The rideable area is roughly the green area
on the road map bounded to the west by the A1065 and to the east and north by the Little
Ouse River. You can cycle past the river and cross on either the footbridge or the road
bridge.
The majority of the area is owned by the Forestry Commission and gives you mainly
unlimited access but most people tend to stay west of the B1107 as this is where the best
riding is to be found (see forest map below). It's not particularly technical, for the
experienced rider, but there are a number of natural obstacles that offer a bit of a
challenge. The Thetford Forest Road map shows the main forest lanes as black dotted lines
some of which form part of the waymarked routes. There are a number of signposted
bridleways one which takes you out of the forest, starting on the B1106 at Mayday farm,
and heads south for a reasonable distance. OS Landranger maps will provide more general
details but a forest map, which you can obtain from High Lodge, gives better information.
There is a
small area (shaded blue on the road map) east of the junction A11 - B1107 that
contains a rifle range which is marked on the OS map as one of those Danger Areas. You may
notice red flags flying around the boundary which usually means the range is in use.
However, I do believe they are not always taken down and so you will have to make your own
mind up.
You can follow the way marked cycle routes
(yellow cycle sign) that provide anything up to a 14Km ride but they mainly use the large
access roads and fire lanes (see forest map for waymarked routes). The better single track
is located nearer the B1106 and a good starting point is the forest access road that I
have indicated by an arrow on the road map or at the junction of tree blocks 97, 98 on the
forest map. The corner trees in each block have the block number painted on them.
I can't give all the decent locations away
but a jump has been fashioned from one of the bombholes and can be found near block 63.
Try riding at night and follow the same
routes as during a daytime ride. Navigation becomes slightly more difficult and the
bombholes magically become deeper and have steeper banks! In my opinion a minimum of 20W
lighting is needed for the singletrack but you could probably get away with 5W if you
stick to the fire lanes.
