The route from Coombe Hill saw us take in tracks around Chequers, Pulpit Hill, Cadsden and bordering Whitleaf trails before heading out towards Lacey Green taking in various tracks in various different woodland areas. From Lacey Green our route gave us a short road hop past RAF Strike Command (Naphill) before heading into Bradenham Woods and neighboring woodlands. After a good play on some super fast fireroads and singletrack in Bradenham we headed off almost as the crow flies towards the Golden Ball Monument (West Wycombe) again taking in some ultra fast and technical singletrack sections and some of the Wycombe Areas best descents. From here on in it was quite a fun and straight forward route up to the Golden Ball itself, oh yes, but after another climb or two...!

Once sat up on the West Wycombe hill, most of our attending riders finally saw and found out what the Golden Ball Monument is. Our whole group realised how glad they were to make the ride and to be able to take in some spectacular views of the Chiltern Hills area. If you don't yourself know, then The Golden Ball as the locals call it is the 18th century Church of St. Lawrence, with its golden ball on the top of the hill, is a well-known landmark, visible for many miles due its hilltop location, visually dominating the village of West Wycombe. The ball used to be able to seat up to eight people giving a panoramic view of the area. The church was remodelled by Sir Francis Dashwood inside and out. The hill is known as 'West Wycombe Hill' and was an Iron Age hill fort. Also situated on the hill is the hexagonal flint and stone Dashwood Mausoleum, inspired by the Colosseum in Rome.

After a long thoughtful pause on the top of West Wycombe hill, some snacks, and some life stories we headed back down the hill, past the West Wycombe Caves (well worth a visit) back down to West Wycombe village itself before heading west towards High Wycombe to pick up another trail heading in the Great Missenden direction.

The return route to Coombe Hill was very different to the route out. We deliberately planned the ride with two different route sections to show off as many of the local trails as possible and to avoid boredom by riding the same trails twice. The return route from the bottom of West Wycombe Hill lead us initially towards the Great Missenden area before taking in some more of the Chilterns finest woodlands. Our route did take us back into Bradenham Woods, but Bradenham Woods is quite a large and spread out area of woodland offering a fine and varied selection of natural trails so we managed to plan this return route on different tracks than the outbound route. From Bradenham we did head back briefly towards RAF Strike Command before taking in more new trails in the Speen and Great Hampden areas before linking back towards Cadsden and Coombe Hill again.

A big shout of thanks has to go out to all the rides that attended this ride and made it yet another great success, and also a large shout of thanks goes out to Mark who helped me plan and lead this route.

Look out for details on our August ride shortly...