Taking my teenage son to Gisburn this Wednesday. He’s not a big biker but we’ve had good fun on the reds routes at Whinlatter and Dalby in the past. Could you recommend a couple of the trails please? Seen Hully Gully and the Hope Line which both look good on Youtube but I know sometimes the footage can be deceptive (i.e. its often harder than it looks).

Any info on a good place to park would be a big help – thanks.

Two main carparks – £3 all day. Money goes back into the trails

It’s basically a big figure 8 loop with the hope line running parallel to the climb between the lower and upper loops

Follow the signs – you can’t go wrong. It’s great fun

If he can ride everything at Whinlatter with confidence, he’ll be fine at Gisburn. A couple of spots feel a bit intimidating, but there’s nothing too hard.

Agreed – I’m not a strong MTBer and I love Gisburn – there over Easter in fact

Ace, that’s what I wanted to hear – cant wait now.

£3? – blimey that’s a bargain after the £7 at Dalby! Seriously I don’t mind paying either if it goes back into the trails. £7 aint a lot to pay for a good days biking.

Is the Hope line a ‘Red’ grade? From the footage it looks great but I’m just aware that drops etc look a lot bigger in real life than on helmet cam…

the hope line has no drops, if you don’t want there to be, you can ride around, they are only a foot or so but onto a transition, so by the time you land it could be closer to 2ft

Hope Line is all rollable – I’ve been down it on my CX bike.
Gisburn is nice, it mostly flows pretty well (bar one very bumpy bit), it’s well drained, nicely sheltered in the woods and there are short cuts back to the car park if necessary.

All the Black bits of trail are optional extras and even Hully Gully has a red route alternative.

It’s about an 11 mile loop so depending on your speed/fitness/faffing time I’d factor in about 3hrs to potter round and enjoy it.

Thanks all. Are there any trail maps available?

http://www.gisburnbiketrails.com/trail-info

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/Gisburn-Forest-map-web.pdf/$FILE/Gisburn-Forest-map-web.pdf