Biking in the Quantock Hills

With another day of dry weather I headed down to the Quantock Hills with Becky for an afternoon of mountain biking. As with yesterdays biking the views were lovely, with plenty of autumnal colours around. We climbed out of Holford up the “Dog Pound” climb which took us to the top of the classic descent down Weacombe. Unsurprisingly it was much wetter than when I was last here with James in the middle of summer, however it was still lots of fun. After the climb back up Staple Hill we elected to head over to descent down Start Combe into Somerton Combe, before heading back to Holford. This was more difficult than Weacombe as it was narrower, but it was still very friendly and great fun. We were soon back down in the Dodders Combe, where we made the descent back down to the car in Holford. After biking we headed to East Quantoxhead to do a short walk along the beach. The geology on the beach was fascinating, and very photogenic.

Avon Dam & Scorriton

Today we enjoyed a cycle up to Avon Dam and then onto Scorriton. This was our plan b, after aborting mid wales due to excessive amounts of rain being forecast. The route started up a small road, before a short descent which gave us an idea of what was to come, ie. lots of water! A lovely climb up the side of a valley then followed where we were able to watch a buzzard flying around. After a short descent we were back down onto tarmac for the easy climb up to Avon Dam. We made short work of this, before encountering the most technical part of the route, the rocky traverse around the Avon reservoir. After a damp climb up we enjoyed a fast and fun grassy descent down Abbot’s Way. After another short climb up a small tarmac road, and then a good track we were soon at the long descent down to Chalk Ford, and then onto Scorriton. We then enjoyed/endured the long 20% climb back up which seemed to go on for a long time! One last climb then took us up to Skerraton Down. From. Read the full article…