Day Off, great ride, great trails, say no more......

Chilham Kent.

From the free car park, its out on a sunny Friday, to ride some more of the trails in Kent. From here its out to main road (A28) and turn right, about a mile along the road on the left is then entrance to the first bridleway. This is a long incline up through orchards, and a good start.
Then at the road its left towards Shottenden and turn left into the farm (sign posted a dead end), but this leads onto the first byway of the ride, there has been some growth on the sides of the track over the winter forcing motorcycles to dig a rather unpleasant rut in the middle of the trail.
But this does wind its way down to the A28 and is a great descent (there are some handy detours to avoid larger puddles), I wish I rode this way more often as I'd know the right line to take on the trail, but no mishaps and no flint damage.
Once back out on the A28 turn left again and follow the road, on the right is the entrance to the second byway, and this is a great climb up through the woods, (Ridge Wood, and Felborough Wood), when you reach the top the downhill is most welcome, and it ends a the start of Mountain Street, which I follow down into Chilham village.
I followed the road signposted to the station, and took a sneaky foot path over the river Stour, to the restricted byway on the other side of the valley.
This has been treated well by the KCC, hardpacked gravel path, all the way along the Stour valley, alongside the railway. Its marked as a footpath on the map, but is now a cycle/horse route and is good.
At the end I turn right towards Eggerton and up and over the hill on the bridleway, which in one part seems to go through someones front garden. At the end its another left turn and onto Sole Street and follow this up the hill, left corner, right corner, small climb and another Byway on the left. This trail is closed to traffic Oct to Apr so it's in good condition, a short climb up through Barton Wood to Penny Pot Lane.
The next bridleway is on the left a short muddy section through the woods, a gate into a paddock, and another on the exit, then a singletrack between two fields and onto a junction of footpaths, at this point carry straight on but keep to the left of the woods, the next gate is down the trail. Now its through Sprats wood, back towards Chilham, out onto a short section of Mystole Lane and we join the restricted byway back to the Stour (and the footpath).

A great ride, sunshine, drying trails, and a wonderful part of the county.