Bridgewood : Description : Middle Ride

Bridgewood Middle Ride

During 2008 and 2009, I began by establishing woodland tracks called "rides" which are wide and open to the sky. In the past, a ride was a track open enough to be ridden on horseback, but now they're good forestry practice as they let sunlight in to dry them out, can be grassed over, and their edges promote wildlife. The Middle Ride is the longest, running from the parking area near the entrance diagonally to the T-Junction at the north east corner, and it's the one I completed first, as it passes through the Glade at the centre of the wood. A weblog post from January 2009 shows the first stages of laying it out.

This picture was taken when the trackway work had been recently completed, and shows the first half of the Middle Ride which has an all-weather crushed stone surface. There is a similar parking area which is secluded from outside, and big enough for over a dozen cars (or for full-sized tree trunks), and has a box for a two-way radio on Event Days. Along this stretch of the ride is the Crossroads, where it meets the North and South Rides for the first time, and the toilet shed.

Eventually the Middle Ride passes through the Glade, and then continues with a grassed surface. This stretch has the Holding Pen, Treepod, and Eric's Gate.

It finishes at the T-Junction, where it meets the other ends of the semi-circular North and South Rides again.