[Closed] Finding new trails solo

I've used Google maps with the cycling option ticked and also the strava heat map.

Strava, find a good looking downhill section, look at the top ten and click through see what rides they do to get there.

using an App isn't discovering anything.
Be adventurous. Just go riding and pay attention. it's really that simple to find trails in any new area.
also. Speak to everyone you meet.

#Deprogramming

Trail forks and strava.

Old school OS map fan here, though I do at least use an electronic version 🙂

Sträva heat map too.

Heatmap to see if an area has lots of trails, then just follow your nose (and tyre tracks in the mud).

Trailforks, great resource. Though just ask on here for the best cheeky trails from locals 😉
Trailforks cuts down a heap of time looking at a map and deciding if a forrest might have a trail in it.

+1 for what jam bo said, also helps with linking them into a proper ride

for some reason, there is very little trail coverage in NI on trailforks. I'm not sure what the deal is with it but I suspect its to do with Land Access laws. I've started updating some stuff there but I can see from the admin side that there looks to be a lot of stuff listed as hidden.

I know its not much use to you when you are out on the trails but if you use the PC version of trailforks. You can select an area that youre interested in, then select Strava from the overlays dropdown. This will bring up trails that arent currently on the TF database.

OS map and explore is my usual method. Look for interesting bits of woods etc.

OS map and go and look.

For information you can't beat an OS map.

Thats a proper adventure and can result in a real discovery. If you look it up online you haven't really found it.

I've often ridden somewhere new just to spend the day exploring. Looking at the OS map for contours and looking on the ground to see what's out there. Last few years I would go to the FoD on a Saturday and discover loads, then return with my mates on the Sunday and make a loop of the newly discovered trails.

For information you can’t beat an OS map.

Thats a proper adventure and can result in a real discovery. If you look it up online you haven’t really found it.

Yeah I know it's the 20.odd miles of shite that make the 100m of trail come alive...
Strava and Trailforks in many areas give way more info than an os map can deliver. Like which way to ride the trail or if its crap/full of shit built jumps.

I'll usually try to make friends with a local, or just head out and have a sniff around.
Got quite a good trail radar after all these years.

I use GPSies

Not much strave schizzle here so I just ride without Mrs rickmeister and chase possibilities.

Maps, although suspiciously, stuff has disappeared from more recent 1:25 map editions of our area... Plus google earth and openmtb mapping.

Ride solo in an interesting area, be prepared to walk or carry, chase any trail that catches your eye.

Find a wooded hill on a map go for a ride. Climb said hill constantly looking for interesting looking tracks off to the side. Always find it good fun spending a day getting navigationally challenged and and going down badger tracks to dead ends.

I stick an OS map in my pocket, then go out an poke up any trail that looks interesting.

If I get lost, I'll look at the map.

Making random decisions on which trail to follow usually leads to serendipity.

Scotland rocks. 🙂

I always find trails that I discover by riding about (lost/exploring) seem way more satisfying than the ones someone showed me via Strava / Trailforks / GPS files etc.

I forgot to say that there is probably very little that isnt known or biked already.. unless you're opening up new lines.. probably someone has walked/biked/skied there before...

Staying off the internet can be a bonus... nothing beats a newly discovered trail you didnt know or read about, even if someone in the 16th centuary rode it and didnt post it on Trailforks/Pinkbike/youbook/facetube/komoot.. its new to you and the excitement is still as raw.. its the thrill of the new...

All depends on whether YOU want to find it or just follow what someone else says.
By all means use Trailforks (which up to now I hadn't heard of) but your'e only following someone else.
After years & years of poring over OS maps I still get a kick out of finding something by myself, even if It's a well worn trail.

Thanks for all the suggestions of exploring the wild. That’s the norm and of course a preference.

I’m really thinking more about quick rides in a new area, NI. And the less noble GPS gets you started somewhere quickly.

What area of NI are you looking at? I can see if theres anything kicking around that I can activate on TF

I actually quite like looking at a map picking an area that looks interesting and having an explore. I've found many trails doing that though I have a knack of spotting signs of trails and tyres, or just making a trail out of a track following it. It may be a ridden tail or not but can work. Many I've found are not on Strava etc. I can map out an area in my head having an explore.

Have a look at an OS map, or the open cycle map online. You can view OS maps as one of the overlays on Bing maps.

No point in being dogmatic about it if you're short on time, nobody else cares how you found the trail. Have a look at Strava heatmap in your area with the cycle filter on and see what shows up. Look carefully because the well ridden trails are easy to spot but the less travelled ones can be quite faint.

If you have access to some image editing software you can overlay this (&/or trailforks etc) over a topo map and print it out for a pocket sized old/new cartography tech mash up.

Try viewranger as well, free to download, you'll only get basic mapping, open cycle map or something, then you can zoom in and out of your location and any routes will appear, download and follow, more likely to be proper routes too, I found trailforks to be a bit useless only giving very short downhill segments rather then full routes, maybe different in other areas though

Anywhere at all really. Might be my imagination but have a few more lit up this morning?! Epic if so, thanks!

I guess I expected a few more around the hills in Belfast, Davis and Cavehill etc but the likes of Rostrevors finest are only an hour away. Just looking for the variety.

Bigwood at the quarry for example is absent.

Cheers for all the help!

I was adding stuff just south of Newcastle yesterday so that should have shown up.. I will do some work on Bigwood tonight.

https://www.trailforks.com/region/knockmany-forest-18709/

Im not sure what the deal is but there are trails at Knockmany Forest but for some reason they have all been hidden. Im waiting on a response from the local Admin to see what the deal is. If I dont get any joy I will just turn them all back on and wait for the fallout 🙂

using an App isn’t discovering anything.

What a daft thing to say. I've discovered tons of new riding using they Strava heatmap. Using it, you can see where the locals ride which tells you what's rideable and not a chossy mess. I've dragged my bike through enough overgrown dead end bogs to know that using the heatmap is far more productive. I often start with OS but all the good home-made trails aren't on them.

I’m with molgrips on this.

I mix and match all of it to get my artisan custom routes

gavstorie - most helpful person I’ve encountered on an online forum for years. Thanks

Thanks 🙂 but keep that to yourself.. I have a reputation to keep up 🙂 🙂

I did an experiment today:
Went out for a bit of a trail scouting session and used an OS map as a resource. I picked an area that had lots of gradient, quarries, close to a local town and minor roads, plus lots of woodland.

I found a few trails and spotted lots of potential, enough to go back again for some more exploring.

Back at home I looked up the area on Trailforks - it showed 6 trails there.
Strava showed 25, some of them were minor variations of the main ones.

Overall though, without actually scoping the place out beforehand I would not know what the actual place is like. Trail conditions, surface type, severity, variation, access etc. It was interesting to compare the three ways of finding trails. Felt great to "discover" them first hand. Even the dead-ends seemed to provide satisfaction in an odd way.

But I suppose if you are in a hurry and / or dont get OS maps, you can find some stuff via Strava. (once you filter out all the roadie bits)

what area Trimix?

using the heatmap is far more productive

It's also destroying trails through over use and causing issues with landowners and locals. Where it involves cheeky and unmanaged trails.

I can see all sides here. Personally, I prefer the OS map and investigate approach, the unexpected gems are part of the appeal for me. I can also see how someone with no time might find the instant gratification of the app-served ride appealing.

Overall though, apart from those lucky enough to live in a sane country with sane access laws, this is the most perceptive comment on the subject here I think:

for some reason, there is very little trail coverage in NI on trailforks. I’m not sure what the deal is with it but I suspect its to do with Land Access laws.

It’s also destroying trails through over use and causing issues with landowners and locals. Where it involves cheeky and unmanaged trails.

100%.

But the genie is out of the bottle and it's not going back in.

That's not a justification though. I am far, far more careful about who I show trails to, although in my area, most of the good cheek is now so heavily used, land use conflict is very much on the up.

There's a trail in my area that used to be a beautiful, bar wide piece of Singletrack on a footpath in a SSSI.

Since Strava, is grown to be a pretty wide Singletrack, with a butchered surface, and digging to put jumps in.

In response, the site has been signed up no bikes and gated off, but the signs and posts are being ripped up by riders and the incidence of shouty pointy access arguments is going up.

It’s also destroying trails through over use and causing issues with landowners and locals. Where it involves cheeky and unmanaged trails.

Which is why I prefer the trailforks model, which gives ownership to groups and land owners to manage, close and remove trails rather than the blunt too that heatmap is.

I agree, but we can't undo the internet.

It's also a generational thing. Some of us grew up before the internet and find it quite normal to search for trails without the instant result of just looking them up.

Northern Ireland
Rostrevor
Bally-ed
Bigwood
Donard
Tollymore
Castlewellan
Cavehill
Helens tower
Davagh
Knockmany
Lumpers
Ravensdale

It’s also a generational thing. Some of us grew up before the internet and find it quite normal to search for trails without the instant result of just looking them up.

I did, it was, I used to just ask people instead, especially when time was limited, I wasted a few great opportunities following nothing trails and missing some great ones (and worse wasting a lot of climbing for something way out of my league) in places I doubt I'll get back to.

Strava: Look at rides from people who you follow.Copy the GPX of the rides which look good.
Copy the GPX from the rides which they "said" were good.

Look at segments of good sections of trail. Look at the leaderboard and at rides that the top people have done that included those good segments. If it looks they've done a loop that includes a lot of quality trail then get it.

Books, websites, get GPX files. If from a book you need to plot it on a map then send the GPX to Garmin.

A Garmin such as a Garmin Edge plus the GPX's is essential.

Eventually you reach the stage where you know every trail that's worth riding in a 50 mile radius of your house and hardly ever go exploring anymore.

If you follow people on Strava you'll find a lot of people repeat the same rides over and over again because they're the best routes in the area. Copy the GPX from those and follow on Garmin.

ome of us grew up before the internet and find it quite normal to search for trails without the instant result of just looking them up

And some of us can do more than one thing and in fact have done many times.

The problem with just exploring physically is that it has a low hit rate (depending on where you are in the country) so you can burn a whole day doing nothing but discounting trails. This is fine if you have no other time pressures but for me as a family man being out for a whole day is not really fair on my wife and kids so when it does happen I need it to result in a good satisfying ride.

Thanks massively to everyone who replied here. I filled a trip to NI with new places and found them quickly which was great over just a few short days.

Did a mix of exploring as suggested too. Rostrevor DH3 And 4 found too which were both fun even though slippy

Cheers

OS map but I'm fortunate in that I have the whole country on digital at 1:25,000 then I just go and explore. Sometimes it works. Sometimes not. But it's all good fun....unless you are a millennial who wants guaranteed perfection with no effort.

Ok but by using an OS map you miss all the stuff that's not on them.

No one source of information will tell you all that exists. You will still miss stuff even if you rely on internet forums.

I like the reward of finding a trail from a large amount of effort put in. So using an OS map for me gives way more satisfaction than just following someone else's GPX file. Plus you will find stuff others have not recorded.

Look for contours. Look for close proximity to access and population. Look for ground that's not private, some area of conservation or farmland. Best spots are those odd nothing areas that are not ploughed up by farmers, owned by someone with a game keeper or of interest to the yoghurt knitting tree huggers.

Thats where you find the hidden gems, natural or pixie built.

No one source of information will tell you all that exists.

The Strava heat map will come pretty close.

I've covered just about every PROW in my local area, but there's miles of fab flowy singletrack all through the woods that you'd never find with a map. If it's been ridden enough to make a line, it's on the heat map. The heat map also gives you good insight into what trails on the map don't exist on the ground, or aren't worth following.

Look for contours. Look for close proximity to access and population. Look for ground that’s not private

Or.. just check the heat map!

I was adding stuff just south of Newcastle yesterday so that should have shown up.. I will do some work on Bigwood tonight.

https://www.trailforks.com/region/knockmany-forest-18709/

Im not sure what the deal is but there are trails at Knockmany Forest but for some reason they have all been hidden. Im waiting on a response from the local Admin to see what the deal is. If I dont get any joy I will just turn them all back on and wait for the fallout 🙂

The Forestry Service destroyed a lot of trails there not too long ago, that might explain it.