Map (zoom in for more detail)
Directions & GPX etc
Route directions PDF (right click to download)
GPX file (right click to download)
TCX file (right click to download)
Route directions PDF (right click to download)
GPX file (right click to download)
TCX file (right click to download)
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My first ride from the Lost Lanes West Book, which I did end of Nov 2021. Was a very enjoyable gravel ride, with exactly the atmosphere I was after! Route finding and ground condition were all good. As a minor amendment I trimmed some tarmac by taking the mile long byeway before Worton – turn off the road here https://goo.gl/maps/b9Fit6ip8ijmjQ359. Pick a day with good visibility as there are expansive views from the ridge of Salisbury plain.
A lovely route for the most part, BUT…. The book reckoned the Imber Perimeter Path is “among the best sections of gravel track in England”. If that’s the case, I think I’ll be selling my gravel bike: some short sections of the surface were great, but most of it consisted of small irregular egg-sized jagged rocks embedded in the ground, as if a demented Salvador Dali had taken a jackhammer to Belgian pave. I took a right battering . I even considered leaving the path and riding on the grass, but as there were warnings of unexploded ordnance, I figured that being shaken to bits was marginally preferable to being blown to bits (although the latter would at least have been mercifully quick).The views were great, although you had to stop to see them because whilst riding your eyes were being thrown about in your skull like ball bearings in a pinball machine! Jack reckons this is do-able on a touring bike with 28c tyres…Good luck with that! (I was on 40c gravel tyres).
This is a shame, I was hoping to do this route Spring May Bank Holiday 2025.
Hope your eyeballs are back.
It’s possible it’s been resurfaced recently but I have ridden it many times, including on a bike with 28mm tyres, with no problem at all. No other readers have remarked about it being too rough to ride but I suppose everyone has a different tolerance for unpaved surfaces.
I completed the route for the 3rd time last Sunday. I’d say there is only one very short downhill section on the Imber Path that I’d descibe as rocky enough to make me keep my speed in check and that’s because of the holes that have appeared on the path.
I ride a gravel bike with 40mm tyres and run pretty low pressures as they are tubeless. I come from a mtnbiking background so perhaps my experience of more challenging terrain means I don’t notice the surface as much as some others.
As this is an easy” route and I’d agree with that description having ridden plenty of routes which are much more challenging in length and terrain. Not sure how your bike is set up or your experience Ned.