Tell me about Cannock

I’ll be driving past it in the next couple of days with my son, so thought we’d drop by and sample the trails.
Will it be horrendously busy, with waiting at the top of sections?

He isn’t a fan of anything too technical, and enjoys ‘green’ graded trails at the welsh centres with bits of red too.
He does get a bit stressed out though when people come up behind to overtake, so any recommendations?

If you go at the weekend then it does get very busy. In the week is OK. The trails themselves are quite tight but there is a family trail. I would try that first then look at the Dog which isn’t very long and see how feels.

Be ready for black ice like pebbles and braking bumps you could lose your car in. According to lots of whingers on here. 😆

Personally, I’d give it a go but ride behind in case someone is coming up fast.

I rode the dog & monkey today for the first time since October 14.nthe braking bumps seem worse than ever, badly needs some msintenance or free cornering lessons on the car park. Real shame lower cliff is shut – is it coming back? Great place to ride mind and with limited time after a day with the kids I blasted round 🙂

They’re harvesting and repairing as the works go and it will all be put back eventually to my understanding. As for a youngster that likes green trails and a little bit of red certainly only FTD as some sections on the Monkey may be way beyond his skill level and unsafe as the trails can be very narrow with no run off escapes….thinking some of the rock lined chutes on monkey. There’s stack of other riding that is off piste and will pop out on the green trail that you shouldn’t end up being harassed and harried by faster trail gods but you may need a map/GPS so you don’t get lost. Also on those trails a good chance of seeing deer and other chase wildlife (and ticks).
Enjoy it wherever you end up riding on the chase it’s a lovely area.

It’s pretty quiet as a lot of folk are on hols, or at least they were on Sat morning at 10am when I rode round the Follow the Dog…didn’t see many other folk, despite expecting thronged trails.
My two ride the Dog with me sometimes.
What tricky bits there are have by-pass routed anyway.
You’ll have an ace time.

It’s pretty quiet in the evenings and weekend afternoons aren’t too bad…the mornings tend to be full of ‘rad dads’ out for a strava blast.

If your going past there’s no harm in a quick spin round.

Its worth a visit for sure and as people have said, during the week its pretty quiet.

You can park up the top by the visitors centre or down the bottom by the bike shop. Although the shop doesn’t open on a Wednesday. If you park down the bottom you will need £3 for parking.

There are some nice bridleways/tracks on the northern side of the road for more of a pootle, genyoooine heathland habitat too for a bit of nature appreciation

Does anyone here ride it on a CX bike? I’ve not been for years but fancy a pootle, my CX bike is a close to a suitable machine as I currently own.

Will it be horrendously busy, with waiting at the top of sections?

Nope it is very rarely that busy

early afternoons tend to be unfeasibly quiet. There are more people around at the moment because of the hols but the actual trails are far from busy.

Does anyone here ride it on a CX bike?

Have seen a few cx bikes on the tourist trails mostly ridden by people who seem to know what they’re doing

mostly ridden by people who seem to know what they’re doing

I feared someone might say that, can’t help but thing that rules me out…

‘purposeful’ is the word that springs to mind 🙂

Cannock is normally dead in the week, the green and blue are poor though, just fire roads and shared use, not really worth the trip for that.

The monkey would probably be a bit too much of a step up but Follow the dog should be fine and is currently all open.

On the CX bike front, I always said that most of it is doable on a road bike, so I’d say go for it (not the Monkey) and I’ve seen a video of someone riding the black rock garden the built for the xc race so the rest should be a piece of cake.