There's no signal in most of Cannop. Download the whole guide now, while you have it, and the trails, the map, the first aid and the 999 script all work with the phone offline.
Give it an icon
Pocket Trails has already saved itself to this phone — the map, trail conditions and your grid reference for 999 work with no signal, which out in the Forest is most of the time. Adding it to your home screen is just so you can find it again: its own icon, full screen, no hunting through browser tabs.
Pocket TrailsForest of Dean
Your Offline Guide To Riding The Forest of Dean
Pocket Trails · Forest of Dean
Ready — works offline
Check before you ride
Trails and the downhill tracks close for forestry work, disease control and certain severe storm conditions. Forestry England's live status page is the only up-to-date source. Needs signal. Load it before you visit or head out of range.
Blue Red Black Gravel Fire road▲ Climb› Direction You Your recorded track
Map ready — GPS not started.
—Waiting for a GPS fix…
This shows a straight line only. Follow the trails and forest roads as safely as possible. Recommend you do not ride off-piste trails back.
The backdrop needs signal the first time. The streets, fields and buildings come from OpenStreetMap over the network, and your phone keeps the ones you have looked at. With no signal those come back, but anywhere you have not viewed before will be blank, so the backdrop can thin out and leave the black map. Your position, the trails and Take me back do not depend on it and keep working. If the backdrop has gone and you need to get back, use Take me back and follow the compass.
This map is designed to show you roughly where you are in the forest. It's a reference guide, not a turn-by-turn sat nav: for detailed navigation, download the GPX routes into a dedicated app like Trailforks.
How to use it
1. Open the map online once so the app caches it. 2. Tap Locate me and allow location access. 3. Put the phone in Airplane Mode and test again. 4. Tap Follow GPS while riding to keep your position centred.
Breadcrumb track
Tap Record trail at the car park and the app drops a breadcrumb every few seconds as you ride — stored on this phone, no signal or data used. If you lose your bearings, tap Retrace: it tells you which way to walk to get back onto your own track and how far it is back to where you started. The track survives closing the app; clear it when you're home.
Saving battery
Continuous GPS is the biggest drain on a long ride. Battery saver takes one fix every 45 seconds instead of tracking constantly — enough for breadcrumbs and rough position, far kinder to your phone. Your phone is your emergency call, so keep some charge in reserve.
The waymarked trails are free to ride. Always check live trail status before you set off.
14 downhill tracks, accessed by push-up (10–15 min) or FlyUp uplift. Tap a run to watch a POV.
Want to work on something specific? Grades tell you how hard — this tells you what's there.
Conditions
Check before you ride
Trails and downhill tracks are closed for forestry work, disease control and certain severe storm conditions. The only up-to-date source is Forestry England's live status page/website.
Been out? Tell other riders what you found. Write it on the trail with no signal — it saves to your phone and waits until you're back in range.
Trail rules
The stuff big apps get wrong. Verify anything safety-critical against Forestry England before you ride.
On site
Cycle Centre — find us
what3words ///editor.enlighten.mysteries Grid ref SO 608124 Postcode GL16 7EH Address B4234, Cannop Valley, near Coleford, Gloucestershire
Sat nav can drop you in Coleford or nearby cottages — once close, follow the brown "Cycle Centre" signs off the B4234.
What it looks like
Kit check
A quick run-through before you set off. Tap each to tick it — your ticks are saved on this phone.
Trail speak
The words you'll hear at the trailhead, in plain English.
FAQ
Quick answers to the questions riders ask most. For the full set, see fodmtb.com/faqs.
What's changed
The last three updates. Older versions drop off as new ones land.
Your usage
Counted on this phone only. Nothing personal is recorded and nothing is shared without signal.
Missed an update?
The app checks on its own, but you can look now.
Right Now
The car park check. Everything that decides what kind of day it's going to be, on one screen.
Group ride
For when the ride splits up. Drop a pin where you are and send it to the group — whoever opens it sees your spot on their map, with the distance and direction from wherever they've ended up.
Your name
So the group knows whose pin they're looking at. Stays on this phone.
Pins from the group
Propose a meeting point
No GPS needed — pick somewhere everybody can find.
Nobody to ride with?
How this works with no signal
Your position is worked out on this phone and needs nothing. Sending the pin needs enough signal for one message, which is usually all you'll get out here — a text will often go when nothing else will. Pins you receive are saved on your phone and keep working offline. They clear themselves after six hours.
Where am I ?
For regrouping when the ride splits up. Works out your grid reference on this phone, then hands it to your messages app. Sending needs signal — the location itself doesn't.
If it's an emergency
Use the Emergency tab instead. It has the 999 script, the SOS beacon and the nearest hospital.
Add to your home screen
This is a full app, not a web page you have to keep finding again. It isn't in the App Store or Google Play — you install it straight from here, which takes about ten seconds and costs nothing. Once it's on your home screen it opens with its own icon, runs full screen with no browser bars, and works with no signal at all.
Why it isn't in the App Store
Apps in the stores have to be submitted, reviewed and paid for every year, and every update waits on approval. Installing straight from the web means the app is free, updates the moment we change something, and asks for nothing about you. The only difference you'll notice is how you install it — these steps, once.
On iPhone or iPad
1
Open this page in SafariIt has to be Safari — Chrome and Firefox on iPhone can't add apps to the home screen.
2
Tap the Share buttonThe square with an arrow coming out of the topat the bottom of the screen, or top right on an iPad.
3
Scroll down and tap “Add to Home Screen”It's part-way down the list, past the sharing options.
4
Tap AddThe boar icon appears on your home screen. Open it once while you still have signal so it can download everything.
On Android
1
Open this page in ChromeYou may see an “Install app” banner appear on its own — if you do, tap it and you're done.
2
Tap the three dotstop rightThen choose Add to Home screen or Install app.
3
Tap InstallOpen it once on Wi-Fi or signal so it can save the maps and trail data to your phone.
Why bother
Installed, the app loads instantly, takes up almost no space, and every map, trail, first-aid page and the 999 script works with no phone signal. There's no account, nothing to sign up for and no adverts.
Send it to someone
Wild boar
Latest news
Items drop off automatically at the end of the month they apply to, so nothing here should be out of date. Anything urgent about closures is on the live Forestry England status page.
Protect the forest
What we use
Sponsor
Whatever you wash your bike with ends up in the ground here. Peaty's make biodegradable stuff that doesn't, which is why we use it and why they sponsor FoD MTB. Loamfoam and their bike wash shift Forest mud without wrecking your drivetrain.
peatys.co.uk →
Trail news
Trails change. If something here is out of date, or you've ridden something new that isn't listed, tell us — this page is only as good as what riders report back.
Dean Trail Volunteers
Dig days
Next sessions
What to expect
Forestry works
Reported recently
Your reports
Seen something?
Where
What you found
Anything else
Privacy
Contact drop
Who it goes to
What to say
Accommodation
Places worth knowing about
Wider list
Camping
What to ask before you book
The five things to ask
One last tip
The best of the Forest of Dean
After the ride
Lost property
On the board
Your posts
Post something
Which is it
What it is
Where
Anything else
Parking
Cannop right now
Just arrived? Record what you found.
Worth knowing
Riding with kids
Worth knowing
Coaching
Specialized eBike Demo Rides
Accessible & adaptive riding
Events
Supported by
Pocket Trails is free and always will be. These local businesses support the app. We value them highly.
Support the app
Run a business riders here would want to know about? Get in touch and we'll talk.
Only needed once emergency services are on their way, so Forestry England can unlock forest gates and direct them to trail access points.
If someone crashes
What to tell 999
Read this out in order. You don't have to remember any of it — just work down the list.
Nearest hospitals
NHS opening hours and services change. If it's not clearly minor, call 111 or 999 rather than driving somewhere that can't treat it.
Set up before you ride
Watch mode
Crash detection
Off. If the phone feels a hard impact and then no movement, it asks if you're OK — and opens the beacon if you don't answer.
It watches the accelerometer for an impact above roughly 4g, then waits to see whether you move. If you're still for eight seconds, it fills the screen red, beeps, vibrates and counts down from 30 with “Are you OK?”. Tap I'm OK and it clears. Do nothing, or tap I need help, and it opens the SOS beacon with the flashing screen and whistle.
Keep the app open on screen while riding, in a pocket or on the bars — it can't watch for a crash once the phone sleeps. It never calls 999 on its own.
Text 999
Texting 999 only works if your phone is registered for it, and a text will often get through where a call won't. Text the word register to 999 now, while you have signal, and follow the reply.
The SOS beacon
Two patterns: six blasts then a pause, which is the recognised mountain distress signal, or Morse SOS. The screen flashes at the same time, so it works in poor light and in noise. The sound can be muted so the flash works alone. It uses a lot of battery, so start it when you expect someone to be looking or listening rather than leaving it running.
Cycle Centre details
For the car park only. Anywhere else in the forest, use Show my location above and read out the grid reference it gives you.
what3words ///editor.enlighten.mysteries Grid ref SO 608124 Postcode GL16 7EH
Ticks and Lyme disease
Are you OK?
That felt like a crash. If you don't answer, the SOS beacon will start.
30
SOS beacon
Locating…
Read this grid reference to 999 or to anyone who reaches you.
SOS
Six flashes and six whistle blasts, then a pause. The recognised mountain distress signal.
Before you use the map
This map is designed to show you roughly where you are in the forest. It's a reference guide, not a turn-by-turn sat nav: for detailed navigation, download the GPX routes into a dedicated app like Trailforks.
About Take me back
The compass points in a straight line towards the car park you pick — as the crow flies. It is not a route. There are steep valleys, private land and dead ends between you and it, so use it to get your bearings and then ride back on the trails and forest roads.
Update
A new version is ready
Reload to install it. Your ticks, reports and saved location history stay as they are.
Dean Trail Volunteers
Specialized eBike