dropping something off in Stafford, and never been to Cannock.
so gravel type stuff for 2 old plodders on tourers ?
and cafe’s n a pub obviously.

@Houns has taken me on a nice gravel ride round there. Much nicer than the actual train centre.

Rapha did their first Gravel Prestige around Cannock chase. You can probably find a gpx out there with a spot of googling.

The Sherbrooke Valley route is a great one. Very much a gravel ride I’d say, but you may have to design in the pub stop.

Sherbrooke trail

Sherbrooke trail

I normally start at Marquis drive visitor centre with free parking.

HERE
To be fair, the official Follow the Dog route is pretty much Gravel bike territory.

Plenty of forest roads so can’t go wrong for gravel though boring, follow the tyre tracks for secret off piste stuff…. Or use the proper trails (follow yer dad/Monkey) for other options

@munrobiker I think that was last time I rode Cannock 😣

To be fair, the official Follow the Dog route is pretty much Gravel bike territory.

Yep, all easily ride-able on a gravel bike.

This is the route for the glorious Gravel event i did there last year. Pretty decent.

https://www.strava.com/activities/6919886573

That looks perfect for a bit of gravel training – Tx for the route. Hit the follow button while I was trying to copy the route. Feel free to ignore or accept as you wish ☺️

I rode a blue route there once that was completely separate from the dog or monkey. If its still there and marked that would be ideal.

Loads of options, you can even head towards Shugborough and ride through the grounds and pick up the canal. Some sections of the towpath are pretty muddy this time of the year though. Plenty of options for pubs/cafes. You’ve got the Barley Mow at Milford (along with Wimpy if that floats your boat), Fallow Forest is great, the bacon/brie toasties are delicious, Spring Slade Lodge is nice but a bit pricey then there’s the Horns at Slitting Mill and others I’ve probably missed. Fairly easy to navigate between those following forest roads.

Marquis Drive is the best cafe. If you go over the road to Shugborough, the Clifford Arms in Great Haywood is a fine pub.
Loads of wide forest roads with some stunning views. As someone who has ridden the chase for about 60 years I’d be happy sticking to those. A few with proper deep gravel which can easily be bypassed.

Marquis Drive cafe for the date and coconut cake (sometimes cherry and sultana) is what I always go for.
Free all day parking at springslade lodge, marquis Drive, Seven springs, punchbowl. All good starting places.

 forest roads with some stunning views

Stunning views?

In Cannock?

There used to be one fire road section which gave a view straight down the valley with Rugeley power station framed at the end. That was pretty good, from an engineering perspective,  maybe not the most naturally attractive though.

Trail now bypassed and the power station knocked down.

Stunning views?

In Cannock?

I’d say so yes. Away from the trail centre especially there are some really beautiful bits.
Obviously there’s no snow-topped mountains and glassy lakes and shit but yeah, some lovely bits.
It has to be taken in context too. Quite often when I’ve been there I can’t quite believe I’ve just come off the M6.

Could be worse I suppose.

From Seven Springs Car park (Northern most point of Sherbrook loop) drop down to road, across bridge and two pubs half a mile along Meadow Road in Little Haywood, Lamb and Flag better for sitting inside, Red Lion better for sitting outside.

 Away from the trail centre especially there are some really beautiful bits.

I’m not saying it’s grim, it’s really quite nice.

Describing cleared sections of forestry land as stunning is definitely open to interpretation though, if not downright questionable

That looks perfect for a bit of gravel training – Tx for the route. Hit the follow button while I was trying to copy the route. Feel free to ignore or accept as you wish ☺️

I think I’ve just done exactly the same…….although without managing to get the GPX copied

Describing cleared sections of forestry land as stunning is definitely open to interpretation though, if not downright questionable

Tell us you’ve never done anything but the man-made trails on Cannock Chase without telling us you’ve never done anything but the man-made trails on Cannock Chase…

Tell us you’ve never done anything but the man-made trails on Cannock Chase without telling us you’ve never done anything but the man-made trails on Cannock Chase…

And? I’ve ridden Cannock twice – both times because I was passing.

I live in the Peak District, so not in a hurry to make a trip to Cannock to explore

Whether they are off the beaten track or not, the pics above are of cleared sections of forestry land?

There’s miles of fire roads over the chase, you could ride for hours, I did an Evans Off road ride it a few years ago and it was 35-40 miles all off road not even road crossings other than the one outside the start/finish area. Might have the gpx for that somewhere will have a look.

Would definitely have been gravel able, there was one section of follow the dog that might be a bit iffy but other than that would be great.

You can easily get to the wimpy in Milford Ton
https://locations.wimpy.uk.com/england/staffordshire/milford/lichfield-road.html

Being a lot older and slower than the rest of the Thursday night crew I once followed a blinking red light in the distance for about half a mile on one of those uphill fire roads thinking I was catching them up before realising the light was on top of a chimney on Rugeley power station.

That’s gone now bigJohn so you’ll be fine. Or knackered…

Look up julie phelan on you tube – she has a gpx / komoot link of a 23 mile gravel ride around cannock

I rode a blue route there once that was completely separate from the dog or monkey. If its still there and marked that would be ideal.

Just to add, if you google ‘blue route’ now, all the results will be about the new ‘Perry Trail’ – originally there was a blue graded trail that led from Marquis Drive (as mentioned above) down Sherbrook Valley to Stepping Stones, across the stream and on to Seven Springs, up Abrahams Valley and on to Rifle Range Corner, then back to Marquis Drive via Tackeroo.

This certainly used to be reasonably well signed (is it still?), so would form quite a good basis for the ride you are looking for, and is a perfectly pleasant bimble. It’s not really a ‘blue’ as we’d now think it, there are no technical features of any sort whatsoever, just basically ‘gravel type stuff for 2 old plodders on tourers’.

Personally, i’d consider parking at The Cutting, ride up as far as the pond (to the right) and turn left, follow that to Stepping Stones, cross the brook and take up the old ‘blue’ from there.

The cafe at Marquis Drive then forms the half way point – the cakes there are as good as mentioned upthread.

If you could deviate slightly, i’d recommend taking the top of Sherbrook Valley (West side), rather than down through the valley itself (as per the blue), so go straight on and up toward the Katyn Memorial and then to the Heart of England Way, partly because it’s prettier, but also because the ride would end better – you pick up the old (really old) railway line that took WW1 recruits from Milford Station up to Brocton Camp, and can take a side quest into Brocton Coppice and the Ancient Oaks – though it adds a bit of perhaps unnecessary complexity.

Either way it brings you back down to Milford, which means you have a pub stop at the Barley Mow on the edge of Milford Common. Which is nice enough.

People have this conception of Cannock Chase being a bit shit. It isn’t the Lakes or the Highlands, sure, but there are some really beautiful parts if you know where to go. Essentially the dividing line is the Sherbrook Valley – everything to the East of it is pretty much a big tree farm, to the West is vanishingly rare heathland. Sherbrook and Oldacre Valleys are genuinely gorgeous, and Brocton Coppice has the most gnarly oaks you could ever wish for, part of a really early (probably C.16th) plantation.

I’m massively biased because it’s just over there, but i love it dearly.

Come to think of it, i’d be happy to join you and guide you round if the stars aligned.

The Sherbrook trail is still a lovely ride but the FC have ‘decommissioned it’ as a visitor trail apparently to protect it.

Details here

As part of our 2021 trail improvement project, the Sherbrook trail is no longer one of the Forestry England-managed trails from Cannock Chase Forest.

Many years ago, when the visitor facilities were set up at Cannock Chase Forest, this bridleway was selected to be a longer length cycling and walking trail, starting at our visitor centre on Birches Valley. However, over time the visitor number have increased, and we’ve all learned more about the special ecological attributes of the wider Cannock Chase landscape, so we can no longer in good faith promote this trail to our visitors.

Cannock Chase Forest being selected as the venue for the mountain biking events of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games gave us the catalyst to secure the funding needed for us to build a new bike trail to, in effect, replace the Sherbrook trail. And the Perry Trail is now available at Cannock Chase Forest as an exciting new trail aimed at moderate level cyclists, and located fully in Cannock Chase Forest which is an environment that is much more robust and suited to the numbers of cyclists previously seen on the Sherbrook trail.

…the FC have ‘decommissioned it’ as a visitor trail apparently to protect it.

There is a Great Plan afoot to ‘protect’ the Chase.

It will get messy.