The OS map showed a few paths that appeared to be fire tracks/private roads that appear to be going down the hill, as well as some patches of woodland that I hoped would have potential.
There is an obvious car park near the area, so I parked up and went for a wander.
Despite having Winter Hill looming in the background, the area was less appealing than the maps had led me to believe – the area was pretty much a plateau with valleys caused by quarrying. I followed the paths for a couple of miles, but on the most part they were short steep (30%) sections and then the paths flatten off. There were two which had technical corners in the steep sections, but the whole run can’t be more than 300m.
The wooded areas were pretty much flat and didn’t have any obvious paths that I could find.
The best part of the area is the road running from the car park down to the reservoir at the base of Anglezarke Moor. Whilst not in Lake District pass territory – it is about 1km of smooth tarmac at what I would guess is a 10% gradient – so not stupidly fast, although you would probably want a brake, because there are two blind corners – one of which is a hairpin.
View Freeride NW in a larger map
Overall, not a great spot, but if you were trying to spend a day in the Anglezarke/Winter Hill area, it is somewhere you could include.
On another note - I don’t know if its spots like Whinlatter or Dave spoiling me, or that I am focusing more on Downhill riding – but I seem to be disregarding more and more trails recently if they aren’t a 1 mile+ firetrack. Saying that, I loved a short singletrack through some woods that we rode in Macclesfield Forest, so perhaps I should start searching out more of those locally…
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