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Why not take a look at the full Friston Forest Ride Gallery when you've read the route guide?
This route describes the waymarked MTB trail that goes around Friston Forest in East Sussex. The trail is marked with posts sticking up from the ground, with purple direction arrows on them. There is also a more family friendly trail that goes around the forest; I've never done this myself but I think it mainly sticks to the fireroads that go around the forest, and are crossed several times on this route.
The MTB trail is quite compact considering the size of the venue, but it's absolutely great fun, providing a surprisingly varied ride ranging from windy singletrack through the trees to wide open fireroads, and some very steep descents.
Start at the carpark for the Seven Sisters Country Park, and follow the signs to the first arrow. Go up the path between the trees, following it as it bears round to the left. Climb over the small wall when you get to it, and follow the path straight on.
Continue through the trees, sticking to the same path, avoiding the numerous tree stumps - I've bent several teeth on a chainwheel trying to be clever and riding over one of these before ; )
Climb over the next wall you get to (don't worry, this is the last one!), and continue on down the trail. Going up the first turning to your right will take you up to the fireroad that you want; we continue to the next turning, as the hill you go up here is steeper and better for warming up.
Turn left at the top of the path, and make your way up the fireroad. A short way up, you'll see an arrow pointing down a thin singletrack path; I think this is called "Butchers Hole". It's an amazing bit of singletrack that winds through the trees. It crosses over a path about half way along it's length, and then continues through the trees. The end of this trail, where it joins the fireroad again, gets very steep, and needs preparation in terms of choice of gear.. my choice is normally the lowest gear possible! It can be hard to maintain grip up here - I use Tioga Factory XC 2.3" tires, and they span an awful lot during this ride, as well as clogging with mud very easily and not shedding it very well.
Once you've got to the top, turn left, and follow the fireroad again. Some way along the fireroad it splits in to two; take the right fork. Past the fork, the arrows point you to the left; this takes you down a very cool windy track which snakes it's way down through the trees. Remember to put your weight on the pedal to the outside of each corner; this will help with balance as you're going round.
At the bottom of this section, you're spat out on to another Fireroad (they run parallel with each other through the forest). Turn right, and continue along until you get to a warning sign with the message "Sharp turn and steep descent".. I love it.
At the bottom of this hill, there are a few drainpipes going across your path at right angles, and also a set of quite large stutter bumps - beware of these.. the first time I rode my Dawg here, I came down here too fast, and I was sure that had I been riding my Fire Mountain instead (a hardtail), I would have been thrown over the bike with the speed I hit those bumps - as it was, the rear suspension took a lot of the sting out of the impact!
Continue straight in to the trees in front of you, and follow the singletrack uphill to the next fireroad - on this visit, a lot of the hedges at the sides of the trail had been cleared, and this trail was wider then usual. Turn right on to the fireroad, and continue up until the bend in the path where there's another marker.
Follow this trail all the way to the top, again, crossing over at the junction with the next fireroad, which is part of the family-friendly bike trail, and continuing up the trail.
At the top of the trail, turn left and proceed down the trail until the route marker telling you to turn right. Follow the singletrack through the trees until the intersection with another trail; turn right and follow this trail to the top. Turn left at the top, and follow the wide path down until the route marker, which tells you to go right.
Follow the singletrack path up to the top - this is a hard job when the ground is wet; I gave up trying to get traction after a few attempts. At the top of this path, which can also get very overgrown in Summer, turn left, and follow the trail down through the trees. Due to the shade caused by the trees, the ground stays damp here long after elsewhere has dried up. When I rode down here, the front end of the bike was sliding almost as much as the back! Great fun if you don't crash ; )
At the bottom, you reach a junction with one of the many fireroads that can be found throughout the forest - go straight over this, and follow the path as it goes up (yet again!). At the top, turn left, and then right after a few yards, again, following the marker.
Follow the trail as it goes round a "bombhole", and out on to another fireroad. Follow this up, going past a watering hole (for the wildlife!), until you see the next marker telling you to go left. This path curves round to the right; turn right when you get to the junction with another path, and then turn right again at the end of that path; you've just completed a small loop, and about 20-30 yards down, you should be riding down the path you were just riding up.
Follow the trail down until the next marker you see tells you to go left, and follow the excellent singletrack through the forest. I learned from my mistakes last time I rode here, and let my riding buddy do the navigation; the path isn't the most obvious I've ever seen, and letting someone else do the navigation allows you to enjoy the singletrack more.
At this point, we're probably just over half way through the ride. Turn right on to the fireroad when you get to the bottom of the singletrack, and follow the path down.
At the bottom, another fireroad runs perpendicular to the trail you've just followed; turn right here, and continue until the next sign tells you to go left. This part of the ride is great fun; the trail is very fast down here, so this is a section where I didn't take any photos for the Gallery of this ride ; )
A few words of warning; firstly, there is lots of shale type rock down this path, which has obvious implications when it comes to potential for punctures. Additionally, on this ride, there was yet another log placed across the trail. This may have been placed by riders wanting to jump it, but I think some overall good advice for this venue is to be on your guard for this type of thing; it's fine if you're a competent bunny-hopper, but if not..
At the bottom there's a very friendly warning to other forest users about the potential for high-speed bikes ; )
Turn right at the bottom and follow the trail again, after a few hundred yards, coming out a point you can see for what seems miles across the forest - great views.
Follow the path down until you cross another fireroad, and turn right, and then left when you get to the sign. Follow this track down through the trees, but watch out for the fork in the path - you need to take the left fork, but there are several small tree stumps here that carry good potential for causing accidents if you're going too fast or are not prepared.
At the bottom of the track, go straight over the fireroad in to the trees again, and down the wonderfully windy singletrack and out on to another fireroad. Go over to the entrance in to the forest opposite, and ascend the hill on the singletrack as it winds through the forest. At the top, go up a severely off-camber track that leads up to the next fireroad.
Turn right and follow the fireroad until the junction with another, and continue down that one until you get to a turning on your right with a singletrack path. Go down here and take the next turning on your left. Along here you'll find the second wall that was climbed over at the start of the ride; from here, re-trace your steps back to the carpark, and you're all done! Phew!
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