy, Charlie.

Eventually, we began to head downwards, and after a few false turns we finally hit Chocolate Jesus and the High Ashes/Mother descent.  Although great fun, all that height lost had to be regained, and in Holmbury we headed up past the Kings Head and the cricket pitch up to Surfer Rosa and I Should Coco.  BKB was shut for trail maintenance, so we took a tricky but fun path with lots of steep steps down into Peaslake.

The food stop was welcomed by all, and the pork and leek slices were particularly good.  Having refuelled, we took a direct route back to Abinger Hammer via Rad Lane (I think), which was not as muddy as I was expecting.  We headed across the Abinger Roughs and headed for the High Med climb, ignoring JR’s suggestion (via the forum) of Macphersons (if only you’d been there to change our minds, JR).  At this point we said goodbye to Nick who headed back to Dorking.

For the descent off Ranmore we split into two groups, half favouring Dearly Beloved, and half favouring Golden Nugget; before regrouping on the climb back up to Polesden Lacey.  All in all, a fine, but quite tiring, day on the hills.  My Strava track suggests a total of 48 km (30 mile) and 860 metres of climbing.

Filed under Rides in November 2013

Dandy

About the author

Having been mountain biking since 1996, you might have expected Dandy to have learnt to ride a bike by now. Several broken bones in the last few years prove the maxim that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

In between hospital visits, Dandy rides a brace of much-blinged Pace RCs, the 'green themed' 405 and the silver & gold 506. His winter hack is the Moles' favourite, an On-One 456 hardtail, now converted to an Alfine hub He also dabbles in 'the dark arts', keeping 2 road bikes in one of his seven sheds.

There are 19 comments on ‘Ride report: Sunday 3 November – Lots of ups, some down, and no rain’

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  1. Big Al says:

    It was a good ride and surprising how we only covered 28miles , we were very lucky with the weather .

    Add a new comment, or reply to this comment

    Posted on November 5, 2013 at 7:19 am

  2. Jonesy says:

    One of my favourite routes that one.
    Of can can add windy willow into it (and BkB) than it makes it even better next time!
    My regular midweek spinning seems to be paying dividends with my fitness levels at last (and helps to keep them thar big tyres a’rollin).
    Looking forward to next Sunday already

    Add a new comment, or reply to this comment

    Posted on November 5, 2013 at 9:07 am

  3. KevS says:

    Another epic ride with the Mole pack taking in varied terrain with a mix of wet, dry, boggy, sandy and rocky trails with a nice mix of gnarr plus a truckload of climbing!

    Still need to fiddle with the fork setup on the Solaris as I should Coco was a battering of internal organs and my eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets as we hammered down there!

    Gotta say that Jonesey’s new tractor tyres are great as they flatten anything in their path and you can follow him on a newly cleared track! 😉

    Thanks for the ride report Dave and I know Roadmole took some pics but think he has flown across the pond again this week so we will have to wait.

    Add a new comment, or reply to this comment

    Posted on November 5, 2013 at 11:34 am

  4. MuddyJohn says:

    “if only you’d been there to change our minds, JR” – there’s always next week.

    Sounds like I missed an epic ride – let’s hope we have another one soon.

    Add a new comment, or reply to this comment

    Posted on November 5, 2013 at 4:50 pm

  5. Dandy says:

    “Are we going to see you on anything other than a road or spin bike sometime soon?”
    “I’ll be gently roadie-ing and spinning this week”

    That’ll be a ‘no’ then 😉
    Though not around this Sunday or the next, myself 🙁

    Add a new comment, or reply to this comment

    Posted on November 5, 2013 at 5:13 pm

  6. Karl says:

    Riding is always good fun, even when it’s tough, and I certainly found it tough going.. Best bit for me was the bombholes and all the technical fun around Chocolate Jesus. Such a blast following Big Al through the best (trickiest) bits.
    New steel 29er bloody loved it.
    Legs were like jelly till Monday.. badly adjusted rear brake didn’t help!
    Thanks for ride report D’Andy..
    Looking forward to the piccies.

    Add a new comment, or reply to this comment

    Posted on November 5, 2013 at 10:15 pm

  7. Andrew AKAK says:

    We didn’t ride Surfer Rosa – that was my suggestion although it would have been muddy, we did Al’s quicker route into I Should Coco. The Gully of Doom was a new one for me and I enjoyed the mostly climbing singletrack on Leith – thanks Al for the route.

    Add a new comment, or reply to this comment

    Posted on November 6, 2013 at 11:35 am

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