Review for Forest of Dean Mountain Biking Trails

AJ Blamey:

I've ridden the Freeminer's Trail a few times over the years, and it hasn't been quite the same twice. Overall, it is a gentle cruise through some of the most varied woodlands in the UK, subject to all the seasonal changes that Nature has to offer. Wildlife is abundant and ever-changing: some rides have been dominated by deer, some boar, others squirrels, and one summer ride was spent dodging billions of small green beetles walking on the trail. The trail itself is also ever changing. New sections regularly appear (it has more than doubled in length in recent years), and new features seem to appear on the older sections as if by magic. My kids love it, following me over tabletops, down drops, over north shore bridges, skinnies & jumps, through rock gardens and down staircases (but still taking the chicken line around the big quarter pipe drop in over the big oak root - superhero dad!). The more I ride it the more I enjoy it. Strava unfailingly rewards me with dozens of PRs as I get quicker (I started off slow though, stopping to photograph more than 40 varieties of mushroom & toadstool on the 1st outing), and it currently ends on a real high with a fast, tight rollercoaster of a ride through dense evergreens (reminiscent of my favourite section of Brechfa's Raven Trail) that pops you out into the carpark panting and grinning.

Always fresh. Always challenging. Always rewarding.