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Just stumbled across this video of some techy Northshore trails. Seen a few like this now and then on youtube and always wonder if there's trails like this in the UK?
It's the kind of trails I'd like to think I could ride but with those gaps and drops, not likely. Not sure I could cope that well on some of the skinnies. Still, aspirational.
Most trail centres have north shore sections, if not as long as the vid. the (used to be) Red DH at Fort Bill springs to mind. (just from vids I've seen, not ridden it.)
SN3 1TX
If it makes you feel any better, I'll be back in Whistler again for three weeks in June and the North Shore is one of our planned days out. He's got real skills, pretty sure I'll be dodging some of that!
See if you can persuade Jedi to let you have a go on his...
There's no north shore on the red at Ft William. Just boardwalk to allow the trail to traverse over the peat bog to it's more sustainable surface.
didn't watch the video. The guys gopro is facing too low
Aside from the woodwork, there’s plenty of stuff like that up here in scotland
Used to be loads at Chicksands but it all got torn down years back now.
Here's me riding a bit of it years ago, when I used to duck tape a camera to my chest. 😅
There used to be a lot of woodwork trails- 2005-2009ish, but land managers were at best uneasy about them, and mostly just chopped them down as soon as they discovered them. For a while most trail centres had a bit - the Dark Side at Mabie being possibly the hardest longest one. I remember The Holy Trail on Pitch Hill as well.
These days probably only Jedi/UK Bike Skills and his Field of Dreams...
I rode twice on The Northshore itself when I took my second holiday in Whistler. Amazing, ancient, peaceful, inspiring forest, and 2 of my best days ever on the bike. CBC, Neds, Pangor, Severed Dick etc.
I definitely need to get out more! But some of the trails elsewhere in the world seem to have a real mix of stuff that I haven't seen in one place in the UK. But I do need to get out more. Just one visit to the FoD this year, and a visit to the dead centre of France (where I did find some nice XC trails) that was the only time I got out of Kent. It's going to get more difficult for me to get away riding in the new year too.
Mabies dark side was a long walk for me! I should not of ignored the taster at the start.
It's irrational because if I chalked a skinny on the ground I could easily ride it, lift it off the ground 12" and I go to shit.
SN3 1TX
😂
I'd sooner have a bit of bog than a wooden road over it. It's more realistic and more fun.
I can understand the need at heavily trafficked places like Ft William though.
SN3 1TX
Not convinced:
There certainly used to be woodwork stuff at Newcastleton but I haven't been there for years.
geex
Member
There’s no north shore on the red at Ft William. Just boardwalk to allow the trail to traverse over the peat bog to it’s more sustainable surface.
Could have been referring to the skinnies they put in to build the reroute, after the treefall blocked a bit of it?
Oh yes - forgot about Chicksands. Used to ride their loads.
TBH, after I'd ridden in Canada, I kind of went off UK "northshore". It was all basically a piece of boring flat ground with some circus stunts built on it, where many of the of the log rides and skinnies on THE 'Shore made sense in terms of trail flow - there would be a ravine with a fallen tree across - that would become the trail, or a swamp that could be traversed on a skinny rather than ending up hub deep and stalled. A means of getting somewhere rather than just an end in itself.
Would love to go back there before I get too old and creaky.
I’d sooner have a bit of bog than a wooden road over it. It’s more realistic and more fun.
Surely that depends on the depth of the bog?
There are various bits of ancient, beyond use, woodwork around the Surrey Hills. Time consuming to build, quick to be destroyed.