Exmoor Explore – Horner Sunday

When:
June 10, 2018 @ 10:30 am – 4:00 pm
2018-06-10T10:30:00+01:00
2018-06-10T16:00:00+01:00
Where:
Porlock
Porlock
Minehead TA24
UK
Exmoor Explore - Horner Sunday @ Porlock | Porlock | England | United Kingdom
Quite a few members from the club are doing the Southern Enduro Championship (& Championship Lite) on Exmoor in July, so this is an acclimatisation ride in the general area.
 
Exmoor is pretty challenging, with the steepest A road hills in the country, technical rocky tails, epic singletrack through the woods and stunning views.
 
This is the main ride – the one for people coming down for just the day, as well as those staying the weekend. Have a look at the weekend event for full details of camping etc. 
The starting point is Horner Wood car park (post code TA24 8HY), which is £3 for the day or free for National Trust members (don’t forget your card) and has toilets and an excellent tea room. It’s also the base of Exmoor Uplifts (more on that in a sec).
 
We will start with the main loop of the surrounding hills. This starts with a fairly savage climb (walking your bike up is perfectly acceptable & fairly compulsory in places!) to near the top of Dunkery, with the first of several fantastic views.
We then have a rocky and steep downhill. Ride it at your own pace & keep an eye on your pace – it keeps steeper the further down you go 🙂 
 
Then we have another savage uphill (they all are I’m afraid!), but rewarded with amazing views of the hills and sea. A ridge run makes the most of these views, before an epic long downhill, again steepening as it goes down.
 
Finally there will be a choice of another peak and epic down, or a shorter uphill and stream ride back to the team rooms for lunch.
 
In the afternoon there will be a choice of another loop, or we can arrange uplift to the top of Dunkery to make the most of the downhills!
 
This is approaching the upper bounds of Red in both technicality and climbing. But these are hills that will test all and there will be plenty of encouragement and no-one left behind.
 
You definitely need a helmet, I would definitely recommend at least knee pads too, probably elbow pads too. Full suspension bike recommended if you have one as well. It can be done on a hardtail, but it is rocky terrain.