family(towed buggy) friendly offroad locations?

[Sushi]

With the school holidays in full swing and the cost of a day out to a theme park reaching stratospheric amounts, I was hoping to take the kids out for some exercise and some fresh air in my couple of weeks off.

Are there any family friendly cycling tracks around the Farnborough area? I'll be towing the 2 youngest in their buggy so they need to be relatively easy going. The lookout looks great, but the green route is only 1.2k long. I guess I could go round it a few times, but I don't want it to get to boring.

Does Alice Holt have any easy going longish routes?

[sidaorb]

Black Park near Iver, loads of trails, every time we go we find a new one (albeit some can be a little overgrown)

[yellowjack]

Blackwater Valley path is OK for what you want. Also try Fleet Pond, as you can do a lap of the pond on your bikes, and there is additional riding spreading out from the pond. Mostly flat stuff too. Fleet Pond will also feed you onto the Basingstoke Canal Towpath, which conveniently crosses over the Blackwater Valley route near Gold Valley fishery/A331 . The Blackwater Valley path will get you all the way from Sandhurst (possibly further, I haven't done that section) to Badshot Lea/Farnham area, but it does get a bit 'rough and ready' anywhere north of the M3 where it becomes more of a 'ramblers' route than a cycle path.

Basingstoke Canal visitor centre in Mytchett has parking (not sure if you need to pay) but there are several Wharfside parking areas along the route, and it'll get you from just beyond Odiham to the River Wey Navigation up near Brooklands/the M25 and thence to the Thames at Weybridge, or down the Wey to Guildford if you really want, all traffic free aside from having to cross roads a couple of times.

The 'pretty' bit of the canal path is the Odiham end, and between there and Fleet there are several pub/restaurants at which to eat. The only problem with recommending this section is that there was a closure of the path due to a land-slip last time I went that way in June, so maybe not ideal. Closer to Farnborough, the canal visitor centre at Mytchett has a tea room. Just along from there is Frimley Lodge Park, which also has a decent (last time I looked) adventure playground, a cafe, mini-golf and/or pitch'n'putt and huge open areas that are sports pitches (in season) for the kids to play.

If it's just riding you are after and don't want the distraction of cafes etc, Hawley Lake Sail Training Centre off the A327 Minley Road has parking (no restrictions) and direct access onto the Hawley Military Training Area. Hampshire County Council have waymarkers for footpaths and bridleways about the place, so public access is fine. No marked trails as such, but plenty of good cycling routes, a mix of tarmac, gravel, and hard packed dirt roads, again spreading out from the lake and the circular route that laps the lake (although this does share a short stretch of the access road to the sailing club with cars). Military training is fairly low key here, mostly Combat Engineer stuff, with some heavy vehicles and cranes etc, but vehicle movements are few and far between, so not too much to worry about.

There is also the Caesar's Camp/Beaconhill area at Upper Hale, which affords views as far as the Wembley Arch on a good day, but is more limited for you with a family in tow as there is a lot of climbing and tricky descending to be done to get any decent distance in.

Here's a googlemaps link to some of the cycle paths, including the Blackwater Valley (parallel with A331) and the Basingstoke Canal path from Farnborough off toward Woking. Not all of the available routes are marked on here, but it's a start...

... http://goo.gl/maps/EYxwu

Hope that helps, and will be a start, anyway.

[Sushi]

Thank you very much guys, I'll post an update in a couple of weeks once the kids and I have been out on the bikes.

[sidaorb]

yellowjack said:

Here's a googlemaps link to some of the cycle paths, including the Blackwater Valley (parallel with A331) and the Basingstoke Canal path from Farnborough off toward Woking. Not all of the available routes are marked on here, but it's a start...

... http://goo.gl/maps/EYxwu

Hope that helps, and will be a start, anyway.

All that wooded area near the upper and lower star posts is it all completely accessable? The dog loves to run with us when we cycle sometimes and that looks like a brilliant traffic free area.

[yellowjack]

sidaorb said:

All that wooded area near the upper and lower star posts is it all completely accessible? The dog loves to run with us when we cycle sometimes and that looks like a brilliant traffic free area.

Not sure what official policy is regarding the fire roads within Swinley, but I saw plenty of 'casual' riders on cheaper MTBs and hybrids riding around up there. There are some areas nearer the 'Lookout' that are clearly signed as 'off limits' to cyclists, for obvious reasons (disabled access wheelchair friendly walks). I tend to stick to the graded, marked Trails up there (TBH, I've only been twice) or I go elsewhere and make my own routes up 'on the fly'. There truly is an abundance of traffic free riding in this area, and it is so varied that there'll be something to suit almost any ability.

[c7xlg]

Loads of fire road trails you can cycle on in swinley forest heading out from the lookout. Probably best bet with trailer. We careful on the canal tow paths mentioned. The section from odiham towards fleet is very over grown and narrow at the moment. Not really passable with a trailer, plus large section closed off near dogmersfield due to a land slide...