Summer Lightning Details

Activities
- Mountain Bike
- Hike
- Trail Running
Riding Area

Surrey Hills
Dorking
AKA

Waggle Dance, Moonbase, My Cousin Vinnie
Difficulty Rating

Blue rate
Voted Difficulty

Blue (3 votes)
Trail Type

Singletrack
Bike Type

AM, XC
Direction

Downhill Primary
Popular direction shown
Climb Difficulty

Green
Physical Rating

Moderate
Season

Jan-Dec
Dogs Allowed

Yes
eBike Allowed

Yes up to Class 1
Global Ranking
#3879 in Mountain Biking [+]
- #33193 in Trail Running
- #67998 in Hiking
Local Popularity
75 in Mountain Biking [+]
- 5 in Trail Running
- 5 in Hiking
Land Owner

National Trust, Forestry Commission,

The extended Summer Lightning trail on Leith Hill combines the original Summer Lightning Trail (now the end part of the full trail, starting near Wolverns Lane) with the new trail sections (April 2014), that start at Leith Tower and link to the original trail.

The trail starts near the Tower at the top of Leith Hill on the North side just below the green and starts with a great fun swoopy, bermy, jumpy descent down the steep side. The trail keeps mountain bikes segregated from the hikers and horses climbing or descending the main track to Leith Tower.

At the bottom of the 1st section at the gate, take the track up to the right and then cut off to the right onto the next section (currently signposted) which roughly follows the original “moonbase” trail with its bombhole dips

At the end of this section, carry on down the track past the cricket pitch on your left and then take a left into the next section (signposted) through what was originally known as Cousin Vinnie’s Strange Garden. This section has lots of dippers and a big step-up towards the end if you see it and have the skills!

Follow the signposts into the woods below Coldharbour lane and hook up with the original trail (Waggle dance and regurgitator sections) at the end turn left on the bridle path and look for the signposts into the last 2 fast descending sections.

Link up with Wovens Lane and the Rookery descent to get back to the A25 at Westcott.

Local Trail Association

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More Stats for Summer Lightning mountain bike trail trail

Altitude change

-290 ft
Altitude min

665 ft
Altitude max

961 ft
Altitude start

956 ft
Altitude end

666 ft
Grade

-1.9%
Grade max

-22.1%
Grade min

18.4%
Distance climb

4,524 ft
Distance down

2 miles
Distance flat

1,818 ft
Avg time

00:25:29
Avg reverse time

00:55:05
view trail stats

status	date	description
	Mar 15, 2025 @ 10:21am Mar 15, 2025
	Feb 16, 2025 @ 10:29am Feb 16, 2025	Trail closed. https://surreyhills.org/summer-lightning-update/
	Jan 15, 2025 @ 4:28pm Jan 15, 2025	Trail fully open and in good shape.
	Dec 29, 2024 @ 9:18am Dec 29, 2024	On the whole not bad. If anything some of the second section settled in a bit more now. Massive tree down on the top section from the tower.
	Nov 10, 2024 @ 9:16am Nov 10, 2024

title	distance
Britain's Best Singletrack: Surrey Hills on GPSies.com	19 miles
Westcott Leith Summer Lightning Loop	10 miles
Jeroen Summer	7 miles

Summer Lightning