This is my first blog update for a little while as I’ve been off on a late Easter break. It’s been fun and has involved barbecues; family reunions; baptisms and seaside days out among other things – we can cram a lot into a week!

Mountain Biking at Lee Quarry

But this entry is about the rather wonderful place they call Lee Quarry.  On Monday, Number One Son and I threw our bikes in the back of the car and headed just outside Bacup for the afternoon.  On arrival, our first thought was “Ooooh, pants” as the hill up to the entrance from the car park is a bit of a doozy.  Nevertheless, we trudged up, rode a bit, trudged a bit more and got to the trails.  We weren’t disappointed!

As you can see on the Google Earth map, we only did about 1/3 of the quarry.  We should have taken a map really!  The quarry is brilliant: an alien moonscape reminiscent of 70’s Doctor Who sets without the Daleks, but 70’s Daleks would struggle with the killer gradients on some of the trails.  There are sections where you definitely have to get off and push/carry but hey, for every uphill there’s a down!

The trails are well marked and a lot of trail-building has been done over the winter.  There’s a new pump track which you can see in one of the photos above, and the skills area has been improved.  Parts of the red route run alongside the green and blue trails, which is excellent if (like me) you take your offspring along with you.

We had a fantastic couple of hours and we’ll certainly be going up there a few more times over the summer.  I’d go if I were you.  Tell ’em Phill sent you! 🙂

Here’s a short video of one the little technical sections.  I posted a couple of others on YouTube too if you fancy a glance: