Lott's Wood - A Wood for the C1XV

The C1XV have secured license to develop and maintain a small network trails within Lott's Wood, near Missenden. Simon North (C1XV Forestry Commision liason) explains the situation and the plan for the future.

Lott's Wood – Phase One Development

Work has now started on developing trails in Lott's Wood under the guidance of our Club Captain Pev, who will now be directing operations whilst I take care of relations with the Forestry Commission and other local agencies. Our golden rule must be that any trail making is approved by Pev so that we all work together to make sure the project fulfils our wishes and meets the club’s obligations to the Forestry Commission.

Our phase one goals are to develop a network of trails based on improving the existing perimeter trails, making new technical singletrack, creating a new climb and building two separate downhill sections. These trails will be made by clearing the undergrowth and removing any fallen branches. The character of the trails will contain as many constant radius turns as possible with some tighter technical corners but at this stage should not contain any built-up sections or structures.

The Forestry Commission has approved our design and it is important that the actual trails are as close to the plan as possible. The FC is very keen for the trails to be as low-profile as possible to prevent use by other groups, such as walkers, horse riders, motocross riders. The course must remain within the agreed boundary as follows:

• North - 10 metres below the footpath
• East - line of pine trees running from the railway line end to the northern footpath
• South - the railway line boundary
• West – 10 metres from the Keepers Lane gate

The below map shows the area of Lott's Wood and the proposed trails.

Initially, the trails must be ‘natural’ and should be made by clearing the undergrowth etc and then defined by raking the surface. I would advise against any armouring of the trails as I can see no need for putting effort into it at this stage and such effort would raise drainage issues. If sections cut up or become very muddy we will only know how bad next winter. One method of doing this would be to use split logs, roped together and then staked into the ground.

We must avoid building jumps as FC is particularly sensitive to this type of development due to the considerable amount of illegal jumps on its land in the area. I believe we can have some kickers or fast switchbacks that would allow more confident riders to get some air.

The construction should be done in sections with a focus on completing one section before moving onto the next as follows:

• The first section to be done is at the top of the course so we avoid riding on the northern boundary footpath. There is an old logging track to use as a reference to the start of this section. It zig-zags creating the longest possible section of trail within the pines and is highly technical in places. When you ride this section you will see that Pev has tried to make sure it is not visible from the footpath.
• Next we want to build a new climb inside the line of pine trees from the bottom near to the railway line boundary to connect with the existing trail. Built in a zig-zag pattern to enable riders to gain height with the minimum of effort but with tight technical turns. At the same time Pev wants to continue initial work by himself and Brad on a downhill section.
• The top section already connects with the existing trail on the western side adjacent to the open field. This section is pretty good as it stands but could do with a few corners re-profiling to make it all flow a bit better.
• The section in the western end is fast and open and there is scope for more zig-zag trails to make best use of the space available. This can then connect down over the drop off beside the railway line to the start of the new climb.

Once this is done there will be a complete course and phase one will have been completed. We would like to establish Wednesday as trail building night starting as early as possible to make best use of the available light. Please keep watching the trail building section of the forum.

Simon North, March 2005