Rivington Pike and Healey Nab

I have gone on enough about tarmac-based efforts, now its time to wax lyrical of sorts about my efforts off road.

I have to admit, my balance leaves much to be desired, never mind my fitness/physique/weight issues!  This leaves me in somewhat of a pickle when going offroad since the trails are not level nor are they smooth, or even curve gently!

Since I live in the shadow of the west Pennine moors, I have the luxury of having some excellent offroading opportunities within cycling distance, although most of the time I drive there to save energy (and i cannot be bothered!)  However I do have Rivington Pike within 10 mins drive, which seems far but I have to drive through Chorley to get there.  Healey Nab is another place which is even closer but that is more aimed at the more serious cyclist as the causal one might be put off by the severity of the trail.  It has Red and Black route trails which are experienced to downhill skill level riding.  By this i mean it is almost compulsory to ride the Black on here with some protection other than helmet.  Rivington Pike is more accessible to anyone fit enough to climb the path up to the top, but the views from there are fantastic.

Brief Summary
Rivington Pike.
Personally I would park at lower barn car park, which has a cafe during the weekend, I cannot vouch for weekdays as I have not been there.  And then ride up towards the pike following the well used trails marked.  There is very little in the way of guidance in terms of signposts that i have noticed on the way up but this is not primarily a cycling site, it is open access to all, so you will find ramblers and the family day out to dog walkers, and on Sundays a motorcycle club meets up at the Rivington Hall Barn, and I recall a BBQ laid on in the warmer months :).  I suggest you get an OS map, or look it up on google maps or similar and see how the trail leads you.

This is the loop I have been doing, and at just past 9 miles is the start of Healey Nab which is optional.

Healey Nab
Healey Nab was constructed by local riders in conjunction with Lancashire County Council, to provide a facility for the more experienced riders to have fun in the locality. I am sure there is more to it and if you Google it I am sure you will find more info on the subject but that is how I perceive it.

I first went to Healey Nab about 18 months ago on my hardtail (I did not own the Banshee by then), and as I was still a bit iffy on the more technical trails found it a lot to take on in a short space of time.  Since then, they have had fairly regular trail building days and I have managed to attend one of them, I am ashamed to say that I should have gone to more but with mrs B working some weekends, getting away is not that easy.

Here is a link to a route I did a few weeks ago.  It begins at the upper car park at Rivington, then encompasses Healey Nab.  The site is where mile marker 7 is located, so you can work out roughly where the site is.  If you make your way to the top, there are signs marking the start of the trails and point you in the right direction, but this only occurs at the trailhead not before.  You need to know where to go to get to that point.

I would advise parking around here, then cycling to the gate here, and head up the track up until this point where it forks up to the right and follow that until you see the forest ahead of you and a newly installed wooden gate.  This is the entrance to it and follow the signs from there.

Time to go and what to take
Rivington is suitable all year round to be honest, but since the majority if not all of it is hard packed ground there is little point taking aggressive tyres or mud tyres.  However, Healey Nab is under tree cover and drainage is ok but not great so when it is bone dry and a spell of hot weather has been around, then again some decent XC tyres should suffice, but in the winter and during a wet patch, I would recommend something with a bit more bite.