Can I have some recommendations on good off road rides to do with the kids in the vicinity of Manchester. They’re 4 and 6. I’ve put some notes on the following to give an idea what we’re after:

Minortaur at CyB: Really loved it but too far to drive for a day

Afon at CyB: Really good.

Blue at ‘degla: Quite good but a lot of uphill for the wean.

Green at ‘degla: For some reason the start and end of the green is one of the few bits of wide path that they haven’t smoothed out. So not much fun on 14″ wheels.

Monsal Trail: Really good but we’re looking for something a bit more technical.

Trans Penine Trail in Alti: Ok, local. but a bit flat.

Tatton Park: Good playground at the end but quite short.

Family Route at Grizedale: Far too hilly.

Gisburn: Is there a family route there, and will it involve being flattened by people on the bigger routes?

Any suggestions?

cheers

Go ride around at Dovestones reservoir in Saddleworth.

there’s a blue route at gisburn that’ll b great. closer to home there are trails i Phillips park, home of Hit The North

Delamere?

Had a quick search for Gisburn Blue and the first result was someone saying to watch out for faster riders. It seems to share the red for most of the way.
I seem to remember a post on here a while back when someone was lambasting kids for being in the way on Gisburn trails.

Any thoughts on whether it’ll just be a stressful/dangerous experience doing Gisburn Blue?

Delamere, of course. That’s quite good fun. I think after the Minortaur we’re sort of spoiled and I’m hoping for some singletrack, but being realistic the intersection between proper singletrack and routes that you can do on a 14″ wheel is pretty small.

So maybe Delamere is a plan.

Yes, the blue does share a lot of trail with the red – the red is longer of course, but a large part of the homeward section of “red” is actually blue.

however arseholes who blast past kids on trail are arseholes. It’s a blue trail, and the person in front has right of way.

I did the Gisburn blue yesterday with my lad and the people we saw were perfectly freindly and encouraging to a young un. We moved over when we where aware of traffic and it was all smiles.

There is a lot of construction going on, and there was more issues with tippers flying down the fireroads at high speed.

i took my 5 year old to Sherwood pines this week, that was good. Bit of a drive for you from Manc though

Gisburn is the perfect ride for kids that age. The blue doesn’t contain any big climbs, but is nicely undulating through the woods! There are always plenty of young kids doing it too so they won’t get intimidated by the storm troopers. There are also short, tamer sections of singletrack on the red, if they fancy a crack at that too

Also…. Lee quarry is ok if you just want to go and have a play. My two ( 7 & 5) love hooning around the tamer stuff lower down. We went when one of the Brownbacks races had just finished. The atmosphere was great and everyone was friendly and encouraging!

Rivington is good for kids. They have a Go Ape there as well, though yours may be a bit young? Gets mighty busy when the sun comes out.