BBRCC Mountain Bike Trip – Exmoor 9-11 March 2018
This year’s spring trip saw 11 of us descend upon the Somerset seaside town of Minehead, just a week after the Beast from the East had wreaked its winter havoc on this part of the country.
Saturday proved to be an epic day of riding, with 3700ft of climbing in just under 25 miles…phew! The day got off to a tough start, climbing steeply from the coast, getting our heart rates pounding and lungs working hard. This was to set the scene for the rest of the day. The resulting ride above the cliff tops from here was sublime, with fantastic sea views, snow filled tracks (which providing soft landings for a couple of tumbles) and a rainbow to mark the highest point on Selworthy Beacon. The singletrack descent to Lynch was worth every penny of the effort spent and the Post Office tearoom in Allerford was fantastic! Superb hospitality to a bunch of muddy bikers – so much so, we didn’t want to leave (especially as it was raining!). However, leave we did and were rewarded with another climb, another great downhill to Homer Water and then the long climb to Dunkery Beacon. The descent from here was the highlight of the day for many of us – it just kept going on-and-on, but before too long, our tired legs wound back into Minehead. Saturday evening saw us invade the Taj Mahal Indian restaurant in the town for some lovely grub, before retiring to our lodgings at the Base Lodge bunkhouse (which was also great).
Sunday morning and we lost Arwel due to car problems, but the rest of us drove over to Holford for a ride in the Quantocks. This was a much more relaxed ride, covering only 8 miles and climbing 850ft – it was needed after yesterday’s efforts! Our riding started in the woods and followed a stream, which we crossed several times. A steep (but mercifully short) climb led us up onto the Quantocks ridge, where there was some posing by our lady members at the Dead Woman’s Ditch sign! The ridge itself provided some more brilliant riding and the descent back to Holford marked a fabulous way to end the weekend (well, apart from the post ride pint in the Plough Inn).
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