Epic Exmoor Rat Rescue Ride

[hawkhill97]

I was in the process of planning a ride earlier last week, and had just about settled on a trip to Cwmcarn, when a friend showed us a sweet little ratto in need of rescuing on one of our local FB groups.

Hang on, what's all this about rats on a bike forum then? Well, some years ago I had some help from a very good friend on a build that turned out quite special:



Build thread here: https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/2000-marin-mount-vision-build.400588/

Reggie the rescue rat was located about half way to Exmoor, and my year 2000 Marin Mount Vision is the perfect bike for a big day out on the moor, so a plan began to form...

The forecast was looking good - cold but clear - and after a quick session with the OS map I'd planned out an ambitious 25 mile climb-tastic route (with bail-out options!) taking in Dunkery & Selworthy beacons, the high moor and the coast.

 

[hamster]

So tell us more...did you get home safely, or did the rat escape on the way home?

 

[hawkhill97]

After an early start and a beautiful drive through frosty Somerset, I set off from Dunkery gate. Exmoor is always stunning, but in the winter sun it's something else! The ground was crisp and frosty, with the mud frozen hard - I love the sound of tyres rolling through frozen puddles



There are two routes up to Dunkery beacon from Dunkery gate - one is a steep, slightly technical climb, the other a gentle scenic spin. I opted for the latter, but put on a brisk pace to warm up a bit. The Mount Vision has always felt at it's best when you give it a bit of beans on the pedals and I was feeling pretty stoked for the ride ahead.



A short while later I made it up to Dunkery Beacon - the highest point on Exmoor - and was treated to stunning views right across the channel to Wales. My planned route went out to the coast to Selworth Beacon and Hurlestone Point, visible to the right of the bike in the pic below.

 

[hawkhill97]

From Dunkery Beacon, the Macmillan Way runs East, taking in one of my favourite descents on Exmoor. It's not particularly technical, or steep, but is a couple of kilometres long, extremely scenic, and gets steeper and rockier towards then end, to the point where if you really hit it at speed it can become pretty challenging.

The Marin is more of a cross country mile muncher than a demon descender, and it was pretty icy in places, so I took it nice and steady and soaked in the glorious views.



Halfway down I was feeling like I wanted to open up a little... it's not that often I use the U-Turn feature on the fork (in all honestly, the Mount Vision handles best with the fork wound right down to 85mm), but sometimes it's nice to have the option of a little more travel.



This raises the BB a fair bit, but when you've got a kilometer long rocky steep-ish straight line to ride, the extra travel and height on the front end is very welcome!

From the bottom of the steep section, the trail contours along the side of the hill, curving North towards the coast. This is always a highlight of the route for me, but today with the cloud inversions and stunning colours, it was extra special.

 

[hawkhill97]

This section of trail really plays to the Marin's strengths, with a few steep punchy climbs interspersed with rolling sections - just rough enough that the rear squish is appreciated over a hardtail, but nothing technical enough to fluster the retro geometry.



This section of trail finishes at Webbers Post, with excellent views for a cup of tea and a snack.



Horner woods pictured here has some great trails, but from experience they can be a bit of a handful on a retrobike. Since I had a long day in the saddle planned, I thought I'd take a few back lane roads from here to head North towards Bossington Hill, the next big climb up towards Selworthy Beacon.

One nice thing about the Mount Vision is that it's really very tolerable to ride on linking road sections, unlike most MTBs I've ridden. The lock-out on the rear helps, but it's mainly down to the riding position - get on the bar ends and it's really not that far off a road bike.

 

[vapaamies]

Stunning scenery!

 

[hawkhill97]

The climb up to Selworthy Beacon is a complete bastard, and I'd already decided at the start of the ride that I'd be walking at least the first half, as otherwise there'd be a decent chance of me blowing up and going into limp mode for the last quarter of the ride.



The last time I rode this hill was back in 2020... I remember being able to ride damn near all of it back then, and generally being a good bit fitter than I am now - I had a bit of a rough ride with covid shortly after which really impacted my lung capacity and hence fitness. It took me a while to come to terms with this, but these days I'm getting my kicks from being less focused on performance and strava times than on getting out there and experiencing a day out in the hills.

It's a bit like riding retro-bikes really... sure they don't have the same performance as a modern MTB, but that's not the point, and there's still very much value in enjoying them for what they are.

After the frankly brutal push up through the woods, the trail opens up into a series of switchbacks with stunning views out West along the coast. From here on in, it's all very much rideable (if requiring a bit of a grunt at times), and is an exceptionally satisfying climb.



The final switchback opens up onto the top of the moor. I love this part of Exmoor - you have the heather and gorse right next to the cliffs of the North coast, and stunning views out to sea.

 

[hawkhill97]

From here it's a steady climb up to Selworthy Beacon, the local high point. There is a lovely loop you can do that takes in the South West coast path, but I didn't want to bite off more than I could chew on this ride, especially given how cold it was, so instead I opted for heading towards Hurlestone point.



Not a bad spot for lunch, eh



From here I'd plotted a new-to-me route back down off the hill towards Allerford, and wasn't quite sure what to expect. It ended up being one of the highlights of the ride, a flat-out speedbomb with incredible views before heading into the woods and back down to sea level.

 

[hawkhill97]

Sadly what goes down must come back up again! It all started innocently enough, with a nice pootle along the back roads through Horner village (an absolutely gorgeous place, with one of my favourite ever tea rooms). From here I'd considered climbing back up to Webber's Post on the roads to save energy, but I was feeling pretty good so thought I'd go off-road through Horner Woods.

The first part of the climb is very gentle, following Horner Water. This bit is normally ford-able, but I opted out and took the bridge today!



Once you leave the streams behind, things get serious pretty quickly. A day out on Exmoor usually involves some degree of pushing (at least for me), but this one was a proper leg burner! Looked like there were some brilliant trails criss-crossing the hillside, might have to come back in summer to check some out.

 

[hawkhill97]

From Webber's Post, I again had the option to take the easy route along the road, or a longer, tougher off-road route. I must admit I was getting pretty knackered by now, but it's not often I make it out to Exmoor, and I really like this stretch of trail, so I settled in for a bit of a suffer-fest on the climb up until I reached Dicky's path, which contours loosely along the North side of Dunkery hill.



This trail is a bit of a cracker, with plenty of sections that pep you back up even when you've not got much left in your legs!



The North side of the hill was distinctly colder than the rest of the ride, being out of the sun, and I had my only ice related mis-hap of the ride here... where previously I'd crunched through a surface layer of ice over puddles, this section had clearly frozen and re-frozen a few times, and was like, well, ice!