Scouting Gisburn Forest

I’ve been wanting to check out Gisburn Forest for ages. Mainly ever since I saw this photo floating around online:

Gisburn Forest is one of the best mountain biking spots in the North-West and has had loads of money thrown at it recently to improve the trails.

Looking on an OS map; whilst hardly mountainous, it looked like the forest had some promise for some downhill sections and I just hoped that the best trails would be rideable on a board.

Unfortunately, the best trails are all situated on a the “Red Route” which runs throughout the forest – with the “Black Route” which has the killer berms (named Hully Gully) at the very top (see Gisburn Forest Trail guide). I say unfortunately because the car park is right at the bottom of the forest (marked on the Freeride NW map) and the “Red Route” is approx 20km long…so you aren’t going to be exploring on foot.

View Freeride NW in a larger map

I took my bike out and had a bit of an explore. Most of the forest is made up of your typical firetrack and there are trails running off into the forest. Down those trails are a mixture of all sorts of singletrack; super-tight downhills, northshore style courses, elevated platforms above streams, rocky ascents etc. It’s a whole mixed bag.

I took my bike on a few of the downhill ones and on the most part I think they would be unrideable on a board – at least if you wanted to enjoy yourself. You’d need a NoSno brake and be a good rider to get round them.

The firetracks however were very rideable – they varied from solid rock, to mini boulders, to gravel and everything in between. Most were relatively short however and the longest downhill stretch I found was only approx 0.5 miles (there was no phone signal out there so no 3G for the GPS).

I didn’t manage to get all the way up to the “Black Route” because it turns out I am incredibly unfit when it comes to riding 20km of singletrack – so my current summary is:

Its an awesome place for mountain biking but for boarding it is a bit out of the way and what is rideable isn’t that exciting. It took over an hour for me to get there from Preston – in which time I could have been in the south Lakes, which offers much more.

I’ll post an update when I’ve explored the forest more – but I’m not holding my breath.

Longridge Fell – The Test Track

Longride Fell (unsurprisingly enough…) is located just outside Longridge in Lancs. It’s a hill in the Bowland Forest and well known for being a pretty good mountainbiking spot near to Preston.

Its not an awesome site for mountainboarding as the forest roads are relatively short (0.5-1.0 miles) and the forest itself has a bad tendency for being waterlogged if its rained anytime in the past 6 months… BUT its only 30 mins from my house, making it the closest spot I’ve found so far that has some reliable trails. Oh and there is parking at the bottom of both sides of the Fell – so it isn’t too much of a trek up.

Because of that, I call this place my test track and will pop up there if I want to test out some changes to my rig, or if I only have a couple of hours to kill.

There are 3 main trails I have found that I stick to:

View Freeride NW in a larger map

West Trail

This is a short half mile section of forest road with a couple of corners. It’s good for a beginner to try out downhill riding as the conditions are very similar to the lakes (but smaller). A run will last less than a minute, but it only takes 5 mins to walk back up…

Watch out for walkers and dogs on the 90 degree right-hander...its a blind corner and there always seems to be someone in the track that you don’t see until the last minute – even when its quiet.

It is possible to get the road to run all the way from the top of the Fell which add maybe another quarter mile, but its pretty flat and you need the wind going the right way to get any momentum. Its easier to start from the tree stump (you’ll know it when you see it).

East Trail

Another short trail – but this is FUN! It is about half a mile of forest road, but this starts with a little roll in, into 7 very quick, very tight, technical corners (some real dog-legs) and then straight down to the car park. It’s kind of like Dave, but there aren’t any straights between corners.

This is another good trail to use for practicing corners – which I really need to do…my heel sides aren’t that great :(

Middle Trail

There are tons of little trails on the Fell that a lot of mountainbikers use. Unfortunately it is pine forest, so the trees tend to be very close together and the ground very soft from pine needles. This means that a lot of the biking trails aren’t great for boards.

One of the ones that isn’t too bad is the trail going straight from the trig point at the top of the Fell down to the farm in the middle. It is a pretty wide break in the trees with loads of roots and stumps to dodge and jump.

Grindleton Fell - Fail

I spent this morning scouting up at Grindleton Fell in Bowland Forest.

It was a bit of a dud. On the OS map it looked promising; a nice piece of woodland with a mile long single track descending about a hundred metres.

It didn’t start off well… I parked at a nearby quarry approx a mile from the top of the forest. According to the map (and nearby signs) there was a footpath that led across a mile of moorland to the forest. Unfortunately this path cut you right through the middle of a bog. I managed to skirt round the bog as much as possible – but it took an hour to even reach the forest, by which point I was knackered and soaked.

When I finally reached the forest, I found the track and it was a bust. Approx 18 inches wide, waterlogged mud, ankle breaking potholes and large boulders down its length. Annoyingly the gradient seemed nice and meant that it could be rideable in better conditions – but not today.

I decided to call it a day at that point. Annoyingly, whilst adding it to the Freeride NW map, I noticed an access road that leads directly to the forest – making the approach much easier.

Summary – probably not worth the hassle for just one track, but I might check it out again if there’s a drought and it completely dries out.

Public Service Announcement on bogs – they are very dangerous and should be avoided at all costs. It is better to walk miles round one than cutting through one. Bogs are like mossy/muddy quicksand. You can suddenly come across them in the middle of moorland and the depth can vary drastically – from a couple of inches deep (which is annoying and might end with you losing your shoe) to metres deep, which is deadly.

Whilst skirting round this one today I slipped and stepped out of place – my entire weight went on my right leg which sank to my thigh. Luckily it was only one leg which I was able to pull out. If it had been both legs, I wouldn’t have been able to. If you fall in one – don’t panic! Spread your weight out over the largest surface area by leaning back (or using your board for example) and try to roll yourself to an edge, where it is more solid and you can heave yourself out – don’t kick or struggle or you will only sink more.