Sunday 23rd June - Bagshot

When the draft Rides List came around, I opted for the Ripley elevenses as I know a few routes through the Surrey lanes to the East. And yet....for some unknown reason Bagshot was calling to me. And so I devised a route to take us out West, but avoiding busy roads, travelling along (actually slightly up) the Basingstoke Canal to Deepcut, then North to be the other side of the M3 and A30 London Road and coming into Bagshot from the West. The ride was deemed to be "very scenic and exciting" - hopefully in a good way! 

Ripley is a hike for most people, and with a few packing or leaving for the Dieppe to Paris tour it was lovely to see twelve out for elevenses - Daves V and W, Simon, Geoff, Terry, Liz, Carolyn, Ann, Andy, Graham, Niall and myself. Quite a queue had formed at Pinnock's to order, but the food and drinks came out quickly enough if they had got your name down right and by 11 o'clock we were ready to go. 

Behind the smiles some are already plotting their escape

Carolyn, Geoff and Dave V were unable to join the ride, so we were down to 9, heading through Send and Mayford to join the Basingstoke Canal at Lock 14, except for Dave W who peeled off (but it was great to have him back with us) and Graham who had a different route to lunch in mind. We continued along the quiet canal paths (apart from the occasional group of mountain bikers gleefully hurtling in the opposite direction) until we got to Lock 28, where we crossed back over and carried on through some new housing in Mindenhurst. That was the first off road stretch done with no mishap and no real complaints, so all was going well. Terry departed - but I noticed later he had nevertheless completed a round trip of some 54 miles! 

Primarily a tree photo with coincidental cyclists

 

Heading up The Maultway would have been a bit dull so we took on the second stretch of off-road - a wide dirt track beside the barbed wire fence of the Bisley and Pirbright Ranges - where we had an excellent view of London in the far distance. All survived despite my diving onto the exit path too early - some followed, some looked surprised, but still none complained.

In my attempt to avoid the A30 and reassured by how game the group were, I had everyone cycle through a lovely wooded area on the edge of Swinley Forest and down a steep track behind Pennyhill Park Hotel - lunch was almost in sight and the following slight descent into Bagshot on tarmac got us there exactly on time.

The Kings Arms is a Hungry Horse pub and was ok, it has a large menu, a large garden and large chips, but did seem a bit tired and sticky in places. 

  

Atten-tion!

After lunch the 7 of us followed a much more obvious and undulating route through Windlesham, Longcross and Lyne, discovering a new café on the way (but closed on Sundays) and coming into Chertsey after the final bit of apparently-not-so-easy-to-find off-road by The Bourne. A short hop from there and we were at The Ferry Café in Shepperton, where Tony had come out to have tea with us. 

With thanks to Andy for back-marking, to Andy and Simon for the photos and to everyone for bringing their adventurous selves.