Lee Quarry MTB Trails – Relevant or Relic?

Lee and Cragg Quarry MTB trails were developed a the very peak of England’s investment in Mountain biking as a sport.

Possibly the last significant new trail development in England and part of an exciting and ambitious plan to create trail centre style marked routes through no less than 4 disused industrial era landscapes all linked together to create an epic 40km XC route.
Finished in 2008 in the run up to the credit crisis and subsequent austerity measures, the link between Lee and Cragg Quarry was completed but the never quite reached its lofty vision of 4 way marked linked and individually rideable quarry trails. It also fell foul to the same apathy gripping many of Englands trail centres, with ZERO further development or even basic maintenance meaning these once awesome riding destinations (Grizedale forests North Face trail comes very much to mind here) have been left to ruin.

So today we rode some (not all) of Lee Quarry swell as a full loop of Crag Quarry and back to see if it still has some appeal tp the modern mountain biker.

Its worth saying that modern geometry bikes, dropper posts, tubeless chunky tyres and 1 x gears make the undulating and rocky nature of this trail much more pleasant than back oil the day when I would have originally rode this trail.

Please like, share and comment and subscribe to our channel for regular similar content!

Visit our website: https://www.mindfultrailbiker.com
Say Hi on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/mindfultrailbiker?igsh=MWppMDFsNnNyNHN0Ng%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
email us: mindfultrailbiker@icloud.com

[Music] [Applause] [Music] so good morning everybody and uh welcome to Lee Quarry in the beautiful langa town of bakeup once the poster child of lancashire’s investment into mountain biking so we’re going to ride Lee Quarry and CAG Quarry today we’re going to have a bit of a play and we’re going to ride over and do the two quaries and we’re going to check it out and we’re going to let you know if it’s worth a visit and we’ll talk a bit more about the history of this place as we uh as we get around so stay tuned joining me on the main climb from the car park uh which is the uh government offices for the area it’s a stiff one but relatively short so we should be okay couldn’t have picked a nice a day for [Music] it beautiful [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so me L he was just talking about the uh these Punchy climbs the sort of XY nature of this Trail and it kind of feels it’s weird CU you spend so much time these days on fire roads oh certainly we do yeah I’ve completely forgot how to climb like this it’s really short burst and stuff gear Choice putting the power down having your balance between front and rear I mean it’s you know it’s good skills to practice but they’re not of needed in uh in the modern mountain biking world so it’s uh it feels kind of cool to practice it but yeah we’re having fun so we’re on the link road now to KAG uh we did a little climb there which should make quite a fun descent I think on the way back it’s not massively steep there’s a couple little Stones laid for jumping on so they should be fun got some cracking views it’s obviously uh industrial remnants in certain areas but the more itself is beautiful man so we’re officially in cig Quarry expecting this to be pretty [Music] undulating starting to appreciate the views and just being out certainly unique not often you get to do this kind of [Music] riding thank God for Dro a posts back in the day probably would have Rod this without one [Music] oh I’m get you [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] very JY climes [Music] [Music] thank God for dropper post lings [Music] you go din’s [Music] day very unique ride actually really enjoying it it’s so different you got to get your head around it you kind of at first you’re a bit like oh it’s up and down stop start and the sign in is not great at Craig but once you got on the trail it’s all good just a initial bit it’s a bit confusing [Music] but you know if you look at the time that must have gone into laying this out so it Road like a proper route unreal yeah Punchy but I’m getting used to it and I’m enjoying it you guys loving it he’s having loads of fun today cuz it’s kind of the right place for him [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] on [Music] [Music] bits that you do get the downhill Des s obviously Rocky but flow really nicely really encourage you to lean your bike over and it’s obviously a good all weather Trail because of the amount of rocks a few standing puddles but nothing serious genuinely having a lot of fun on this I think it’s probably a maybe once a year ride for me but wow I’m actually impressed so far very different but just like so much fun and for me it does remind me of when I first started riding a bike and you know like I said I’ve never done crack Quarry I wish I had now cuz I think it would have made me come back here more often cuz I think uh lee quarry on its own didn’t really feel like enough of a ride to Warrant the journey lots of these cool little glies to ride through [Music] [Music] what a truly unique piece of Trail building in you know a historically important landscape and there you know there must be thousands of these throughout England you know and this was built at a time when funding was plentiful and it’s uh you know this and gisburn and Lancer two Trail cters built fairly close proximity to each other you know funded at the same time used by loved by many many mountain bikers and you know it’s a real shame just to see that the uh the investment in main biking just appears particularly in this country not so much in Scotland we’ve just disappeared and it’s really sad it’s really sad to see that incentivize you to buy a bike with the cycle to work gamee but you know not sort of supporting the infrastructure to get people out riding let’s be honest how many people ride the bike to work uh so gdale Forest would be a perfect example you know used to be a much loved Trail The North Face Red Trail it was the first English Trail Center I believe uh and uh you know just completely gone to ruin trails practically unridable in most sections and uh you know such a shame Visitor Center still gets lots of visitors but the main bike trails are getting no love at all and I’m pretty sure it’s probably down to funding uh commissions with the forestry and the bureaucracy and red tape that we seem to concern ourselves with in England the other parts of the UK seem to be able to manage to sort [Music] out you go having a great day today it’s really enjoying these kind of like the nature of these Trails bless him he’s eight and a half now he’s slowing down a little bit when we got on the fast flow stuff but on stuff like this it’s undulating he’s uh he’s having a great old time [Music] [Music] all right folks so this is our connecting Trail back to Lee Quarry well those are fun [Music] you go one down here who comes to that one with a musle so we’re on the final red section descent uh it’s not been a huge ride today but it’s been fun there is more stuff to play on here um there’s like three or four red descent lines that you can ride um but uh yeah we’re not really players we’re more uh sick a loop together and keep riding you know so uh yeah but it’s been fun so see what this uh see what this final descent’s got in for us certainly got a bit of exposure here [Music] oh my god well done Lind Lindsay doesn’t like exposure so she’s done a fantastic job there that’s proper on an edge [Music] on a scale of 1 to 10 how much were you breaking it you know I don’t like legend that well done that you would have hated that I know you would have fair play well just the lend it I don’t like that’s nothing and they’re in the starter block and he’s [Music] off I’ve got the wind against me [Music] yes nice [Music] jums woo yeah [Music] a cracking little final descent short and very sweet not sure what’s left now there’s not much I don’t [Music] think oh man just love riding through forests as soon as we got the woods I’m like now the quarry’s been fun but I don’t know my heart will always be in the trees man for sure little tax action woo [Music] three so that’s was done Le quy we’re 10 miles in uh 518 M climbing so short ride plenty of climbing Punchy climbs really nice last descent I’ve really enjoyed it it’s very different to what we normally do but i’ I think it’s great and I’ve never done crack qu before I think the link in the two is great so what did you think of that Lindsay uh yeah really liked it’s really different um it actually feels a little bit more like the early stuff we did together you know when you were trying to get me to to come on a mountain bite with you yes uh so yeah old school I felt like I was I’m very out of practice doing that kind of climbing so too I struggled at the beginning I was always in the wrong gear never quite had enough punch in me to get up like little baits and stuff so I felt like I couldn’t ride a bike anymore at the beginning but then I did warm into it and it is really it’s a really cool place isn’t it so it’s a really different ride you know you might not if you we’re about 50 minutes away so we’re not that far away in the scheme of things but you know we probably come maybe once or twice a year I think it’s maybe a nice evening Loop if the in you know in the height of summer when you’ve got long days it makes me think I should do more of it cuz I do a lot of Fire Road climbing Enduro style tracks and I’m sort of horning that in and then I come somewhere like this again and I’m like oh wow really it’s a forgotten skill cross country kind of like Punchy climbing it’s a forgotten skill and you kind of it’s it’s perfect exercise size for v2 max if that’s something that interests you um and I think it’s just I’ve just had loads of fun I I didn’t know what to expect I think it’s one of those places where I used to ride it I rode it quite a few times and then I kind of just got bored of it as I said I hadn’t ridden crack Quarry and the link up between the two makes it a more interesting ride for sure there is more stuff to play on that we didn’t play on in Lee Quarry um it’s a bit push push up kind of descending tracks which we’re not we’re not really a massive fan of um but look if that’s you know if that’s your thing then you’ll have you’ll have a lot of fun L to have fun on in there and play on J on definitely so come and check it out give it a give it a try and uh let us know if you enjoy it we’ll catch you next time [Applause] [Music]