I have a rare Saturday morning off tomorrow so am heading off to the Forest of Dean. I’m torn between doing the Verderers or the 2015 Enduro trail.

I’ve never been to a trail centre before and I’m a bit slow and my wheels rarely leave the ground so will I die on the Verderers? I’m more used to rocky, muddy, bumpy natural stuff, so not blisteringly fast.

Or, I’m thinking Enduro route, but don’t want to spend half of my time getting lost or looking at the GPS. Is it easy to follow the trail? I have the track on the bar mounted GPS, btw.

Locals – help!

Best bet would be the Verderer’s which is signposted.

Cheers – may have to be if I can’t find the bleedin’ gps.

Sounds like youd enjoy the Freeminers trail , more natural than the paved Verders .

I’m just back from FoD. I think the Verderers is a brilliantly judged blue trail. Easy enough that anyone can get around but still fun if you aren’t such a beginner. It’s only about six miles, I’d suggest giving it a go first then Freeminers which is a bit more rooty, slightly more tricky and not much over a couple of miles. Being way marked they are dead easy to follow. After that do them again as they are both fun

Cheers. Verderers for sure, then maybe the Freeminers if I’m feeling brave. Any big drops or mad inclines on Freeminers? Had a look on you tube but can’t really tell. Hopefully I’ll be there before most people are up so I can pootle around a bit.

The Freeminers trail is great fun ‘now’ with the longer extension which takes in and uses some of the outer enduro loop from what I’ve read.Its inreased it length up to around 7 miles of techy woodland singletrack and well worth doing and a great addition to the place. 😀 We usually stop off and do Verderers,Freeminers and a wee play on the DHs if we have the beans on the way into Wales .

PS…. I only found all the new red loop by chance and what a nice surprise -it’s easy to miss it if you don’t know it’s been built ,it starts by a red signposted right turn on the the verderers,just before the little black/red descent choice you have on one of the early climbs.

Nothing you have to jump on either, you can ride them with your wheels firmly on the ground if you want but the jumps are also there if you fancy them. Freeminers has a specific jump section that has an alternative non jump line

I have a loop I rode tonight which is extended red into enduro more than happy to pinch off my strava. We divert the final bit of enduro and encorporate some off piste downhill stuff which works out to be about 12 miles and is a bloody great loop

Thanks for all the help everyone. Russyh, I’m probably one of the few who doesn’t use strava. Maybe I should start…
All packed and ready to go. Hooray!

Let us know if you did the Freeminer trail,only tried it once and that was after the Verderer’s at full tilt,found some of the climbing a tad much. 😳