New trails at Gisburn

There has been a lot of work at Gisburn. More hardpack has been put into the exisiting trail which makes it less of a mud fest. Sometimes this is quite sublte, sometimes the trail has been totally restructured, for example on the climb the Sheep Hill (which is now a lot easier). I can't find an updated map, but basically there's a new bit of singletrack on the fireroad that you end up doing twice if you do the complete red. It's got loads of northshore on it but the most terrifying bits are avoidable.

More excitingly, there's a new downhill course which goes off the follows the fireroad climb up to Sheep's Hill back down again. It's wonderful, a good mix of tight bits, big berms and jumps at the end. Unfotunatly that outs you at the bottom of the climb again. It'll be interesting to see how they're planning this to fit in wiht the rest of the trails.

Gisburn downhill

Just realsied I forgot to mention before the Downhill tracks we found at Gisburn courtesy of Ed Oxley. To find them, instead of turning off up Sheep Hill, keep straight ahead and basically the trails go across you. They're not very mellow though - lots of steep roll ins and big jumps. Here are some photos and videos of Rich looking gnarly.

Adrenaline Gateway

We decided to head over to Lancashire and ride both the Adrenaline Gateway trails in one day. We started at Gisburn. Annoyingly, there was an enduro going on so we got constantly overtaken by lycra-clad masochists. However, they were only on the loop that's closest to the car park, so we had the best bit of the trail to ourselves. It was a lot drier than last time, and hence really good and varied - technical bits, berms etc. There's a lovely black loop at the furthest point which is great fun. And a really steep roll in too. Hully's Gully has had loads of gravel added - presumably to combat the mud problems in the winter. But the mus wasn';t that slippery, and the gravel is a bit slidy, so I'm not sure it's much better. Gareth got some photos:Steep roll in (optional) - I crashed at the bottom, d'oh.
The rest of the photos are from the optional little black loop which is good fun.





After a lazy pub lunch we headed to Lee Quarry. Our strategy of being there both late and during the England game paid off and we had it pretty much to ourselves. I'll only describe the new bits sience last time. There's a new bit of singletrack close to the beginning - nothign terribly radical, but good to have more trail as the one thing Lee Quarry did lack was length in its trails. The downhill runs are now open - I think the idea is they get progressively harder so these are fun to play on too - all berms and stuff - nothing silly. And the area at the bottom of the downhill runs has been finished and is good fun for riding round and roudn and playign on the skinny logs which are nice and friendly - I even managed to ride the see saw on my 4th attempt....

Lee Quarry

Made a return visit to Lee Quarry. Was a lot busier than last time! This worried us, as there's not a lot of trail to spread everyone out over. However, it seemed that everyone else was either a) a downhiller, there to session one section of berms or b) bimbling round the red route. So the awesome bits of the black route were really quiet. In fact, we didn't see anyone make it look "easy" all day.

Still great trail, more under development. The only problem is that as the area has been opened up, it is appealing to walkers as well. Adrenaline Gateway have taken a "low signage" approach (as opposed to the Forestry Commission!) which means there are a lot of walkers on the trails - even on the hardest bits of the black route which are almost impossible to stop on. Be warned!

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.