Dirty Bikers

Member Profile for Andrew Bamford

Gisburn Forest – February 2010

Well as you probably already know we’ve all been in the depths of a deep freeze this winter, and the dirty bikers have been itching to get out and about. So when the weather did start to get a bit milder, founder members Pete Owen, Alan Yarwood, and Mike Warhurst thought it was time to hit Gisburn Forest!

Early start as normal, I open the curtains, and great, we have full covering of snow. After quick conference with the boys we all agree that were going to do it anyway, you only live once. So were off on our way to Gisburn, and after about 1 ½ hours were pulling up outside a pub, next to a forest, wondering what the hell we were doing.

Can I also add that Mike Warhurst seems to think that Gisburn Forest is a local loop, no mate it isn’t lol..

There are two places you can start the Gisburn Forest which are either at this pub, or the correct start which for some reason we didn’t do. Why was that? Anyway as soon as you get on the trail it does start to flow quite nicely. Most of the course is a red route, but with a combination of snow and rock it was pretty difficult in places.
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Member Profile for Alan Yarwood

We started at the Hayfield visitors centre car park and headed out along the Sett valley trail for about 1.5km leading down to the A6015 road accessed via a small gate. From here we climbed a small road and turned R towards New Mills taking the first left up a short sharp road climb passing disused quarries on the left and past Moore Lodge. From here we could see where we were heading, the snowy covered peaks of the distance hills.

We stopped at the top of the road climb to gather the troops, we should have known from this point in that today was gonna be a mechanical nightmare as Bam Bam’s rear hub seized and Prilleys seat post bolt snapped and ‘pinged’ off into a field. Priley, (on his beautiful new titanium On One single speed) quickly realised that climbs and saddles go hand in hand and disappeared in search of a repair shop.

We continued on past Moore Lodge along the road (which quickly deteriorated) and turned left through a stile heading up along a steady climb which ran parallel with a cobbled stone wall (a common feature of the area).  The terrain was boggy at times but offered good traction if it wasn’t for the constant flow of water running down from the hills above. At the end of the track we crossed through another gate and started a heavy ascent up… a snowy blanket of snow and ice laid beneath us and we were reduced to pushing our trusty steeds up the long climb.  A clean sweep at this section would be challenging in the summer months let alone the harsh wintery conditions we had decided to visit in!
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The early September 2009 ride took us to the Marin Trail, near Betws-y-Coed, North Wales.

The sub-title top the ride was Pete’s Big Birthday Bash, to celebrate Pete’s 35th birthday, but he was to rename it as we’ll soon discover.

From the car park, there’s a short single-track trail through the forest that leads to the main climb. Definitely a good way to get heart, lungs and legs warmed up but this is an awful way to start your day. A word of warning at this point, do not even think of doing the Marin trail unless you have a reasonable level of fitness.

Once reaching the top of the first section the views are pretty spectacular and almost worth the climb .. almost because it’s bloody difficult!

This is the point when Pete renamed the Marin trail, the Killer of Hopes and Dreams, a fair description of the feeling we had after this highly demanding start.

Most of the Marin trail is single track with lots of small rocks and is quite technical in many places. The trail has been well thought through and includes some man-made sections that fit seemlessly into the natural elements of the trail. These single tracks are complimented with reasonably wide fire roads, quick technical downhill sections and in one or two parts, actual roads – thankfully these are short sections and help to fit this 16 mile circuit together.
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