Gisburn Forest is open.

Thanks to yellow crayon man though, that made things a bit easier

That was me 🙂 , I should point out that all my yellow crayon markings were done in such a way that they will either disappear or be covered up when the new proper markers go in, I had prior knowledge of the route and I knew how the post markers would work, please don't anybody else start marking the posts. I apologise that it all went a bit pearshaped in the middle, but the FC foresters had put one post in the wrong place and (at the time) two posts were missing. I didn't realise this until I got to them, then I had a bit of a dilema, but decided it would generally still help people if they knew in most places whether to turn left or right. I haven't been able to get back and see if these issues have been sorted out, but the foresters were def aware of the post in the wrong place and they had more posts to go in situ.

rode gisburn tonight, and have to say it was cracking once i got some knowledge off the team bad lads that had riden there before! only a short skip across the trough from lancaster too which is great!

Also just rode it tonight with a groups of people I met in car park who showed us the way …must have seen you at some point surely.

I'm off up there again (from Lancaster too!) tomorrow morning for a quick blast.

Nice to meet you pinches, keep checkin our forum for when we are next there. (that's if you want to ride with us again though!?)

yep up for riding with you boys again!

Junkyard, i was riding a rather inappropriate on one scandal.

Red Intense spider long hair faffing with broken GPS ring any bells?

white genesis / white pisspot for me. Pinches i remember seeing you there i think!

white pisspot rings a bell, i don't recall an intense, which is rare i'm normally quite the spotter of intenses

junkyard were you at the top of them big berms?

HI. Looking to head up here tomorrow (Sunday 2nd) for the first time but have just noticed there is a dig day? Will this impact on the amount of trail that will be open or is this new trail you are working on? thanks in advance!

little vid from tother night http://www.flickr.com/photos/39258212@N02/3777901008/

tom 😉

Did it again yesterday and really enjoyed it. Did the slab this time – it's not really too bad, just looks a bit steep from above. It's good fun doing that and the section after with some speed built up from it. Got a bit more air on some of the jumps and bumps this time. Really like the two black sections and the volunteer bit.

Can anyone tell me whereabouts the downhill stuff is? Haven't spotted it yet while riding around. Need to see if I am man enough to attempt any of it 🙂

Bregante
It's a new bit of trail, so there will be no restrictions.

Grumm
The DH stuff (what's left of it after the clear felling) is a bit further along the forest road from where you would otherwise turn right into the quarry on the new xc route. There is an obvious big double on the side of the forest road which is a good point of ref.

right across the road from my vid 😉

whats the crack withe the way marking? went round the other night but people showed us round, don't think i could find the way again 🙂

Read the thread!

give me a break there's 8 pages! 😉

Life's tough sometimes. 😛

aint it

Rode there solo yesterday afternoon. No idea of where the new routes were so just followed fire roads until spotting the entry points. Yellow crayon man did me a service otherwise I'd never have known whether to go left or right after exiting.
Congratulations on the work you guys have done. I haven't visited since 2000 so a big improvement. I gave the slab a miss but enjoyed the black run.
Managed to take a couple of wrong turnings whereby I lost my bearings for a moment or two. Should be excellent when the signage is up. A bit of luck I wandered into a quarry and found a new line to Whelp Stone Crag.

A few general photos here

If you read the thread, there is a GPS file of the route – if you don't have a GPS/mapping software you can upload it to a site like bikehike.co.uk and get a map of the route. I managed fine navigating round using a screengrab of this which I sent to my phone, along with the handy yellow crayon arrows.

neil853 – Member

whats the crack withe the way marking? went round the other night but people showed us round, don't think i could find the way again

Post at the top of this page explains the crack with the way marking. there's a map on page 1 or 2…

Map (for the hard of scrolling):

link to loads of other photos here[/url].

Anyone still want a .GPX file let me know or scroll back through the thread as some kind sole has hosted on the tinterweb somewhere.

Been digging again today, few new faces turned out which was good, more needed please. Forest was heaving today, big groups of 10 or so riders kept going past. The FC guy with us today kept shaking his head and sying he'd never seen it so busy.

To the guys I spoke to about helping out (with your own digger), email this guy:

Martin.Charlesworth@lancashire.gov.uk

he'll be able to give you contact details of the FC guys who you really need to speak to. Your help will be more than welcome I' sure.

Anyone know if there is somewhere close by to hire an MTB? I'm up in Preston at the weekend and hopefully taking the nephew out for a ride, but he needs to hire a bike first.

Cheers

Went up to Gisburn again on Saturday.It's highly entertaining and much faster on the cross bike! 8)I did get some funny looks though.
Only bits I didn't ride were the slab (Not because I wouldn't but I fear for the forks!) and the rock chute early on because there were folks walking up it.
I really do like the place, plus it's only 40 mins from home.

I was also wondering where the nearest decent hire place is?

I'm not sure but there is a local shop that will bring bikes out to the forest and meet you and pick them up afterwards. I think they have a board in Cocklett Hill carpark. If anyone's up there in the next few days could you have a look and make a note of the details.

Ta

Me and a few mates are off to Scotland on Wednesday for a few days and fancy doing Gisburn on the way back. It seems tough to navigate by the sounds of things unless you have a GPS? Is that right or is it easy to get round?

How's the signage coming along? Any idea when it'll all be in place?

It's pretty easy to navigate if you, say, printed out that map above as a backup, and then followed the yellow signs that B.A.Nana has crayoned on to the signposts. 🙂

I used an old Pendle Council map from years ago (less detailed than the one above). This enabled me to navigate the fire roads and find the trail signs. The 'yellow crayon man' did a good service by adding his markers. Without them you'd not know whether to go left or right on exiting onto a fire road.
I wandered into the quarry and found the red to the 'Slab' but may have missed a sign.
Anyway, it adds to the fun finding your way around.

awesome work stumpjon.

Went there yesterday – Sunday. I especially enjoyed the retro northshore and bridges – great touch – they tinkle like riding a xylophone.

My two boys (9 & 11) rode it and other than Sam having a paddy on the big berms on the black and leaving that big slab for me they did the lot & loved it.

I was there again last week and was suprised by the number of people who missed out the slab bit; they just had a look and couldn't be bothered.

I also met the most miserable man in the world, who couldn't even reply to a couple of simple "Morning"'s. His mate was a cheery soul, though, so I assume it wasn't me. Maybe he didn't like being caught?

It's not so much couldn't bothered with the slab, more scares the willies out of me, one fine day though it will be mine.

I had to think twice before shutting down brain & going for it

The slab is ace cos you get a great bit of speed up for the next section. Bit intimidating at first but it's dead easy really – just don't try and brake on it!

I found the slab fairly unimpressive; there is a section in a local ride that is steeper and rougher (quarry near Mitchell's House, Stumpy – do you know it?)

The rock steps in thre trees early I find more nerve-wracking; they are always look so slimey and wet. It's all in the head, though.

I built those steps so I had to ride them, bit of speed and don't panic and they are very doable, going to build some more on the next section. My mate pointed out that some of the drops on the coaster section are probably as steep as the slab, just a lot more friendly to look at.

Don't know the other drops, Mitchell's House rings bells though.