Delamere Forest Review

steve100

Well went to delamee forest today after lots of people telling me how good it was.
We decided to do the XC loop so off we set.
The trail started simple enough there were no steep climbs or steep drops just lots of people getting in the way and allowing there dogs to run all over the place, nearly hit a few. After 30 mins we were half way round and by now covered in dog ???? (why people can't clean up after there dogs I don't know) Then we got to some interesting stuff there was the "tobogon run" which was quite enjoyable and then we crossed the road and headed to the skills area, the skils area is quite good fun, there are some good drops and jumps etc which you can have a laugh on, but we are more interested cross country off roading than jumps and stuff. Then we headed back to the car.

So to some Delamere forest up, well it has a big reputation (spl) (in cheshire anyway) as being a real good tough ride and well it isn't!!!!!! The ride around was nice, the area is very nice but it is let down by the many hundereds of people with dogs that crap everywhere. The skills area is good fun and must be great for the local kids but it is not worth traveling a great distance to.

Overall we had a decent ride that we enjoyed but we did feel a little disapointed as friends had hyped it up way above what it actually is, jacobs ladder and the like are in a different league which makes me feel that our friends were telling fibs :x when they said they had done jacobs ladder and delamere was nearly as difficult. We never came away with a sence of achievement.

Delamere is great for family bike rides and the kids, and for those of you who love jumps etc, but is certainly not a challenging cross country ride.

We will be going back though to do the "Go Ape" adventure trail that looks a right laugh.

homers_double

I expect that you stuck to basic trails, the decent XC isn't easy to find and the forestry comission haven't marked it in the same way as, say, Llandegla.

steve100

homers double wrote:

I expect that you stuck to basic trails, the decent XC isn't easy to find and the forestry comission haven't marked it in the same way as, say, Llandegla.

No we did the proper xc, which is well hidden and FC have tried to close a acouple of the tracks (I asume for logging purposes) the XC loop was about 12/13 miles in length and include all the skills areas. We just did not find it challenging enough and did not live up to the hype we had heard about it, at the end of the day though it is personal taste.

bigcolinp

If you had gone 6 months ago you would have ridden the northshore and downhill course as part of the XC loop, unfortuately both have now been removed by the FC.