[Closed] FoD conditions and new routes please.. 🙂

AND are there any hidden FoD gems I'm missing? Other secret trails to be found.

More than probably anywhere else in the UK... To go to FoD and just ride the blue is like buying an Aston Martin to pop to the shops in. You're missing out on so much potential!

ride some of the fire roads and look out for tyre tracks sneaking off into the bushes 😉

Planning on heading there for an explore tomorrow. Had a quick look on strava, google map etc welcome to join me for a look around, but I'm going with no expectations as I've done next to no prep work. Weather looks good so can't lose either way. Will prob do a few runs of the dh stuff too. Email in profile, planning on being there earlyish

Sweet - cheers guys will look for hidden tyre tracks disappearing... gonna be there from about 11 - 1.5 hrs drive away - so that will be early for me! If you see someone mincing about on a 2007 carbon Trance - say hello! 😉

Monsoon last Weds but dry since so no mud. You'll need to change tyres at least twice a lap and that's just on the T5

You should head over to the dowies via lumilicious! I have a GPX track with a route that takes you to the dowies and on the way back you finish on the blue descent. Great little route there is loads of off piste stuff which blows the marked trails away. I should imagine it will be busy up there today as the forecast
Looks great.

via lumilicious

I feel exactly the same OP.
I'm over there on Monday.
We always do the blue, cos it's fun, and wouldn't know where to start looking for the other stuff.
Please report back!
Cheers

I'm happy to show a few folk round , we could try and organise a ride if anyons interested .

Russyh,
Any chance you could email me that gpx? We often rode Dowies and we often do the blue. A way to link them would be great.

Cheers if you can

via lumilicious

Loamilicious

For some reason my phone autocorrects?!

Tim, drop me an email which is in my profile will chuck it across to you it's fairly easy to remember once you have done it a few times, unless you are me! I always like finishing a FOD route on the blue descent if I can.

cheesybeenz - I'd be very interested in that as I ride in FoD about once a month and have limited off piste knowledge, also we are having our family holiday there this year for two weeks 🙂
Cheers, iain.

I'd be interested in a group ride / showaround sometime ......
Love to try some of the off-piste
Cheers !

Don't mind showing people around from pedalaway out to Dowies and shutcastle thing with the FOD these days you just cant get them all done in one ride which is very good really but if you do stuff in Worcester lodge area then do Y2k and head over to Dowies and Shutcastle turns into a bit of a monster ride.

Did most of that today including heading out to Staple Edge. Lots of new trails going in everywhere. Only did one Shutcastle run, but it's as dry as I've ridden it for many months. Best way to find you way round the FoD is find someone who already does... GPX's are fine but way easier if you're following someone.

That's the thing Alex if you do 5 Dowies/2/3 Bluebells/3 to 4 shutcastles and Murdocks and start from pedalway gets long :-)Just for anyone else who doesn't know the Fod they are all different trails as in 5 Dowies etc.

Yeah and more trails springing up. Parkend/Dowies/Shutcastle is easily a days riding now. Especially if you do them all. About once a month we ride out from Ross, over the Pludds to PAB and then back via Symmons Yat. That's a proper day out.

Haven't ridden Murdocks for ages. Must put that right next time...

Did similar route today. Started on free miners, then onto enduro loop, followed the telegraph poles to loamalicous. Few laps of dowies, bluebell, shutcastle then back to cannop for elephant man, y2k and few Dh runs. 40k and 1400m of climbing 🙂 first time to Fod in about six months and was such a nice day to be out. trails were drying out well

Bookmarking this one, come to FOD quite often (always on uplift mind)

Anyone free 30/3 to show a group of us around? Staying near park end. Beer reward on offer!

Ended up doing some blue laps yesterday (that peachy last descent oooh!), then venturing off round the red for the first time in 2 years, which reminded me exactly why I haven't ridden it for 2 years! It didn't appear to be too busy, considering the weather, but the trails were running well... Tried to find some secret trails, there appeared to be some off to the left on the mucky fire road that doubles back up to the start of the final blue descent. One of them looked quite loamy, perhaps even, liscious? 😉

Perhaps some local knowledge or GPX files would go a long way to help find a way through though! (Can you use GPX on an iPhone?).

Saw plenty of wild boar yesterday and little stripy oinklets... pretty cool.. 8)

Maxing the gnar on my slacked out enduro rig:

[img] [/img]

Oinklets to my left (out of shot):

[img] [/img]

So, i have added a GPX for those of you that want a run over to the Dowies via Loamilicious. It gets confusing a little around the Dowies as its pulled from strava so it probably has a couple of rides up the fireroad back to the beginning of the dowies.

Ride starts at cannop trail center and finishes there on the blue descent.

Enjoy:

[url= https://www.dropbox.com/s/4l3ja58nu3g6ltr/Dowies%20run.gpx?dl=0 ]GPX Link[/url]

Cheers dude.. I've somehow managed to get this opened in Google Earth (don't have a GPS) - and it looks epic - plenty to explore! Certainly, the sneaky bit just above the last blue descent looks quite easy to find for a start... I will have to find a way to get this to run on my iPhone (I think there may be an app or two out there for this). Just need to find a way of getting the battery to last for more than five minutes..

I use Viewranger on my iPhone to follow GPXs and its never failed me even on a 5 hour ride across Dartmoor. Although the battery was on 3% when I got back to the car...

That's interesting they have pulled Staunton and now Dowies from strava whats all that about???not that I use strava.

thanks for the GPX!

Most of the Dowies are still on there dobie, and most of the Stauntons - Bunker, Widowmaker, Billys and the Buckstone stuff. Dead end down never stays on there for long though, just gets flagged as dangerous as everyone wants to keep it a secret 😉

conditions are awful just got back 🙂

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View this post on Instagram

That does look awful..
Was just saying to my little man today about going to the cottage as he calls it..what's he going to say when I tell him it's dry and rideable for him..

Oh nice.
Heading to Fod on Saturday. Have riden a few enduro races there, so will go looking for some the stages we done, but would like to ride some of this stuff mentioned above.
How v can I get a gpx file to work? I've clicked that link and it asks me to download a drop box app. Is this what I need the see it?

I've been riding FoD most weekends for the past 5-6 months and had no idea any of this existed 😳

Looks like I'll be doing some exploring on Saturday!

jim25

try GPSprune to open the GPX file

Searched Android play store for gps prune, but nothing found.

sorry though you were on a PC try OruxMaps

I always like finishing a FOD route on the blue descent if I can.

Why? It's the most sanitised bit of the FoD! There's so much more fun to be had finishing the ride on other trails...

Anyone free 30/3 to show a group of us around? Staying near park end. Beer reward on offer!

You picked the one day I definitely can't manage after I get back off my holiday! Could lead one the day after if you're still around... Or even better, at the weekend.

Did similar route today. Started on free miners, then onto enduro loop, followed the telegraph poles to loamalicous. Few laps of dowies, bluebell, shutcastle then back to cannop for elephant man, y2k and few Dh runs. 40k and 1400m of climbing first time to Fod in about six months and was such a nice day to be out. trails were drying out well

Took some guys there for the first time last July, managing to persuade them a Monday off work was worth it... 50km later and about 1500m of climbing (and still not having managed all of the trails mentioned so far in this thread!) everyone was destroyed but had massive grins on their faces... The secret FoD trails really are some of the best in the UK, and I can safely say there's a good deal out there beyond my knowledge too...

I always like finishing a FOD route on the blue descent if I can.
Why? It's the most sanitised bit of the FoD! There's so much more fun to be had finishing the ride on other trails...

Why not? Because we really enjoy it! It flows back to the car park and involves no real thinking for tired heads and legs. We are pretty good at the off piste stuff now, but there is so much up there I doubt we have even scratched the surface. Even so the blue descent is great fun in my opinion sanitised or not and I/we all love rolling down it to the car park before tea and cake! Not sure why you would have a problem with what I do on my rides to be honest?!?

Not sure mboy was having a problem, as such. Just making a point, perhaps somewhat vehemently... 😉

Personally, I think the last-blue is da shizzle, but then I haven't discovered anything off piste (yet). It flows really well, has little whoop-things that reward timely scrubbing, and berms that love to be railed. Peachy..

I ride off-piste in FoD as much as I can and there is so much stuff as mboy says. However there is a place for the Verderers too - especially after a 3 or 4 hour muddy winter slog around the off-piste stuff, the final blue descent can be very welcoming for a bit of hard-packed super fast fun.

Wilko, that's exactly it buddy. We like starting at cannop, there is a great vibe and atmosphere a clean Tarmac car park which is great for getting changed in. Good coffee and food and a shop if needed, then ride off piste wherever we go from there finish on blue descent as its a nice way back down to the car park with tired legs.

We only tend to ride the red and blue if the weather has been too horrific to get off hard pack or we are doing winter night rides. But to be honest I have done the blue so much over the years it's becoming a little bit like the morning commute for me now.

As said above what Mboy is really saying the Forest is so good in these places that it makes the Verdereers not worth doing everybody to there own.

You picked the one day I definitely can't manage after I get back off my holiday! Could lead one the day after if you're still around... Or even better, at the weekend.

I completely agree, I certainly wouldnt want to waste a day pedalling around the blue if there was a chance of going for an all day off-piste epic. However the final descent makes a nice end to the day and brigs you back to the car park beautifully.

True but so does Y2k and you get that little off track and slope down just before the blue run finishes.