Surrey Hills navigation without a GPS?
Discussion
Hey All,
Meant to be doing a bit of XC this Sunday with some friends over in the North Downs/Surrey Hills, Peaslake area. Obviously it’s going to be wet and the odd tree will be down which we’re aware of, question really is around navigation.
Is it easy to find the trails and work our way through them without a Garmin or alike? I have a friend who knows the area well and has a Garmin but unfortunately can no longer attend.
Help as always is appreciated!
Cheers,
Dan
Meant to be doing a bit of XC this Sunday with some friends over in the North Downs/Surrey Hills, Peaslake area. Obviously it’s going to be wet and the odd tree will be down which we’re aware of, question really is around navigation.
Is it easy to find the trails and work our way through them without a Garmin or alike? I have a friend who knows the area well and has a Garmin but unfortunately can no longer attend.
Help as always is appreciated!
Cheers,
Dan
If you don't know the area it can be very difficult finding many of the trails. The more popular ones like Barry Knows Best, Yoghurt Pots and Telegraph Road are easy to find but the rest are a bit more difficult.
Despite riding over there regularly, often two or three times a week, for a few years, I still manage to get lost now and again!
I've not been over there for a couple of months now but I've heard that there has been a lot of logging work going on on Holmbury and Pitch hills so there's quite a few trails that are no more.
If you can get hold of a Garmin it would be a bit easier for you but even then I find that trying to follow a route around there with a Garmin can be very difficult.
If you can get hold of a Garmin then I can give you a couple of GPX files with routes to follow if you want them.
Despite riding over there regularly, often two or three times a week, for a few years, I still manage to get lost now and again!
I've not been over there for a couple of months now but I've heard that there has been a lot of logging work going on on Holmbury and Pitch hills so there's quite a few trails that are no more.
If you can get hold of a Garmin it would be a bit easier for you but even then I find that trying to follow a route around there with a Garmin can be very difficult.
If you can get hold of a Garmin then I can give you a couple of GPX files with routes to follow if you want them.
Many thanks for the replies.
Happy to read a map, was just conscious that it may interrupt the flow of the trails if we needed to stop and check it every few minutes.
A friend has just told me to head to Peaslake and it'll be relatively easy to pick up the trails from the village, is this accurate? We're looking for around 2-3 hours riding from around 8am to finish for a late breakfast.
Happy to read a map, was just conscious that it may interrupt the flow of the trails if we needed to stop and check it every few minutes.
A friend has just told me to head to Peaslake and it'll be relatively easy to pick up the trails from the village, is this accurate? We're looking for around 2-3 hours riding from around 8am to finish for a late breakfast.
Take a look on the Surrey Hills MTBer website at the routes and trails section, there's some GPX files on there along with some good route descriptions.
The Pitch up, look sharp route is fairly easy to follow without a GPS. As there's been some log gin work I'm not sure iff all the trails on the Pitch Hill side are still there.
http://www.surreyhillsmtber.co.uk/127/pitch-up-loo...
Another option would be to start in Walking Bottom carpark and follow the bridleway out of the top of the carpark up to the next carpark at the top of Pitch Hill then pick up Supernova to bring you back down to the WB carpark, from there follow the second part of the route about which will take you through Peaslake village then up to the top of Holmbury. From there follow Yoghurt Pots and Telegraph Road down into Holmbury then back up to the reservoir and onto Barry Knows Best.
That would probably be a couple of hours or so with the current trail conditions.
The Pitch up, look sharp route is fairly easy to follow without a GPS. As there's been some log gin work I'm not sure iff all the trails on the Pitch Hill side are still there.
http://www.surreyhillsmtber.co.uk/127/pitch-up-loo...
Another option would be to start in Walking Bottom carpark and follow the bridleway out of the top of the carpark up to the next carpark at the top of Pitch Hill then pick up Supernova to bring you back down to the WB carpark, from there follow the second part of the route about which will take you through Peaslake village then up to the top of Holmbury. From there follow Yoghurt Pots and Telegraph Road down into Holmbury then back up to the reservoir and onto Barry Knows Best.
That would probably be a couple of hours or so with the current trail conditions.
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