Forest of Dean & Wye Valley off piste

I’ve been watching some great films from FODmtb on Instagram, now inspired to ride there… Does anyone have any gpx routes they’d be happy to share?

I also recall some interesting routes around Wye Valley does anyone have any recommended routes? I like a big climb, great view and a technical descent!

Thanks in advance

Climb up the fire road from Biblins to Staunton (a great warm up), go to the top of the Suck Stone cliff for a big view then ride the trails through the woods back down again.

More info recently posted in this thread: https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/nice-down-the-forest-of-dean-today/

I did a days guided uplift assisted ridign there in January. It was amazing. I got the impression that all of the best bits were a bit spread out…hence the landrover uplift zipped between downs. I think we got about 10-11 decents in throughout the day. Highly recommended. Went with WyeMTB. was about £95 per person for the day inc lunch. a really good antidote to a BPW or BMCC uplift day.

+1 for the WyeMTB Wye Valley Off-Piste uplift day (once they’re back up and running, obviously). A great day out, a big variety of descents and a great lunch!

If you want to save £95 then come out with us on a Wednesday evening. We generally ride 3-4 of the same descents that Wye MTB ride (in fact we may have “pioneered” some of the less well known ones!). We do, however ride to the tops of them so expect 800-1000m of climbing of an evening 🙂 We do save them for winter generally, as they ride fine in the slop, whereas the mountains ride better in summer.

I think the best stuff is away from the Pedalway centre over at the Dowies and shutcastle and some good trails to do on the way from the pedalway centre just my view Staunton sounds good not been over there for years will make a trip.

If you want to save £95 then come out with us on a Wednesday evening. We generally ride 3-4 of the same descents that Wye MTB ride (in fact we may have “pioneered” some of the less well known ones!). We do, however ride to the tops of them so expect 800-1000m of climbing of an evening 🙂 We do save them for winter generally, as they ride fine in the slop, whereas the mountains ride better in summer.

Can you share details of the Wednesday meetup? And when you say “the mountains ride better in summer” I assume you mean the alps/dolomites/etc. But do you mean somewhere in the UK???

Lots of nice trails near Mallards Lake too.

@unclesomebody

I am fortunate to live in the middle of the Black Mountains north of Abergavenny (just a couple of miles from BMCC if you know where that is). As such I have great mountain riding on my doorstep. However, much of it gets a bit wet in winter to be pleasant, hence we tend to head over to Trellech or Staunton areas in winter as the riding there stands up to winter conditions better than the peat bogs on the hills! Plus a couple of the guys who ride in our informal group of mates live between Raglan and Monmouth so that is their local area really. We would normally meet around 6 on a Wednesday evening and ride for 2-3 hours, putting in 800-1000m of climbing and hitting anything from fast and flow to steep and techie. As the mood takes us really. Very informal. Mountain rides would be anything in the Black Mountains or the eastern Beacons as far as Penyfan, lowland riding might be Stauton/Redbrook, Wentwood, FOD, or maybe Pontypool. On the Weekend any of those places might see an extended ride. Normally full on and pretty gnarly though. You would need to be wearing your big boy pants, if you get my drift. Drop me a PM if you’re interested and I will let you know next time we are out that way, once we in Wales get the go ahead to be able to travel for exercise!

@welshfarmer Can I come live with you? My flatlands of Suffolk are getting a bit tedious..

@ready

my mum was from Norfolk so every summer holiday we spent time over there with grandparents up near Aylsham. Little bro still lives on the Suff/Nor border and older bro married a girl from Ipswich. So I do know what you are going through 🙂

You would be welcome to come and stay. I am currently in the process of building a toilet and shower block fro a small campsite/campervan pitch for when lockdown is over. Happy to show anyone the best riding routes in the local area if they come to stay. With any luck Wales might get some relaxation of the rights of ways legislation which will open up a huge host of possibilities for great rides in the local area, not yet freely available 😉

I’m Coming over to ride and explore FOD on Sunday, I’ve riden the centre and raced the enduro and UKGE rounds when they’ve been there over the years, so have an idea of where the stages are.
Are there other off piste other than that?
Where is this Dowies trial I hear mentioned regularly?
And Staunton looks to be the other side of the main centre, can it be ridden to from there or best to aim to park somewhere else?

Dowies is around the Bromley / Shutcastle inclosures close to Parkend, https://www.trailforks.com/trails/doeys-1/

There’s loads of off piste stuff between Canop and Shutcastle, depends how much time you have and how much hunting you want to do, you can head out of Canop then do Y2K/Elephant Man, go over the road and up the climbs to off piste stuff there, or head straight down the fireroads to Shutcastle and hunt around there.

Staunton is west of Canop, so one or the other would be worth it in a day, only been a couple of times so not up to speed on the best to do there.

Just print off some bits from Trailforks (unless you want to pay for it – not sure when the charging comes in) and do a bit of exploring. We did that a few weekends ago and whilst we spent some time trying to work bits out we had a great day.

We started warming up round the blue until you hit the fireroad at the top of the DH runs then zipped down one of those. At the bottom you turn right and follow that fireroad along until you hit the bottom of the official enduro style runs (elephant man / Y2K). They’re worthy a ride. If you keep following that fireroad along there’s a bit called the frying pan which has loads of off piste / unofficial stuff – generally steeper / roomier / loamier than the trail centre. You can then ride towards Parkend and get to Dowies. The trails we rode there were quite long, fast and flowy and just a lot of fun, without being trail centre built up / surfaced. We then joined the family trail to get back to pedlaway. That worked out about 40k and 1100 ish metres of climbing and was fairly full on. We didn’t get to Staunton / Shutcastle / Mallards etc – there’s so much to explore.

I’m Coming over to ride and explore FOD on Sunday, I’ve riden the centre and raced the enduro and UKGE rounds when they’ve been there over the years, so have an idea of where the stages are.
Are there other off piste other than that?
Where is this Dowies trial I hear mentioned regularly?
And Staunton looks to be the other side of the main centre, can it be ridden to from there or best to aim to park somewhere else?

The stuff (official and old race stages) at PBA is pretty hammered, everywhere. Not often you see a local riding there, for good reason.

As others have mentioned there is enough over the road on Barn Hill to entertain you, most of the stuff you will find is the easy trails. Same goes for Doeys, those two areas are probably the most known off piste ‘nursery slopes’.

There are however, pretty much trails in every woodland, and enclosure. Most of which don’t exist on Strava, or Trailforks & are ‘locals only’ – finding them wouldn’t be easy, or building them into a loop. They are generally another few levels above the stuff 99% of people find and ride as well.

I also wouldn’t ride to Staunton from PBA. And now it’s raining, it’s wild there.

[strong]Hob Nob[/strong] wrote:

I also wouldn’t ride to Staunton from PBA. And now it’s raining, it’s wild there.

Camber only comes alive after rain 🙂

I also wouldn’t ride to Staunton from PBA. And now it’s raining, it’s wild there.

i was there in march in the wet and it was MINT. a swamp but MINT – what i consider proper biking – ie hard and tech. besides – sideways is more fun than forwards every day.

Off piste in any area is often a bit sensitive if you know what I mean and so is best not published.

Awesome, some great information there, thanks
I’ll be on the e180 on Sunday and prefer as steep and techy as possible so will just head down the Y2K and peel down to Doeys and go have an explore.
no wander I couldn’t find Dowies anywhere if it’s called Doeys!!

Thanks!

I’m happy to be alive after riding Camber after rain

Fixed that for you 🙂 We rode Staunton on Sunday and it was riding really well. Middle bit of bunker was a bit wet and will be wetter after rain yesterday. Just off out there again today.

PBA to Staunton is 1 hour min and it’s not the most interesting ride to get there.

Dowies was named after the bloke who originally built it.

@jim25 you’ll be better off going to Staunton if it’s steep and techy you want. Doeys/Dowies are great trails, but steep they’re not.

I might be around on Sunday and can show you some steep-ish stuff between Pedalabikeaway and Dowies.

Doeys / Dowies definitely isn’t steep and tech so I’d give that a swerve if that’s what you like. Fast and flowy with some little jumps / drops and small berms and feeling fairly natural is what Dowies is like. Goes on for quite a long way and it’s a bit of a slog back up but my mate loved it.

In his mind FOD was just the red / blue trail centre laps plus the DH runs but I’ve opened his eyes to there being a lot more there. I need to go and explore some more as I’ve not been to mallards or shutcastle or Staunton or most of the areas!

I recently moved to the area and it’s amazing riding along the forest roads to get to the places I already know and seeing so many trails popping out of the woods that just aren’t on trailforks and strava. I need to do a good explore of the trails just south of Speech House Road, the ones just north of Wasteland and those other black trails on trailforks. I did Wasteland for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it’s made me realise that I need to get used to more steeper trails, that one isn’t even that steep but I still kind of lock up on the steeper corners!

joe – Shutcastle is like Dowies. Natural and flowy with some jumpy drops, it’s good fun if you like Dowies and I find the climb back up less of a slog.

Mallards would be a better bet for steep and tech than Dowies. I haven’t been for a few weeks so I’m not sure how it’s riding at the moment.

Mallards is riding good, a lot of trails were blocked off by the forestry but have mostly been cleared now, the new Lockdown trail is still blocked halfway down. Plenty of steep trails if that’s what your after @jim25

More great info, thanks
I’m riding solo Sunday, Unless if maybe @doomanic is about, so think I’ll head to the pedal centre and start from there, do a few runs I know and then head out to Dowies area, I’m happy to ride a mix of all stuff. Presumably there most be other trials around the Dowies area that I can spot?
If I play it right I’ve got appprox 30 Miles in the battery to play with, so plenty of time to get fully lost!

I prefer Shutcastle to Dowies. More natural, more runs, more roots 🙂

It’s a bit slippy out there. Rained quite a lot overnight and this morning. Prob be good by Saturday.

Dowies–>Shutcastle is 10 mins riding.

Is there a way through the forest from Dowies to Shutcastle? I can see 3 or 4 trails on trail forks at shutcastle, Sam’s, shutcastle and sweet as. Are there more in that area tucked away?

Dowies to Shutcastle is easy. Ride any of the Dowies runs*, turn back up the fireroad and keep going (past where you’d turn right to get back to the top of Dowies runs) until you meet the road. Turn left down the steep hill, then right (watch out on that junction, it’s blind). Head up that road for a few mins until you see a forestry turning on your left. In there first left and you’re at the top of all the Shutcastle runs.

There’s a few runs. Flat as/Sweet as goes across the fire road early. All the others cross further down at different points. There are at least 5 although there has been some logging.

SAMS trail is the way out it takes you (eventually) to the bottom of the Bluebell trail on the Dowies side.

*you could also get there from Motorcycle/Murdochs trail if you can find that on trailforks.

Don’t forget the shutcastle drop, its left off the left trail.

I was out in Staunton last night and the trails weren’t too bad, bit of mud, bit of water but riding ok.
I did have a couple of “WTF am I doing” moments on Bunker.

I did have a couple of “WTF am I doing” moments on Bunker.

I have those in the dry. Just after the time I’m thinking ‘this isn’t as hard as I remember’ 🙂

Don’t forget the shutcastle drop, its left off the left trail.

I think I’ve seen this one, I’ve only ridden Shutcastle twice and almost went down that way but noped out seeing that it was quite steep! I’ll have to go back and give it a proper go though.

You’ll need to there early if you’re planning on using the PABA car park. It’s been heaving on weekends for a while.

Also, remember rule 1 and don’t be tempted to ride the advanced skills area by the centre. It’s closed for maintenance but some entitled **** keep ripping the orange fence down to ride it and do a lot of damage to the rear unfinished repairs.

Need to discuss weekend plans with the long haired general. I’ll do that tonight and let you know if I can make it.

The left Shutty trail is the steepest over that side.

There are some considerably steeper in Doeys if you know where to looks however 🙂

You can park at Parkend and ride to Dowies and Shutcastle very easily.

@jim25 I’ll be at Pedalabikeaway at 9 tomorrow morning, riding with a few mates. Happy for you to tag along or I can just point you in the right direction.