Lancashire

Adrenaline Gateway have developed two trail centres in Lancashire. Lee Quarry is simply awesome. It starts with a climb on doubletrack, then a sneaky right turn starts the fun. It has a huge variety of trail - berms, drop offs, technicla climbs etc and loads of trail made of rock slabs. There's some trials obstacles, including low-level skinny logs that you can fall off without hurting yourself and even a see saw. The black section is deserving of the grade - some steep drops to the side (I went over the handlebars and somersaulted about 10m downhill) and awkward moves - but we only found one large drop off that we couldn't ride (and had to slam on the brakes at the top). There's loads to try here, os even though there's only 5km of trail, you'll easily fill half a day playing! Quite weatherproof too. It's a trifle awkard to find (SE865212). Basically, in the Rossendale Valley, west of Bacup, look for the blue Kingfisher building. Take the turning on its west side, and follow to eventually find a gravel track up to some parking laybys. It's not signed, so don't expect any clues! But that does mean it's very quiet. I've heard they're planning on developing four further quarries in the area, so this could become a real hotspot - a nice alternative to the usual Forestry Commission formula.

Gisburn is their second project. There's 18km of trail here now. Some really imaginative bits of trail, with nice berms and technical rock bits. The highlight is a bit with absolutely enormous berms - how high up them dare you go? We went round for a second try..... The major downside is the mud. The surface underneath is mostly quite solid and rideable, but about half the trail is covered in a layer of wet mud, which doesn't help with grip. Looks to be some further trail development going on here too.