Hiya, regular Muddy@rser Tony has very kindly offered to put together this loop and lead the next ride because he’s chomping at the bit to encourage more MTB’ing to Ashdown Forest and I agree with him. As most of you know mountainbikes aren’t really welcome in Ashdown Forest (give or take a few bridleways) but Deers Leep Park is the exception. It’s a privately owned mountainbike park. It doesn’t have a waymarked trail to follow as such, its based on little wooded sections that have varying difficulty levels of skill sections to play on, including some northshore. Yellow & Blue markers = easy (ish) and Red more difficult with steep drops/climbs.
Our ride is going to start at Deers Leep, take in a few of the play areas of the way out of the park and little taster section of northshore for beginners then hooks up with some wide flowy bridleways which eventually link into an unavoidable road section then we retrace our steps and back into the Park to play as much as we like in the woods. I’m going to suggest that people split here because the woods aren’t massive so splitting could make the play more enjoyable.
You have to pay to ride (£2 each) but parking is then free, make sure you pick up your site map because the woods are all numbered but don’t follow sequence so you could get lost if you venture out on your own. You won’t get lost for days though cos it ain’t that big !
Total mileage about 15, total climbing about 500mtrs, technicality nothing to worry about outside the park its mainly nice big open bridleways with just one rocky decent (remember to take the Right Hand line halfway down), in the park it’s as hard as you want to make it 🙂
Start time: 10.30am
Location: http://www.deersleappark.co.uk/Mainmap.html (you can print this park map in case they run out on the day !)
Overall route card for the geeks: http://www.woodlandsview.com/MA_May08/Memory-Map%20Route%20Card.htm (not including the Park riding)
Nearest train: no idea and there’ll probably be works on the line so don’t rely on them anyway !
Snacks & stuff: Nothing enroute so bring all your own supplies, Deers Leep are in the process of opening a cafe but they don’t think it’ll be open on the day. I’ll bring some coffee though for the end.
Marshalls: There’s a few crossing and corners so if anyone is willing to help be marshalls would you let me know please cos it would help keep the day flowing nicely. If you have a walkie talkie all the better cos we can then keep in contact.
Finally, I need to ask people to confirm they are coming along. 39 on our last ride was great but we can’t have anymore than that cos it’s too big a group. So first come first served and let us know here if you’re turning up. Also the car park isn’t massive so park as close to each other as possible please. Cheers, Lisa
Sussex Muddyarse 
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