Does anyone know if the Kielder Forest drive toll road is open/ passable for cycles? I saw that it was closed to cars at Easter. A quick google suggests that it opened on May 1st, can anyone confirm this for me please.
It normally is. It is gated to stop cars but I've never known it be impossible for bikes.
It was used on the dirty reiver a few weeks ago.
Related question. Does anyone know what Velosolutions are building up there? Anything interesting?
Thanks jonba 👍🏼
Open to cars now too
It might be a pump track, or it might be a bike trail that looks like a very long pump track - all about flow now apparently.
A bit tongue-in-cheek but Velosolutions are very good at pump tracks, so they know their stuff.
It might be a pump track, or it might be a bike trail that looks like a very long pump track - all about flow now apparently.
A bit tongue-in-cheek but Velosolutions are very good at pump tracks, so they know their stuff.
There's a new red and black trail built. Really good... Was up there yesterday to try it out, and official opening is on Tuesday.
The very top of still being worked on, and once it's all done, should be about 1.7 miles top to bottom.
Velosolutions have been rebuilding an old dh track on Deadwater hill that was built by Northern Downhill years ago, the bottom section opens on Tuesday and is a machine built black grade. The upper section is being done without machines and isn't due to open until early next year afaik. They've been doing work on a lot of the trails at Kielder recently
Sounds good. I've only ever been there watch rally cars. I've never ridden a bike there. I thought it all looked a bit flat and boring for an MTB.
Sounds good. I've only ever been there watch rally cars. I've never ridden a bike there. I thought it all looked a bit flat and boring for an MTB.
Sounds good. I've only ever been there watch rally cars. I've never ridden a bike there. I thought it all looked a bit flat and boring for an MTB.
It's not exactly flat but the trails are very much xc in nature, lots of pedalling and not a great deal of descending so hopefully this new track will be something different
@pothead (seeing as you seem to be in the know) and derailing the OP further....
Where is this new red you speak of? Deadwater side? I was there a few weeks back and there were some new bits that link into the Skyspace descent and end up at the garage. There was a bit higher up that looked in progress - is that the section you mean?
[Edit] and to the OP, I think what jonba says is generally correct.
Where is this new red you speak of?
Its a black descent akaik, if you Google 'Kielder Mile Down track' there should be a link to the Forestry Facebook page, which also mentions that the Forest Drive is now open to all traffic until December. I can't post the link myself. The new stuff is on the Deadwater side, not the Lonesome Pine red trail where the observatory is
I was there today for my first time. I made a number of mistakes, the first was following the Black signs up to the top radar station. Great views (they said you can see the Solway and the north Sea from there, I can't see how, as it is surrounded by hills in the distance) , but it isnt a downhill track down, it is just a really rough fire road. Thats around 30 minutes of climbing totally wasted.
Then I came across ‘For Peats sake’. Which is such a drag, a black uphill, and it goes on for a long way. The rest of the black down was fine, only at the lower levels of black grading imo, as I’m not the best of riders, and even I got down most of it, there was one drop off that I took the chicken route, otherwise it was all pretty simple.
Back toward the bottom of the hill, I thought is that it? But, down a fireroad for a while, there is a turn to the right, and its back uphill again for the red and black. By this time I was sick of climbing, eventually reaching a red sign pointing down, and a black pointing up. I’d had enough, so took the left red route to the car park, totally missing the new black section which involved another climb.
Oh well,if I had missed out the radar hill section, it would have been a lot better, as that involved around 500 feet of climbing for very little downhill action.