Wentwood Forest - Downhill Trail

Wentwood forest is an ancient woodland to the north-west of Newport in South Wales. It's hella pretty, and home to a very good downhill trail, as well as numerous forest tracks and cross country singletrack trails. The autumn is an excellent time for the vibrant forest colours, although, unsurprisingly, the ground is sloppy as all hell.

The downhill trail starts about here, winding through the woods, heading west, along relatively flat terrain. The trail is dominated by roots, but a lot of fun. After meandering through the woods, the trail starts heading north west and downhill. Trail features are more obviously intentionally constructed here, including berms and jumps.

View Wentwood Downhill Trail in a larger map

The local mountain biking association have not revealed the route of the downhill trail. Their website is apparently no longer active, so I've put the map here. If anyone from the local club would like it removed, I'm happy to oblige - contact me with the address here.

I haven't got photos of the last third of the trail, but in current conditions it was constant error correction, basically surfing down the hill on the tide of leaves and mud. It was good fun - and none of the drops were obligatory - some of the beginnings of the sections were steep and fairly sketchy. In general, even novice downhiller will be mostly fine.

The crisp leaves and (occasionally) clear skies of autumn.

The forestry commission have been busy.

Looking south-east, towards the Severn.

Elliot cocoons himself against the cold.

Trail slop.

Two steeds o' aluminium at rest.

Amphibious riding.

The flat part of the trail winds through the coniferous trees - it's rooty and rugged and a lot of fun.

The trail goes over a bridleway/track, and starts another section. This section is currently dominated by a comically thick covering of leaves.

Elliot rails the berm on the first section of the downhill.

Wentwood Forest is great fun. The downhill trail is fun and challenging in places, but mostly just a good time. Much of the singletrack is delightfully rugged. Aside from the main downhill trail, there are numerous little pieces of singletrack and normal footpaths throughout the forest to be found.

Ridge Ride - Grwyne Fawr Reservoir and Rhos Dirion/Bal Mawr

Taking advantage of the dry conditions of summer, myself and Elliot took cyclocross bikes (Surly Crosschecks) into the Black Mountains, north of Abergavenny. Lacking cars, there was a road ride before hitting the moors, so as a compromise we took (hopefully) off-road worthy cyclocross bikes and crossed our fingers conditions would be favourable. The typical state of the moorland is boggy. With anything but the chubbiest tyres, you sink in. Even if it hasn't rained in a while, the peat retains moisture and makes riding frustrating - sapping the energy and the will. Especially if you make the mistake of wandering into an actual marsh, in a poorly devised shortcut.

Fortunately, the moors were as dry as I've seen them, making the route we went was 90% ridable and 100% awesome. The valley leading to the Grywne Fawr reservoir is dramatic and lush, with either a road or gravel tracks leading up through the valley. Then come the rocks, but only a few kilometres or so, leading you to the moor. Once you reach the trig point, and set off south along the ridge it's almost exclusively downhill, predominantly singletrack and excellent views of the black mountains in all directions.

The route we took is shown below, although it'd be easy enough to modify it for arriving by car. Just park at the bottom of the Grwyne Fawr valley, cutting out the ride to Abergavenny and back.

View Grwyne Fawr Loop - Ridge Ride in a larger map

Initially we rode up the paved road up the valley, then crossed a bridge over the Grwyne Fawr. This took us form paved roads and onto gravel/dirt tracks.

Ell-dogg shows his skidding skillz on the track.

A short, rocky descent led us towards the edge of the Mynydd du Forest forest.

The Mynydd Du Forest.

Looking north up the Grwyne Fawr valley.

Looking south down the valley , on the edge of the Mynydd Du Forest.

We ride up the Grwyne Fawr valley. The path here is decent, there's couple of slightly rocky spots, but nothing extreme.

My new build 'Handsome Dan' looking, in reverence, at the reservoir.

Ellsworth takes pictures on his ancient film camera, and I use the opportunity to take a confusing photo.

The reservoir's edge.

A camping spot for the future? At the north end of the reservoir.

We ride up the track alongside the reservoir. The riding is easy, prior to the end of the reservoir.

A profit of the coming rockstorm, alongside the Grwyne Fawr river.

Elliot put up a valiant fight against the loose, rocky ascent. Ultimately, walking progressed at similar speed and was much less taxing.

These are the tracks nearing the top of the moor. They're remarkably dry, so easy to ride. But not for long - when winter rolls round the moors will get sodden.

The trig point atop Rhos Dirion.

The descent (southwest) from the trig point. We made rapid progress from now on. We were both thoroughly loving this descent. There's enough of a descending gradient that you bomb along the path effortlessly, and only one steep section of descent. The path is currently great riding, compact, lumpy but not taxing, so just a good ol' time. Go ride it if you can. It was fun on a 'cross bike, it'd be even better on a mountain bike. There's a couple of short ascents but these are minor compared to the descent.

Heather lines much of this path, adding a sprinkling of purple to the hillsides.

These sandy tracks were surprisingly solid.

Looking east.

Looking north, along the ridge towards the peak of Rhos Dirion.

Looking south.

Sublime singletrack. Not techy, just hella fun.

Looking south toward the Sugarloaf.

The track towards the southern end of the ridge, near Twyn-y-Gaer, an iron age hillfort (more info here.

There's a nice, and convenient pub (the Queen's Head) at the bottom of the final descent, on road, from the ridge.

I creeped out some teenage girls taking this photo. I was waiting for the flag to fly, damn it.

This is an excellent ride, even if you're relatively new to mountain biking. The singletrack is great, the views are excellent and dams are cool. Do it before conditions turn the moorland into a slog-fest.

Not relevant to the ride itself, but interesting to some; We met a fella on the train transporting an old postie bike he'd just bought. Rod brakes and all.

Black Down (AKA; Rowberrow Warren, Beacon Batch) and Dolebury Warren

Black Down is the highest hill in the mendips, with varied and challenging terrain. It has a combination of rugged single-track and (often) muddy downhill. The main downhill runs are predominantly located in the west face of the hill, within the forested area of 'Rowberrow Warren' while majority of the cross-country trails run from the Dolebury Warren to the north west, across the moorland of Black Down and then back around. You can also connect this with a ride to Cheddar Gorge or Velvet Bottom. If you don't mind the occasionally endless bog that Black Down becomes, these hills present some excellent riding, great views and a pint afterwards at the 'Old Inn' in Congresbury (The Congo, for us trendy people).

The downhill runs are located in the west face of the hill, in 'Rowberrow Warren'. They're somewhat hidden, but are worth hunting around to find. The entirety of this area has a tendency to become sodden, and the downhill runs are no exception, but are still ridable. Many of the runs also feature table-top jumps or drops, but none of the ones I've encountered are unavoidable if that's not for you. The 'Christmas tree trail' downhill is a great run, long and fun, although when initially entering the forest at the start of the trail, you're essentially blinded to the surprising darkness of the dense pine trees. This run seems to become progressively steeper towards the bottom of the hillside. One thing to watch out for is the bridle-path crossings, which occur regularly, and are (apparently) a major point of contention between riders and others (walkers and horse-riders) The Christmas tree trail has it's steepest, rockiest section at the very end, followed by a stream crossing.

View Black Down in a larger map

Here's a video of the Christmas trail trail. The initial section is insanely dark, the trees are so tightly packed together. It soon opens up, but it's a fun trick to play on your buddy - don't them them how dark it's going to be before you go in.

Zak Hurrell riding Ram April 2010 on Pinkbike

My preferred cross-country route starts at the car park. You climb up the footpath, leading you though the hamlet and up 'Doleburry Warren' onto the pathway called the 'Limestone link'. Initially, it's made of firm stone and although steep, it's my preferred way to ascend. Once you get to a iron age fort, which retains obvious remnants of the walls. This area doesn't tend to get particularly sodden. Once you've breached the fort, the trail flattens out, and you can descend. After navigating some tracks, the long, slow and often sodden ascent of the moor starts.

The bluebells are out late.

There is a fairly steep climb south, along a wide track, which is potentially sodden.

The area is popular with horse-riders, walkers and cyclists.

The trail leading to the trig point is almost comically hollowed out, and you're not supposed to cycle there. I think this rule is largely ignored.

Once you reach the trig point (not shown), there are good descents, either take the trail leading north, or east. Both of these are good, rocky descents. If you head east, you'll reach the fence, and can start heading north for some more, less rugged, descending. This will reunite with the limestone link, which is a lovely bit of singletrack, although it's best to watch out for walkers. The photo below shows the tail end of the first descent from the trig point.

There are two stream crossings when heading back along the limestone link, which eventually reunites you with the main 'junction' area before reaching the moor. From here, you can descend a number of ways, or follow the fence-line south (there's a track running largely parallel). Following this track will eventually lead you to an entrance to Rowberrow Warren, where the sweet downhill trails are. They're worth searching out, especially the Christmas tree trail, which is great fun even if you're not into jumps, which the video above focuses heavily on.

Halfway down the Christmas tree trail.

Matt bombs through the stream at the end of the Christmas tree trail.

Once you finish the Christmas tree trail., you can head North along the bridleway and back to the carpark. There's some extra singletrack running parallel with the track. Black down is great but can be a lot of work, and as I've stated before, gets sodden for much of the year. I don't know the downhill trails particularly well, but I'm certain there are lot more secret downhill trails I've yet to find.