Explosivo - I live right behind pines and new myself to the emtb world, usually out sunday mornings and wednesday evenings if you ever fancy a ride out.
@Explosivo , @Ontherail and I went out with @myapes last Sunday. The trenches area is now completely inaccessible due to the forest clearance that is going on, plus a few other good bits too. But we still had fun! It didn't rain, but there was a lot of standing water so we got well sprayed with muddy water. The contractors don't work weekends, so I made the mistake of riding up the main track through the trenches area to gain access to another section. The "track" is now a 10' wide mud fest of ruts and foot deep soft mud. And "riding" was swiftly replaced with carrying and plodding. So we ended up muddier than usual (sorry guys). To make it worse, the trail I was trying to access was also totally blocked and the area it led to was also being cleared. The trenches themselves are untouched but covered in stripped branches and shredded bark. It should not take too long to clear once the contractors have gone in early April.
@Explosivo if you message me with your contact details, I will contact you next time I go out. I normally ride there on Sundays, but not today due to a family event.
Thanks for this. Yes, will drop you my deets and we can try and arrange. Also another member dm’d me about same, so we should try and organise with him too. thanks again.
Pines is not as good as it normally is due to the forest clearance going on. Not only are large parts of the off-piste areas out of bounds (in fact impossible to ride - I've tried), but the red has a large diversion too.
I didn't try to ride all the Red today, but when I got to Machine Gun Alley at the bottom of the bike park, the detour sign pointed left and left again up the Blue trail. There were no further signs, so I diverted through the Bike Park and made my own way after that. I met several riders at different times all lost. Maybe some divvy has moved the detour sign?
To get the best out of it as it is, you really need to know where you are.