All day around the Long Mynd Saturday 23rd January
puddle-rider
Posts: 295
I’m intending to go out to the Long Mynd on Saturday 23rd January to replace the missed ride of the 3oth December due to the snow, i'm assured by the met office the snow will have gone by then!!
For those of you that don’t know the area the Long Mynd is to my mind one of the best if not the best areas of natural single track in England, What Mountain Bike recently described it as ‘the Quantocks on steroids’
The infamous descent is Minton Batch, 2 miles of smooth flowing single track which can be taken at any speed from novice to expert. The other is the permissive bridleway locally known as the Pole Brook descent this is also two miles in length but for the main is wider and more grassy than Minton Batch but nonetheless does have some nice techy bits of single track within it.
With all this lovely downhill there has to be some pain, this comes at the start with a long hard slog to the top. Once here I’m planning on going up to the Trig Point, down onto the road and along to Minton Batch at the bottom of Minton Batch we will work our way back up through Priors Holt, a steep, long fire road through the forest but doable by any one with the legs. From here across the Gliding Club, watch out for landing gliders, back along the road to Pole Cottage and down to the Pub at Little Stretton for a well earned pie and pint. We will have then covered 14 miles which should have taken about 2/3 hours.
After lunch I am proposing that we cross the main road for a little circuit around Hope Bowdler, I have not ridden this but from reading What Mountain Bike, this involves some road work, a long climb up the western slope of Hope Bowdler followed by a promosed glorious single track down hill along the eastern flank and then back along the road to Church Stretton and the car park, all in the whole ride comes out at about 23 miles, say about 4/5 hours including the pub stop so a full day out.
For those of you that don’t know the area the Long Mynd is to my mind one of the best if not the best areas of natural single track in England, What Mountain Bike recently described it as ‘the Quantocks on steroids’
The infamous descent is Minton Batch, 2 miles of smooth flowing single track which can be taken at any speed from novice to expert. The other is the permissive bridleway locally known as the Pole Brook descent this is also two miles in length but for the main is wider and more grassy than Minton Batch but nonetheless does have some nice techy bits of single track within it.
With all this lovely downhill there has to be some pain, this comes at the start with a long hard slog to the top. Once here I’m planning on going up to the Trig Point, down onto the road and along to Minton Batch at the bottom of Minton Batch we will work our way back up through Priors Holt, a steep, long fire road through the forest but doable by any one with the legs. From here across the Gliding Club, watch out for landing gliders, back along the road to Pole Cottage and down to the Pub at Little Stretton for a well earned pie and pint. We will have then covered 14 miles which should have taken about 2/3 hours.
After lunch I am proposing that we cross the main road for a little circuit around Hope Bowdler, I have not ridden this but from reading What Mountain Bike, this involves some road work, a long climb up the western slope of Hope Bowdler followed by a promosed glorious single track down hill along the eastern flank and then back along the road to Church Stretton and the car park, all in the whole ride comes out at about 23 miles, say about 4/5 hours including the pub stop so a full day out.
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Comments
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i'm in as well0
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Count me too
Current bike Specialized FSR XC0 -
Glad to have you on board, i've got two coming from Peterborough as well0
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can't make it sorry, but it is an amazing area, have you tried the climb up through the golf club, then you bomb it down the top of one of the spurs and then climb back around to the top, thats one of my favourite sections. I went over there with my dad one time and we were coming down one of the descents, i got to the bottom waited 5 mins then went back up to find him halfway down the side of the hill but completely unhurt! 0
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80% sure I am in! (Mate over from the states the night before - but I have cycled before with a hangover)!0
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I might join you for this (Depends on whether i go to the footy or not). I was meant to be riding up there today, but having seen some pictures at the glider club i thought better of it.0
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Having a bit of a roll call, from current messages it would appear there could be about 8 of us, a nice little number but room for a few more if you want to join us.
Does everbody who has already confirmed intentions to join us got the meet time and location? Send PM if you need information.0 -
Hey Fully, just looked at your photo stream, nice to see some else who pushes up Carding Mill Valley!!0
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I was the one taking the picture
.... but i still pushed up a lot of the upper section. Once you're past the stream crossing it really ramps up the gradient and doesn't relent until you're almost at the top.
Sorry, i haven't replied to your PM, i haven't got much in the way of net access while i'm in the UK. Unfortunately i won't be joining you on Saturday, as i just have too much family stuff to fit in before i go back to Germany. I will be up Cannock Chase on Sunday morning though for a couple of hours. Do you know if all of the snow has gone from the Long Mynd? There were some very, very deep drifts up there last week, looked like 4-5 feet in places.0 -
Just checking what the meet time is in the co op car park.
And Matthew, do you want to come down to Telford and catch a lift down with me?0 -
9.30am planning to ride out at 10.00am
See you there0 -
The weather does look good doesn't it! Here's hoping the met office are correct 0
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i've got to go the other side of the mynd tomorrow for work, so i'll let you all know what its like up there tomorrow afternoon. Know I needed an excus to walk the dog up there tomorrow0
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Just got back from South Shropshire, tried to drive over the Long Mynd but roads still closed and still quite a bit of hard snow still present in places. I have a ford ranger and tried to drive up the road but the snow was too deep and I didn't want to slip off the side.
The conditions up there are muddy as well, so will be interesting0 -
Thanks for the update Ben, with all this rain and warmer temperatures i'm surprised that there is still hard packed snow up there
Hopefully the road is more affected than the bridleways and as you say interesting if nothing else
We can always bail out after the pub if it has been too much hard work up to that point
Nicola and Chris you still coming?0 -
Ben - you may own a ranger, but you drive like a girl (this may be a lie)!
Sorry didn't make it - but last night was rather heavy! Next time!0 -
Don't think you would of managed it today anyway today, too muddy.
infact Minton batch was good, i'm sure Carl would even enjoy it0 -
Thanks for the Photo's didn't notice you taking that many I only took a few which i'll post shortly.
By the way meant to ask you on Saturday, what make where your knee pads they looked very neat and comfortable.0 -
Here's Mine
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45001945@N03/sets/72157623156339387/
Know lets see if it works??0 -
Hi, they were 661 Kyle Straits. Very comfy, I barely notice them after a couple of minutes riding, and they're handy for keeping my knees warm too. The pad inside is flexible enough that it's never an obstruction when you're pedalling.
Cheers for the pics, below is a more useful link than my original one, they're a bit bigger:
http://s623.photobucket.com/albums/tt31 ... originals/0
