Saturday Pootle - Hicks Lodge, Leicestershire - 15/20 Mile

Saturday 7th November 2015 10:30am

Starting from - Hicks Lodge, which is owned by the Forestry Commission, is a fantastic day out for the whole family - from budding cyclists to the more confident. Set in beautiful young woodland at the heart of The National Forest, it has been designed with the whole family in mind with a variety of trails to explore. The trails are graded according to their difficulty - so you can choose flat and easy paths or the more difficult twists and turns of the singletrack trails. The Hicks Lodge Trail, a flat and wide 2km path around the lake, is great for walkers, cyclists and even horses. The Family Forest Trail (2km short loop and 4.5km long loop) takes you on an exploration across the whole site, there are some hilly bits but it’s still suitable for bikes, trikes, tagalongs, wheelchairs and pushchairs. The Wood Farm Trail (2.5km) introduces cyclists to easy singletrack and the Shell Brook Trail (7km) brings on more technical features on a moderate graded singletrack which is suitable only for mountain bikes. If you’re making a day of it you can stop halfway round the Family Forest Trail at the fantastic viewpoint for a picnic. Warm up afterwards in the stunning eco-friendly visitor centre with café, bike hire and repair shop, showers and a wood-burning stove for chilly days. For those wanting to sped a day there there are trails for all the family and a map can be downloaded from the following link. http://www.nationalforest.org/visit/images/location/pdfs/Hicks%20Lodge%20Site%20Map.pdf, LE65 2UP