New Forest

On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 11:52:57 +0100, "Vivian" <[email hidden]>

wrote in message : said:

Last weekend I went camping and cycling in the New Forest. Greatest weather
ever, and my, what a beautiful place!! Will definitely go again some day!!

Which site? We're off in a week or two to the New Forest...

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

Near Nomansland. Great pubs around that area, too! We got lost, but even
that was great!

--
Vivian
-------
"We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school".
No Surrender

"Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 11:52:57 +0100, "Vivian" <[email hidden]>

wrote in message : said:

Last weekend I went camping and cycling in the New Forest. Greatest

weather

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

ever, and my, what a beautiful place!! Will definitely go again some

day!!

Quoted message said:

Which site? We're off in a week or two to the New Forest...

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 22:12:16 +0100, "Vivian" <[email hidden]> ()

Quoted message said:

Near Nomansland. Great pubs around that area, too! We got lost, but even
that was great!

Glad you had a good time. The cycling and the beer round there are
superb.
--
Matt K
Waikikamukau,NZ

Just zis Guy said:

On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 11:52:57 +0100, "Vivian" <[email hidden]>

wrote in message : said:

Last weekend I went camping and cycling in the New Forest. Greatest weather
ever, and my, what a beautiful place!! Will definitely go again some day!!

Which site? We're off in a week or two to the New Forest...

I hope you will be riding there this time.

John B

Whingin' Pom <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 22:12:16 +0100, "Vivian" <[email hidden]> ()

Quoted message said:

Near Nomansland. Great pubs around that area, too! We got lost, but even
that was great!

Glad you had a good time. The cycling and the beer round there are
superb.

there is of course the On/Off shore 200k on 5.9.04, the best of the
Forest (on road) and the IOW as well, I assume the 100k is just around
the Forest,
see
www.audax.uk.net

On Sun, 15 Aug 2004 19:35:11 GMT, JohnB <[email hidden]> wrote in
message <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Which site? We're off in a week or two to the New Forest...

I hope you will be riding there this time.

No chance, I'm afraid. Maybe when the tinlids are a bit older, that's
certainly an ambition of mine anyway.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 22:12:16 +0100, "Vivian" <[email hidden]>

wrote in message : said:

Near Nomansland. Great pubs around that area, too! We got lost, but even
that was great!

Was if a Forestry Commission one, or private? All the FC sites are
boked up (or at leadt al the ones we like the look of), so we're
trying to find a good private site. Acres Down Farm will do OK, but
we fancied somewhere different.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

"Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 22:12:16 +0100, "Vivian" <[email hidden]>

wrote in message : said:

Near Nomansland. Great pubs around that area, too! We got lost, but even
that was great!

Was if a Forestry Commission one, or private? All the FC sites are
boked up (or at leadt al the ones we like the look of), so we're
trying to find a good private site. Acres Down Farm will do OK, but
we fancied somewhere different.

There is one right next to Holmsley (in fact it is a continuation of
the airfield on which the former is built) which we have used before
when we couldn't get in anywhere. Afraid I don't know the number but
Holmsley FC site may have it.

In message <[email hidden]>, Vivian
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Last weekend I went camping and cycling in the New Forest. Greatest weather
ever, and my, what a beautiful place!! Will definitely go again some day!!

I was there a couple of weeks ago, at Holmsley campsite. And yeah, it is
beautiful but...
<rant>
Is it only me who gets annoyed by the Forestry Commission's idea of a
cycle route? This is how it works: First they close down all the tracks
to cyclists except for their designated "network". Then they cover all
the tracks on the "network" in loose shingle, to a depth of several
inches. Not gravel, mind you, but stones. Result: a surface which is too
difficult for kids and inexperienced cyclists, and frankly, a boring and
unrewarding churn for a mountain biker. Oh, and then there's the disused
railway line path south of Burley where my daughter ploughed into a
patch of thick sand and hit a half-brick submerged in it. For crying out
loud, people, if you must make cycle tracks at least get hold of
Sustrans or someone else who knows how to build them! Thank god there
are still a few quiet back lanes in the New Forest...
</rant>

Is this really the fault of the Forestry Commission? I thought it was the
NIMBYs (aka the New Forest Verderers) who instigated the ban on cycling on
most of the paths.

Huw Francis

"Andy Key" <[email hidden]>
wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Vivian
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Last weekend I went camping and cycling in the New Forest. Greatest

weather

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

ever, and my, what a beautiful place!! Will definitely go again some

day!!

Quoted message said:

I was there a couple of weeks ago, at Holmsley campsite. And yeah, it is
beautiful but...
<rant>
Is it only me who gets annoyed by the Forestry Commission's idea of a
cycle route? This is how it works: First they close down all the tracks
to cyclists except for their designated "network". Then they cover all
the tracks on the "network" in loose shingle, to a depth of several
inches. Not gravel, mind you, but stones. Result: a surface which is too
difficult for kids and inexperienced cyclists, and frankly, a boring and
unrewarding churn for a mountain biker. Oh, and then there's the disused
railway line path south of Burley where my daughter ploughed into a
patch of thick sand and hit a half-brick submerged in it. For crying out
loud, people, if you must make cycle tracks at least get hold of
Sustrans or someone else who knows how to build them! Thank god there
are still a few quiet back lanes in the New Forest...
</rant>

in message <[email hidden]>, Just me

(') said:

For crying out
loud, people, if you must make cycle tracks at least get hold of
Sustrans or someone else who knows how to build them!

ITYM 'Sustrans or someone who knows how to build them', since (judging
from the frequent complaints in this newsgroup) Sustrans very notably
don't fall into the second of those disjuncts.

The only piece of Sustrans-owned cycling infrastructure in this area is
the Big Water of Fleet viaduct, which has 8 foot high steel barriers
across it to stop cyclists from using it at all, necessitating a very
long detour.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; how did we conclude that a [censored] cartoon mouse is deserving
;; of 90+ years of protection, but a cure for cancer, only 14?
-- user 'Tackhead', in /. discussion of copyright law, 22/05/02

In message <[email hidden]>, Simon
Brooke <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

in message <[email hidden]>, Just me

(') said:

For crying out
loud, people, if you must make cycle tracks at least get hold of
Sustrans or someone else who knows how to build them!

ITYM 'Sustrans or someone who knows how to build them', since (judging
from the frequent complaints in this newsgroup) Sustrans very notably
don't fall into the second of those disjuncts.

It was actually I who wrote the original plea, and yes, normally I'd
agree with you - Sustrans seem to think that loose gravel and coal dust
are suitable materials to build a road from. (I have issues with
Sustrans dating from my time in Bristol in the early 1980s but that's
another story.) However, believe me, compared to the New Forest tracks,
the average Sustrans path is a dream.

--

Andy Key said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Simon
Brooke <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

in message <[email hidden]>, Just me

(') said:

For crying out
loud, people, if you must make cycle tracks at least get hold of
Sustrans or someone else who knows how to build them!

ITYM 'Sustrans or someone who knows how to build them', since (judging
from the frequent complaints in this newsgroup) Sustrans very notably
don't fall into the second of those disjuncts.

It was actually I who wrote the original plea, and yes, normally I'd
agree with you - Sustrans seem to think that loose gravel and coal dust
are suitable materials to build a road from. (I have issues with
Sustrans dating from my time in Bristol in the early 1980s but that's
another story.) However, believe me, compared to the New Forest tracks,
the average Sustrans path is a dream.

I think you need to be clear that the New Forest tracks are *not* cycle
tracks, but working logging roads built for the purpose of forest
management/industry and they still have that as their prime use.
The cycle use was introduced in a limited way in the early 70's as a
result of some work by a few cyclists (myself included).
I planned and set up some of the very first waymarked trails using
dowels dipped in coloured paint as markers. The routes were agreed with
the FC and used in the first New Forest Cycle Week (which has since
become a major CTC event).

Since then there has been the massive growth in off-road leisure
cycling, which was recognised by the Forestry Commission. They agreed to
mark out some of the Forest trails as cycle routes, but without
compromising their main function. They even tried to introduce a permit
scheme and made the tracks available to CTC groups only at one time as
they did not want the trails to become predominantly leisure use.
Indeed there has been considerable opposiion from the Forest Verders to
*any* cycle use in the Forest. Thankfully that has been slowly changing.

Meanwhile one of the biggest threats to the Forest is the absurd growth
in motor traffic which gridlocks parts of the area in the summer months
making it almost unbearable at times.
Much of this consists of cars with bikes strapped to the back :-(

John B