righto, so i’ve lived in/near chorlton for 7 years or so and i know that the water park/mersey valley area is a bit (well, a LOT) flat and boring but i’ve heard rumour of there being some jumps near the water park for a while now and last night i spotted a video benji haworth had uploaded of said jumps! so… where are they please?
i want to go and play on them a bit; i’m pretty certain they aren’t private trails or anything (and i’m quite happy to help maintain them if need be)… so does anyone know where exactly they are? well, i guess ben does since he’s there filming them on the vid!
go on, share the (albeit limited) wealth please…

iirc aren’t there some near the abondoned school just out of the woods?

Been a while since I’ve been down that way and haven’t seen the video so I might have got the wrong ones. They didn’t look that impressive.

i dunno, i’ve not really looked over by the school. on the video these jumps aren’t massive or anything but i need to learn and they look like they’d be okay for that to be honest…

If they’re where I think they are, then they’re easy enough to find.

Ride down the Chorlton bank to the Jackson’s bridge. Just before the bridge on the right, you ought to see a little path heading down through the grass and bushes. Follow it down there, through the trees, and find a little figure of 8 jump track with a couple of sets of doubles. Looks like a BMX or jump bike would work better than a regular MTB.

Of course, given that I haven’t been down there for ages, I could be quite wrong.

ourmaninthenorth – yep, they’re the ones I’m thinking of too

ah yeah i know where you mean. i had no idea they were in there!

Is that anywhere near Wheelie World?

no, that’s no longer there (cosgrove hall animation shut down a few months ago, sadly)…

i think i maybe next to that massive substation plant just over the river from the water park. i happened upon it once a while back when i worked in sale, not much there at the time but is was over a year ago.

Mrchrispy – that’s Chorlton Mountain, the highest point in the area. It was 1st conquered in 1953, by a kitten.

Not obvious where the jumps are from the mersey path, but ourmaninthenorth’s directions are right. It gets v muddy down there.

some pics here:
http://twistedwheels.myfreeforum.org/Ees_are_good_about235.html

Where’s this video then?

I must ride past them almost every day oblivious – I’ll have to check em out today

i know about the dead short dh “trails” with the little stepdown jumps on the side of chorlton mountain. they’re amusing for a few minutes.

the vid is on benji’s vimeo page, i think. can’t get to it from work though, sorry.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/2009/04/benjis-bandito-minty-fresh/

There’s lots of fun little snickets of singletrack in the water park too. Fun place to rip around for an hour or so after work.

No offence to any ‘fans’ of the waterpark….but WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO GO ANYWHERE NEAR IT? Its disgusting, foul flowing water, various sewage outlets, barely concealed tipped rubbish and I’m guessing here but was the area once a massive landfill?

Awful place.

But it’s home….

I repeat, there’s lots of fun little snickets of singletrack in the water park.

Sorry, calmed down now. I know where that is- next to the ickle bridge- it gets water logged in parts?

Hora do they go because there is no chance of bumping into you? 😉

yup. swamp like at times

hora, come over there tomorrow and bring bingo along. we can use him to soak up some of the puddles.

In a nice way its reclaimed land with views overhead of large power pylons, massive tower blocks on the horizon and illegally fly-tipped rubbish. Regularly dog owners are warned not to let their dogs swim in the mersey itself (one local dog had to have one of its eyes removed due to the algae/infection)… Next to the powerplant(?) it overflows gawd knows what, theres regularly old mattresses dumped there and strewn with rubbish. I’d rather go abit further out into countryside instead of urban squalor!

well i’ll be careful not to ride into the mersey itself then.
this would be the same horrendously polluted mersey that has seen otters there recently, and runs through several important Local Nature Reserves in the chorlton area, right?
i’d say that’s pretty good for “urban squalor”…

The same, last summer they had the warning signs up along the Mersey near Jacksons boat (not the waterpark itself).

It ain’t the peak district for sure, but it’s a great asset to have on the edge of the city

Agree, popular with joggers, horse riders and dog walkers 😀