Parkhurst Forest - Our Best and Worst Family Cycle Ride

Cycling in Parkhurst Forest is good fun - but not as flat or smooth as some bike rides

Alright, perhaps the title of this blog is a little provocative. However, child one did describe our cycle round Parkhurst Forest as "the best and worst cycle ride ever".

Personally, I put it somewhere in the middle but that's a less exciting headline.

You want to park at the main Parkhurst Forest car park, which is free. We originally headed to the other side of the forest to attack the loop from a different direction but ended up in someone's driveway (sorry about that).

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Picking a route around Parkhurst Forest

Let's start with the best route around Parkhurst Forest, as it's a little bit confusing and easy to get lost.

​We dithered between a couple of options. There was one route on Strava, created by some super human who had done a run round the forest. This was a fairly long route but I could at least have followed it on my phone.

There was then a route on the Red Squirrel Trail website. This was a drawing on a PDF, so it was a bit harder to follow but had the advantage of being planned out for a day out with children.

We chose the latter option, in part because the section we planned to do looked a little bit rude, which amused me greatly.

I told Mrs Guru about this amusing shape who told me that it definitely didn't and that I needed to grow up. Decide for yourself here.

We decided to just do the main loop, rather than the spur that joins up with the Red Squirrel Trail on the River Medina (see our full guide to the Red Squirrel Trail if you are looking for a longer family cycle ride).

This route around Parkhurst Forest wasn't marked on signposts, which would have made things a bit easier. I juggled the PDF and Google Maps to make sure we didn't get lost. I have considered turning up at night to install a series of unofficial wooden signs, but I'm not 100% sure if that would be considered community-spirited behaviour or vandalism. 

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Setting off

Most of the tracks are quite wide but a bit bumpy

The route from the Parkhurst Forest car park started with a modest uphill climb. Child two has become used to cycling on tarmacked former railway lines so made an almighty fuss about this tiny gradient. After three stops we had made it about 100m.

We ploughed on and got to a long downhill section on a wide track. The track was bumpy compared to most of the Isle of Wight's cycle tracks.

I enjoyed this greatly on my GT Aggressor with its front suspension. Unfortunately, Mrs Guru was riding a bike that looked like it should be used to pootle around Paris with a baguette sticking out the basket. It was also much too large for her, so she wobbled around and didn't race down at quite the pace I did.

As we approached the half way point the route started to get much narrower. Parts of it were uneven and a little muddy, even though it was August and had barely rained. Of course, it is not a great surprise that a woodland would have uneven tracks and a bit of mud but we weren't really prepared.

We then encountered a tree that had fallen over and blocked the entire path. I heroically lifted the bikes over.

At this point one of the children decided they needed the toilet. This put the idea into the other child's head, who also decided they were 'absolutely desperate'.

We ploughed on again, getting on to the bikes for the wider sections and getting off for the sections which were narrow, muddy and particularly bumpy.

If I had been on a bike ride with THE LADS, then we would have trundled straight through and have ended up with a couple of manly scratches. 

However, with Mrs Guru playing the part of Emily in Paris and the two children still relatively inexperienced on their bikes we had to take it pretty slow. Tension levels raised a little, but thankfully it wasn't particularly hot and the woodland really is rather lovely and peaceful.

The track got narrower as we went along (this wasn't the narrowest bit)

This almighty trunk blocked our path but I bravely lifted the bikes over

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Returning to the car park

Thanks to my outstanding navigation, we made it back to the Parkhurst Forest car park without getting lost and I began loading the bikes back onto the car.

This was the point at which child one declared this adventure to be the best and worst bike ride we had done. 

We concluded that it was a good one for families who want a bit of adventure, but not the best for wobbly cyclists who are still learning. You won't find a toilet, a café or a bike hire place  in Parkhurst Forest - it really is just a nice woodland with tracks.

And how far was this epic bike ride that tested our family to the limits of their cycling ability? According to Strava it was a whopping 2.8 miles and involved 28 minutes of moving.

I think we will leave the Tennyson Trail until they are a bit older.

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Tamer alternatives for novice cyclists

There are several better alternatives for wobbly and inexperienced cyclists. Our favourites include:

• Freshwater Causeway to Yarmouth (or vice versa)
• Shanklin Lower Hyde Holiday Park to Wroxall
• Cowes to Newport section of the Red Squirrel Trail
• Pedallers Café in Newchurch towards either Sandown or Arreton

See our main cycling guide or our Red Squirrel Trail guide for more details on those routes.