Planning a little trip to Hopton Woods this weekend, on the fatty. I've never been there before, so just curious how it rides in the wet / after snow.
Is it likely to be a mud bath and all gloopy or I it like Cannock and just wet and sandy with not much mud?
Thanks in advance 🙂
Dh tracks or 'trails'?
The waymarked stuff is pretty all weather (or the stuff at the nationals was anyhoo).
Rode there last week on my fatty. It's fine bit muddy in places but good. I love it there 🙂
I was planning on doing the Pearce XC loop and then maybe a bit of DH if we can find our way to it and it takes our fancy.
It holds up pretty well usually. The open bits in the middle of the dh tracks tend to stay fairly icy if it's frozen. Enjoy.
Ringo.
It looks ace and I never knew it was there, its close to me too (50miles)
It's good but the xc loop is definitely more up than down. In fact from memory after the first decent through the woods it's a series of climbs for the next 1/2 of the loop before you get to some better terrain.
Is the DH stuff near the XCloop ?
And what's it like? (I ride in Morzine every year, so can handle a bike)
Dh stuff is fine and you do a chunk of it in the middle of the xc loop. You'd be best cutting out, playing about as you wish and then rejoining.
In fact from memory after the first decent through the woods it's a series of climbs for the next 1/2 of the loop before you get to some better terrain.
The curse of starting on a descent.
The main climb last weekend was impossible to get up without dabbing a foot due to ice. Mine you, it took us 20 minutes to get up the final hill to the car park in the car as the roads were so bad. My car wouldn't hold on the handbrake either as the ice was so thick so had to deploy my mates to the nearest grit box!
Hopton generally rides ok wet, but there a couple of very squelchy, sapping bits that aren't fun at all. Lots of climbing in first 2/3 of xc loop, it's much better from then to finish, and as said, first descent, and the one after the main climb are also good.
About 1/2 way around there's a switchback section through the trees, that's not too bad generally, but just before it's quite up and down, and rooty in places, hard enough to carry momentum when it's dry, in the wet I just find it a total bore. After the switchbacks, there's a long old, steep climb too, again, pretty tedious, and slippy.
Don't try and miss that section out, thinking you can carry on down the fire track and rejoin a bit further down by turning right up an old track, it's soooo steep and slippy it's unreal!