I’ve ridden there twice before, the last time back in 2012. Conveniently one of my wife’s friends sent her husband out for a ride with me whilst we were having a synchronised family Dorset long weekend and as I get bored very quickly riding bridleways I persuaded him that he wouldn’t die in the forest (despite him not having ridden any kind of bike for two years and not being a very experienced MTBer before then).
Armed with a map off here, Google maps and some vague memories we found a lot of good trails – the mix of sandy and loamy and rooty ground is great fun, very drifty and it’s steep enough to be fun but not so steep that it’s terrifying or all over too quickly. Met quite a few riders enjoying themselves, families, other singletrack scouts, a handful of suicidal freeriders and even HobNob off this forum who seemed a little confused to be recognised… The freeriders were trying a massive built drop to a very steep sandy landing, a good 15-20′ vertical – we quickly moved on in case our presence caused some bad decision making. We were pleased to bump into them a couple of hours later at the cars, all in one piece – he’d ridden it, sent it too far, bottomed out his forks, got bucked over the bars and landed fairly softly in the bushes – all caught on camera.
The in-laws have just bought a house nearby so I can see it becoming a regular riding spot for me – looking forward to progressing on the various drops and jumps there and getting quicker on the steeps. For such a small spot with not a lot of elevation there’s a fun variety of trails (though it’s more winch and plummet than many would like). Just my thing though! 🙂
