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Freeride Junkie - Lee Quarry Mountain Bike Centre, Stacksteads, Bacup
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Due to the rainy weather leading up to last Sunday and the high wind forecast for the day in the North West it meant that the usual freeride haunts were out of the question. So when I got a call on Saturday from one of my mates to do a local XC ride on Sunday I jumped at the chance. When I say local though - it certainly started local, i.e. from my front door, but 3 plus hours into the ride and only half way round the route it didn't feel too local then!
Anyway, the destination was to be Lee Quarry near Bacup with its spanking new purpose built all weather trails and it's new Freeride skills area. The trail centre boasts 5km of red graded trail, 2km of black, numerous top class trials areas plus the new north shore skills area. I'd been there before and ridden the red route which has a really nice long downhill at the end reminiscent of the welsh trail centres. I had however never ridden the black and also the newly opened north shore area.
The black route us accessed at the high point of the red route and straight away the gateway feature lets you know what you are in for. Huge angular rock slabs make up this 10m long feature...speed is your friend on this one if you want a smooth(ish) ride. The trail then sweeps down the hillside via a couple of berms and a few hits into a big right hander. From here on you are exposed on your left to a steep rocky slope into the quarry bottom as you traverse the hillside on rocky/slabby singletrack cut into the hillside. This section of trail pushes your mental stamina to the limit as it is very technical with considerable exposure and it just seems to go on for ever...then just when you can't take anymore you are then faced with a decision for the last section. On the last right hand corner there are 3 lines. The easiest just follows the line of the trail and takes you down a fairly steep rock slabby descent ending across a pond. The other two are a bit more severe. The one I opted for was a short steep smoothish rock slaby descent that ended in a log ride and the other one is a short steep more angular rock slab descent that didn't look too inviting to be honest. I'll need to take another look at that next time I'm up there. The rest of the black is more technical rock slab singletrack which weaves around the quarry bottom with a wheelie drop required off a 3ft slab at the end. All in all it's a really well made technical trail. My one criticism however is that it could have been improved with a little bit of northshore to break up the rocky monotony.
The north shore skills area is definitely a welcomed addition to the quarry. It's mainly all low level skinnies which is ideal for allowing all levels of rider to have a go. There is also a small skinny seesaw and a couple of skinnies that go up and over 2 to 3 ft high logs. Nothing too challenging but it's all good fun...Lets hope this is just the start of things to come...
Now there's just that little matter of a 2 hour ride home...
For more info on Lee Quarry click the link - http://adrenaline-gateway.co.uk
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