Hello!
I am going to the forest of Dean for a week soon to ride bikes and I'm staying near Coleford. I will be riding the dh trails a lot but I was wondering if anyone knows any good off piste stuff that isn't too secret or any other trails in the area. Cheers!
The FOD is a big area, with trails littered in every corner. However it’s very difficult to explain. Can I suggest you reach out to one of the local MTB guides. It’s well worth paying them to show you around. Alternatively try and link up with a local. Depending on when you are planning on riding I may be around, or look on trail forks to direct you to the approximate area and explore
There’s loads in the north of the forest above the bike centre, but most of it is pretty secret, in the sense that it isn’t marked anywhere, you basically ride the fire roads looking for tyre marks on the banks either side, with darker openings in the trees, and the trails themselves are barely noticeable among the trees, they just show as a lighter line in the fallen larch/fir needles, and occasional fallen branches used to mark turns.
I used to ride there with a mate, Sean White, who used to work in John’s Bikes in Bath; he knew the area intimately, and I I used to follow him, but several times I missed a corner, stopped and couldn’t see the route or Sean, although he was usually only about 50 metres away!
I certainly couldn’t find my way around on my own back then, I wouldn’t have a clue now!
Hi.
Any FofD "locals" around on Friday (11/10) and/or Sunday (13/10) to ride along, as we've blown our budget on WYE coaching, BPW and the Mojo series event.
PS- beer/pie and coffee/cake money still available 😉
Have a look at trailforks (the link i've done highlights Dowies, but just open the map up to see the trails around Coleford), it shows you a load of the 'off piste' stuff and where it starts, just out of Coleford you have the DH stuff like Y2K, Elephant Man and so on, if you close in on the map, you'll see the path that's pretty much the push up path to all of the trails.
Check out the stuff around Parkend as well, Dowies, Bluebells (or whatever they're called) and so on, although October could see some wet trails!
There's been a lot of forestry around the good spots lately, judging by my loop last Sunday. Many trails gone.
Always evolving I guess.
Trails off the west side of Staple Edge above Mallards Pike are pretty much screwed by pointlessly aggressive forestry work atm, though you could still find routes off the east and south side.
The trails to the east of Little Drybrook (Dowies and Shutcastle etc.) are where I’d put my effort now if I was visiting - they’re much easier to find too.
I maybe around on the 13th...will double check. What sort of distance do you want to do? What level of gnar do you want? How many of you are there?
