I reckon I need a cyclocross bike. 35 miles this morning; far from vast, but about half of them were off road. On my road bike. Poor bike!
The whole point was to seek out the local equivalent of the passage to India going west from Europe. That, as you may remember, lead to the discovery of America. Well, rediscovery. Again. How Columbus gets the credit for the discovery of an already populated country is a testament to the idea that the powerful write history. Our local equivalent would be the route from Wick St. Lawrence to Kingston Seymour. There's clearly a road missing through that area. At present the only route is a several mile detour via Congresbury and Yatton. Or is it? Close study of the OS1:25,000 map suggested that there was a possible route on a track. I'm not averse to tracks if they're in decent condition. One of my favourite rides of this year was the club Strada Bianche where we connected various bits of 'not road' together one Saturday morning, all punctuated by nice 'un-jolty' sections on road to make it feel like a reasonable road bike excursion. So, decent weather for the first occasion in three weekends - time to investigate...
"Sorry", says I, realising that the couple of ladies walking towards me were about to accost me for cycling along their private property. "Somebody told me there was a way for cycling through to Clevedon along here". This had the desired effect. The invader was now a poor lost cyclist. "Oh no, it's not this one. You need the route through where they're doing the building of the new sluice. Up that way". Promising...
Half a dozen climbed gates later I was the other side of River Yeo following what will clearly be a very cycle-able path once it's finished (and the gates are removed). Looking good. Right up to the point where I met the gate coated in barbed wire with some very nasty loose and tangly sharp stuff on the top. The folk at the farm that the path is going to go through are clearly putting off the advent of cyclists for as long as possible. Hopefully, in due course, they'll become more welcoming - it would be a great place to open a cafe!
As the map above shows (of that section of the ride), I didn't have any luck with any of the other investigations of that area either. This wasn't the way to America, India or, indeed, Kingston Seymour.
There's been another section that has been inviting investigation; getting from Kingston Seymour onto the coastal path that comes south from Clevedon. We included a short section of that when we did the Strada Bianche. I had hoped to investigate it after solving the north west passage from Wick St. Lawrence. In the circumstances the only solution was to go via Congresbury. Naturally, being in the mind to go 'off-roading', I checked out a short link from the Strawberry Line into Yatton. It worked; but boy was it muddy. So muddy that I failed to steer a corner and fell (well unintentionally dived) off into the ditch at the side. Yerrgh.
Every picture tells a story. This is the picture...
All the tracks that go off Ham Lane look, on the map, as though they have a chance of connecting onto a track that would be the continuation of the coast path from Clevedon. That one is a good one; a tarmac route that has a lumpy surface; tarmac but not a road, great for adventurous folk on road bikes. As the tracks go off Ham Lane they all look like they they could push through to the coast. None do. I had a great time doing easy grade cyclo-cross (avoiding the harder stuff as there would be no way that a club ride would take it on anyway) but no through route was discovered.
I had one more section to investigate. Avoiding Clevedon itself by discovering that Colehouse Lane really is a decent road, I headed back towards Kingston Seymour on the Yatton road. When Mike and I had done the original ride checking of the PacTri Strada Bianche we'd discovered a likely looking track going off in Northfield (north of Yatton at the Kingston Seymour turn) that could be an alternative to road cycling the B3133 back into town.
No good either. What might have been a track extension wasn't. There was a path, but nothing for road bikes. So, as I said in the title, no through route. Lots tried, all but one failed and that was hardly a rousing success. But hold on - I had a great time for two and a bit hours checking it all out, riding unlikely looking lanes that turned into passable tracks that then became impassable tracks so I turned round and tried the next one. Fun. How many of those impassable tracks would 'go' on a cyclo-cross bike as opposed to a road one with 23mm tyres? Expensive question. I suspect that part of the answer to the bigger question was that I chose to return home via the Strawberry Line from Yatton...
Dave
The whole point was to seek out the local equivalent of the passage to India going west from Europe. That, as you may remember, lead to the discovery of America. Well, rediscovery. Again. How Columbus gets the credit for the discovery of an already populated country is a testament to the idea that the powerful write history. Our local equivalent would be the route from Wick St. Lawrence to Kingston Seymour. There's clearly a road missing through that area. At present the only route is a several mile detour via Congresbury and Yatton. Or is it? Close study of the OS1:25,000 map suggested that there was a possible route on a track. I'm not averse to tracks if they're in decent condition. One of my favourite rides of this year was the club Strada Bianche where we connected various bits of 'not road' together one Saturday morning, all punctuated by nice 'un-jolty' sections on road to make it feel like a reasonable road bike excursion. So, decent weather for the first occasion in three weekends - time to investigate...
"Sorry", says I, realising that the couple of ladies walking towards me were about to accost me for cycling along their private property. "Somebody told me there was a way for cycling through to Clevedon along here". This had the desired effect. The invader was now a poor lost cyclist. "Oh no, it's not this one. You need the route through where they're doing the building of the new sluice. Up that way". Promising...
Half a dozen climbed gates later I was the other side of River Yeo following what will clearly be a very cycle-able path once it's finished (and the gates are removed). Looking good. Right up to the point where I met the gate coated in barbed wire with some very nasty loose and tangly sharp stuff on the top. The folk at the farm that the path is going to go through are clearly putting off the advent of cyclists for as long as possible. Hopefully, in due course, they'll become more welcoming - it would be a great place to open a cafe!
As the map above shows (of that section of the ride), I didn't have any luck with any of the other investigations of that area either. This wasn't the way to America, India or, indeed, Kingston Seymour.
There's been another section that has been inviting investigation; getting from Kingston Seymour onto the coastal path that comes south from Clevedon. We included a short section of that when we did the Strada Bianche. I had hoped to investigate it after solving the north west passage from Wick St. Lawrence. In the circumstances the only solution was to go via Congresbury. Naturally, being in the mind to go 'off-roading', I checked out a short link from the Strawberry Line into Yatton. It worked; but boy was it muddy. So muddy that I failed to steer a corner and fell (well unintentionally dived) off into the ditch at the side. Yerrgh.
Every picture tells a story. This is the picture...
All the tracks that go off Ham Lane look, on the map, as though they have a chance of connecting onto a track that would be the continuation of the coast path from Clevedon. That one is a good one; a tarmac route that has a lumpy surface; tarmac but not a road, great for adventurous folk on road bikes. As the tracks go off Ham Lane they all look like they they could push through to the coast. None do. I had a great time doing easy grade cyclo-cross (avoiding the harder stuff as there would be no way that a club ride would take it on anyway) but no through route was discovered.
I had one more section to investigate. Avoiding Clevedon itself by discovering that Colehouse Lane really is a decent road, I headed back towards Kingston Seymour on the Yatton road. When Mike and I had done the original ride checking of the PacTri Strada Bianche we'd discovered a likely looking track going off in Northfield (north of Yatton at the Kingston Seymour turn) that could be an alternative to road cycling the B3133 back into town.
Dave
