Never been and might go there on Saturday for a few hours, what’s good for a fun, easy pedal with the emphasis on downhills and singletrack?

Ant tips gratefully accepted…ta!

Its ok, would not drive for more than an hour for it or ride past the Peak to get there, go and give it a try

Try and get a mix of natural and dog/monkey if you can

Do the monkey trail, good fun overall, enough singletrack to keep you on your toes-inc climbs. Expect it to be busy on Saturday, esp if weathers good, was last week when I went.

I am going on Saturday…against the above advice will be driving 2 hours to get there. Thing is I am not driving so its mate choice. If it was me I would be heading oop north to drive the same time to go to Cut Gate.

Ho-Hum.

Cannock? nothing really there, not worth the travel, 😈

yep there’s no singletrack or any decent stuff off piste at all, stick to the monkey or don’t come at all. 😉

If you ride Follow The Dog you are usually less than 200 metres away from a great bit of natural singletrack.

The Monkey is well worth a go.

The most enjoyable stuff is kept locked away in a box at weekends.

Cannocks crap your better of going to the Peaks, it’s only got FtD and nothing else.

its good fun

I rode the Monkey last Sunday and it was riding really well. The trail has bedded in nicely and is worth the trip, especially if you haven’t ridden it before! 🙂

Everybody being as helpful/obtuse as ever I see!

I think its well worth a couple of hrs in the car (especially since the Monkey Trail opened) it makes a pleasant change from the peak district IMO. If its your first time don’t worry about finding the cheeky and just do Follow the dog/Monkey trail and Im sure you’ll enjoy yourselves. It’s basically woodsy singletrack trail with a couple of slightly more downhill orientated bits on the Monkey Trail which seems to have more gradient the FTD. You’ll find some nice flowing bits, berms, few jumps and rollers, some small rock features and loads of over biked folk having fun!

Set off on the follow the dog, which starts near the bike shop, the Monkey trail starts at a mid section fork in the trail 1 section after a long fire road climb.

We usually get there fairly early (as it gets busy) and do the FTD/Monkey, get back to the main centre have a brew and then go and do it again the afternoon. enjoy

obtuse

LOL someone been watching the Shawshank Redemption 😉

Cannocks crap your better of going to the Peaks, it’s only got FtD and nothing else.

Ok we get it. There is loads of stuff off piste. Now either offer to show it or shhh 😉

Just literally go and explore, new stuff popping up all the time.

a “Cannock” is the old scottish word used to describe a small round hat with a propellor on the top, an example would be:
“washtat oun yrr heed?”
“ayes is ttht zom bonney wee cannok ore waht?”

Don’t forget £3 change for the parking by the way

the fallguy has the fairest description of the Chase.

There are miles of unofficial singletrack as I suspect there is at pretty much every other riding spot in the world but at least with FtD and the Monkey you have a guarenteed ride of around 15 miles without the need to read a map, follow a local or go exploring.

Head up there in the morning and do both trails (the Monkey is essentially an optional loop of FtD) head to the cafe for some food and if you’ve driven a fair way or fancy some more miles then do another lap.

i’ll be there at 11am if you want someone to show you around, not that you need it……

Also worth mentioning the Monkey is a step up from Follow Dog technically and physically, although the last section of FTD past the camp site is a blast. Having said that some sections of FTD are slippery in the wet.

i’ll be there at 11am if you want someone to show you around, not that you need it……

If anyone of you locals spot someone on a kawasaki green prince albert say hello and then show me the good stuff 8)

Any thoughts from the locals to how suitable the Monkey is for a reasonably fit 14-yr old on a 1×9 DMR jump bike?
He does a load of riding but does tend to go ‘down more than up’ … will he be moaning all of the way???

Ta!

I drove 1hour3/4 to get there.
I had fun. I’d go back again.

Do ftd and the monkey twice and you’ll feel like you’ve been on a bike ride.

grtkdad, he’ll be fine, if he moans, ride 100 yards in front…

It’s much better than driving 2 hours to Sherwood Pines like I did the other day!

Been riding the Chase for over 15 years and not bored yet 🙂

Erm its the biggest forest in the midlands and has enough riding to keep the fittest busy for a weekend. While it isn’t mountainous it has plenty of ups and downs and reasonable elevation for the Midlands. The mixed geology and generally loose trails makes for exciting riding and big crashes (well maybe thats just me)

There aren’t many places in the Midlands to ride with deer through the forest.

I am sure there are loads of routes on t’web. If not plenty of folk ride there to be able to meet up and tag along or just pitch up and explore.

According to someone else its…

Cannock Chase is a heath-plateau lying upon beds of pebbles, sand and shingle up to 500 feet (c.150 metres) thick. The loose nature of this subsoil strata tends to drain water away very quickly making the soil on the uplands very dry and infertile, the natural habitat of only the hardiest of our native flora, and not at all suited for agriculture. This absorbed groundwater re-emerges all around the borders of the Chase in the form of freshwater springs, especially in the area near the Shugborough Estate and around Seven Springs on the northern periphery.

Major faulting beneath Cannock Chase has exposed coal measures, particularly in the south-eastern quarter, and other faults also affect the Triassic strata bringing the Bunter Pebble Beds close to the surface, largely in the western half. Both of these resources have been fully exploited over the years, in opencast mines, deep mining operations and aggregate quarries.

Visitors to the Brocton Field area of the Chase will probably be aware of a large boulder beside the Chase Road, set upon a pedestal of Triassic pebbles. The boulder is of Granite, a hard, intrusive, igneous rock, which is decidedly out of place here on the Moorlands of South Staffordshire, there being no granite outcrops anywhere in the Midlands. The nearest rocks of this type are found in the English Lake District over 130 miles (210km) to the north-west, while others occur on Dartmoor in Devon some 165 miles (270km) to the south-west. The boulder has been matched however, to the intrusive rock outcrop at Cniffel in Dumfries & Galloway, which is over 170 miles (280km) away from the Chase in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. This granite ‘erratic’ is marked on the OS map as the “Glacial Boulder”, which gives some idea how it got here. The boulder was ripped from its parent mountain sometime during the last Ice-Age, and was transported by glacial action to its present location, the journey perhaps taking ten-thousand years during which the edges of the rock were worn down, giving its present rounded appearance.

Did an off-piste ride this afternoon. Lovely. Finished off with the last run of the FtD. That last run down from the campsite is excellent, was bone dry & really grippy today.

There aren’t many places in the Midlands to ride with deer through the forest.

i know of two as well as Cannock, which ones do you mean?

Cannock is a chavtown

Don’t forget your Permit !!

I went there for the first time a few weeks ago. Liked both the trails.
The Monkey Trail is more interesting than Follow the Dog.

Got maps, photos and review here.

I went there a few weeks ago with a group from mbswindon. We really liked it. I thought that the Monkey Trail was excellent, virtually no fire road climbing either.

I think its worth the drive, good fun day out, very busy tho, good shop on site too.