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Where to Ride - MTB - Thetford Forest
As a location for mountain biking Thetford Forest, which covers an area of North Suffolk and South Norfolk, offers you singletrack, singletrack and yet more singletrack riding. What this lowland forest lacks in hills it makes up for with its vast network of way-marked and non-routed technical trails, making it a very popular mountain biking destination.
The 17.8 kilometre (11 mile) red route and the 16km (10 mile) black run are the main way-marked tracks for mountain bikers. Both are one-way trails located on the High Lodge Visitor Centre side of the Forest and provide some great riding.
You can park at the High Lodge Forest Centre but our jaunt around the black and red runs, combined with some 'off-piste' riding, started at Brandon Country Park (where parking is currently free). We headed south-east on the blue run for around 500 metres then cut into some fantastic off-piste singletrack which weaves its way through Forest compartments 13, 21, 31, 40 & 56. The riding here is some of the best the Forest has to offer, flowing sweetly whilst twisting and turning towards Mayday Farm in a way that allows you to ride hard without braking. It also rolls gently, which creates the perfect environment to put some power down and become a little competitive with your riding mates. Hugo, clearly the fittest of our trio, had never ridden this section and was impressed.
At Mayday Farm we crossed the B1106 where we picked up the black route. It is described as being very difficult and highly technical. From a non-biased point of view (and compared to some of the other mountain bike centres in hillier parts of the UK) it is not particularly difficult but it does have some great singletrack sections and features, such as the numerous bomb holes that provide an opportunity to hone your riding skills.
Following the black route we came across The Skip (a bomb hole) which precedes The Beast of the East, arguably the most technical section in the Forest. The trail on The Beast descends in a roller-coaster style over quite a challenging surface (a combination of soil and rock) which is exciting, technical and demanding. It leaves you wanting more and luckily there are a couple of trails which lead off of the black run at this point back up to the start of 'The Beast'.
The next section is a tightly wooded area which flows really well towards Fire Road 11 before climbing gradually to the path that links Brandon Country Park to the main High Lodge Visitor Centre, where we joined the red route.
After a short section of fire road the red trail shoots into a fantastic piece of singletrack which has clearly had a lot of work carried out on it. It's dry, fast, smooth and flows brilliantly. Every so often there are a couple of sections of Northshore which Hugo took-on with aplomb, whilst Paul and I diverted round on terra firma. The red route's fire road sections turn out to be perfect recovery points and just as you start to tire of them the trail darts back into the trees and you are off on another smile-inducing piece of singletrack, chasing your mates in one more lung-bursting effort.
We took the shortcut section (at compartment 81 in the Forest) and rejoined the black run via the Visitor Centre. The black run is a mass of technical singletrack but in places it's suffering from drainage problems. This made it hard going at times but our ride was in the depths of a bleak mid-winter. We took the opportunity to nip back across the B1106 to Mayday Farm and followed the off-piste singletrack adjacent to the road that flowed beautifully back to Brandon Country Park.
Off-Piste Riding
The Forest has a huge selection of singletrack trails that are not way-marked. Take a map of the Forest (with the fire roads and compartments marked) and a compass / sat-nav then go and explore.
Thetford Improved Mountain Bike EnviRonment - TIMBER
TIMBER is an organisation that with the co-operation and support of the Forestry Commission (FC) works to improve mountain biking in Thetford Forest for riders of all abilities. Their hard work in building and maintaining trails alongside the FC and other stakeholders has led to vast improvements to areas such as the red run. It is cheap (£5) to join and their members have a fantastic knowledge of the Forest from a mountain biking perspective. TIMBER's forum details regular rides and meeting points.
Racing
Thetford MTB Racing organise the popular winter series which takes place at Thetford (and Tunstall) along with the annual October Dusk 'Till Dawn 12 hour enduro race. National level MTB races have also been organised in the past within the Forest.
Bike Shop
Bike Art based at the High Lodge Forest Centre hires and sells bikes; has an on-site workshop, bike washing facilities and a very well stocked shop.
Parking / Food & Drink
Brandon County Park and the High Lodge Forest Centre both have cafes, parking and toilet facilities.
