bleakanddivine
Über Member
- Location
- Way on down south, London Town.
NB This is a Sunday ride, rather than the usual Saturday.
It's a ride through similar countryside to Auntie Helen's, but without the flat bits. In the rich tapestry of LHCCC rides, this one would not be lithographed onto the starched shirt-front of a chart, but instead, stippled on the crumpled handkerchief of life, (clean, but unironed).
Actually, the ups and downs are about the same as the April Hants ride - about 2,000 feet total elevation gain, over about 50 miles.
Essentially a trans-Chiltern jaunt, from one side of the hills across to the other and back, the ride starts in the decidedly mid-Championship territory of Watford in the east and by half-time we are looking out west over the plain towards the upper Conference reaches of Oxford.
List of confirmed riders: see post #80
Meet:
Junction Cafe, Watford, say 10.30am.
Transport:
Train
19 mins out of Euston. Trains depart every 30 mins at 23/53 minutes past the hour. £7.80 single/£12.80 return. Bikes allowed in carriages. No engineering works to contend with, as yet.
Car
Close to M25 (J19 or J21). Parking at station car park. £3 on Sundays. WD17 1EU for your satnavs.
Musketeer Cyclists
Watford is only 20 miles out of Central London so not much scope for mile-munching there and back.
Route: (clockwise)
www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=3475
Lunch stop:
Cafe at garden centre nr Wendover or several pubs in Wendover,Tring or Wiggington.
Route
Here's the full route - could be renamed "Chess and Chequers".
Mostly minor or B-roads, it crosses or joins A-roads briefly at times. Outbound, the hills are mostly longer gentle inclines, and shorter steeper declines. Homeward, it's one main climb to get back on to the top and then downhill most of the way back.
From Watford Junct station it takes about a mile to get out of the residential suburbs, before dog-legging across the A41 and heading down the lane to cross the Grand Union Canal:
...and climb up the other side onto the Chiltern Hills:
skirting the oaks and beeches of Whippendell Woods:
...then crossing the M25 towards and on through Sarratt's wide village green.
After going along the crest of the rolling Chess Valley for a while:
the route plunges downhill to cross the River Chess and millstream at Mill Farm, then a B-road closely follows the River gently upstream to Chesham.
Chesham is a posh, historic old town, even the bike stand facilities are crenellated:
The route continues out the back of Chesham, rising and falling along a single track road along a ridge:
The minor road passes straight through the courtyard of Pednor House...
Spot the cramped, over-rated, Italian-designed, cult, status symbol, crap car, in front of the Ferrari.
Further along there is a pub with the ideal alibi name:
"Honest luv, I've been down the Fitness Studio with the lads for a couple of hours, exercising the biceps"
The route descends Frith Hill to a dog-leg across the A413 then into (Roald Dahl's) Gt Missenden. A minor road leads out towards Butlers Cross on the NW edge of the Chilterns, passing Chequers, country seat of the PM - so bring your outstanding expenses claims.
It's a June summery ride, but the locals hereabouts are either permanently pessimistic about the weather, or there is a nearby wormhole in the space/time continuum, through which a winter snowstorm can appear at any moment. Studded tyres probably not required:
The route then follows the edge of the Hills NE, above The Chiltern Brewery and the Chiltern Gliding Centre down on the Aylesbury plain:
Then on through Wendover and Tring. There's a steepish climb back up to Wiggington...
... then it's downhill most of the way south-easterly, past Champneys (mansion/health resort), through Ashley Green, Bovingdon, past Chipperfield village cricket green, down Bucks Hill and back across the M25 to rejoin the route back to the station.
B&D
It's a ride through similar countryside to Auntie Helen's, but without the flat bits. In the rich tapestry of LHCCC rides, this one would not be lithographed onto the starched shirt-front of a chart, but instead, stippled on the crumpled handkerchief of life, (clean, but unironed).
Actually, the ups and downs are about the same as the April Hants ride - about 2,000 feet total elevation gain, over about 50 miles.
Essentially a trans-Chiltern jaunt, from one side of the hills across to the other and back, the ride starts in the decidedly mid-Championship territory of Watford in the east and by half-time we are looking out west over the plain towards the upper Conference reaches of Oxford.
List of confirmed riders: see post #80
Meet:
Junction Cafe, Watford, say 10.30am.
Transport:
Train
19 mins out of Euston. Trains depart every 30 mins at 23/53 minutes past the hour. £7.80 single/£12.80 return. Bikes allowed in carriages. No engineering works to contend with, as yet.
Car
Close to M25 (J19 or J21). Parking at station car park. £3 on Sundays. WD17 1EU for your satnavs.
Musketeer Cyclists
Watford is only 20 miles out of Central London so not much scope for mile-munching there and back.
Route: (clockwise)
www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=3475
Lunch stop:
Cafe at garden centre nr Wendover or several pubs in Wendover,Tring or Wiggington.
Route
Here's the full route - could be renamed "Chess and Chequers".
Mostly minor or B-roads, it crosses or joins A-roads briefly at times. Outbound, the hills are mostly longer gentle inclines, and shorter steeper declines. Homeward, it's one main climb to get back on to the top and then downhill most of the way back.
From Watford Junct station it takes about a mile to get out of the residential suburbs, before dog-legging across the A41 and heading down the lane to cross the Grand Union Canal:
...and climb up the other side onto the Chiltern Hills:
skirting the oaks and beeches of Whippendell Woods:
...then crossing the M25 towards and on through Sarratt's wide village green.
After going along the crest of the rolling Chess Valley for a while:
the route plunges downhill to cross the River Chess and millstream at Mill Farm, then a B-road closely follows the River gently upstream to Chesham.
Chesham is a posh, historic old town, even the bike stand facilities are crenellated:
The route continues out the back of Chesham, rising and falling along a single track road along a ridge:
The minor road passes straight through the courtyard of Pednor House...
Spot the cramped, over-rated, Italian-designed, cult, status symbol, crap car, in front of the Ferrari.
Further along there is a pub with the ideal alibi name:
"Honest luv, I've been down the Fitness Studio with the lads for a couple of hours, exercising the biceps"
The route descends Frith Hill to a dog-leg across the A413 then into (Roald Dahl's) Gt Missenden. A minor road leads out towards Butlers Cross on the NW edge of the Chilterns, passing Chequers, country seat of the PM - so bring your outstanding expenses claims.
It's a June summery ride, but the locals hereabouts are either permanently pessimistic about the weather, or there is a nearby wormhole in the space/time continuum, through which a winter snowstorm can appear at any moment. Studded tyres probably not required:
The route then follows the edge of the Hills NE, above The Chiltern Brewery and the Chiltern Gliding Centre down on the Aylesbury plain:
Then on through Wendover and Tring. There's a steepish climb back up to Wiggington...
... then it's downhill most of the way south-easterly, past Champneys (mansion/health resort), through Ashley Green, Bovingdon, past Chipperfield village cricket green, down Bucks Hill and back across the M25 to rejoin the route back to the station.
B&D
