Cannock Chase - Monkey trail opens this saturday

Alex

Phase 2 of the cross country trails will be opened in a launch event on Saturday 17th April.

We'll have the event running from Birches Valley where the Leisure Trails will also be re-launched. The event itself is being finalised but our trail sponsors Giant will be running a demo day also.

This will be the first chance to ride the full Monkey Trail, Our new 7 miles red grade trail. It's been 2 years and £250,000 in the making has consumed over a thousand cups of tea, thousands of volunteer hours and about 100t of gritstone.

More details as we get them will be posted here and on the midlands mtb forum and Chasetrails.blogspot.com as some kind person hacked and destroyed the Chasetrails website's host last night.


Launch day programme of events – 17th April 2010.

10.30 - Presentation and official opening of the
Monkey Trail.

11.15 - Beginners basic skills session & Intermediate skills session

11.30 – Guided Ladies MTB amble

13.00 - Beginners basic skills session & Intermediate skills session

15.00 - Guided Family Ride & Beginners basic skills session & Intermediate skills session

kangaroo

ooooooooooooooooooooooooh yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
ill be there been looking forward to this for ages

Oldskool_Paul

Yeah me too!

Even have an excuse as my girlfriend is helping her mate out on the Cannock AONB stand

Rude not to go play on the trails

Bengdogg

Just been out and done a lap of this today, It's really a huge leap in quality and fun over the Dog, some great descents and tasty climbs, It completely exceeded what I expected and had become used to from the chase

guuuch

+ 1.
Just done a couple of laps, FTD and MT together have become a proper destination worth traveling over an hour for.
Eveyone I saw finishing the Monkey trail had huge smiles.
BIG THANKS to Chase trails guys, Forestry com. and all the other folks who have worked to put it all together, thanks again.

sarkmeister

Definitely looking forward to giving this a try. Will probably be down there one evening next week if my new bike arrives.

Oldskool_Paul

Good times

Lucky me even ended up in the middle of the ladies ride lol

The Northern Monkey

so... is it worth a 2hr drive?

wouldnt mind somewhere else to go play

Oldskool_Paul

It's definitely more worth it now! It's entertaining enough to do two laps for sure to make a decent length ride (I think a full lap is 13 miles)

If you like fun singletrack then it's worth it.

kangaroo

that is one nice trail

some of the peoples comments were
thats as good as anywhere in the country
and awsome

those were the ones i heard anyway

i think its one of the best trails ive ever ridden

sniper68

kangaroo wrote:

that is one nice trai

i think its one of the best trails ive ever ridden

Compared to where/what?

Better than the Welsh trails?

Better than the 7Stanes?

Better than the other poor English TCs?

Or just better than FTD?

kangaroo

ive dont have a lot of places to compare it to, mainly llandegla and the wild trials of cannock chase
im not compareing it to ftd, theres not really much comparison there, though the new end to ftd is cracking

superhoshi

rode the full monkey/dog combo today and am impressed . the new stuff reminds me of llandegla and whinlatter in equal measures, it feels a lot more contemporary and in line with other state-of-the art trails than the old ftd stuff (which i still do like).
the two big descents on the monkey loop were especially awesome, some jumps on there that just invite you to take off big time!

there's maybe a bit much of steep switchback climbing going on though - the bit right after crossing the railway tracks especially, nothing wrong with a good fireroad climb in my opinion, at least gets you up the hill quickly.

the most fun bit for me though was the new final section on the follow the dog - it's long, it has some combinations of bermed fast corners that made me laugh out loud while blasting through and the last few jumps are just perfect. i have no reason to drive to trail centres in wales on the weekend now anymore

congrats to everyone involved in building this!

Bengdogg

I would say it's comparable Llandeglla and even though its red graded I would say some of the sections are more technical than some black runs I have done. The new trails make very good use of hills which are a lot smaller than welsh trails and they have a great flow to them. It's a really good lap now rather than the dog which was under an hours riding for pretty much anyone, and doing 2 laps or mixing it up with some off piste routes would make a good hard morning on the bike. There are changes to follow the dog also within the final sections which make the Dog a far greater blast I also think night riding this trail would be very good. Gpx file here for those who need from my lap yesterday http://rapidshare.com/files/377229799/T ... y.gpx.html

Here's a kml for google earth viewing also http://rapidshare.com/files/377304159/T ... y.kml.html
And another link to show elevation etc http://www.endomondo.com/workouts?w=tBunV2lLJTQ

Also not my video but have a nose at this footage of the 1st few sections to get an idea http://vimeo.com/11009818

shinobishoryuken

Did the monkey trail yesterday as extension from follow the dog and was blown away by the fun I had- best riding experience I've had so far in 2 yrs, and I've been all over the peaks, Wales and Scottish highlands!

Absolute perfect day- though think the sunny warm weather helped!

Tried a Giant Anthem X2 out for a second lap and the new end section was awesome at high speed!

I'm going to be spending most of my wkends on this trail from now on!

For a trail centre ride it's currently unbeatable!

Bengdogg

shinobishoryuken wrote:

For a trail centre ride it's currently unbeatable!

I know! And I live under a mile from the chase, it takes me less than 10 mins to get to the start of the trail riding from my house How happy am I as petrol prices go through the roof. I can't afford 120 miles each way trips to coedy this is just what the midlands needs

Now if we can make it a local trail for local people only :twisted: :twisted: Gerroff my laand

Also I have to moan about how many people I saw riding without lids on yesterday, I also saw a few crashes and had a small spill myself. ride safe mates 8)

coolboarder

A few questions guys,

Im so looking forward to riding this new mt trail but would you guys say its as flowing as ftd or is there a lot of technical foot dabbing areas?

I was on ftd on Friday and had a great ride but this new finish its got, did it only open on Saturday? I seem to remember just re joining the family trail back to the centre.

Any one know when the closed sections of ftd will be opening?


Ta Rob.

Bengdogg

Ftd is fully open the whole loops is open, re foot dabbings I dabbed twice on 1 switch back on a climb and once when I was loosing my bike on root. I also dabbed with my hand and knee when I crashed


On Friday a lot of closures were still in place, On saturday morning they opened everything just before the opening

Almightydutch

Been up there today with a few mates, some had to go early but there we go.
They missed the new stuff over the railway crossing which sucks, for them,haha!!
Some epic descents and some leg sappin switchback climbing but its well worth the effot.
The new ending all the way down from Tackeroo campsite is top notch. Had to do that and the sweet section before crossing back over the railway twice.
Makes the original FTD technical bits slow and boring as the speed you can carry on the last part is is almost perfect.
Massive berms that twist and turn down one bit, like being in a waterslide, it was awesome the lean angle you can carry, it feels like your horizontal.
So proud to live virtually on the chase. Life today was sweet.

Oldskool_Paul

I can see a few sections being closed in the near future as they're getting very cut up.

Shame really, must get out and help the guys with the maintenence/building

All in all I think it's great, went yesterday and been out again today, can't wait to get out after work when it's quiet. Work in Rugeley so really easy to nip up there.

coolboarder

Thats a shame if its getting cut up already. Sadly i cant get over to hep with maintenance so gladly pay the 3 quid to park.

The Northern Monkey

Whats the terrain like? Cannock seems fairly flat on google maps!

coolboarder

Ive only just started using their singe track. Its not as rugged as Wales but theres plenty of hills go at and some good down hlls. The positive posts earlier in this thread say it all really.


Rob

Oldskool_Paul

It's not particularlly high up but the hills are steep especially where the Monkey has been built, you'll get a good workout from it!

metareal

bigbenj_08 wrote:

so... is it worth a 2hr drive?

wouldnt mind somewhere else to go play

Yes definately!! I drove from Cambridge on Saturday and would say it is definately worth the trip.

Great trail, physically demanding and technical in parts.

I might just do it again next weekend!

Terryg

I did the new loop yesterday with my mate and have to say the trail builders have done an excellent job!!. I only live 10 miles from the chase and tend to go there every couple of weeks or so..

The new Monkey section is superb, technical climbing, tight switchbacks and G rated downhills. I have ridden most Welsh trails and have to agree it rivals most.

I know where I will be over the next few weekends..

TG

trip

Just done my first lap tonight and thought it was fantastic. some of the switchbacks on the climbs are evil to try and get round, the descents are great.

Only a few things annoyed me, the 'original' monkey trail was cut short, would have liked to have ridden that to the bottom or to have seen the downhill extended right to the bottom of the valley. The other one was the steep fireroad downhill with the left hand corner at that brings you out in the clearing. Just seems like a waste of a good hill, especially when there are already singletracks going down the hill which could have been used!

Cps

trip wrote:

The other one was the steep fireroad downhill with the left hand corner at that brings you out in the clearing. Just seems like a waste of a good hill, especially when there are already singletracks going down the hill which could have been used!

Thats just temp!

another 2k section apparently is WIP !!!

Alex

The original monkey is indeed cut short as the old bit is in the process of receiving 50 tonnes of armouring. It got too dangerous to do it in the snow, so it's a summer opening job. It'll be a black graded section.

The fireroad descent is also temporary. There's 2km of lovely flowy descending singletrack (Mad Hatter) and two northshore bridges (Absinthe) to open this summer, just as soon as it's all decked and signed off. We lost some build days up there due to the weather so it got put back and the fireroad route set up.

They'll both be awesome additions to the route when they're ready. Just going to be a short while before they are.

npowell28

Sounds like good stuff. I've done follow the dog quite a few times but i'd still class myself as a novice. Is the MT going to be suitable for me and my hardtail. Not overly sure about the jumps bit.

trip

Alex wrote:

The original monkey is indeed cut short as the old bit is in the process of receiving 50 tonnes of armouring. It got too dangerous to do it in the snow, so it's a summer opening job. It'll be a black graded section.

The fireroad descent is also temporary. There's 2km of lovely flowy descending singletrack (Mad Hatter) and two northshore bridges (Absinthe) to open this summer, just as soon as it's all decked and signed off. We lost some build days up there due to the weather so it got put back and the fireroad route set up.

They'll both be awesome additions to the route when they're ready. Just going to be a short while before they are.

Just what i was hoping to hear!