Surrey hills any good?

[mak]

I'm off to Woking tomorrow until Saturday, i just need to sort a small job out so taking the bike, apparently the hotel is only 20 miles away from surrey hills.
I only have Friday so would like to make the best of it, would someone be kind enough to give me a postcode to the best place to park and maybe a slight hint on what to try and achieve for the 1st time visit or is it a case of just pull up and ride around?

I have Garmin so can at least get back to the van, my sense of direction is bad, very bad so I could end up just riding around a Sainsburys car park all day .

Someone has suggested i go to Swinley Forest instead and have a ride there?

 

[theremotejuggernaut]

What type of riding are you after? Shuttling up and riding back down all day or a nice loop with some trails thrown in?

 

[mak]

I don't mind to be honest, maybe something a little different to my usual cross country rides and flat surroundings without much character , and something with a little more adrenalin than adventure .
Where ever i end up it will be nice to be somewhere new

 

[theremotejuggernaut]

I'm struggling to upload gpx files for some reason. If you want to message me your email I can send you a couple of routes that I've done which take in some of the trails around Pitch/ Holmbury Hill(s).

I've also got a few longer loops which take in a few trails along the way. Anywhere from 20-40 miles.

If you have an app that let's you view maps based on OSM, you'll see a lot of the trails around Peaslake/ Holmbury will be on there.

Below image is taken from Outdoor Active using their topo maps. You can easily see the trails. They're not on OS maps but seem to be on all of the OSM based maps that I've checked.

Not a huge amount of detail in the one below but it gives you an idea of the density of trails over Pitch and Holmbury Hills. Easily enough for day of exploring, winching and plummeting.

Parking at Peaslake is a good bet for a day. I'd definitely suggest checking a map though as it's easy to ride around and miss a lot of stuff.

Despite how a lot of people treat it, it's not a trail centre so there are no sign posted trails and it can be quite hard to find stuff. Also, beware of dog walkers, horses and kiddies.

I tried to ride summer lightning a couple of weeks ago as part of a longer loop. Its one of the few official trails and starts from the top of Leith Hill. Half of it has been bulldozed due to (I think) a fire during the dry spell so I'd avoid that at the moment.

 

[#lazy]

Forget swinley then , get to the Walking Bottom carpark Peaslake and chat to someone there , they’re usually a friendly bunch and might give you a tour !

 

[mak]

Cheers guys, that will do me fine

 

[mak]

Had a cracking ride guys, thanks for the heads up, I parked up at walking bottom car park . You need more than one day to discover this place, I got there around 10am and lots of friendly mtb people all ready there off loading bikes.

The 7 pints the night before didn't help me out although i did manage 800 meters of climbing and 25 miles.

 

[theremotejuggernaut]

Sounds like a good day!

Did you plan route in the end? Or just see where the trails took you?

 

[mak]

I just had a bum around for a few miles and then stopped in the middle of no where and hit the Garmin create route button and tapped in a 20 mile round trip.
It did take me away from the forest area but into some fantastic scenery , some of my most memorable rides have been letting the Garmin give me an adventure