Route summary: This is a pretty easy ride, mostly on good tracks, including tarmac on the moors! It crosses some firing ranges, which can be closed at times – visit www.dartmoor-ranges.co.uk or call 0800 458 4868 to check before setting off.
Distance: 22.7km (14.1 miles) Climbing: 570m (1,870ft) Time: 1.5-2.5hrs
Location details: Much of Dartmoor is rugged, barren and remote, which means it isn’t easily accessible to everyone, but this route enables you to get up high on the hills and explore the moors with relative ease and in safety.
Start/finish: YHA Okehampton, by the train station (grid ref SX 592/944, postcode EX20 1EW).
Getting there: Okehampton is west of Exeter, along the A30, on the northern edge of Dartmoor. Follow the signs to the train station, then park in the car park by YHA Okehampton.
Facilities: Okehampton YHA (www.yha.org.uk, 0845 3719651). The atmospheric Old Station Tea Rooms are almost next door and serve up snacks and meals daily (www.dartmoor-railway-sa.org, 01837 52762). A little out of Okehampton, in Belston, The Tors Inn is a family-run pub and hotel on the edge of the moors that offers home cooking and great views (www.thetors.co.uk, 01837 840689).
Directions: Exit the youth hostel car park and turn right, under the bridge. Just after the railway station entrance, turn right on the Father Ford bridleway. Follow this track parallel to the railway for 1.5km until just before it goes under the tracks (and the A30), then turn left over a small bridge, following the sign to Okehampton via Ball Hill.
Join the tarmac, then take the next right, signposted to Tordown. Go under the railway bridge and A30. Continue to follow this road as it bears right, uphill, to a fork. Keep right here. When you reach a T-junction in Belstone, turn right onto a seemingly dead-end road.
Keep ahead on this track, the Tarka Trail, up onto the moors. Keep left at a track junction, then go right at the fork immediately afterwards, uphill. Head around to the right at the end, down to Henry’s Ford, and cross the river.
Go uphill and then left at the T-junction. Continue straight ahead (south), ignoring the tracks on the right, left and then right again, to head deeper into the moors. Follow this track uphill and around to the right, then start descending and heading north, to a track crossing, where you should turn left.
Climb to a T-junction and go right (north). Keep left at a fork after 1m, left at the next fork too and then straight ahead at a crossroads. Follow the tarmac road as it descends, keeping right at a crossroads. Continue to follow this road, with a wall to your left.
At the T-junction, with a small bridge to your right, go left over the cattle grid and then bear right immediately on the tarmac. Follow this road until it takes a sharp left. Go straight ahead here, off-road, and take the bridleway to the right, following the ‘Father Ford’ sign.
Follow this grassy trail as it descends alongside the A30 and bears left under the road, bringing you back to where you were earlier, in step 2. Turn left and retrace your route back to the youth hostel car park.
Route type: Cross Country