Follow the dog Cannock

npowell28

Hi all,

I'm new to off road biking and just trying to plan my spring/summer. I've been doing some stuff off road, bridle paths, Burton Dassett hills. Does anyone recommend the Follow the dog trail at Cannock Chase for such a newbie like me?

Thanks Guys/Gals

spudulike

Yep. It's a "red route" but it's an easy red. I did it as my first off-road ride.

Nodnol

Definately. anything that may be challenging for a begginer can easily be avoided via alternative paths.

fatblokefromwarwick

I've too been playing abit up Burton Dassett, good fun ain't it, especially down that big hill with the plateau on top :shock:

npowell28

Yeah the hills are nice, i just want to ride a trail though. I prefer to go from A to B rather than just round A. Have you been down the trail that is to the left of the Fox's Covert. It's gated but you can go down it. It's a right of way. It comes out opposite the junction to Knightcote.

xand_xand

hey chaps - where exacltly you guys based as im iclose to stratford...and would love to meet up for some easy ish trails........

saying that went up bredon hill last weekend nr Evesham..not that is and advanced trail my neighbour wanted to show me.....bloody i admit i was completely cream crackered afterwards...

50 minutes to climb, the most stunning views and 10 mins coming down flat out.....

If anyone fancies joining up with me sometime to try ti give us a shout.

npowell28

Yeah that sounds good. I'm just waiting for my new bike at the moment. My GT has been converted for road use. Just trying to get as many road miles as i can in to get my fitness up. Should be mid april ish depending on how long cyclescheme take with my new bike.

I've heard of that hill. How difficult was it?

npowell28

Oh, where am i you were asking. I'm literally at the bottom of Burton Dassett hills. Aparently theres some trails around edgehill area, now that's a basta** of a hill on the road so should be interesting on a trail. I've been up and down it on to road numerous times this week to try and build my fitness up. Where abouts are you?

xand_xand

hi pal

im live in small village nr stratford upon avon, but ive got me bike carrier on the car and looking to bomb about to the local hills and stuff...only just got back into MTB after giving up expensive gym membership over xmas...been out on the road 3 times a week just doing 5 mile loops.....like you...to buils up some fitness.

bredon hill - wow - it was pretty intense, but got a bit of everything, short road climb, narrow trails, open fields to climb, as i say about 55mins to climb but worth it for the views and the crack on the blast down.

Ive also got a cracking route which takes about 1hr and half to do....nr bidford on avon area.....

toasty

Ah, great to hear there are some more people in the area. Definitely keen to bump into some of you

I live about 15 minutes, on a bike, from the bottom of Burton Dassett. I used to do a route up there, through Avon Dassett, up Edge Hill, and back home through Farnborough and a few other villages.

I've had a brief explore of the trails on the top of Edge Hill but only really found them at the end of last year, given it's about 45 mins from home I haven't had chance to have a good explore. I know roughly where to look though and found some promising looking dirt tracks. The second British Summer Time hits I'll be out again most nights.

It's not the best area for mountain biking, there seems to be lots of random country roads to explore though. I found Oakley Wood last explore, I didn't see any bike related signs anywhere, but did see horse prints so went for an look around. There's a few nice villages and random bridleways hidden away if you can find them.

To the OP, you'll be fine in Cannock Chase I'd guess. The missus and myself go there almost every weekend, twice last weekend! It's more like a blue in difficulty, you see full families going around. Still good fun though and it's drying out a bit now.

coxy17

my son and i did cannock chase for the 1st time last sat,and it was one of our 1st time out mtb,and we found it excellent ridding,we were back there again to day,went round twice just love the chain slapper,after the rain in the wk there was few large puddles,but added to the fun,so your be fine there on your 1st mtb...today there was a family going round with two children one of the lads was 10,and the other was 3 and guess what he was on the back of his moms bike in a childs bike seat,you should of seen the little lads face has he went down the chain slapper,mad or what,so npowell28 get out there have fun........

npowell28

Oh i definately will as soon as Cyclescheme sort my bike out. Can't start proceedings until april though. My girlfriend says i'm like a kid in a sweetshop.

So do you have to pay to use the bike trails at Cannock, not bothered about paying but i was just wondering how they mainain them.

Hayze Dayz

You owe it your self!!!!

I went there few months back, as kind of novice, as I cycle for the Police while on patrol, but wanted more. So I went to the Dog and could not stop smiling as I went around, I used a bike from the hire shop ( Giant XTC4 09) and that was brill!!!

The chain slapper decent was the highlight, even when confronted by some lost kids who were riding up the wrong way looking for a radio, just glad I had disc brakes.

So go and enjoy and then do it again.

( its realy good as its free to use, and the car park is about £3 for the day, and bike hire is cheap too)

Mrs Toast

npowell28 wrote:

So do you have to pay to use the bike trails at Cannock, not bothered about paying but I was just wondering how they maintain them.

You don't have to pay. However, the trails are built and maintain by the guys of Chase Trails. You can support them, either by becoming a member, or by helping out on the trail building days, which are normally most Sundays, I believe.

Although they've received a wodge of cash from Giant sponsorship (which I think has mainly gone towards the new trail that they're building, don't quote me on that though), they're still very reliant on volunteers and donations. The combination of being a veritable oasis of mountain biking in a MTB-free desert, and being close to a fair few towns means that the trails suffer quite a bit of wear and tear. Most knowledgable would be Alex who posts on here, I believe he's fairly heavily involved in trail building.

npowell28

I've had a look on www.mountainbikerides.co.uk and a lot of people on there were using full sus bikes. I take it a hardtail is ok?

Mrs Toast

A hardtail is absolutely fine - I'm possibly one of the worst bikers on the Chase, and I still manage to get around on my little hardtail!

You've really got nothing to worry about - there are bits which are tricky or intimidating for beginners, particularly if you're not used to off-road cycling, but there's nothing that can't be rolled over, or walked past. Doing FtD well is probably more a matter of confidence rather than ability.

Just take it easy on your first lap to get to know what to expect from the route. The sections are relatively short, so there's plenty of opportunity to take a breather in between. If any of the timber features look beyond you, then leave them out until you've got a bit more confidence. You'll be fine!

npowell28

Went today. Had a really good time. Theres a lot i need to learn though. Crashed a couple of times.

Will go again soon.

toasty

Good to hear

Me and the Mrs (in the above post) still go every weekend pretty much without fail, occationally both days. It's quite an awkward bumpy, slow trail at the minute as the trail builders are a bit caught up adding Phase 2 (another, harder red lap), it does get much quicker and smoother with practice though.

If you fancy a drive Llandegla near Wrexham has a similar, easy-red type trail which might be worth a look. Bit swoopier and smoother, bit less variety.

If you see any of my below bikes going over Burton Dassett with a tall chap onboard feel free to say hi by the way I normally head over there a couple of times a week for a bit of exercise.

.blitz

What did you think about The Log ?

npowell28

.blitz wrote:

What did you think about The Log ?

Is that the log to the left as you start. Isn't that the black route. If thats the one your on about then i missed it out. It looked a bit too severe to me.

Funnily enough the hardest bit was getting off the footpath onto the track. Yes i mean the left hander after the bridge/dam thingy right at the start of the trail. Fell off on that twice. I just couldn't figure out how to do it. How lame is that.

Thanks for the comments Mr Toast i'll look out for you on the hills. I've got a red and white cube. If you see me shout me!

I'll defo be going to the Chase again. Had a right good time!

Mrs Toast

npowell28 wrote:

.blitz wrote:

Funnily enough the hardest bit was getting off the footpath onto the track. Yes i mean the left hander after the bridge/dam thingy right at the start of the trail. Fell off on that twice. I just couldn't figure out how to do it. How lame is that.

Ah, what I affectionately call 'The Rock'. I've never managed to ride it. Admittedly I've only ever tried it once, and I fell over and landed face-first in a patch of nettles...three days before Mr Toast's cousin's wedding, and a month or so before our own! Been a bit overly wary of it since then!

toasty

Funnily enough the hardest bit was getting off the footpath onto the track. Yes i mean the left hander after the bridge/dam thingy right at the start of the trail. Fell off on that twice. I just couldn't figure out how to do it. How lame is that.

Ah, it is a very silly place to start the track. There used to be 4-5 sections before it, this was then cut down to 2, both good fun though. Sadly they're getting repaired at the minute. That entire section after the rock is a bit stop-start, energy sapping. No fun at all I enjoy it more after the big hill, I'll often skip the start bits, certainly on second/third laps and just go straight to the hill climb.

I've seen lots of odd lines over those rocks, I go along the opposite side of the fire road and go straight on at it, you can come off the sloped rock right at the bottom of it.

xand_xand

Havng my first sesh' their this weekend..sunday by the looks of it and cant wait....
Any tips? Any thing to avoid / must do etc?

Or should I just get out there and learn it all for myself.


nb: Burton dassett sounds fun.....any trails at all or is it really coasting up and down the hills!

npowell28

Just go for it. I was on my own and there wern't many people about to copy so i just kind of went with it. I really enjoyed it. Love the bit through the Bracken overlooking the lakes, and the chain slapper is fantastic. Have a great time!

Oh don't forget to lock your bike up when you go for coffee. There's been a few thefts there recently.

.blitz

npowell28 wrote:

Is that the log to the left as you start. Isn't that the black route. If thats the one your on about then i missed it out. It looked a bit too severe to me.

I keep looking at it but I haven't ridden it yet.

npowell28 wrote:

Funnily enough the hardest bit was getting off the footpath onto the track. Yes i mean the left hander after the bridge/dam thingy right at the start of the trail.

Agreed. I've been tempted to re-arrange the rocks but thought better of it. I usually ride to FtD from home and pick up the trail towards the end, miss out the beginning and then carry on from section 6.

kneedown_ian

hi im new to the forum but i to agree , the chase is a very good starting point god im over the moon i found this forum for ages just thought it was a website .......................follow the dog love it , i still go riding @ the chase use it quite alot very good place to learn lots of new tricks sum good hard uphill sections aswell as sum very fast downhill sections , mixed up with a few jumps along the way and sum technical thru trees areas to very good get on it enjoy it dont look back

its only when im on tarmac i hurt myself lol to hard when u fall.

simon2names

Do any of you guys know where any of the 'secret' routes are? i keep hearing about the 'monkey' trail but am not sure if this is just part of the go-ape course!

Is it just a case of exploring or are there any handy little tips for where to find that extra bit?

Cheers,

Simon

Mrs Toast

simon2names wrote:

Do any of you guys know where any of the 'secret' routes are? i keep hearing about the 'monkey' trail but am not sure if this is just part of the go-ape course!

Is it just a case of exploring or are there any handy little tips for where to find that extra bit?

Cheers,

Simon

The Monkey Trail is indeed an (semi) unofficial trail - I think it's planned that part of it will be incorporated into the new red route that's being built (Phase II).

As for finding the mythical cheeky trails, it's a matter of doing one of the following:

1) Exploring

2) Going onto the regular's forum and joining up for a ride with the locals/regulars

3) Helping with the trail building on a Sunday, or a Big Build Day. In addition to knowing that you're helping maintain and build the trails, it's also a great way of getting to know people, getting to know the area, and there's normally a few people riding afterwards who have 'local knowledge'.

Generally people don't like to give out too much location information in forum posts, because the cheeky trails are a bit more delicate than the official stuff, plus you never know who might be reading (angry ramblers, guys on shit little motorbikes looking for new places to thrash...the FC, etc).

.blitz

simon2names wrote:

Do any of you guys know where any of the 'secret' routes are? i keep hearing about the 'monkey' trail but am not sure if this is just part of the go-ape course!

The Monkey isn't part of the Go Ape course. Without incurring the wrath of the Cannock Chase Fundamentalists I can't say too much about it other than it's worth finding

simon2names

cheers chaps. shall ask around next time i'm there.

npowell28

I can't beleive the rock thing is causing so much trouble for people I was a bit dubious about putting on here that i fell off it twice, for fear of being ridiculed. I feel so much better now!.

The other bit i chicken out on was a really steep slope/drop off about 5 foot high right at the end of one of the sections. It had wooden slats going horizontally across it. It followed 4 or 5 smaller drop off(which i didn't ride particularly well either).

I nearly S*** myself the first time i came up to it. I got off and walked around. The next time around i put my front wheel over then sat back down and went over.

Lol, what a sissy i am!