Saturday, March 22, 2014

Loop out from Challock, and around Kings Wood.

Another great spring day, sunshine, scattered cloud, and showers, brilliant.

So off to Challock in Kent, I parked in the Post Office car park and headed out right along the A252, towards the roundabout. Taking the left hand exit and about 400 yards on the left is the entrance to the first bridleway, muddy in sections and with a dip in the middle it was a good start.

At the end of the trail, following the road to the right and down to the next bridleway on the right, this is a great ride up through a field and through two gates and into a wooded section, paths are covered in brambles to its a bit of a trial to get through (in shorts my legs suffered a bit!). Once out of the woods and through the gate, it becomes a farm track and out onto the road. This is the Faversham road, turn right on this road and head towards Shottenden, before you get to the main road there is a byway on the right, just opposite Oast Lane, (which is the second left).

This trail was "tripletrack" in places like the London Underground, with standard 4x4 ruts and a motorcycle one in the middle. It was firm and flinty and then descended into a muddy mess at the bottom of the hill, keep in the centre of the trail to avoid the huge ruts. The route then climbs up into the woods, this is much better, and a great ride.
At the end it becomes a tarmac road out onto the main Faversham road.

I skipped across here onto Pested Lane and followed it all the way down to the A252, at the junction I'm sure there is an entrance into Kings Wood here, but I bailed and took the slog along the main road to the Dane Street Hill Byway. This is a repeat section of the route from last week, but I needed to do it again to get to the byway that runs the length of Kings Wood south side.

This trail is great, a good steep winding climb through trees with a wooded section at the top, derailleur issues fooked the climb for me so I settled for a walking section to sort it out.

At the junction I took the right hand turn and headed along the outside of the woods, this is a great trail and one I'l be back to do when the bike is better! Long stoney sections and muddy potholes with diversions!. It reminded me of the Boxley top trail but longer and more varied, I can see why the woods are a regular haunt of the SketchyMTB crowd.

At the end we're back on tarmac and the long slow drag up White Hill and back to Challock.




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