Regular MTB/CX rides in Epping Forest

Anyone ridden the Thursday evening night rides organised by Heales?

No, but they're an alright bunch, I've ridden with them before.

It's boggy out there today BTW.

Would concur, off the main tracks it's very boggy. Need to get some mudguards.

On the plus side it's stunning out there at the mo with the autumn colours.

rode from walthamstow up to pole hill yesterday and turned around even though I'd planned for more because of a massive sense of humour failure from the utter slop it all was and the swathes of people out (my fault, sunday late morning).

anyone know if it's any more rideable further into the forest?

The lower section does tend to bog down a little sooner, and while there are sections further up that handle the winter better, you're unlikely to get to them without encountering bog

From what I read, it was very busy there yesterday

The approach from the golf course is always friendlier in winter, the bottom of the hill towards the West is a proper no-go zone

utter slop it all was and the swathes of people out (my fault, sunday late morning).

I was also there yesterday. Whipps Cross to Highams Park direction. Cycled back via the road as I couldn't face any more mud.

I'll give it another go next weekend then, but I'll be riding up the canal and going early morning. Hopefully it'll be palatable.

If not I'll bite the bullet and buy a bmx to fuck around (read: break myself) on the local pump track.

#embracetheslop

It'll be better late spring.

Yeah not too long now!

Wait

The highams park bit is particularly bad but if you skip that on the road and get back into it from chingford lane towards Whitehall plain it’s fine all the way into the forest

Rode that last weekend, wasn't too bad but the section in-between there and the hunting lodge is one huge bog.

Yeah, best bet for winter (especially this year it seems) is to go down to Newgate Street trail from Highams, Whitehall Plain is somewhat doable

Yeah if that’s the trail immediately on the left after crossing Whitehall road that takes you through/over the river then that’s been a lot of fun even on the rainiest weekend I’ve been out so far. The highams bit before that has seen me on the floor a couple of times as the slight adverse camber and stickier mud haven’t played well with 35c cannonballs. I’m sure it’s fine on an mtb

I avoid the up, down sections, and the mud, at Higham by going along the flat bit parallel to the main road, then down a suburban side-street, and along the Newgate section.

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Have you tried 32/33c with mud thread tyres? Work a treat

@giofox @LukeG @606

any chance you could screen grab Strava rides to show these connections? Or something like that.

This is the one I was trying to describe (should have done from the beginning)

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The middle of Whitehall plain is particularly boggy at the mo. Also it's rained all day, and supposed to snow tomorrow, so best avoided this weekend that bit.

Yeah, that's the only nasty bit, but it will be so until March anyway so I just decide to deal with it.

You could do the below if you really want to avoid it, the really bad spot is the red dot.

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If you start picking out all the boggy bits you might as well get into the forest like this:

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On a separate stream of thoughts, the whole forest has gotten a lot busier lately, I have been avoiding it altogether as much as possible, especially during the recent lockdown where at the weekend it was alway swarming with walkers, sucking away the joy of riding away from busy roads. Hopefully people will return to pubs now and the situation will be a bit better.

On a positive side, this gave me the opportunity to explore more of Hainault and other fun bits out East.

Picked up a set of Gravelking AC’s which I think you were using as well? Couldn’t get one to stay up and ran out of prep time so ended up throwing the cannonballs back on. Still having a lot of fun on them but could do with them clearing mud a bit quicker as clearances are tight. Have been using it on the road quite a bit also so possibly need a second wheelset to set up as road & off road