Lane 2 Snape Rake Lane

TW2 - SD5544-02

ATUK - not registered

Snape Rake Lane has had its controversies over the years, especially after the Forestry Commission removed a load of trees and left it completely unrecognisable, and quite frankly, dangerous.

A local equestrian school were on average doing three trips a day along the lane and were now travelling off piste as even their horses had been getting stuck in the mud.

So with the land owners consent, the council provided the stone to fill the holes and created a run off drainage system whilst local 4x4 groups along with GLASS members spent a day repairing the mess and erecting natural fencing to discourage any further off piste activity by users. You can read about the repair in our 6th issue here

Driving from north to south the first section is nice and easy and suitable for cars.

Go through the second gate and head down to the brook and the terrain changes dramatically, you need low-box and decent clearance. Even in the Jimny there were some nasty clunks from underneath.

Once at the bottom I moved a few hefty rocks from the entrance of the brook to help access, but just be aware of other hidden rocks that are submerged and be aware that it can be very deep and fast flowing.

Today wasn’t too bad, and as I stopped half way through to take a few photos I noticed the water was only up the centre of the Jimny’s hubs.

Once through the brook, the track on the southern side is quite narrow in places with the odd large unavoidable stone to negotiate, other people have called them boulders, whatever, they’re big and protrude from pretty much everywhere with plenty of scars on them to show where they’ve caught lower slung vehicles.

Again, low-box and clearance are highly recommended, and the Jimny, as light as it is, struggled in a few places, especially when trying to climb over the rocks as the road-biased tyres struggling for grip in the wet conditions. Reversing slightly and finding another way around them worked a treat. Choosing a better line didn’t stop more bangs and scrapes from underneath, but the Jimny is built from hardy stuff.

Upon reaching the top I headed towards a small village called Chipping for my final lane of the day.