Initially, with some map and book studying, the destination was the Midlands' premier trail centre, Cannock Chase, located an accessible couple of hours from home up the M1 and M6. This was where I headed, parked up and rolled onto the trails.
Cannock Chase seems good, with classic trail centre style singletrack, and perhaps more trail features than at many. There are two trails, that link up and offer jumps, drops, and some really fun rollable obstscles as well as a few that require a bit more commitment. So, a fun set up, but with some major issues when I was there.
As you can see I managed to not fit together the whole longer trail, somehow having made a wrong turn. This seems slack as,in my opinion, trail centre routes should be very simple to follow and allow you to focus on the fun. There shouldn't really be any confusion on the directions as you're blasting round. That was disappointing enough and the experience was made even more irritating by the volume of mountain bikers using the centre. I'm all for people getting on bikes and enjoying the facilities, but it detracts from the fun as you get stuck behind groups, and have to keep thanking people for letting you by. Somehow it's not a fast thrash, but becomes a conveyor belt feel as you work round. So, I think it's worth a trip back, but perhaps mid-week in the winter to get the most from it. It's not many places that you can say that about.
In desperation for some real riding I then decided to make the extra 50 mile trip up to the Peak District for something to get the mountain bike theme park out of my system.
What followed was a classic ride over Jacobs Ladder, skirting Kinder Scout, looping back on the Pennine Bridleway and then over Rushup Edge and Mam Tor. This route isn't all ridable (not by me anyway) and will challenge you to the limit, climbing loose rocky tracks like the Ladder:
Blasting down similar broken trails, picking your way and using all the suspension.
The route has big rock steps to climb, slick-gritstone rock sections and the odd relaxing cruise over high bridleways. The views are amazing and your wheels will never hit tarmac from the moment you leave it in Edale, until you drop back onto the blacktop at the end of a real rollercoaster descent that takes in rock, deep ruts and grass from the top of Mam Tor. I rode everything from rock to peat, collected a bunch of cuts and bruises as well as an aching body to remember the loop by.
Suddenly there was a longer drive back to London than I expected, but it was worth it.
A
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