piss-take of a long hairpin on forest road
That’ll be the big silly bit after the halfway cafe. Miss that.
The Beast is ace. Yes, there are fire-road bits but IMHO the singletrack bits make up for it. You don’t expect to ride 38km of solid singletrack!
Follow the signs all the way to the halfway cafe. After that, keep following the signs until you hit the gravel fire-road (peels off to the right of the steep tarmac road). After a couple of hundred metres on the fire-road, take the hairpin on the left that doubles back on yourself. Stick to that back to the tarmac road and then turn right and straight into the next fire-road. That will take you straight to the top of the Addams Family on the left. Doing that means you can bypass a) the silly huge loop on another fireroad b) the absolute killer of a tarmac road climb.
Is Tarw the one on the other side of the road (the old Red Bull)?? Thats a cracking trail. We did it this time last year in the pouring rain and not had as much fun for a long while. Quite a drag up top but the long, long descent on singletrack, followed by a pretty funky knackered fireroad bit followed by more ace rocky singletrack… awesome.