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.
The iPhone web version closes on Sunday 1 November
Pocket Trails on iPhone is now the free App Store app, with closure alerts and tracking that keeps going with the screen locked. The web version stays for Android.
Ticks and ratings saved in this web version don't move to the app.
The iPhone web version has closed
Pocket Trails on iPhone is now the free App Store app.
Pocket TrailsForest of Dean
Your Offline Guide To Riding The Forest of Dean
Tap to continue
Pocket Trails Forest of Dean
Works offline
Today
Check before you ride
Forestry England's live status page is the only up-to-date source.
Trails and the downhill tracks close for forestry work, disease control and certain severe storm conditions. Needs signal. Load it before you visit or head out of range.
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. The trails are stored in the app and work with no signal.
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.
Trails
The waymarked trails are free to ride. Always check live trail status before you set off.
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.
Plan the ride
Trail rules
The stuff big apps get wrong. Verify anything safety-critical against Forestry England before you ride.
At the Cycle Centre
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
Plan the ride
Kit check
A quick run-through before you set off. Tap each to tick it — your ticks are saved on this phone.
Learn the place
Trail speak
The words you'll hear at the trailhead, in plain English.
Learn the place
FAQ
Quick answers to the questions riders ask most. For the full set, see fodmtb.com/faqs.
Behind the app
What's changed
The last three updates. Older versions drop off as new ones land.
Your usage
These numbers stay on this phone. “Waiting to send” is the anonymous usage count (no location, nothing about you) that goes next time you have signal — see Privacy.
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.
Behind the app
Get the app
On an iPhone or iPad, Pocket Trails is on the App Store, free. On an Android phone, add it to your home screen from here instead — it takes about ten seconds. Either way it opens with its own icon and works with no signal.
On iPhone
Get Pocket Trails from the App Store. It's free. Open it once while you still have signal so it can save everything to your phone.
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.
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.
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.
The forest
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 →
The forest
Dean Trail Volunteers
Give back to the trails
The Dean Trail Volunteers are a volunteer-run registered charity (number 1208988). They build and maintain the trails you ride.
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
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. Turn it on and the app watches for a hard impact followed by stillness, then asks if you're OK. It only works with the app open and the screen on, and it cannot call anyone for you — if you don't answer, it starts the SOS beacon to help anyone nearby see or hear you.
It watches for a hard impact — about four times the force of gravity — 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: a flashing screen and a whistle, to help anyone nearby see or hear you.
What it cannot do. It cannot call 999, send a message, or tell anyone where you are. Your location never leaves the phone. It only watches while the app is open with the screen on, whether the phone is in a pocket or on the bars — once the phone sleeps it stops, and it may miss a crash or react when nothing happened. Treat it as a backup, not as a reason to ride alone or to leave your phone locked.
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
Are you OK?
That felt like a crash. If you don't answer, the SOS beacon will start — a flashing screen and a whistle. It does not call anyone.
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