Dartmoor Autumn Magic with Katherine Moore

A MOUNTAIN BIKE OVERNIGHTER

Written by Adventure Cyclist, Katherine Moore

Photography by Alan Danby and Britt Walker

As a self-confessed routesmith, with an established bikepacking route, several route guide books and a whole back-catalogue of Komoot route collections to my name, being asked to choose a single favourite route is a near-impossible task.

MAPPING OUT THE ADVENTURE 🗺️

It’s early October as the leaves are starting to yellow, the polo neck woollens have been retrieved from the depths of the cupboard and our riding schedule has become more revolved around avoiding the downpours rather than managing overdoing it.

My husband John and I live on the edge of Dartmoor, a place that holds such a dear place in both our hearts, so we thought we’d chance an autumnal wild camping overnighter. We brought our pals Alan Danby and Britt Walker aboard their matching Brother Big Bros along for the ride too, as there’s little we love more than showing off our gorgeous corner of this national park to new folks.

Dartmoor is rough, wild and rugged. Its beauty is in the expansiveness of the open moorland, the inclines of the steep river valleys, the carpets of moss on every granite boulder and the lush green ferns that rise up next to them.

Under cloudy grey skies, the moorland is awash with browns and beiges, woodlands turning to grey for the winter. Yet today, with a whole heap of luck and gratitude, the banks of Hameldown yield swathes of rich copper-red of the dying bracken, and the temperate rainforest cover of Lustleigh Cleave twinkles with yellows, umbers and ochres. Topping each hill across the moor, the sparkling granite tors are the same moody, deep grey year round; one of the few constants in a landscape that is truly ever-changing.

WILD CAMPING ON DARTMOOR 🏕️

Dartmoor’s unique wild camping laws have been in the news a lot lately (for all the wrong reasons), and we’re far from taking them for granted. So when it came to plotting one of my favourite routes, it had to include spending a night on one of my favourite tors.

Honeybag Tor is a broad peak, crowned with huge towering blocks of solid granite two or three times a person’s height and the most incredible views. On a clear autumn morning like ours, you can see countless other tors across Dartmoor, including a wonderful view of the nearby Hound Tor and Hay Tor, and further beyond to the Haldon Ridge, Woodbury Common and the English Channel.

AN ESSENTIAL REFUEL AT THE PUB 🍽️

Honeybag Tor is also, wonderfully, within easy reach of one of Dartmoor’s most charming pubs. The Rugglestone Inn is a classic for anyone visiting the moor, if you can fit in there with the locals too; there’s only a small handful of tables for dining inside and a very cosy bar area by the fire. This time of year most of the tourists have gone home, making the Rugglestone a lively Friday night hideout for locals from Dartmoor and beyond. The few available tables are booked out days in advance; double booked through the night, and the next sitting waits patiently outside in one of the heated shelters in the chilly pub garden while we slurp up the last of our sticky toffee puddings and buckle up ready to head back out into the bracing night to our camp spot.

The route to the pub is a vertiginous one; from the gateway town of Bovey Tracey it’s up, up, up onto the moor. Rather than taking the most direct route up the long and often busy ascent of Hay Tor, we pedalled a much more peaceful route, up the gravel Wray Valley Trail to Lustleigh and up through Pullabrook Woods. Trendlebere offers a quieter tarmac climb than Hay Tor, just slightly further north, and magnificent views over Lustleigh Cleave as you winch your way up.

I was keen that we’d get some off-road descending on our first day, so routed down the Black Hill bridleway descent, where some charming Ruby Red Devon cattle lined the path and appreciated some neck scratches before we got into the descent proper.

Widecombe in the Moor is a small settlement that’s home to a whole host of Dartmoor legend, nestled in the base of the valley with an iconic church spire marking the centre of the village, visible from miles around from the surrounding towering hillsides. The Rugglestone is just a stone’s throw out of the village on a narrow country lane.

SLEEPING UNDER THE MOON 🌓

After a hearty meal and bottle top up, the only way was up out of Widecombe and up to our camp spot. It may have been dark and cold by then, with the shortening autumn days making the allure of the warm pub even stronger, but the incredibly steep ramp of the lane up to Bonehill Rocks was enough to warm us up again. It was probably a blessing that it was dark with the half moon, so we couldn’t see the full extent of it.

A glorious balcony gravel track traces the edge of Bell Tor, Chinkwell Tor and Honeybag Tor, allowing us to get closer to our camp spot, before the final ascent was made on foot, hauling our laden bikes up the grassy incline to the tor top, which forms part of the Dartmoor Wild Camping Map. Consulting the night’s weather forecast, we tucked our two tents between rocky outcrops to the west of the tor to avoid the worst of the night’s wind, framed between granite with a striking view down the valley to the warm glowing lights of Widecombe, and the sound of the cows braying.

A MORNING WITH A BELLOWING STAG 🦌

We’d really lucked out with the weather, the rain falling almost exclusively as we were all tucked up in our tents at night. Emerging from our tents as the day broke and a faint wisp of pink seeped through the gap between land and cloud, we heard a deep, guttural call from the bracken-clad hillside on the opposite side of the valley. This wasn’t a cow now, and putting two and two together with the time of year, we soon realised it was a bellowing stag at the start of the rut. We don’t have many red deer on Dartmoor, so this call – echoed back and forth across the valley with John’s best stag impersonation – really made my morning.

DESCENDING DARTMOOR’S TRAILS 🚵

After all the climbing of the day before, getting back down off the moor to Bovey Tracey was delightfully largely a descending affair. After the chunky end of the gravel balcony track, we took in Jay’s Grave bridleway, a field crossing past a newborn belted Galloway calf and an ascent of Hayne Down past Bowerman’s Nose. Warmed by the soft autumn sun, the techy stuff was up now; a rock-stepped steep run off the moorland followed by a granite-strewn rooty trail through twisted oak woodland into Hayne.

The final run back leads down to the River Bovey on rough forestry tracks past fragrant cedar plantation and past the ancient Hisley Bridge, where we paused a while to play pooh sticks. John won, but he always does. After a basic tor-top breakfast, a proper hearty fry-up was in order when we reached civilisation again, and Cafe 3 Sixty was just the place for it.

A PERFECT 24-HOUR ADVENTURE 🙌

This 37 kilometre ride might not be the most epic in terms of high mountains or distance, but for a sub-24 hour adventure from our doorstep into such a wild and wonderful place with great company, for me there’s little that’ll beat it.