Woburn Bike Trails…

Thinking of heading here at the weekend, so been doing some research as I’ve not been before. Appears some or all of the Longslade trail is closed; can anyone confirm? If any of it is rideable, what are the conditions like at the moment?

I’ve also read that they were working on a second route, the Danesborough Trail; is that open now, and is it possible to combine the two?

What’s left of Longsdale is still good, and rideable. Danesborough is pretty sloppy in places (or at least it has been for the past few weeks) and is good, even though some bits have been tamed recently. I know the trail fairy’s have been working hard to work out rebuilding Longsdale. Back woods is a no-no at the moment due to friction with the locals.

Of course there’s always Rushmere just round the corner, which is a bit more XC-ey.

Also, yeah. You can combine the two. They’re connected off the same car park if you approach from Woburn Sands itself.

@rockandrollmark – thanks man. Are the trails marked there, or will I need GPS? Also, is Longsdale not an XC trail? I assumed it was from what I’d read, here, which describes it as a 10 mile loop – https://www.cyclinguk.org/route/longslade-trail-woburn-bike-trails

Walked the dog at Rushmore at the weekend. Hadn’t even realised there was a route there until we arrived. Read up about it, and it seems it’s a fairly tame XC route geared towards family rides. Is that not the case?

Longslade and Rushmere are both tame but nice enough XC trails. Blue run stuff. I ride a couple of hours XC to include them in a loop that’s fun on a rigid SS but most of the guys at Woburn on bigger bikes are riding other stuff. Longslade was trashed in places by logging work so it doesn’t connect up anymore, but it was 3 weeks since I was up there.

I was there last week, a fair bit is still rideable, but also really boggy in places, a short travel hardtail would be perfect at the moment. There are some nice jumps and a drop at Rushmere, in the main they are XC trails, but to describe them as family trails is definitely down playing them, although sadly many of the better sections are now kapoot.

Longslade and Rushmere aren’t family trails. Mostly rooty singletrack with some short steepish climbs/descents

@jase – it was Rushmere I had understood to be a family trail.

The red loop at Rushmere is a family trail/easy xc, it’s about 8km

There is a new area with some Jumps and stuff

Lonslade red is about 4km at the moment, thanks to felling, the blue is about 5km, but it has some very boggy sections

Tbe backwoods side of Woburn – by the church is technically off limits at the moment, but there are better trails over there, no loop though

That XC trail at Rushmere is a solid XC route with a few trails running off it. It isn’t family friendly like you’d get on the Green trail at FoD for example; small kids couldn’t do it unaided from a climbing perspective.

There are some nice loops out of the main Rushmere area but you need a local and they certainly aren’t official.

Obviously Longslade is halved due to the felling but what’s left was running well considering the weather and the volume of traffic these days.
The beginning of Danesbrough was running well. I think the trial team were doing their best to sort the second, very boggy half; I’ve not ridden it since.

I’d avoid the back woods.

@Jeaster I guess it depends who your family is 🙂 but I find Longslade and Rushmere similar in terms of technicality.

As Paul said its not like the family trails you’d get at FoD, Thetford etc.

But lets not get hung up on how family friendly it is as doesn’t sound like you’re taking a family.

Basically if you enjoy Longslade you’ll enjoy Rushmere.

Cool. Thanks everyone. Looks like that article on Longslade I linked earlier which suggests it’s a 10 mile loop is way off, right?!

I’m based in Harpenden. Is there anything like a 30-40km, reasonably technical XC trail within an hours drive?

I’m based in Harpenden. Is there anything like a 30-40km, reasonably technical XC trail within an hours drive?

Yes I’d park for woburn ride the red and the blue. maybe do the red twice as it’s better when you get your eye in. Ride to Rushmere do the stuff there and ride back. Look at the map for bridleways in between

St Albans here *Waves*

There are quite a few options around the Chilterns, Wendover, Aston Hill etc but the clay based soil means they’re horrendous when they get muddy.

Right now I’m largely sticking to Swinley (which is just about under an hour’s drive) and Woburn just to keep the riding bike to cleaning bike ratio sensible.

Can’t help but think a proper surfaced blue/red trail centre style trail on the side of Tom’s hill in Ashridge would be a massive year round draw and keep people away from the walker hot spots but sadly the National Trust don’t seem nearly as forward looking on MTB as the FC are.

If anyone has some Winter-friendly suggestions nearer to home I’m all ears.

@ampthill – good call. Looks like there’s only a footpath connecting the two directly. Looks to be a fair bit of bridleway around, but I couldn’t see a clear route between them. Maybe have to take in a bit of tarmac too.

This shows some ideas. A few bits of road. Not the best riding in the linkups. The edge of the A5 is a good cycle path. The little jig out towards Stoke Hammond on Bridleway is worth adding IMHO. You can of course go these and back on the route on the same route. The one on the West which is better

Untitled by John Clinch[/url], on Flickr

@ampthill – that’s very helpful, thank you. Did you use an app or a website to create that?

That was done in OSmaps online. I think I pay about £18 a year. You can plot routes and save them, output a gpx and print maps

@Jeaster I do a combination of the two options that @ampthill has shown a – link below. There is a cycle path that runs next to the A5 and I simply go there and back the same way.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/34692064

Magic. Reckon I might have a run at this at the weekend. Seemed a little bit drier out there these last few days, so hopefully the ground won’t be too boggy.

I do a regular 30k-ish route along local bridleway which takes me through some farm land and up through Heartwood Forest and Nomansland Commo…it was muddy as hell last weekend!

Its a pretty fun ride if you link up rushmere and lonslade. for the new new blue danesborough trail i tend to do the first half and jump up the fireroad before getting to the boggy climb. that needs a summer to bed in really I think although they’ve done a great job in sections that used to be super boggy. I tend to do a loop from mine (newton leys) into stoke hammond, along the canal into rushmere from the main entrance and do a loop of the rushmere bit with some extra bits thrown in that aren’t official. good fun stuff and the jumps in rushmere are good fun (just be careful on red rum as two of the jumps are not Roll-able and you can’t tell before you takeoff)

@hatter *waves back*

Nice one. I’ll check the Chilterns out. What kind of riding do you do?

@Jeaster

I’m a bit of a bimbler these days TBH, almost tore my foot off in a crash a few years back and that has meant a serious reduction in my ‘Gnar’ ambitions now I’m screwed together and a fair bit wider round the middle.

Hoping to get out to Wales and the FOD a bit more once Covid buggers off as the boy’s getting old enough to ride the fun stuff with me.

@hatter eeesh…That sounds grim! I’ve never been one for the gnar stuff, too scared something like that might happen! I like to think I do a bit more than bimble, but by your standards that’s probably exactly what I do.

Are there any MTB riding groups round here you know of? Loads of roady clubs, but that’s not for me.

I tend to mostly ride the Gravel bike round here TBH, if I want to ride the MTB I tend to get in the van and go to Woburn or the likes. Hoping to get back up there this weekend.

The BC cycles lads seem to do quite a few MTB group rides, Mike there will set you in the right direction. I imagine they’re on pause for now though due to lockdown and the current rules.

Managed to get up to the Woburn trails this afternoon. Arrived late, so only had time to do a couple of laps of Longslade and one pretty grim loop of Danesborough (basically a quagmire) before it got too dark (forgot lights).

It’s the first proper trail I’ve been to since I moved south; it’s quite different to what I’m used to but had a lot of fun – I’m from Yorkshire originally, and used to ride at Dalby Forest, Gisburn Forest and Sherwood Pines mostly – looking forward to going back, but think I’ll skip Danesborough until it’s dried up a bit, because pushing a bike up a slippery hill definitely isn’t my idea of fun!

One thing thing that surprised me was the absence of a rock garden, I guess that’s probably due to the geology of the area, or is there one in the closed section of Longslade?

Thanks to the guys who gave me hand with directions on Danesborough, good meeting you and hope you enjoyed the rest of your ride!

Nope, pretty sure there aren’t any rocks at Woburn, lots of sand and boggy areas though.

There’s about a 2 metre long rock garden halfway down the black run at Aston hill

I think that may be the only rock garden in a 100km radius

And even that one is artificial!

I found a singular bolder next to the pump track in Rushmere the other days. I remember it as it’s such an odd sound round these parts. wasn’t actually on a trail, just sitting there on it’s lonesome.