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The weather noticed this unbridled happiness and chose the moment
to let forth a great and final shiver of heavy freezing drops to
dampen our enthusiasm. The map threatened to melt in my hands and
with a quick look we turned left off the bridleway and on to a
cutesy little Welsh road. We joined another bridleway soon after and
turned left on this where after a small rise the trail turns left
again
and (on the day we were there) it's surface resembled red
automotive
grease. Remarkably we all slithered a good three hundred yards down
here to join another road without sliding off altogether, shame. A
right turn here took us two miles on another cute little road to a
left and the start of the second climb. We started the slippery
climb with gusto but soon lost rear traction and began the long slog
to the top of the hill. This is not an easy climb. Hats off to you
if you can ride all the way up it, we're just not fit enough (it
should be possible in theory). The trail goes up on grass through
two gates then turns left and heads for the lowest point of the
ridge. When we finally made it to the top the lads were full of
appreciation for my route and humorously threatened to throw me off!
What jokers they are, anyway in no time at all I'd scrambled back up
the cliff and bandaged my abrasions.
Straight over the top on the trail
gets you a right hairpin on to a seriously long and fast bridleway
descent (below). I led us out at a really silly speed and jumped a few of
the large ditches and potholes, which in retrospect was madder than a
bucket full of ferrets. Right at the bottom was a race for the
Tal-y-Maes bridge which presents a 90 degree turn and has stunningly
low parapet walls. The air was blue as we skidded to a halt narrowly
avoiding the short sharp drop in to the rocky brook below. Check
this out behind Lensman (Tom, who won the descent blast him!)
mending his pinch punctures in the photo. A couple of miles more of
those tiny tarmac back roads and you reach a gate on your left.
The
bridleway sign is in the hedge and you won't see it without looking backwards, but you can't miss the concrete tramway
going up the one in three. This gut wrenching climb gives you no
excuse to stop as it has perfect traction DOH! After a switchback
turn the trail continues right behind the back of a house and gets
even steeper. Up through two small gates then left and more steep
climbing back up on to moor land. By this time on the first trip we
were pretty dehydrated, the second time I was short of food, don't
the Welsh do pubs or cafe's?
The route follows the left edge of the
moor with fantastic views, then crosses a ridge before it bears
right towards the forest. The heather hides the pot holes here and I
had a really embarrassing get-off whilst my good buddies sniggered
in time honoured fashion.Time to take my revenge on the
downhill as the route goes through a gate on the right and gets
jiggy wid it on a bumpy, rutted, open double track.
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I pulled out all the stops to make
it to the bottom first and had more than the usual dodgy moments in
the ruts as a result. Straight across a wide forest section (after
politely waiting for the guys) and we were warned by Rob that the
next section was rocky. I curled my lips back in to a contemptuous
sneer 'rocks, we ain't afraid of no steenking rocks!' and put the
pedal to the metal as I entered the curvy double track in to the
trees ahead. I know there's a moral here somewhere because Rob had
really been trying to warn me that this downhill kicks butt. Going
at a speed a couple of miles an hour faster than way too fast I
rounded a bend and hit the big stuff. Rob later complimented me on
how I handled the situation. I seem to remember a lot of bad
language and panicking on my part with a desperate leap on to the
right bank followed by more curses and some serious and quite
passionate fear. The right bank turned out to be my saviour though,
even though the fir trees thrashed me mercilessly in their
indignation at this desperate assault.
The final straight section of this
mad descent is more rock strewn mayhem out in the open but just a
lot steeper.... A third shorter rutted section brought us to the end
at a left turn. Right through the farm houses then follow the forest
road around the bend and straight across at the cross roads. We did
this last section on the second trip and the sun had really come out
again. A right fork leads to the corner of a fire road where we
turned right on to a single track with a very steep end, which drops
on to the road
back to the car park. Well that was where we ended the ride on the
first trip.
Without Rob's sane and cunning leadership, we crossed
the river here at the lower car park and went straight up the hill
on what I'd maintained would be a fairly easy climb. The reality
is a straight one in five for a good half a mile....oops. The lads
were at mutiny point by now and we reached the top of the climb not
a moment too soon. A final blast on a fire road following the river
and then a short singletrack dropped us back at the car park, and a
sorry and weary lot we were. Anyone want to go next week? Drop me an
e-mail if you're daft enough.....
Where
is The Grwyne Fawr Valley?
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