I am planning to go down to Hopwas fr a bit of a ride after work today and was wondering where the best place is to park and what direction to ride to find the good stuff. Im thinking at the lay-by at the top of the hill and then heading directly into the woods from there and turning right.

If there arnt any good trails feel free to PM e with directions to the rubbish thails.

Don't get shot by the squadies

Something like this

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&ll=52.649417,-1.742706&spn=0.010011,0.016007&t=h&z=16&msid=118269764725657417170.0004752c654a0778bd890

As far as Im aware the woods are no longer used by the army as Whittington barracks is to become a medical centre could be wrong.

Half of the wood is privately owned by tarmac but just ignore the signs.

Thats a great link thanks. I might check out that spooky house. Problem now is how to print that pic with the tags.

You cant easily get to the spooky house tarmac have done a good job of stopping access to ie anti climb paint barbed wire etc. Still does feel pretty spooky in the evening on your own.

Also that maps not that exact and I still have trouble finding the "north shore" even though I've been loads of time.

That makes it sound even better! I will try and have a look and if I'm scared then go back another time. How close can you get to the house without having to climb over walls etc?

Theres no wall just a gate with anti climb paint and then they've just tried to stop access by growing the vegetation very thickly round it, ie brambles etc.

This is surprisingly effective. However there is 360 degrees to approach it from and I havent tried them all.

Hmm that could be somewhere for exploring if the trails are any good and I keep going back.

Actually if you've got google earth you can download the kmz of my map.

Then set the elevation to x3 and you can get a better idea of were the trails should be.

Anybody else?

What you expect someone to come up with a better map that the one I made for you ???

took me at least 3 minutes that

Is Hopwas night-ride-able ?
Its only a couple of miles from me.

scu98rkr I'm very grateful for the map you made me I have even managed to print it off from google earth to take with me.

takisawa where do you live? Its just down the road from me too and I'm willing to give it a go at night. If you fancy a slow one that is!

God knows what we could find tho!

http://www.ipcress.org.uk/truth_out/tamwitch.html

Tuesday night tis my local night ride around Hopwas keep going around in circles around there though and have still yet to find the "Shore". Your best parking on Whittington Comman road layby usually full of grit, or near the pub on Tamworth Rd near the Golf club towards Lichfield some nice fast singletrack towards Hopwas through the golf club and firing ranges.

Rich(Lichfield)

Not shore(see what I did there) I would like to stumble across a woodwork section in the dark TBH.

Hopwas is definetely night ridable I've done it a couple of times when I've been back at christmas. I'd recommend you familiarized it yourself with it during the day or your get lost.

Hey Rich the "NorthShore" stuff is on top of the middle hill. I've marked it on my map. Its pretty difficult to find for some reason.

Its ok scu98rkr I dont do Shore for good reason I,m pretty cack on it so I will not search to feverishly!

Rich

Anyone up for a spin about?

i've ridden there and it's pretty good for saying it's local and er,raw!

Hey Andy,

Did you go last night did the map help ?

Yea I went up at about 3.30 yesterday afternoon and quite enjoyed it. I really rather enjoyed the DH bits much steeper and harder than Sutton Park (where I do most of my riding). The closest I came to finding the shore was a couple of small wooden drop offs and some jumps I will try again to find it.

I got a little worried when I came across a few trashed tents with a load of rubbish around them. Oh and that spooky house really is spooky I was convinced that there was somebody in the woods watching me, I want to go back with my camera but not on my own.

Thanks for the map scu98rkr

I dont know if there much more to the "northshore" than that I only call it that because someone used to have a video on you tube calling it the hopwas northshore.

I think the trashed tents are from parties/rave type things the local kids hold up there.