Heading to lea near Matlock this weekend with wife’s friends. All the gentlemen are taking bikes, wooohhoo!

A long time ago I rode the woods near ambergate (shining cliff?), What else is there?

Wondered what’s good round there and worth exploring.

OS grid refs of good trails or strava links all good, I can work a route out on the map from that.

Would like to avoid driving if possible. If we’re driving, I’ll go up to the dark peak.

Cheers!

There are some nice trails up around Riber Castle. Not sure what the woods are called, I’m sure someone with more local knowledge will be along to let you know. Then you can drop onto the canal and scoot along there for a few miles to Black Rocks. A bit of a haul up the incline to get upto the woods, but loads a great riding and technical trails up that way. If you’ve got the legs you can then continue further along the canal and head up to Ambergate, but I prefer Crich woods, opposite Shining Cliff (again not sure if its actually called Crich woods). A few nice cafe’s to stop off en route too.

It’s a nice stretch up along that valley, I’m sure there is so much riding I’ve not found or done yet.

that’s great thanks, are the trails at riber and black rocks easy to find? and am I going to encounter old grumpy conflict on a saturday afternoon?

Anymore suggestions?

There’s nothing official in these areas. Cannock and the Peak District aren’t far away though.

For the Riber trails, head along Hearthstone lane from the top, and hang a left just before the bottom gate. Follow your nose through Coumbs wood and Bow wood.

Black rocks is a bit harder to explain, as there are so many ways up. The best way for a first timer is probably to head up the steep slope next to the crag. Just keep heading upwards until it spits you out onto the top moor, then head for the trig point. All trails which point down from here are okay, then just explore.

It’s all on Strava nowadays, hence the trails are now fecked.

oldejeans – if you have no useful comment, why bother?

benman – thanks. just what i was looking for, will go exploring and have a great afternoon.

the 5 dales route passes near the bottom of Matlock, darley dale. None of it is particularly technical but I should imgaine it will be nice and scenic with the changing colours at this time of year. Nice enough ride takes you over to Chatsworth and back.

This trail from Upper Town Farm down to Darley Bridge is worth riding…
https://binged.it/2ghePx2

The trail down from Riber is good too…
https://binged.it/2gh3AEM

When you get to here (you reach a drive-way) – ride the path in front of the house and down through Bow Wood…
https://binged.it/2gfnlwE

Shining Cliff – the best bits are up near Betty Kenny’s Tree – about here…
https://binged.it/2xYiolM

Crich Chase – enter here and ride down the field to the fence – take a left then when you reach here…
https://binged.it/2xWhdn7
…follow the path to your left upwards (keep going up and left), you will come to a wall at the top – just follow this all the way along!

As others have said though – the best stuff is of the cheeky variety!

awww diddums. Because, as you say, you are likely to encounter conflict, and as benman says, the trails are not in good condition, not least due to recent wet weather and a huge increase in the numbers of riders in the area over the past few years. So sharing a route with you here may not be the best idea, as it may encourage a few hundred others to ride in a very delicate and sensitive area.

I’ll juts use the OS map and go exploring. I promise not to pull any skids.

…and a huge increase in the numbers of riders roadies in the area over the past few years

FTFY! 😀

OP – have an explore, and I hope you have a good ride.

Regarding the state of the trails I agree with oldejeans, although the horse has well and truly bolted.

The amount of rain and numbers of riders have really taken their toll, and to a degree a lot of riders seem to simply not give a sh1t. There are trails that should be avoided in the wet but still get ridden (and trashed), and it’s fairly common to see huge groups of riders round there as well.

Dunno what the answer is, and I’ll happily admit to a large degree of NIMBYism. It’s one thing when some of the ‘secret’ trails are in bits, but there are some footpaths that are getting torn to pieces as well. It’s not a good look for us.

In terms of the published rides near there you’ve got a few options …

+1 for the Five Dales Circuit or any of the rides out of Rowsley – there’s the new-ish riverside trail up to Rowsley that you can use to avoid the road.

You’ve also got the Bonsall Moor circuit that you can start from Cromford – fairly easy going but a nice ride out nonetheless

There’s the trails round Ashover – a bit of riding on the road required to link up to them but worth a visit albeit quite a short ride (just do the fun bits twice!)

It’s ok I appreciate that when it’s your local area you want to protect your trails from excessive riding and damage or conflict with other users. We are all mountain bikers aren’t we?

But there’s no need to be an arse about it, saying that the weather has damaged trails in x-woods and you are trying to rest them or there’s conflict issues in y-woods would be helpful information and i would avoid going to those places.

A one line response saying drive to cannock just marks you out as being a ****.

Thanks you muffin-man for the detail. That’s above and beyond.

OK then please let me rephrase

Heavy usage along with the weather has irreparably damaged trails in the Sandy lane, Cavendish Woods, Black Rocks, Hearthstone, Crich woods, and Shining Cliff areas.

Any ‘descent’ is on footpaths, all of it is cheeky and riding anywhere in the valley in a group is likely to result in conflict, especially on a damp weekend in October

If you want some legal, all-weather routes in the area, then I suggest you
use the Vertebrate publishing White Peak book, or go to the Peak District, and Cannock’s just over an hour away

Better now?

Trails in the White Peak are always a mess in the autumn/winter even the ones in Vertebrate books – and especially up Chatsworth – just because they are ‘legal’ doesn’t mean they don’t get ploughed up.

And where are these hoards of riders? I can be in Shining Cliff at the weekends and see no-one.

Certainly no more mountain bikers about than there where 10 years ago.

The trails in Cannock and Dark Peak will be as muddy as hell too.

I would avoid Black Rocks at a weekend though – lots of walkers around – these trails are best ridden on a weekday night.

yeah, much. I’m still not going to drive to Cannock.

I’ll stick to the bridleways, there’s plenty to choose from by the looks of it.

While the locals are on, I know there’s an old railway that runs along the A610 near the Excavator – how far does that go toward Crich/Shining Wood? (no I won’t be back up there until the spring when things are drying out)

thepurist – I’ve ridden it but I can’t remember exactly where it spits you out. It definitely doesn’t go all the way to Ambergate.

supersession – Definitely don’t stick to the bridleways, you will miss some of the best singletrack in the area. Just go exploring using some of our suggestions – outside of Black rocks you are unlikely to come across any walkers / other bikes.

I would offer to show you round, but ironically I’m going to explore some of the off-piste at Cannock!!

Purist – that path finishes here…
https://binged.it/2ghsgNq

But you can cross over the road and ride paths around the back of the Works here…
https://binged.it/2gh8Yrz

And re-join Cromford Canal here…
https://binged.it/2gfE6rx

Thanks muffin man, might need to check that out!

oldejeans – so you’re allowed to ride the trails, but others aren’t? They are well documented enough to not be precious about them. Suck it up sunshine

supersession – when exactly are you thinking of riding

Not sure yet, possibly sat afternoon. it’s going to be a lazy weekend of drink and good food. i should think it will be quite spontaneous when we go out. just heard that one of the gents has man flu and is not bringing his bike.

oldejeans – so you’re allowed to ride the trails, but others aren’t? They are well documented enough to not be precious about them. Suck it up sunshine

My thoughts exactly! If you stuck to tracks that didn’t get muddy in the area’s mentioned above then you’d be riding Cromford Canal and the High Peak trail for 11 months of the year

There’s a lot of trails about, and if you want a decent ride you have to use the footpaths. You don’t often come across grumpy walkers. Most of them are sloppy and grim now though – I’d probably recommend going up to Curbar and riding there instead, or even just the heart of the Dark Peak around Hope. The trails there are less sloppy and more fun.

If you’re constrained to the locality, though, Black Rocks is good. This is a ride that takes in Black Rocks and the trails in Bow Woods (which I think are what the poster above meant by “trails below Riber”). When you get back to the bottom of the Black Rocks trails there are loads of trails built by decent riders on the left which are really good – some are really steep and gnadgery-

https://www.strava.com/activities/898783124

Shining Cliff is rougher, and potentially sloppier. The average quality of this ride is higher but the trails on the Crich Chase side (northern side) of the route will be overgrown and muddy at the moment, you’d be seeing them at their worst.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1127240743

Those routes might be set to private, PM me if so and I’ll hook you up.

To effectively advertise a cheeky route in a sensitive area in poor conditions on an MTB site that has >35k visitors each day is irresponsible, in my opinion. I’m probably not helping the cause by continuing to respond, so this’ll be my last word on the issue. I’d welcome any DM’s if you wish to continue the debate

Trails are trails are trails. And since no one in their right mind would consider Matlock a riding “destination” I think we’re pretty safe.

The trails were all much better pre-strava, when they were narrow ribbons of singletrack. It used to be very much a local knowledge area.

With the hammer the trails get now, I’m kind of past caring how widely they are shared.

With the hammer the trails get now, I’m kind of past caring how widely they are shared.

This is kinda how I look at it. I’ve been riding the same trail’s for 25 year’s and I’m not about to stop any time soon.
Looking at it another way there was once only a river running down the valley we are talking about, now there’s the A6 a railway line and a canal which have all done more ‘damage’ to the surrounding area than a slightly wider/muddier trail than used to be there.
In the great scheme of things there’s more to worry about 🙂

Five Dales circuit is good, but one thing really surprised me about it. I was expecting five distinct, noticeable Dales in the open grassy valley you could see all of sense. It’s not like that at all and felt almost a bit suburban to me. Still a good ride with one or two real highlights (I distinctly remember a narrow wooded descent with some switchbacks at one point).

it may encourage a few hundred others to ride in a very delicate and sensitive area.

Heavy usage along with the weather has irreparably damaged trails in the Sandy lane, Cavendish Woods, Black Rocks, Hearthstone, Crich woods, and Shining Cliff areas.

Presumably the local redsocks are also signed up and committed to this excellent sustainable use policy?