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Never been there but we're up in Burton buying a car on Tues, so wondering if it's worth an afternoon out?
Climbs? Jumps? Swinley/Sherwood Pines kind of thing?
More stony than Pines, a few climbs (nothing like Welsh Trail Centres though), some Black trail elements. Worth a couple of hours of your time
Ace. I'm sold.
Tick.
Going down to pick up a van in Cannock in the next couple of weeks, wouldn't mind a pedal.
Think a harder version of swinley, similar trail surface with bigger hills. There is dh runs over at style cops (but have not tried these). The blacks on the Dog side are not hard but on the monkey get a lot harder. Was there last Monday, had a few divisions.
Ah cool. Should give us a bit of fun
It is running well at the moment they have smoothed out a lot of the braking bumps during the last few months. Def worth a couple of hours of your time. Diversions are minimal at the moment.
If anyone fancies showing us the routes we'll be there about 1 on Tues
No.
Edit: that’s in reply to the original question, not the request for a guide.
Be prepared to be buzzed by bellends on Bultaco Brincos and amazed by the number of neds in trackkie bottoms, vests and no helmet riding bikes that you just know are nicked.
Weeksy,
I can't make Tuesday but Cannock is my backyard so next time you are in the area it would be a pleasure to show you around. Depending on your riding preferences there is loads of other options on The Chase that are worth a pedal that take in some of the trail centre runs and some of the more off piste trails.
I could always drop you my Strava profile and you can pick up some routes if that would be of use.
Have fun!
Dogsby
It's definitely worth a visit.
Loads of people slag it off but it has some decent sections.
The recently resurfaced High Voltage and Uncle Arthur are great, and if you do the Dog & Monkey then Upper & Lower Cliff are great too.
Also plenty of other trails to explore away from the marked trails.
Be prepared to be buzzed by bellends on Bultaco Brincos and amazed by the number of neds in trackkie bottoms, vests and no helmet riding bikes that you just know are nicked.
It was nothing like that yesterday. It was a real mix of everyone from lycra-clad whippets to all the gear e-bikers to families enjoying the decent weather. It was busy in places but folk were polite and moving out of the way if caught up with.
I'm a semi regular at Cannock, though havent been for 4 months now.
I love Follow the Dog, and hate the Monkey trail.
The Dog flows well, a bit like a cross country race course, probably why I like it.
The Monkey , to me, seems very disjointed, lots of climbs, for short downhill sections which are not very technical/steep or difficult.
I generally do 2 laps of the Dog, that can take up 2 hours.
Last time I was there, there were 4 sections blocked off due to trail damage, including the best part, over the road from Birches Valley car park/cafe/shop. presumably they are now open.
The DH trails at Stile Cop are fun, from what I remember there are a couple of flowy reds, some more rooty blacks then some big jump lines. Easy diversion from the Monkey I think too.
exploring is unlikely tomorrow as it will be our first time and we'll be on a time limit, so we'll stick to dedicated trail i think. Anything interesting/challenging off the Dog ?
The monkey blacks are quite challenging and fun, dog not so much. Most of the decent off piste stuff is over the other side of the chase (Brocton, seven springs way) and can be difficult to find. But, there is also some good stuff off the last two descents of the monkey or opposite the main hill of upper cliff (blue spade).
Most people who say Cannock isn't worth visiting, don't know the chase and stick to the dog which is more of your typical trail centre xc stuff.
I don't think any of the blacks on the Follow The Dog are true blacks. They are pretty simple, small sections of board walk or pretty simple rock features.
Tom, Dick and Harry is closed at the moment so you cant do the black bits on there.
The blacks on the upper cliff descent are pretty tough.
Devils staircase has been sanitised now - all the steps have been removed so it is just a bermed descent.
that's a shame, i'm over at Llandegla tomorrow otherwise I'd have joined you at Cannock, not visited for a few years
Devils staircase has been sanitised now – all the steps have been removed so it is just a bermed descent.
Thats a shame.
Im no fan of Cannock but then again I'm no local and have only really done FTD and Monkey. It makes the best of what it has but it has a tendency to feel like your just going round and round in circles in a small space.
Cannock is ridiculous.
For some reason I always feel absolutely ****ed after riding there despite the smallish elevation gain.
I think I was more buggered after riding there on Friday than 20 miles of rough and steepish riding around Ladybower the day after.
issue 112 if you're a subscriber 🙂
singletrack-magazine-issue-112-cannocking-on-heavens-door
We enjoyed it.... nothing wrong with Cannock.
Boy crashed and hurt himself a bit on an innocuous section of trail and i caught my little toe on a root and have hurt it... LOL.
We had one crappy pass by an Ebiker... i called him names... 🙂
Apart from that, it was a fine little adventure 🙂
Cannock is great fun. Not gnar in any way but enough challenges to keep you on your toes and generally fast and flowy. But hey its a trail centre all trail centres are pretty tame unless you go to the harder core uplift places and Cannock is as good or better than most trail centres I've ridden.
Is a bit pebbly and loose in places which is an acquired taste, but take a few PSI out of your tyres and you'll be fine and if your front wheel washes out don't panic and have faith...it will grip. I usually have a couple of front wheel 'moments' at Cannock, but the wheel always bites eventually.
last went last month and the best bits were closed with diversions so not sure what has opened since, but still a reasonably fun hack. You can usually loop upper and lower cliff quite quickly if you don't mind looping sections.
My only bugbear in the last year or so there is the seemingly increase in people cutting corners and straightening out the trail. Not sure if it is the latest breed of less manoeuvrable super long low and slack bikes with greater downhill speed outrunning their riders skills, or more ebikes, but there seems to have been an increase in people cutting corners and straightening out the trail. That's a great shame...if you can't follow the trail then go slower or get better or ride straighter trails elswere. Just starts to erode the trail and ruins it.
But absolutely go.
I went on Tuesday.
The stairs appear to have vanished from the Devil’s staircase section. Shame really
Original monkey is still closed too
Are the drop and the werewolf still missing from the Werewolf drop 😁😁
Its tagged as black feature now so you have to go out of your way to do the kind of drop type thing. No werewolfs either.