[Closed] Macc Forest

Everything was running ace when i did a loop at the weekend. Never seen it so dry.

expect a bit of spray down charity lane and cumberland brook, they're never truly dry

Route wise? Go with edge cycle works?

which one are you considering? the hard or the classic?
http://www.theedgecycleworks.com/mtbroutes/

the hard seems a bit too much, you can probably get the best of the area by doing less. The run up to the teggs nose car park is not worth it imo.

my route choice would be to park at the bottom of cumberland clough. out of the carpark turn right up towards the forest, turn left up a short steep hill, follow signs for the chapel, at the top of the hill turn left offroad through the forest, follow the bike signs through the forest, all fireroad and then a steep stoney descent straight after the summit back to the edge of the water. cycle alongside the resovoir to the leathersmithy arms. turn right and go up up up, a mile or so along take the track to the left to go into the forest, stay on the same track, no turnings all the way through the forest (hope you like climbing) till you come out to tarmac, turn right and climb some more. at the top take a right to keep the forest on your right, this is charity lane, cycle to the top and drop your seat, have fun. at the bottom take left staying off road to go past a little church, fast grass gives way to a fantastic rock strewn very steep descent. (I love this bit) see if you can clean it, smile a lot if you can. At the bottom go left, then on a bit then right, then right after a climb to take you onto a major road to take you up to the cat and fiddle. At the tea shop a little bit on, hang a left then right straight away for an offroad climb that brings you out virtually at the cat n fiddle.
At the pub have a whisky & a coffee then take the bridleway immediately opposite, this bit is fun & can be very fast if no head wind. Once you get to the end of that go right, what you do now depends on how much time you have. you can either go down in the 3 shires and muck about there or you can straight on and have fun with the clough descent back to the car. A simple route down the 3 shires is... follow a tarmacced track down to the left, at the bottom of a hill (looks like this: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=macclesfield&hl=en&ll=53.222955,-1.988676&spn=0.000026,0.019205&sll=52.8382,-2.327815&sspn=9.602149,19.665527&t=h&safe=on&hnear=Macclesfield,+Cheshire+East,+United+Kingdom&z=16&layer=c&cbll=53.22296,-1.992768&panoid=k-x9-q4vQXvVNDM_9miKVQ&cbp=12,181.97,,0,5.15) when you come to a farm carry almost straight on through a walled track, it is marked bridleway I believe. through a gate and turn left to travel over grass to the edge of the field, don't leave that field but carry on to your right to come upon the river, through a gate at the end and follow the path to the bridge and waterfalls, very nice very pretty. stay on the right hand side of the river and follow the track up to the right as it bends round the side of the hill (the track on the left will take you to more mtbing and there is quite a few tracks that way, have a look at a map or someone else on here will tell you all about them) carry on till you get to a tarmacced road, go right and you'll come to the main road, go right and climb for a little bit for the left for cumberland. looks like this: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=macclesfield&hl=en&ll=53.220373,-1.996615&spn=0.000026,0.019205&sll=52.8382,-2.327815&sspn=9.602149,19.665527&t=h&hnear=Macclesfield,+Cheshire+East,+United+Kingdom&layer=c&cbll=53.220346,-1.996732&panoid=Q5btz9rrrj92xdD6h06ruA&cbp=12,266.88,,0,1.01&safe=on&z=16

then just follow that back to your car one track all the way, beautiful bit of downhill, the best in the area, next to trees and a lovely valley with a river etc, very nice indeed.

Wow. Cheers.....Will print that out....

Probably do classic / or the above as need to be back in Matlock for 1.30 latest....

there's a few on here with more knowledge than me so I won't purport to be an expert on macc forest but have ridden it maybe 6/7 times. if you need any help my email is on profile. always take a map of course with footpaths & bridleways on.

if you need satnav to the carpark do this: SK11 0BD
that's for the pub a mile south.

[url= http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=396782&Y=372702&A=Y&Z=115 ]Charity Lane[/url] and [url= http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=399444&Y=369891&A=Y&Z=115 ]Wild Boar/Cumberland Clough[/url] are musts.

I can highly recommend the maps from [url= http://bikemaps.co.uk ]Bike maps[/url]

You want the ones for macc forest/wildboarclough and Gradbach

But if you can follow the details posted above you'll have a cracking ride - I did an extended version of it a couple of weeks ago and was gob-smacked at how good, how quiet and how dry the trails were. Why haven't I ridden them before?

Jekyll.....pretty much did your route but started at cat and fiddle....so we could have a crazy climb as a finish!!!

Was a good route and charity lane was a highlight......probably need to find some more distance for next time.....