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Heading to Gisburn Forest Hub this weekend. Looking at the interweb page I'm imagining a FOD type of place with a couple of designated loops, and some DH type runs with a push up? What's it really like? Are there any must do's or must don'ts? Any help appreciated!
It's pretty straight forward. Park at the hub, follow the marked red loop "the eight."
After the first substantial fire road climb you come to, you'll have the choice of doing the hope line and then climbing back up again or just carrying on.
A bit further on, there's the new section "long way down." Go past that and do "hully gully." At the bottom of there,turn right and follow the fire road back up and round back past the start of hully gully back to long way down.
Apart from that, you just follow your nose!
There's plenty of riding to be had. A good red loop as well as some natural tracks and bridleways (take a map if you plan on doing this) There's a small skills loop and the downhill tracks near the Hope Line are good for sessioning. I went through at about midnight on Saturday and did the full Hope line for the first time in a while, eerie but great to see all the wildlife eyes reflecting from my lights through the trees!
Over Bowland Knotts is Clapham and Settle and there's some great Bridleway riding round the area, particularly around Feizor (Elaines Cafe is great and also the Courtyard Dairy on the A65 for something to eat. The cafe at Gisburn Forest Hub is OK if a little slow when it's busy.
Don't go the wrong way round (obvs) and don't ride unfinished trails like some seem to think is OK, undoing the hard work of the volunteers (If it's taped off it's taped off for a reason). Don't skip any of the red, the climb up to Whelpstone Crag and the slab is worth it (Honest!). The downhill trails are a little bit further along from the Hope Line.
Forgot to add, the cafe has Wallings ice cream, it's good.
As said above, it's pretty straight forward, just don't miss Hully Gully or The Long Way down. Hope Line and Hully for repeated runs.
Excellent, thanks for the replies! I'll keep my eyes peeled for the Ice Cream too
Take change for car park. No way of getting cash to pay for parking and the machines are cash only.
Benjim
Do you have routes for the Clapham and feizor areas you could share?
Cheers
Toilets appear to be open all the time, (important if you bring the other half). Cafe with limited opening hours. BTW there has been a steady improvement of the trail over the last few years but I don't consider it an easy roll round. I have had 2 OTB at Fizzy on rock sections at slow speeds on the red route.
Toilets appear to be open all the time, (important if you bring the other half). Cafe with limited opening hours. BTW there has been a steady improvement of the trail over the last few years but I don't consider it an easy roll round. I have had 2 OTB at Gizzy on rock sections at slow speeds on the red route.
Did the red figure of eight late last year in less than ideal conditions, good ride out and some sections not for the beginner and the section around the exposed rocky hill half way through pretty gnarly.
The fire road climb isn't for those not in shape, but worth it.
As a regular south wales rider I found Gisburn massively disappointing. The blue is a green at best and the first half of the red is very worn out. I'd do a natural ride in the Dales instead
One man's worn out is another man's natural, not every trail centre is groomed to perfection. Gisburn is very different to South Wales, it doesn't have the gradients for a start.