What’s your preference? Obviously this is likely to be dictated by your location in the country but given the choice what would you ride?

Variety for me. A bit of everything is my preference.

I love wooded singletrack that leads to a wide open vista. Most of my Cotswold rides are in the woods then out onto the escarpment with views over the Severn to Wales/Malverns.

Variety for me. A bit of everything is my preference.

Agreed.

In the face of a gale on the Plain in mid-winter, or sailing along in the dusty, chalky sunlit beauty of summer in the same place.

Large drops of rain, splatting down your neck in February in the Surrey Hills, or seeking the shade of the trees as the sun beats down.

Etc, etc, etc.

It’s all riding, and all good!

Big open spaces for me. I like the views. Natural woodland is cool, but I’m not keen on Forestry Commission pine forests, they’re so bland.

All of it… but I do like being in the woods.

Deep in the woods & follow the trail to the wide open vista every time.

depends on the weather too, nothing worse than a howling gale on a wide open space, do tend to prefer the rooty nadgery stuff myself though

In the forest for me – always loved riding through the deep woodland.

I say deep woodland, I ride in the Peak nowadays and I’d settle for a copse, or a spinney. Trees are banned out there.

Woods – but not the usual Sitka monoculture. Had a great day out in the open today though; past the cheeky keep out sign at Essenden and over the hills between Ashkirk and Selkirk – big skies, deep cowmuck.

Both. Wide, open vistas punctuated by Z-74 speeder blasts through the forests of Endor…………………..or something. 8)

I am deffo a deep woods, rooty kinda guy.

But my favourite ride, goes from woods to way wide open then back to woods.

woods every time.
I like the open sometimes but it tends to invoke feelings of isolation and moments of introspection…. I ride to escape those kinds of things so I much prefer tree, tree, tree, bush, gate, tree, bush, tree, tree, fence, tree, tree, tree than lllloooooonnnnnggggg oooooopppppppeeeeeeeennnnnn rrrrroooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaddddddddddddd.

Yes.. Yes please

Surrounded by trees so I like the open spaces. However you can’t burn grass on the wood burner.

It has to be both… my local ride always includes a climb to the top of the hill for views South over Chichester Cathedral to the Channel and the Isle of Wight – and North to the South Down Way. Then it’s down into the woods for some fun, over to the next ridge for a blast through the woods and then out into open fields for more fantastic views. it’s always a joy.

I like a bit of both, but if I’m out on a solo night ride, I’ll target as much open space as possible.

Have you seen the Blair witch project? 🙂

Both.

The day Ben discovered he likes berms… by matt_outandabout, on Flickr

If I had to choose……. deep in the woods.

Both. Wide, open vistas punctuated by Z-74 speeder blasts through the forests of Endor…………………..or something.

That’ll be Barry Knows Best before they started all the logging 🙂

Had this conversation with the FIL when we were out on a yomp. Whilst I love hilly/mountainous climbs and ridges with the panoramic vista that accompanies them, I feel most at home in the woods. Put another way, when we, as a family, go to a NT or EH home or similar, I’d rather go and lose myself in the surrounding forest.

Wide open hills, in the middle of nowhere- miles from anyone and anywhere. Alone. I’m an antisocial so and so tbh.

Get out of my bothy. GRRRRR!

Wide open hills, in the middle of nowhere- miles from anyone and anywhere. Alone. I’m an antisocial so and so tbh.

Get out of my bothy. GRRRRR!

Yep, I can relate to that.

Both for me. I prefer to have both on different rides too! Saying that – there are few things better than when returning from a long day out on exposed hillsides than dipping back into the tree line and getting that little bit warmer on your return journey…

the trail, the view is something to look at while eating lunch…

For me it’s pretty perfect:
Out the house
Through the woods
Up on to the moors
Down off the moors
Through some other woods
Along a railway
Back through the woods
All in 90 mins – Cracking fun

Both is preferable.

Great fun to be going through the woods but at the same time i like exploring places that are often forgotten about in the middle of nowhere.

Luckily I have both on the doorstep so don’t have to make the choice 😀

I thought this was going to be about camping and bivvying, in which case, vistas every time.

This was pre-dawn in the Cairngorms this morning

I like both as well.

Rode the Marin trail recently and my favorite thing about it was coming out of the tight wooded sections onto the open sections looking down the valleys. Great stuff.

Riding up out of the woods, above the treeline… then back into them. Good for running, too.

I like both – but woodland wise I prefer deciduous woodland/stand are and coppice to pine plantations – my favourite runs on the chase are all in the older woodland, rather than the fun but too often samey pump track nature of some of pine plantations up there. Outside of the chase (my local) then I tend to go big – peak district, lake district etc. and end up out of trees, up the top of hills where possible.

Woods, easier to hide stuff 😉

Something about the smell of the woods early morning does it for me every time. Don’t mind the big views but only if they are at the top of a woody hill. Also less windy.

trees,trees and more trees if i had to pick,love the speeder bike sensation from riding fast tight twisty wooded singletrack(which is lucky as thats what i’ve mainly got round here) 🙂

mountains
they have both trees and vistas, fast and slow, swoopy and gnarcore, …

Deep wooded forests and woods for me. Better after a days rain, sunset or sunrise, cloudy but windy enough to have lots of sunlight breaks.. Not fussed about type of trees so long as I can cut a dash through them at pace.
😀

Bit of both.
If it’s hammering down – woods.

don’t really care as long as i can ride, i can’t be arsed with walking up some stupid rocky climb!