bikepacking.com/routes/east-devon-trail/

The East Devon Trail is a 113-mile bikepacking route through East Devon, a rural and coastal landscape between the county’s capital of Exeter and neighboring counties of Dorset and Somerset. This often-overlooked region will astound you with the sheer variety of habitats, from freshwater marshes to lowland heath, green agricultural field networks to steep cliffs, pebbled beaches and sleepy woodland, and the wonderful wildlife that calls these wild places home...

While bikepackers visiting Devon may immediately think of the Dartmoor and Exmoor national parks, quietly tucked away in the rolling hills to the east of the Exe Estuary lies an extensive network of blissful gravel trails, spicy singletrack and quiet lanes with expansive views across heathland and a patchwork of fields, out towards the Jurassic Coast and the English Channel.

The rewards are countless, but you just need to know where to look. Marrying up a deep admiration of this gorgeous part of the South West with the many creatures that seek refuge here, the East Devon Trail visits numerous nature reserves along its 115-mile length.

Look out for migratory birds on the move and foraging waders at RSPB Bowling Green and Goosemoor just a short ride out of the county’s capital, rare nightjars, Dartford Warblers, basking common lizards and adders across the rare lowland heath network of the Pebblebed Heaths, Trinity Hill and Fire Beacon Hill. And visit the Island Hide at Seaton Marshes with a near-360 degree view over the wetlands, where you can often see oystercatchers, black-tailed godwits and ringed plovers. If you’re really lucky and spend the time on the River Otter, you might even spy a beaver; part of the Devon Wildlife Trust’s pioneering reintroduction programme, which has paved the way for their wider reintroduction across the UK.