First up, the official QECP (Queen Elizabeth Country Park) trails – Red and Blue – are open and unaffected by this PSA…

But for those of you who have been ‘testing’ trails in the Head Down area (200m etc) please be aware that Head Down is not an official part of the QE trails, and that this weekend (11th/12th May) it is CLOSED to everyone as it is being used for an Archery contest. It’s not a stand and shoot at targets contest either – this is walk in the woods and shoot at stuff.

So please KEEP OUT… if you ride in Head Down this weekend you may get shot, and worse still we may lose all MTB access to this area of QECP.

Cheers Guys

Thanks Scott, although I have no idea which part of QECP Head Down is in!

Thanks Scott, although I have no idea which part of QECP Head Down is in!

http://binged.it/11SByzG

Stay in the Park! Don’t cross New Barn Lane (which is the road you cross as you leave the Park on the SDW heading East). There should be warning signs up on all entrances to Head Down I think, so if you see one take heed or you may end up like this:

Stay in the Park! Don’t cross New Barn Lane (which is the road you cross as you leave the Park on the SDW heading East). There should be signs up on all entrances to Head Down I think.

But you will be fine on the SDW 😉

Eew ek 😯

Thanks for erm “heads up” 😆

( see what I did there, did ya? )

Point(s) taken.

Aaah, saw those woods from the train a few times, thought they had potential.
Are these trails just cheeky or full on naughty? Or do we have permission to be in there normally?

Aaah, saw those woods from the train a few times, thought they had potential.
Are these trails just cheeky or full on naughty? Or do we have permission to be in there normally?

No bikes are on head down is the official line. But I’m there tonight “Testing” out a trail for one of our events. Hope the archers aren’t doing the same!!!

Ok, will stay away.

Thank you Scott! 🙂

I’m currently sat in the carpark, waiting for the rain to bugger off 🙁

Good arrows, let’s see what you could ‘ave won!

I still haven’t managed to find the start of 200m!

I’ve been to the top crest of the fire road at the top of Head Down and seen a few of the other trails but not 200m.

Come to a dig day then you’ll see 😉

I went over to that area a couple of years ago to do some “testing” and see what all the fuss was about. When I went around a corner and came across a wooden fox then a 6ft wooden bear I thought either I’d either stumbled upon a freaky ass trail built by people high on drugs or something pretty **** up was going on! As I exited the area I clocked a sign I’d missed on the way in saying there was a archery competition on.

This is what happened to the last lot of riders to ignore the archery signs:

I used to be a mountain biker like you, then I took an arrow to the knee…

I was up there last night. There are signs at the entrance to the woodland and at the trail heads.

Email i got today from the park manager:
the weekends archery competition went well with 90 odd archers on each day. See blog. When I was up there on the Saturday two cyclists appeared right in the middle of the circuit and caused small chaos. I have an image which I will shoot across.In the end all resolved but a pain.
The organisers did mantion however that they appreciated the message on your site so thanks for that.