XC wasteland - Chicksands

Alright.  29th April.  Chicksands.  Renowned dirt jump and freeride spot.  Listed in the Mountain Bike Trail Centres book, having both a red and a blue XC trail.

Turned up, sorted my bike and gear and rode across the road to the woods from the car park. Guy at the gate asks me for £5 to ride.  It's been pay to ride for a while although I was sure the XC trails were free.  More willing to help fund decent trails than I was to argue with the gate keeper I parted with my hard-earned and went into the park.

Honestly, I was expecting to see some signage at this point indicating the start of the XC trails. No chance. I stormed down a singletrack run to the freeride area.  Only to find all the wooden northshore trails had been demolished, something to do with how they were no longer insurable. The 4x and dirt jump area was still up and running though and was reasonably busy considering the time of day.

There are a number of things wrong with this picture

Having a vague idea of where the trails were I rode to the boundary of the park.  With the gates having been removed and replaced with a fence, imprisoning one and all within, I jumped the fence to get out into the rest of the forest.  There was a red arrow, part of the XC trail signage, just nearby so I followed it up to a T-junction.  No more signs to be seen.  I headed off away from the bike park, my internal singletrack radar set to maximum.

To cut to the chase, all signage has been removed on the red and blue XC routes, leaving them impossible to follow unless you've ridden them in the past.  There were red and yellow arrows on some trees, so I decided to follow them, hoping for the best.

This would have been fine but in places the arrows were horrendously obscure:

There is a trail marker arrow in this pic.  No seriously there is.

..or there were about 50 in one place:

Right, so.. eh?

Either way I think you'll agree this is not conducive to a decent mountain biking experience.  I followed the trails round, largely making up my own route and I did a good lap of the entire forest, although the quality of the trails were no more than footpaths really.  Right near the end I hit a nice hidden section that had flow, berms and a tiny drop, but this was way too little, way too late.

Something else got me thinking too; most of the jumps on the mini-DH runs in leading down from the freeride area were doubles, some with wooden kickers and a fair gap to the landing.  In short, there was barely anything for the beginner or novice rider at all.

Having ridden in France and Whistler, it's clear that it's very important for bike parks to create a situation  where riders can progress in a reasonably safe environment, and one in which beginners are welcomed and able to get involved.  Otherwise, where are the future riders going to come from?  And perhaps more importantly for a business with trail maintenance needs and insurance costs, where is your future income going to come from?

Whoever's in charge of Chicksands seems to be focussing on the DJ / 4x riders exclusively.  The freeride area is a complete mess with dismantled trails all over the place, with signs promising something else will be built soon. The mini-DH runs live up to their billing and are extremely short, making almost any other centre with similar facilities a better choice for this kind of riding.

At least it was a good warm up for trail number 7 later in the day!

Crucially, it seems the XC trails were purposely taken out of action, and by doing this the people in charge have done themselves out of a lot of traffic and good word of mouth.  A decent loop could be made in the woods and by adding a pay car park and doing away with the £5 per day charge the level of income would increase and better facilities / more maintenance and construction could be paid for.

The existing loop shows almost no indication that any real thought was put into its layout and many of the climbs and descents are straight up or down the slopes, meaning erosion and wet weather would be big issues.  Tracks that zig-zag the hillsides are more interesting to ride, hold up better to weathering, and remain more rideable in wet weather.

With the right people behind it, Chicksands could be a good little venue, it definitely seems to pull in the numbers, but I wonder whether DJ and 4x alone can sustain the place.  I was really disappointed that the freeride area had gone and with no sign of new sections being built to replace the northshore I feel that there's little there to occupy owners of big freeride / DH bikes or trail bike riders.

Putting that swiftly behind me, I was planning to make the most of the extra bank holiday and head over to trail number 7!