Well after not having got any responce to the post for this ride I was going to spend some time with my family and cancel. Fortunatly on friday night Mike Wooley rang asking if I was still going to Newquay? I then sat down at the screen and planned a route for the GPS starting at my house as Mike was keen to take the 950 twinduro. After arranging to meet at 9.30am we ste off just after in the drizzel hoping for clearer skies later in the day and they were! Almost too hot but we wern't complaining.
We headed to Lanes prefixed with 201- 714 well tarmaced but breaking down with grass up the middle 713 lots of horse use, short but has a stream crossing in the bottom 610 short, flat with big puddle in the wooded end 609 great lane be very careful in the wet turns to bed rock at the bottom a great lane river was so deep/fast even mikes 950 would have washed away! 608 what great fun ridden from west to east when raining, stream crossings, Laurel arched ruts, long slippery mud climb with deep puddle just over halfway up (you can't see it until your in it, don't expect it on a hillside), I waited at the top for several minuits for mike as he had no momentum at the bottom with a bike weighing some 220kgs what a grin when he finally appeared 716 dead end farm/field access aver bridge at bottom then returned
Lanes prefixed with 190- 615 eastern end just off the road is a field gate, so progress across the field (I'm now riding mikes 950 and he's on my 525), past but not over the sheep proved sucessful as there was a gate on to a hard track through to church, straight through the hamblet and down the lane marked "Unsuitable for motor vehicles" (all 615). 616 followed a young Roe Deer up to the gate, access to forestry so returned 617 found the gate off the road, it appeared to be a stock holding compound with hedges on two sides, mike went to investigate and found that the lane used to have hedges on both sides and the left hand one has been removed as can be seen in the pic, notice the depression along side the hedgerow, the next field led us to a track that ended amongst a small hamblet that will remain nameless 614 turned left at the end and passed a horse fortunatly with a rider (I can ride 55 of them but not 1 on its own!) 610 A nice long easy lane with 2 concrete fords the first of which mike wanted to take pics of his adventure going through, naturally it couldn't ride itself, so I had to oblige! 802 almost over the cliff fortunatly the lane turns left turns down hill, nice utted by water but alot of walkers frowning as then obviously believe we shouldn't be there, it is a perfectly leval byway 609 found the bottom but Mike didn't recognise it as it was 20 odd years earlier that he was here. after a chat with a very friendly guy that we disturbed from his gardening, we established that the road was closed due to the extensive flooding some years earlier, so on investigation we found that the stream crossing now had a foot bridge across it and the bank built up on the other side. Presumably its the road surface and shingle washed down the lane in the flood. after the bridge we found what can only be discribed as a serious challenge even to those that would compete in the Erzberg. I will be back here at some point to spend the day trying to get up it, take a look at the pics to see more detail 800 got to the end where it forks in to 802 and rode that by mistake but didn't go back as there were walkers / holiday makers everywhere.
Lanes prefixed with 200- A bit of road work to 031 can't remember nowt 030 can't remember much other than it exits through a farm at south end 029 I think this one had maize on both sides of a hard track with no fences Bit of road work to 028 enter eastern end through farm buildings straight through and you find yourself dodging low branches and rabbit holes on what I believe to be an old rail enbankment though it doesn't show on map as one, very plesant lane saw two more Roe deer then when you get to the gate the lane becomes very much narrower and the brambles have been cleared fairly recently see pics, the residents at the western end do not want the road used as they made clear, they will be on to the council again to get it closed along with their neighbours and the local farmer apparentley. As you leave the western end out of the t junction you have to open and close the gate, if you look back it doesn't appear to be a lane at all but a mear driveway, very clever disguise! more road work and through Newquay on to 047 a lane running through Nat Trust land bit of turf, rock and sand, well signed at south end as byway but not clear when traveling north to south, people everywhere as hot spot for beach, camping and accomadation 816 The original Idea for traveling the this area, discribed on the wet roads website as extreme 4x4 use only with 4x4 recovery backup I was now interested, its not its got a very small water splash near the north end with a bit of muddy rut on its approach and just efter, well it had just been raining! then a bit of a shaley tree covered lane then hard farm track. last but not least 204-881 to finnish on a lane that starts with a Cornish Rattler farm at the start, was flat, straight and full of puddles what joy! then the journey home up the A30 & B3257. total 21 lanes 2 of then rtn's 1 impassable 145.10 miles Max mph 70 something Average moving 30.1mph out about 8.5 hours. thanks to mike for the adventure both of them! I want one.
Pic index 1. Mike in the mud 2. 201-617 3. 201-617, mike on a mans bike 4. walked up 50 yds now looking up 190-609 5. looking back, mike can you hear me from down there? 6. ditto 7. ditto 8. ditto 9. ditto 10. 190-069 sign otherside of ford at bottom of climb 11. bridge with ford next to it (note high opposite bank) over river to get to bottom of 190-609 (straight over ford) 12. 200-028 Pic doesn't show clearly but bramble had been cleared a month or so back leaving 3 foot path through.
-- Edited by Tibby on Sunday 2nd of August 2009 11:29:33 PM
-- Edited by Tibby on Sunday 2nd of August 2009 11:31:50 PM
-- Edited by Tibby on Sunday 2nd of August 2009 11:33:42 PM
-- Edited by Tibby on Monday 3rd of August 2009 04:46:09 PM
Like me! That looks really good, will have to join you on that run sometime. Unfortunately i had some some things to deal with saturday, did manage to ride sunday though
I use Conti Twinduros-these ones were a bit mullered after a thrash to Frane/Belgium/Holland and a fair few off road miles too.. still scrabble through the mud pretty well and outrageously decent on tarmac, wet or dry. Stable up to about a ton ten then a bit squirrelly!
