Follow the dog, Cannock Chase

'Follow the dog', Cannock Chase

With a couple of hours to spare on friday afternooon after visiting a couple of shops near the chase, I thought I'd nip around the trail and see what Welly the dog made of it all.

One of the great things about this trail is that there is very little fire road, pretty much as soon as you leave the Forest Centre buildings you are straight into real riding. There are plenty of challenging moments early on as you struggle to keep your handlebars out of the trees as you slalom through overlocking small trees.

Out of the baby trees and you're into more mature forest where I start to get a sense of deja vu. This could be Glentress with a whole series of easy jumps and berms now so much the hallmark of forest riding.

There's only one stiff bit of ascent on the trail and get to know its twists and turns and you could probably ride it in under an hour. I bet the locals know loads of canny tracks off to the side though (the whole of the Chase looks to be awash with good riding if you know where to look).

The Bikefax verdict - Loadsa fun on the trail, very muddy on a rainy day, enlist the help of a local to get the best out of riding in the area.

Trail beta
Start Birches Valley Forest Centre
Distance 10km
Time 1 - 2 hours
Grade Classic
Difficulty 3
Features Singletrack, narrow in trees, boardwalks
More info www.chasetrails.co.uk

Grizdale North Face

Sunshine and showers. It was the usual weather forecast for an autumn day, so we thought we'd mosey along to Grizedale forest and check out the new North Face Trail.

It took a while to get used to those cambered wiggly boardwalks on a damp day. I swear I thought that at any minute the wheels were going to slide out from under me, but half a dozen boards or so, I got used to it, only the dog seemed to be having a bit of trouble with them.

The trail starts with an interesting not too steep climb up through beech woods, winding sinuously through the trees, with plently of tight and not so tight switchbacks to keep you interested. After this singletrack is interspersed with fireroad, making for pleasant easy climbing. You sense that at the end of all this climbing there has got to be something good and after a particularly long section of fireroad in the middle, sure enough it is practically all descending singletrack from here.

The trail is none too long at just 16km, and has very little height gain, and hence no descents to steep or too hairy. Nethertheless there is plenty of tight technical trail to wow you.

The beta on the route.

Start Grizedale Visitor Centre

Length 17km

Ascent Not very much after the first section

Description: 9 sections of sinuous singletrack, boardwalks, berms, singletrack, switchbacks, rocks

Time 1 - 3 hours

Grade Red
Technical 3