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Hi guys,
Looking at swapping my usual Macclesfield forest ride with charity lane to Gradbach area, as I have seen some great rides/videos on youtube.
There are a couple of videos called 'Gradbach to forest wood' and 'Gradbach woods' that look like they have some quite nice technical riding down to a river and then across some nice open technical areas.
Can anyone tell me route directions to do this with a map or gpx plots etc?
Does anyone know if this is also known as the Wallabies Revenge route? Found a map on bikemaps around Gradbach but not sure if that covers the route in the videos?
Thanks for your help.
jswain - yeh the wallabies revenge route is pretty much it, stick to that and you'll do most of the video stuff, there are a few cheeky things around there, but not explaining them on here, plus it will be absolutly filthy up there now, worse than ever with the amount of rain!
defo to get you into the area the wallabies revenge route is the best thing, thats exactly what i used and then just explored the area, you can do that wallabeis revenge the opposite way around, so some of the vids on youtube will show it being done the opposite way to the wallabies route, but thats defo the best starting point
be warned though it will be amazingly filthy and wet up there
^yep, as above. Some great riding around there, some of which is really well drained and usable most of the year round. Unfortunately, some of it isn't 🙁
You can still put a reasonable route together avoiding the boggy bits so it's worth an explore, just be prepared for some damp and muck and possibly some bog-trotting. I suspect the ford won't be rideable at the moment; it wasn't when I was last up there a couple of weeks ago.
Last time I did that route a few years back in January, the singletrack down the side of the roaches was great but the path after that was horrendously muddy and it will certainly much worse given how wet its been recently.
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https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115034068966877703079/albums/5612784436025831569
We don't tend to ride it at this time of year unless there's a deep frost.
It's just too easy to damage it and it's not as much fun.
Late autumn roaches ridge rides are the stuff of legend though.
Our route is one of the few rides I do that actually feels like more downhill than up!
Thanks chaps, looks great fun (if its a bit dryer!) does the wallabies retreat take you down the roaches ridge? Sounds like I need to explore!
the section in the photo is a great track (watch out for walkers though), but as mentioned once you get to the bottom, its a complete bog fest, its bad enough even in the height of summer, cannot imagine just how awful it will be now
some great stuff around there, and its easy to link back into 3shires etc
as alexsimon though tend not to bother riding there at all in winter as its just too damaging and the tracks all really narrow, its great again when frozen, and in summer but as a rule of thumb we generally avoid it in winter