mickc
Mountain Biking Harlow Wood
The entrance to Harlow Wood, Notts
One of my favourite woods to bike in is definitely Harlow Wood. Just situated with access off the A60 between Mansfield and Nottingham, it is captured between the A60 on the west side, the A617 north, Ravenshead to the south and Blidworth and Rainworth to the east. It provides awesome links through to Sherwood Pines, Newstead Abbey and Sherwood Forest and features in loads of my favourite loops.
One of the loops is
Pig Hill. This is part of the series of videos from my '
Pig Hill
‘ loop , labelled so due to the climb halfway round. The video is a cracking mountain bike trail from the entrance of Harlow Wood through to
Route 6 which heads into Ravenshead. It’s a slick way to get from one side of the wood through to the other side. Entering from the A60 the trail swings right to a narrow fast single track and then swings back left to a wider undulating trail with plenty of small lumps and bumps to keep it interesting. It passes a lake on the right-hand side where you swing right out of the wood and up the sandy climb to join
Route 6.
Harlow wood produces some amazing photos. The sun streaks through the trees in the summer to provide dazzling razor like rays that flicker as you ride. In the winter the frost covers the wildflower floor to provide an amazing glistening effect, which often doesn’t melt until lunch. The trails are made up of forest trails passing through the wood that have worn in places to give them an interesting effect, to plenty of singletrack between the trees that you can ride for hours. There is also a touch of tough sand covered trails on the east side which are hard to ride, zapping your energy as you go. A great place to spend a couple of hours exploring.
If you want to see more of Harlow wood have a look at my ‘Summer Biking’ article where I approach Harlow Wood from the other side and head through the centre from Route 6 towards the A60. It’s part of a loop I do regular that passes through the amazing Newstead Abbey, Harlow Wood and onto Thieves Wood.
Check out the next section of the Pig hill loop ‘Route 6 to Ravenshead’, A fast narrow straight downhill section that gets the wind blowing through your hair. Alternatively, If you missed the previous section, take a look at ‘Thieves Wood’, another cracking local wood for biking.
Have a look at all the sections of the Pig Hill loop, one of my go to rides in the summer.
Mountain Biking the Pit Tip Kirkby
Mountain Biking Blidworth Waye
Mountain Biking Through Newstead Abbey
