And no, I'm not suggesting replicating Sudbourne at Thetford.
I am! Preferably even better though.
There are quite a few downwardly inclined sections spread around the forest that are fun to ride, I'd suggest that no area can ever be all things to all people but Thetford obviously has a lot to offer. The numbers speak for themselves, week in week out there are hundreds of riders out there, a large proportion of those are localish and/or 'keen' Mtb'ers, if 50% of those became 'involved' the potential to improve the offering increases exponentially.
Read this thread a couple of weeks ago and have since been to Centre Parcs and spent some time riding thetford.
Before I went my sympathies naturally went with the trail builders but after going I can see were the OP is coming from.
There are several challenges for trail builders here of which I think the greatest, is not the lack of elevation, but the multitudinous ridge and furrow systems. It appears the forest has very recently been planted straight on agricultural land and the remains of ploughing in very severe, much more so than at swinley of any part of the surrey heath.
Generally flatish forest singletrack must be ridden at speed to be enjoyable but this proved very difficult at thetford due to the constant bumpyness of the terrain. In fact I'd say it was probably one of the most tiring trail centres I've done because you could nt really just sit down and spin.
I think there are at least another 2 issues.
1. The signs (probably down to the attitude of the local forestry commission ?). Seem quite a bit over the top especially for the bombholes some of which really just gentle dips in the ground.
Also calling a section "The Beast" this is actually somewhat laughable.
2. Being in a "nice" area with a low population density probably leads to a lack of funding.
Going to thetford did make me somewhat grateful for the £20 a year/£2 a go fee to use swinely forest though. This has allowed swinely/gorrick/BOB/others to build and maintain a good selection of trail which can stand up to a large number of riders.
In particularly I think the people at thetford could look at the latest addition to stickler (at Swinley) to see how to make a good trail in a totally flat area of forest.
But I can see the challenges are greater a thetford. In particularly I think the "links" are almost the hardest bit at thetford. What people want is a fairly flat piece of easily ridable singletrack to link up the good sections.
But at thetford unless you put this on "boring" fireroad, the ridge and furrow system means the "link" is actually more tiring than the "real" sections. Or alternatively large amounts of work needs to be put into trail to flatten it, which could be spent on the "real" sections.
Still thetford has some massive advantages
1. Its a huge bit of forest for the south/midlands of England.
2. Low population density suggests there is unlikely to be future conflict between user groups. Felt very quiet while I was there even Saturday morning.
I'm sure some very good trails will develop in time, but at the moment I think its somewhat behind similar trails at cannock/swinely. Personally think this is down to an overly cautious attitude from the FC and probably a lack of funding/manpower (low population density) rather than the lack of elevation. Which is what I think the OP was trying to suggest.
There is loads of really good single track in the forest, most of it is unmarked, but you can find maps of it all online. The signed trails are a poor advert for the real trails, although keep the masses off them.
I did find some other bits of trail, and I did notice that some of them actually appear to be in better condition that the main trail.
I think alot of it is marked on openstreet map, but I didnt have enough time to make a full reccy.
The real problems is that the waymarked trails are just wild trails that have been adopted and then ridden to death with zero maintainance. All of the way marked trails bar the Red are knackered beyond recognition and need substantial investment in them. The red is the exception, becuase it was originally "created" out of wild trails and then destroyed in under a year. TIMBER formed as a reaction to that, and it has been their objective since then to get the red into a long term sustainable condition as a first priority. It is just about there now. They have currently moved on to the Green to try to get that in shape before everyone who visits the Forest diverts onto the Red which is the only thing that isn't a quagmire or sand trap depending on the weather.
Everyone keeps going on about the wild trails, but they are diminshing in number and quality year by year. Its in the nature of the beast in a commercial forest that there will be harvesting and thinning, and when that happens unadopted trails will get trashed. This year there has been substantial harvesting at BCP. That pales into insignificance when you see the thinning map for the next 18 months or so. There is hardly a block at High Lodge that remains untouched by it.
The timber boys are on it and trying to achieve positive outcomes, but the reallity is that they are few and the issues are many, so any support would be welcome. they have a meeting on Thursday this week, so if you can roll up and give your support.
scu98rkr- I love swinley but it has no marked trails, some of the unmarked singletrack at thetford is as good as swinley singletrack.
The main advantage of thetford is that someone new can turn up and ride 2 plus marked trails. Which swinley doesn’t offer.
The main disadvantage is it doesn’t have the fun bits like "The Gully", "Deerstalker" etc...
100% agree Timbers guys should take a road trip to swinley, Lots there that would work well at thetford (meet up with a local for the best bit thought)
