Ride to Ripley with a Wisley wander

I rode over to Ripley this morning which turned out to be more interesting, in all sorts of ways, than I was expecting.

The Tilt path at Stoke D'Abernon was flooded after the bridge but that was only minor and much less of a lake than at Ranmore on Wednesday. The road closed signs towards Plough Lane at the end of Chilbrook Road were hardly a surprise.

Then on to Elm Lane. The concrete blocks preventing vehicle access to Elm Corner have been replaced by a gate - locked and not much room to get round beside it without muddy shoes. The "lake" at the bottom of the new path to Wisley lane was only an inch or two deep. 

More interestingly, at the top of the path, just before going through the gap in the fence to Wisley Lane, there is now a formation veering left to join up with the new access to the airfield site about 150m down Wisley Lane from the current exit through the fence. This is where both Don Elms and I have spotted a new, blue RoW sign on Wisley Lane (pointing both ways) with a third arm (covered up for now) pointing towards the airfield. More intriguingly the latest A3 road/lane closure email that landed in my inbox a few days ago says that Elm Corner (nominally inaccessible to motor vehicles) will be closed on Friday for "tarmacking". So is the link from Elm Lane to Wisley Lane going to be tarmacked this week?  Maybe on the new formation allowing the gap in the fence to be closed? If so, sadly not in time for Sue's B ride on Wednesday. Watch this space. 

So, over Wisley bridge and there was another new RoW sign invitingly pointing along the new "bridleway" to the Heathland bridge with no fence across the road or guard in his sentry box. This was too inviting not to explore. Sadly it is only open to access Pond Farm with a barrier at the bridge - which is supposed to open this month. 

But how's this for "off road"? It's on my potential route for March 4.

At the end of Lock Lane a Road Closed sign said no access to Ripley. Surrey Roadworks webside said pedestrian access and the guy in the van at Church Hill said it was fine. Newark Lane is closed from Church Hill to the Seven Stars until March 18 but no problem on a bike with a very short pavement walk.

I came home across Bookham Common - passable but wet. I think we were right to give it a miss on Wednesday.