Gisburn Forest Trail Development

Oli Hayes

Proposed Trail Maps At Bottom Of Page 3

I've just had a quick search on the site for info on the trail building going on at Gisburn forest, and to my surprise I didn't find any, so I thought I would start a thread and add some information to try and get some more volunteers involved.

So basically Gisburn forest is finally going to be getting the trails it deserves, there are blue(9km), red(20km) & black graded trails planned, its nice to know that Rowan Sorrell had some input in these trails, the trails will be built by both volunteer and by contractor.

Myself and four mates went up last Saturday to help out with the building work, this was our first time doing any volunteer work, so I was half expecting to be working on the blue trail and had visions of getting there and finding work being done on a track the width of a motorway, how wrong was I, they're working on the red trail which is all singletrack, most of it is only a foot wide!

It was a good day out, its always good to learn new track building techniques, it also refreshed my memory on just how hard work it is to put a trails in! I'll certainly be making the effort to be at every dig day from now on.

There has already been a good bit of trail added in up to now which will have taken a lot of hard work, so credit to those who've been working on it!

I've borrowed this next bit of info off Blackburn & Darwens Mountain Bikers Forum, this is where I found out that the trail building had begun so I hope they dont mind me sharing this info with you, after all the trail will benefit all bikers, especially those in the North West!

Our Vision:

By 2010, The Gisburn Forest Trail in Pennine Lancashire will be known, both nationally and internationally, as part of the Adrenaline Gateway -England’s Adrenaline Playground – the country’s premiere destination for people wanting to enjoy and appreciate athletic, leisure and cultural activity in the outdoors and at their own pace.

Our Mission:

To realise this Vision, we will provide every possible opportunity to participants of all levels and backgrounds – from beginners to the elite – to learn and to practice mountain biking as part of a larger adrenaline sports offer and to otherwise enjoy the widest possible range of outdoor athletic, leisure and cultural activities based in and around the Gisburn Forest.

COST TO DELIVER TRAILS

The total project cost estimated by Rowen Sorrel is £446,536.73
By splitting the Project into two phases and bringing in the Blue Loop first (which is predominantly Forest Road), the first phase of the Project would be nearer £180,000.
This figure may involve £120,000 in cash and the remainder in “kind” using donated material and labour.

So it all sounds promising for Gisburn, all it needs now is some more volunteers to get the work done so if anyone wants to get involved contact Martin Charlesworth - Martin.Charlesworth@lancashire.gov.uk he can give you any information that you need and any dig dates/meeting point etc.

The next dig days are:

Sunday 26th October
Saturday 8th November
Sunday 23rd November

Chaka Ping

It was all going so well until we got to... the Adrenaline Gateway -England’s Adrenaline Playground.

That aside though, it sounds great - and well done you for getting involved!

Oli Hayes

Yeh, I've got to admit, its always gonna be Gisburn Forest or Stocks Reservoir to me! But 'The Adrenaline Gateway' also got involved with the recently opened Lee Quarry, I haven't been there myself but a couple of my mates have and they said it was good and worth a visit.

I got this off Adrenaline Gateways home page,

What Is the Adrenaline Gateway?

Our goal is to reinvent Pennine Lancashire as England’s most exciting and accessible destination for the pursuit of outdoor lifestyle sports.

Pennine Lancashire is a unique destination; a spectacular and varied natural environment sprinkled with towns and villages full of individual character, each of which can be used as a hub for a variety of exciting activities.

We already offer a rich range of outdoor lifestyle sports activities that rival far more established destinations. Land, air and water are all utilised to make your heart beat a little faster. The activities cater for all skills and fitness levels, from the beginner to the committed extreme sports enthusiast.

We have a motorway, road and public transport infrastructure that means every activity is easily accessible within half an hour of entering Pennine Lancashire.

We need to ‘blow our own trumpet’ to let the world know we are here. We need to invest in our existing activities and new ones.

That is what the Adrenaline Gateway is for.

So basically they are trying to get things moving in our area which is good, after all were miles behind Scotland and Wales in terms of dedicated mtb trail centres.

Chaka Ping

Ah, I see. Adrenaline Gateway is a private company that's involved somehow?

I wrongly assumed that part of Lancs was trying to re-brand itself as 'The Adrenaline Gateway" in the same way that Warwickshire has "Shakespeare's County" on all it's signs.

Oli Hayes

Yeh they seem to be, I think they're the people who helped secure the funding but I could be wrong, either way its all good, as much as I love going to other trails all over the country, it'll be nice to not have to drive 2-3 hours to get to a trail or spend a fortune on hotels for a change

dave_hill

It's to be hoped that they improve the access and car-parking facilities too - otherwise the car park at Cocklet Hill is going to be swamped! It's bad enough now on a Sunday and the exisiting trails aren't that spectacular...

stumpyjon

I'm not quite sure what the Adrenaline Gateway is. I think it is a bit of a rebranding exercise for East Lancs. I know Rossendale BC have been involved. Before the Lee Quarry thing got off the ground they spent ages applying for lottery money that they didn't get etc.

I don't think it' properly commercial (if it is it's going to go bust because it's not very good when it comes to PR). There's been precious little on the web and nothing locally about Gisburn and I've been looking. Lee Quarry's not a bad start but again it's been so badly advertised and sign posted.

I also think they're trying to push all out door 'adrenaline activities from riding to horse, dry slope skiing to off road 4 x 4 stuff which is going to come unstuck at some point as in my experience the walkers, riders and equestrians generally aren't compatible with anything petrol powered.

On a more positive note I might see if I can get my backside up to Gisburn for one of the dig days. Did a lot of countryside voluntary work for the National Trust when I was younger (building paths, clearing trees etc.) and used to quite enjoy it even if I didn't get direct benefits from the work that was done. This sounds good, outdoors work and I get to reap the benefits afterwards, be rude not to really.

Anyone else up for it?

Father Faff

Black Pudding Gateway more like.

For the time being I'll stick t'Yorkshire Dales, Moors, Stainburn and Dalby!

stumpyjon

At least it's not a Yorkshire pudding Gateway, all hard and crusty on the outside and full of hot air on the inside

dave_hill

stumpyjon wrote:

At least it's not a Yorkshire pudding Gateway, all hard and crusty on the outside and full of hot air on the inside

Bit bland and not very interesting...

Oli Hayes

Your right in that is very little information about the project stumpyjon, thats the reason behind this thread, theres a bit of info on the Blackburn & Darwen Mountain Bikers forum, a page on the Bogtrotters site(there may be a lot more info on this site but i'm not a member so can't access their forum) plus it's mentioned on Singletractions forum.
The publicity certainly is needed though as from what I gathered at the dig day, the hours that a volunteer puts in is logged, the more hours volunteers put in the more money can be drawn from the funding to use on the scheme.

sparrowlegs78

it's the Blackburn and District bikers site its on lol.
Our club is doing a digging session later on in Nov as a club and others have been over to the site and say it's going to be good when it's done...much less of fire roads and much more single track.
Heres a linkypoo to the forest of Bowland site with a bit more info and who to contact if you want to go help with the digging. http://www.forestofbowland.com/cons_volunteering.asp
Cheers, Caz xxxxxx

Mancunianfightingcat

I've just heard a rumour of some events at Gisburn Forest next summer, maybe even a 24 hour race! Sounds great!

I went up there for a nosey last Friday, it's really coming along.

Oli Hayes

Bit of an update following yesterday's dig day,

I think there was around 10 people showed up to help with the trail (7 of these 10 were voluneers).

One of the volunteers was Bill from Blackburn & "District"(Thanks Sparrowlegs78!!) Mountain Bikers who I had spoken to on their forum, a real top bloke, he even came for a quick pint with us after we were done digging for the day!

We were working on a section of trail that had previously been dug out, so it was a day of barrowing stone down to form the base of the trail and then barrowing the gravel down for the top coat, the best thing was the stone was all going down to a corner which switched right back on itself, this will be bermed up nicely when its finished!

There was also a fair bit of tweaking going on and drainage being added to rectify where water and mud had started collecting on the trail, I admit I did next to nothing on this, I was more interested in working on the berm!

Nigel Pilling started to clear a run in for a jump over a stream, not sure how big this will be yet as neither the take off or landing has been started, the stream itself is propbably 3 foot wide, but the gap could be up to 10 foot depending on where the landing is built, I'll have to wait and see what Nigel has in mind on this one, there is an alternative line already in so there is an option for less experianced riders who don't fancy hitting it.

Martin Colledge was working on the wet marsh area below us, I really hope he puts a north shore ladder across this otherwise its going to be fun trying to stone that section up!

I had heard about the endurance race at the last dig day but unfortunately I cant tell you anymore as I know very little about it, hell i'm a smoker so its not something I could imagine myself taking part in!

Next dig day is on Saturday 8th November for all those interested!

Mancunianfightingcat

Cheers Oli,

I'd love to come and help but tend to work most weekends!

Do you know how long the finished trail will be? Gizzy Forest is really handy for me and it's alright when everywhere else is thick with mud, but at the minute there's just too much fireroad. I can't wait to have a proper trail so close!

Oli Hayes

The red track is supossed to be 22km and the blue will share some of this route as well, there was a colour coded map up on Sunday, this showed which sections were to be volunteer built and which were to be built by Contractor, I should really have had a look but didn't get round to it, I know that Bill had asked for a PDF of the map but to be honest its probably better that it doesn't surface on the internet, if it did its more than likely that it would end up with people riding the track before its finished, which would only make more work.

I'm hoping this thread may drum up a few more volunteers, Martin Collegde told me that there was only him working on the trail at the start, I think he also said the most volunteers they'd had was around 20 which is a good turnout, if this many people turned up to each session the trail would really start coming on. At the moment the dig days are fortnightly, but with it being winter I'd like to start going up weekly as would a couple of mates but we'll see what happens.

Oli Hayes

I got an email with a bit more info off Martin Colledge so thought I'd cut and paste it for all to see.

We're working towards a "red trail" circa 22km long and a "blue" trail of circa 9km. There will be some overlap between the two. These trails will comprise a mixture of fire road, existing single track and new single track. So far we have combination of grant offered by Sport England and cash contributions from partners that will allow us to build circa 6 - 7 kilometres of new single track bike trail.

We are optimistically working towards letting contracts to deliver this work by end March 2009. I'm not aware of a specific deadline to spend this money other than pledges that we have made to Sport England. We will do our very best to meet these pledges. At this stage I have no fear that we will lose any of the grant that has been offered.

Just so you understand how this part of the project is funded: Sport England have offered a grant equal to one third of the project value, a further third is cash from project partners, the final third is "in kind" value of donations of tools, materials and time. The time given by volunteers is critical to our success.

The grant and cash that we currently have will not build all that we want to do - it's a first phase only but will enable us to create viable new trails. We are still actively seeking more financial resources. The more cash / grant / volunteer time we gain the more fire road is replaced with new single track.

We have set a challenging target of accumulating £15,000 worth of volunteer time. By my estimate we have accrued in excess of £6k of this value over the last 3 months - creating circa 350 metres of new trail in the process. Brilliant!

If we can maintain this rate of progress, a kilometre of trail hand built by volunteers by the end of March 2009 will be a challenging but achievable target.

Oli Hayes

Been a while since I added anything to this thread,

I went up on Sunday to do some more building, the previous dig day just before Christmas had been cancelled due to snow on the fire roads and I'd missed the one before that as I was on an uplift at Bringewood.

Anyway, the floating section is finished and has settled nicely, as with most of the trail it will need to be looked at again, the idea at the moment is to blaze as much trail in as possible and then tweak any bits that need improving afterwards.

Ste and Martin Colledge changed the line to incorporate a bit more flow, originally there was a straight line to the next section but this has been adjusted and now snakes around the tree's.

I think on the next session there will be more digging done than anything else, the lads who were barrowing the stone and gravel did a great job and put a lot of trail down.

I'm personally really looking forward to getting to the next section now, this should be quite technical with off camber corners and a bit more gradient, but i'm guessing the digging could be more of a pain!

Something I had noticed was Cocklet Hill carpark was full as usual, I can't help wondering how many people who cycle in the forest and use that carpark actually know that the new trails are being built

Next dig day is Saturday 24th January.

stumpyjon

Might try and join you on the 24th, I had intended to get involved last year but ended up going in for the snip so heavy lifting was sort of a no no :oops: .

dave_hill

And you might have felt a bit odd at Cocklet hill... :oops: :shock:

Oli Hayes

I know weekends aren't brilliant for a lot of people but it would be great to see a huge group working away.

The main problem is getting the word out so people know about it, Gisburn has got so many visitors and really needs these new trails, just riding fireroads get a little boring! (Though as I've just entered the Mega Avalanche with five mates I think i'm going to have to start doing some night rides on them!)

I've mentioned putting a sign up on Cocklet Hill car park giving the dig day dates to Martin Charlesworth which would help, most of the people I speak to when i'm out have no idea that works have even started.

I had another quick lap on what's been done and its pretty good, i'm sure there is a lot more than 350m's of singletrack down. Its a little dark in places and some of the corners are a little sketchy but these issues will get sorted out in time.

stumpyjon, I don't no what to say to that, other than I can't blame you for not coming, I'm guessing you haven't been on the bike much either

stumpyjon

Back on at Christmas, normal service has been resumed .

Mancunianfightingcat

I went up last night for a nosey!

The new track is really twisty and narrow which I think is fantastic, however I'm a bit worried that it'll get ripped up by inexperienced riders skidding through the corners.

Can't wait for it to be finished! If I didn't work most weekends I'd love to help build some of it.

Oli Hayes

You could be right about inexperienced riders skidding, when I rode it after the digging session the other week it felt very twisty in places, not that thats a bad thing.

Some of the corners will probably need adjusting so you can hold your speed a little better and use the brakes a little less, there's definately one section which will definately cause a lot of people to brake hard, and like you say it won't take long for braking bumps to appear, I think it should be a case of making some of the berms a bit longer and a little higher.

Martin had asked for a bit of feedback on the course after we had rode it, both the good and bad points of the trail so far, I dont think there's many bad points, the main one is the lack of light which Martin already knows about.

Mancunianfightingcat

Oli Hayes wrote:

Martin had asked for a bit of feedback on the course after we had rode it, both the good and bad points of the trail so far, I dont think there's many bad points, the main one is the lack of light which Martin already knows about.

maybe he could strap some Tesco torches to the trees!

Oli Hayes

Think it would be better using some environmently friendly solar panel garden lights from a petrol station.............oh wait, nope there's not enough light in there to charge the damn things!

The other alternative is to let me loose with the chainsaw :twisted:

Oli Hayes

Went up to yesterdays dig day, there was around 12 volunteers turned up in total, a couple of these were new faces, one of which was stumpyjon, its always funny when someone introduces themselves by their forum name!

Anyway, the trail is now hardpacked as far as it can go for now, so the next digging session on Sunday 8th February will be purely digging, all those lovely roots to contend with................

Another bridge section was put in across a drainage ditch(before I arrived......late as always!) this looks great, the bridge builders sure have got these dialled!

We even managed to get a bit of a tabletop in(4-5ft), some people will easily be able to clear it and flat land on the next bit of trail, but if your a wheels on the ground type of person you can just roll it.

All in all things are really moving on the volunteer side of things.

If you have been up to Gisburn lately for a xc ride you may have noticed that there is some heavy machinery in the first quarry area(before the dh track area). These are there to crush 5000 tonne of stone for the contractor built side of the trail with some stone left over for the volunteer built trails.

I believe Martin Colledge said that the work starts on the contractor built side of the trails in the next week or so which is great!

stumpyjon

As Oli said I went up yesterday, had a really good time and managed to help build around 40m of trail (the bridge & table top took a bit longer).

If any of the rest of you have thought about lending a hand or are interrested in trial building / learning to build a trail it's great experience. As Martin, the guy running the dig days, pointed out, if you build the trails you can decide where the features go.

Have to say I was really impressed with the bit already done, really nice twisty downhill through the trees, it's going to be excellent when it's done.

Every hour of volunteer time counts double as they log the hours which helps to unlock extra funding. They've got some quite ambitious plans including the possibility of there being a cafe, bike wash etc. so it could develop into a full blown trail centre in time.

Only downside is that I ache today from the digging and barrowing in the stone but it was worth it.

grumsta

I will try and make it down for the build day.

What is actually rideable there at the moment? Don't want to jump the gun and ride stuff that's not ready. Never been before but thinking about a trip with the gf next weekend.

stumpyjon

It would be great if you could make it.

The existing red route is all in place (about 10 miles) but despite a few nice bits of singletrack most of it is fireroad. Still worth a quick spin but in the main not awe inspiring. There is I reckon a couple of hundred metres of volunteer route built but if you try riding it you will come to an abrupt halt in the swap Oli built yesterday . I reckon with a good head wind we'll break through to the next fire road on the next build day.

To be honest though I'm not even sure where the bit we're building fits in with the exsiting route as We came at from the fire roads.

stumpyjon

Another dig day on Sunday, anyone up for it. Should be close to breaking through to the next fireroad if we get a wiggle on so the latest section should be rideable soon. Apparently getting close to a kilometre of volunteer laid singletrack.

Hopefully the contractors will have started as well.