Bloody hate that phrase when regarding mountain biking… anyhow, how well do the non trail centre bits of Cannock drain? I’m heading up for the BMBS event on Saturday and just wondering how much it will have dried by then after the heavy rain of the last couple of days?

Cheers 8)

Depends which off-piste. Some dries pretty quickly after rain. There are other parts I’ve only seen dry for one week a year!

And Porno is ruined. For now.

depends which off-piste

The stuff around the Tackeroo campsite, in that little wedge between the birches valley road and the Penkridge bank/stafford brook road. I think they use some of the trail stuff and some natural

A lot of the “off piste” stuff is over grown with bramble

I’m guessing given its a national level event they’ll have cleared some of it for us 😉

I don’t know alot of it, but the bits i know were mostly overgrown at the weekend, I was picking bits of bramble out of my ankles and arms for the rest of the day. Bits down in dark slade are running nicely though

Bracken is also pretty fierce in places.

While it’s very interesting to learn about the botanical prowess of Cannock, can anyone just comment on the drainage around the tackeroo area? 😆

It shouldn’t be too bad.

I’m not far away no the rain hadn’t been that bad. Some bits will be a bit sloppy, but nowt too bad. The bigger issue is it being overgrown…really overgrown. The bracken has gone nuts in places.

can anyone just comment on the drainage around the tackeroo area?

Erm if you’re talking about the usual xc route it’s not too bad. July was quite dry so the place is generally very dry and any rain drains away quickly.

The sections by the road are not bone dry but not cut up either. Where the tree cover is sparse it’s pretty good but in the denser parts it’s still damp. The forecast for the next few days is good so it should continue to improve. as above the undergrowth is apocalyptic at the moment but no doubt the race organisers will cut back the worst

Thanks Mindmap/rocketman

Undergrowth is brutal on the trails by me at the moment too – but not as bad as my garden 😳

In the dense younger plantation areas there isn’t much sunlight, the xc race bits are roughly cut in and often lie below the surrounding ground level, so there is a tendency for water to pool up in the dips.
To summarise, it’s as dry as it’s going to be all year but there may be areas of wet stinking mud with smell of dead animal.

Having lived here for years I can still never really guess quite how wet stuff is going to be on the chase; you can be hub deep in muddy slime one minute then be riding through a sand dune the next.

@phiiiiil – very true, I was riding in sand up to my rims at one point on Sunday wishing for a fatbike, then just round the corner I nearly lost a shoe in ankle deep squelchy mud. Next doors drive looked a right mess when I hosed my bike off on it. Sure it’ll be fine when they get back off holiday 😆

I came down 3 weeks ago to stay locally with the family. Lovely trail, seems very well maintained. Rented a bike last year & rode it all, loved it.

Shame then that the bike I rented this year died b4 the end of High Voltage. Long way to come for under 3 miles cycling. Nvm. What I did ride seemed dusty & lose, nice change to my local swamp.

Hope you all enjoyed your unofficial practice today. Apologies if my tyres got in the way