Afternoon all,

Having cancelled our long awaited trip to do the Badger Divide last week in October due to concerns over COV restrictions in Scotland, we are now looking to do a 3day/2night local loop from Ivinghoe area possibly along the Ridgeway, anyone have any suitable routes they can suggest? All 3 of us are on 29er/27.5+ and have bikepacking gear etc , thinking of aiming for campsites to pitch at the 2 nights if possible and would be good to do a circular route but dont mind riding to a point along the Ridgeway then retracing steps back if easier

Im based near Milton Keynes and the other 2 are Dunstable

Any suggestions would be great

Cheers all

Mark

King Alfred's Way, great route but could be a bit interesting with the recent rain.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4035000830

2nd what Andy says! Cracking route

How many days did you do this over ?

Cheers

KAW is ideal for 3 days, depends if you wanted to ride from NK though. Woburn/Rushmere/Ivinghoe onto Ridgeway and loop back from whatever your furthest point is could work out well. More of an out- back but plenty of options for variation. The east half of the Ridgeway isn't all rideable but the Ridgeway Double route is, or there's variants that use more off-road through the Wendover to Ewlme areas. PM if you need tips, it's my local area.

Have a look at this,
1st is a quicker and easy off-road way from Woburn Sands to Ivinghoe Beacon via Rushmere (follow the bike trails through Rushmere instead of the GPS), under 25km. Uses some canal towpath but it's a quiet section.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/34445518

Then Ivinghoe Beacon to the far end of the Ridgeway via a few Chilterns classics a bit further up in the hills on the east of the Ridgeway, returning along mostly the Ridgeway and a few BW sections until it gets back onto the same track to Ivinghoe Beacon. 286km routed, 310km as followed back to the Beacon. Hopefully the overlaps are easy to follow the right way. There is a bit of a hike-a-bike push on the way back at 277km, could follow that on the way out if you like steeper, chalky and rooty
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/34445544

It's getting a bit wet out there now, but not too bad by local standards

Chilterns 'Local Standards' :

Nice 1 cheers buddy much appreciated , will take a look tomorrow
Cheers
Mark

I did a 2 day loop from Milton Keynes last year on the gravel bike really good fun . Happy to send you the GPX .