Missus T’s Guide to FtD
Well, as my ‘local’ trail I thought I’d write a guide to it, to give people unfamiliar to it an idea of what I’m jabbering on about most weekends.
Firstly, a history lesson! Follow the Dog was the first ‘official’ mountain bike route created in Cannock Chase, by a group of volunteer mentalists trail builders who would eventually call themselves Chase Trails. Working alongside the Forestry Commission, these brave mentalists souls set about creating 7 miles of trail, mostly by hand. It took a few years, but at the end Follow the Dog was born - a red graded route that (for the most part!) can withstand the thousands of riders that ride it every year, week in, week out, regardless of weather.
The ‘dog’ of Follow the Dog fame, incidentally, is a Jack Russell named Zak. Rumour has it that he was the brains behind the entire operation.
First of all, here’s a map of Follow the Dog, created by Kangaroo - the full-sized version can be found here. It’s slightly out of date (the short section 8 section has been removed and the end of 7 altered slightly), but it’s still pretty accurate.
You don’t need to worry too much about maps, however - the route is waymarked from start to end, just keep an eye out for these markers:
Section Seven
Section Eight
Section Nine
Section Ten
Section Eleven
Section Twelve
Section Thirteen
Section Fourteen
Section Fifteen
Section Sixteen