Delamere – Old Pale, 1/2 mile of downhill singletrack

Spent 2 hours today clearing back the brambles & nettles on the old DH track on Old Pale.
Now the trees have grown it’s become a great twisty singletrack with a few small jumps and berms.
Needs people to ride it though to keep it clear.
It’s well worth the climb!

There’s climbs in Delamere?? 😉

i never rode the track but knew about it off forums etc. i have had a look once or twice recently but couldn’t see anything. where does it start in relation to the mast?

Which side off Old Pale?
Coming up the zig zags, under the TV towers..
Then where?

From the new “monument” look down towards the visitor centre mid way between the 2 paths up from the overflow carpark/concert arena.
There’s a grassy field in front of you, in the far corner there’s a gap in the hedges, head straight for that and you’re on your way.

Meant to check this out this morning when I was out.

But forgot 😐

I thought you’d binned the push bike and preferred engines now!? Gonna have to come down and see you as soon as my ‘condition’ sorts itself out

Will try to get a group or two down there 🙂

Thought the fc had closed that down years ago?

It has mysteriously “opened” again.
Danny, getting back into it mate, get down here for a ride!
Still doing the trackdays though & new MX track opening next month by us.
Don’t know where I find the time 🙂

Found it..

Assuming you mean the trail that starts by the wooden fence panel that’s got a green square on it??
Looks fun..

In a non-tech-mince-core-lite™ kinda way…

So pretty perfect for throwing into the normal SS loop..

🙂

I saw that there was the maikngs of a route last week, but having not ridden it B4 gave it a miss, expecting insane drop off’s and mega jumps made by a 15yr old trials junkie (like some parts of the Del)are there any death leaps etc?

Nice one colp. That’ll make a change to the zig-zags decent.

No death leaps or drop offs any more, they all got taken out. A few little kicker jumps at the top which can be rolled, a nice drop off into the big berm (optional), a tiny little ski jump on the hedge straight, a big ski jump at the end of the hedge straight (just roll it if you want to), then a few bumps in the old rock garden, round the left berm and you are back out onto the new wide path than takes you back up to the monument.
All hardtail friendly and beginner level really.
Hit it fast and it’s a blast though.
If it’s been raining it feels like somebody has been down there before you rubbing a packet of lard on the trail though, all good mind!

Nice work Col, you’re right about about the lard. Rode it on Monday evening after the rain and it was interesting on summer tyres!

I did wander who had cleared it, well done that man!

Agreed on the slippiness, yikes!

Me and my mate have been meaning to do that for months, cheers 😆

We’ve done a bit more.
The middle section of the return back down the hedge line was turning into a bit of a quagmire (giggaddee), so we’ve created a stone section from the flatest rocks we could find, we’ll do a bit more next week.
Also, improved the drainage right at the end before the last berm and put a little jump in, just be careful as the landing is between rocks. We’ve cleared the takeoff on the big jump just before that section (the one that sends you into the quick left/right) so you can take a straighter line, it’s a bit easier in the wet.
More next week, let us know if there’s anything you don’t like or any ideas.
We’ll probably just keep tidying/shaping jumps & sorting drainage.

Rode that stone section last night, its pretty good and heading in the right direction!! I think the best approach is to almost throw caution to the wind as being cautious seems to make you slip and slide everywhere (into a tree, luckily i managed to scrub all my speed off with my shocking v-brakes).
Try and stick to the grass and it is good but on the wet mud it is nuts!

Cool, I’ll have a looksee tonight….

I’ve riden the route a few times now and it is shaping well. However when I rode down it tonight I hit a fence wire, which I didn’t see, running across the route at the top end. On hitting it I went over the handlebars, no damage to me or the bike. When I went back to look at the wire, it looked as though it had been proped up with a stake. It looked like some one had set it up intentionally as a booby trap, so its probably worth taking care when riding the route. The wire is still there but without the stake a bike should role over it.

Buzz – you were lucky as i type with a stiff neck, few bruises and all the ligaments in my wrist torn and a time off from riding. That wire was there on Monday night (4th) as i unfortunately found out as i hit it flat out pedalling and went over the bars so if it caught you yesterday then someone has been back up on Tuesday between me hitting it at 8pm on Monday night. I didnt have anything on me to get rid of the wire so just tried to tramp it down into the grass as it was attached but will be carrying the Park cutters and going for a walk with the dog.

Cant help thinking its a reaction to the digging holes and piles of litter that have appeared up there in the last week – how do the scallies even find that trail?

only scallies litter hey?

I hit that bobby trap Sunday afternoon.got away with just bruises and sore ribs.I removed the wire some scrote must have put it back up ! I reported it to a ranger ,he said he would keep an eye out for any more.

It’s disapointing to see a return of this type of behaviour to the forest. The fact that some one is going back to maintain the wire is a serious issue. It is more worrying as the route is clearly for bikes and therefore does not impact on any other forest users. Having said that, I did come across a guy walking his dog up the route one day!!!

The offending bit of wire has been removed from the trail. Hopefully we won’t see one back in its place. In the mean time it’s probaly worth taking it easy on the entrance to the trail just in case.
Looks like a bit more work has gone on shoring up the rock garden too. Needs a strimmer down it though – got nettled to death the other night!

Don’t be put of by the downhill comment, its sweeping singletrack not a DH track

Found this trail last night and began a rapid decent from the top only to be enclosed by nettles and thorns half way down!!

The Mrs and I took revenge on the offensive said stingies for 2 hours with sticks and I now have the pleasure to report, we now have a completely nettle free track so enjoy it while you can!

Great track, well worth the climb and I do intend to get up there with a spade and build up the bermed corners and add a few others although I intend to let the stick swinging blisters die down first.

Possible scope to have the trail enter the additional woodland below and have over 1 mile of sweeping singletrack for all to enjoy.

Come on Delamere riders club, grab your sticks and spades and join your slightly less organised comrades

The two trees that were across the trail coming away from the Bombhole accessed from Ashton Road have also been removed,no stinginess/brambles to show for it either, which is a minor miracle. 😀
As is the old Silver Birch that was across the trail to Whitefields carpark, following the main Hatchmere road, that one was hard work, one big saw and 4 of us to swing the remains off to the side.

Just done it this morning for the first time. Very good indeed, many thanks to all that have put the effort in to get it this entertaining.
Would it be possible to get a few there working on said trails without making it obvious? Wouldn’t be a bad way to spend a couple of hours, I’m sure enough of us have fold up spades, saws etc. 😉

I wouldn’t do anything major without speaking to the FC on this as they are liable to kick off big time if you do anything they don’t like or have prior consent fir

GJ, yup I’ll be there, I would like to re-build the log Bridges on Dead Dog Log, and also a couple of the others on the way out on the perimeter trail.

steve_b77 – Member
I wouldn’t do anything major without speaking to the FC on this as they are liable to kick off big time if you do anything they don’t like or have prior consent fir

Ithink what G means is its more a case of enhancing what we’ve got, rather than a building a whole Jedi Stle North Shore Boardwalk set up..

Thats it! just a few running repairs really before the weather goes all winter on us. As Nick said that log roll bridge could do with a bit of a re-build.I’m off on holiday all next week, if any-one fancies it, mail address in profile if any one wants to sort it that way. 😉

I’m relatively local and happy to help as and when I can…

GJ, will gladly help out any evening you want next week- can be with you by about 1830? Dont mind bringing saws/ nails etc…

Teetosugars, I’ll be there all day on Tuesday, so not then please, will be ready for beer by then!Curry night on Wednesday, so either Monday or Thursday night would be ok,but I’ll probably be there most days next week.
Would it make sense to meet you by the Bombhole where we took Tons flying pics, or would somewhere else work better for you?

If you want to maintain stuff and not get on the wrong side of the FC (i’ve had a lot of dealings with them over the last couple of years), dont use branches you found lying about, use some decent timber, dont make anything too high off the ground and dont dig big holes. That pretty much is all the things that will get their back up. Maintaining and trail clearing is ok… on the hush hush. They dont seem to have a rider/mtb supporter working there now after the last guy went long term sick and then left.

Will be up there doing a bit once things start dying off September time.

Right oh, thanks for the heads up, that’s how I / we do stuff anyway. Just so happens we have a surplus of decking timbers.

Trainee Trail Pixie reporting for duty!

Nice one, another willing volunteer 😀 We could be close to getting somewhere now, just need to sort times that are workable for everyone now…