Well what an absolutely cracking day in the saddle that was.
Plan was a 125 mile loop around Dorset's finest countryside starting at Axminster.
Vans were loaded early AM with a meeting time of 7:30 at Wrangaton for the 1.5hrs drive to Axminster. Vans parked, bikes un-loaded, riders kitted-up and we were off by 9am.
Our route took us further East, as far as Minterne Parva and down to the coast at Chesil Beach (at West Bexington) with fuel and food stops at Bridport (twice), Maiden Newton and lunch at Beaminster - where Damian Steer actually got himself a full on, takeaway, roast dinner, I kid you not!! (See the pictures!) It looked awesome so if you're ever riding through Beaminster be sure to stop at Dexter's cafe in the centre.
There was a very wide variety of lanes on this route, from lovely long flowing lanes to tree tunnel lanes, to ridiculously overgrown lanes. Also some challenging little climbs and some knarly, dark, mystry little lanes through the woods. A great mix with some notable ones being: 'Common Water Lane' which was long and flowing and led us into Beaminster for the first pass of the day (maybe thats when Damian sniffed out the roast for later? ) Exiting Bridport after a fuel stop and Elevens's we hit 'Green Lane' and OMG wasn't it overgrown!! You could not see anything! Not that much fun tbh and it was also on the return leg back into Bridport later but I asked Russ if we could miss it out, which he agreed with but almost forgot as we headed back that way several hours later but then remembered to divert just before pulling into the lane prior to that one. Thank god for that!
At 'Two Gates' we passed another group of riders, 6 I think there were, most on Enduro bikes but there was also a T7 amongst them. Bumped into them again a while later and had a wee chat. Seems they've ridden down our way before, Cornwall lanes as they mentioned Muchlarnick. We mentioned Pink Panther as another testing lane down that way and the guy on the T7 said he's ridden his T7 up it, "no problems" he said. Not sure any of us believed him tbh. We were of the thinking he probably thought Warleggan was PP.
At 'Powerstock' Russell Bentley recalled a fellow rider, years ago, on his 690 getting stuck in this lane. The approach to the lane was a drop into the river then up a steep bank. Well, Russ went first.......and got stuck needing assistance to haul his bike out. The rest of us (sensibly) used the footbridge to access the lane.
Beaminster then for lunch then on to Minters Hill which was a lovely climb.
'Common Lane' was next which was a Medieval lane linking the two villages of Corscombe and Halstock. This was a lovely, long flowing lane.
Next up, water, Nick Kellands favourite. It was 'Bound Lane' and the Wriggle River at Chetnole. Surveying the river before dropping in it wasnt too deep but there were lots of large rocks and breeze blocks to avoid. No probs for me as being the first rider in as I could see but me riding through the river disturbed the sediment and the rest were riding blind. No issues though, everyone through safely.
At Minterne Magna and Minterne Parva we missed a turning in a lane but no bother as the short detour was worth riding (and still legal ). This lane overlooked Minterne Manor house which was huge! Lovely scenery across the valley too.
At 'Wraxall lane' near Chafrome I decided to do some gymnastics and dismounted my bike with a full-on flip over the handlebars. Damian was right behind me and saw it all unfold infront of his eyes. He said it was worthy of a good 9.5. Why did it happen? Well, there was a inoccuous looking puddle that I decided to ride through that was actually a sink hole and grabbed my front wheel and threw me off ober the handlebars. Never mind, no injuries and it provided some entertainment for Damian and Bob Wilkinson. When we eventually got to the end of the lane Russ and Nick were sat on a park bench wondering why we were taking so long.
After a final fuel and coffee stop at Maiden Newton we headed towards Kingston where we had to make a detour as Russ knew the lane on the route was a no go. We then ended up at Looke Farm, and stuggled, as Russ did many years ago on this same route, trying to find the lane. There were padlocked gates so we turned about and took another detour through Parks Dairy Farm on what turned out to be a great lane that ended with a fabulous view up the coast along the entire length of Chesil Beach and towards Portland in the distance. We headed down towards Abbotsbury and the Coast Path road that runs parallel to the beach. This was fun as the latter part of the road is all shingle from the beach which needed a different riding technique that's for sure!
At this point it was nearly 6pm and with a fair few miles still left to go we needed to crack on as Russ did have a deadline to be home.
Back through Bridport (missing the overgrown 'Green Lane') we then headed to Symondsbury and the infamous Hell Lane which never fails to disappoint. The decent on the second half of the lane was still tricky with lots of slimey mud and a nice little shallow river run at the end.
That was pretty much the end of the days laning with a short commute back to the parked vans. A total of 139miles (I didn't reset my Garmin trip at the start of the ride hence the picture of my mileage being slightly less) and 10hrs riding.
Dirty bikes loaded, clothes changed and heading for home for a much needed shower and some dinner (which was a rubbish pizza )
What a great route that we'll have to do again some time but that we all agreed would be significantly more challenging if it had of been wet as there were lots of tricky, muddy lanes!
Great write up sounds like you had a good day
You were lucky not to be hurt during the sudden unscheduled dismount, easy to see how it happened as the puddle doesn't look deep enough to swallow the wheel
Reports like this make me want to get the CRM out
