Location details: Dorset has picturesque countryside and coastline, with woods, forests and heathland that offer some great cycling. This route uses wide, surfaced forest tracks, though the wiggly route through Gore Heath takes you close to the singletrack. Note that while cycling is allowed on Gore Heath the trails aren’t official rights of way.
Start: Lawsons Clump car park, Gore Heath (grid ref SY 922/910).
Getting there: Gore Heath is west of Poole. From the A35 take the B3075 south towards Wareham. Lawsons Clump car park is on the left. Look out for the green Forestry Commission signposts and Wareham Forest sign at the entrance.
Facilities: There’s nothing on the route, other than maybe an ice cream van, but The Silent Woman Inn (
www.thesilentwoman.co.uk, 01929 552909) is just up the road from the Sika Trail car park, plus there’s lots of choice in Wareham. For accommodation see
www.warehamdorset.com or
www.visit-dorset.com. Charlie the Bikemonger’s shop in Swanage (
www.charliethebikemonger.com, 01929 475833) is excellent and the staff are very friendly.
Directions: Go out the back of the car park on the main track, then take the first wide track on the right. Turn right at a track crossing, into the trees. Go left at the next track crossing on a wide track (only a narrow track continues ahead).
Follow the edge of the wood, then bear left into the trees at the next turning. Just after a slight right-hand bend, bear right onto a narrower track. Follow this over a track crossing, then turn left at a T-junction, on a wide track.
Go sharp right at the next T-junction, then, just after a track joins from the left, turn left on another wide track. Go straight over a track crossing, then turn left at the next track crossing, passing close to a trig point. Turn right at the next track crossing.
Go over the next track crossing, to the edge of the wood. Then turn left at the T-junction, on a bridleway to the road. Cross the road and follow the bridleway through a field and into Wareham Forest. Continue to a junction under some electricity cables.
Fork left to join the Sika Cycle Trail here, at yellow marker post 23, heading south. Keep following this well-maintained and signed route, with the marker post numbers ascending.
At marker post 6, by a pond, turn right, leaving the Sika Trail. Ignore the track immediately on the right, back past the pond. Instead, keep ahead/left and cross a bridge. Follow this main track left and then right to the B3075. Turn left back to the car park.