Traveling from Birmingham to Cannock Chase. I usually get off at Rugeley Town, but that involves a cycle ride of death (the roads are narrow and the drivers are mad). Is there a better train stop to get me inside Cannock Chase without close encounters with the Grim Reaper.

Thank you

Use the Heritage trail which runs up to Birches Valley from the centre of Rugeley. You then only need to battle the traffic for a short way along Horsefair, which while busy has always seemed quite manageable.

Other than that, I would have thought Hednesford would have been the closest station.

Edit…

Just thought, the end of the trail is closed, and has been for ages, so it’s been diverted through the playing fields instead. Just use the open gate into the playing field and head for the track up the side.

Why not just cycle up the A460 to where Marquis Drive crosses it and ride from there? I think there’s a path at the side of the road you could ride on if you don’t fancy the road ride. You could do either FTD or MT first whichever takes your fancy….Think I would do FTD first and finish with Monkey.

You could of course do this from Hednesford too

May head up there this weekend in the car – saves messing with trains 😆

Thanks chaps. Looking at Google and street view i’ll try Hednesford train station.

@Hammyuk I hope you get kidnapped by Honey Badgers

They let me go last time round – not enough peanut butter 😆

May try this later in the year.

molgrips – Member
May try this later in the year.

Make sure it’s crunchy….

What’s the mud like there?

Not too much mud when I went a week or 2 ago…just puddles mostly. Certainly a lot better than my local trails!

The Dog and the Monkey are wet but not really muddy, being mostly pebble/hardpack then they standing up pretty well.

Pretty much anything off-piste on the other hand is interesting… in a muddy, slippy, slidey sort of way!

Rode there for the last 3 weeks as local stuff is just bog in parts. It’s running fine. Holding up much better than a few years ago since a lot of it has been rearmoured.

Hednesford for sure!

Thanks Jamj1974 (young pup)

Should be intresting on a Gravel bike. Hope to leave some blood,tears and maybe some hair if the weekend looks dry

😆