This is an EPIC (and that's just to read) - 250 miles 5 days too much pushing!
I'd been contemplating doing this ride for quite a while having seen references to the Sarn Helen, the ancient Roman road that runs the length of Wales, on maps and in guide books.
In Autumn '99 there was the route published in MBR magazine that hacks had purported to ride, armed with this it didn't take much persuasion to persuade riding buddy Tim that he should have a go at it too. We spent a fair bit of time planning the route, taking some parts from the magazine article, inventing others, sorting accommodation and transport, and then finding other fools to do it with us. After a bit of asking around Tim found two people who he'd met Mtbing in Lefkas that were willing to have a go at it, which made four, the ideal number for this kind of thing, for several good reasons, the numbers are low enough to make accommodation easy, there are enough of you to keep conversations remotely interesting, (a trio and someone gets left out), and in an accident there are two to get help and one to remain behind with the injured. More than four and the group have a tendency to fragment as the fitter ones wait for the slower ones more than usual (it was the D/H tires I tell you!)
So we decide to give the route a go at the start of June, Tim and I were going to be up in Bala over the second May bank holiday with some mates anyway so we arranged for the others to meet us there and travel up on the Tuesday. Tim and I rode up to Bala (90 miles of road, groan but at least it's pleasant views, once you get off the A5). Tony and Danny turned up on Monday night in Tony's Landrover, what a star, a lift to the start! Danny's bike nearly didn't make it though after a close incident with an overhanging branch ripped it off the top of the Landy! Wheel truing for breakfast. We got to Llandudno Junction, (this was chosen for it's rail links so Tony could get his Landy back), before dinner and rode across to Conwy for the obligatory pose in front of the castle (I know it's not the coast but it's close enough and the tide was in and the water was salty and the Sun was out!
Enough Blathering, The Route
Warning - as much as I hate to admit a GPS is bloody useful on this route!
From Conwy a pleasant road route blast to warm the legs up down the B5106 (west side of river) to Trefriw GR 781631, bridleways are pretty much non-existent further north than this round here. More tarmac in the shape of a whippet friendly 2 mile climb "only" 1400 feet vertically up to the ruins of the chapel at Llyn Cowlyd reservoir GR743643 then follow the doubletrack under the pipeline but cut of it south west towards the ruins at GR729632. This is where the one MBR photo was taken -Pleas note we do not believe they rode this route, all the photos are by roads, and the route descriptions are twaddle!!(more later) Anyway from here there is a very rocky and technical singletrack to the southern edge of the reservoir climb up the ridge at the end, follow the path (not very obvious) to the small bridge at GR718609 then the fence line vaguely SE then the more positive track (signposted on the ground as a footpath, but they all seem to be little yellow arrows round here), South to the road.
Recommendation - stop and pose for photo with Capel Curig in Background
Our original plan was to stop at my works sister project The Towers Outdoor Activities Centre in Betws, but there had been a mix up so we arranged to push on and stop in Ffestiniog, at a pub we'd found that morning on the way up. Taking the road West drops down past the YHA to a junction at 734572, then south to chapel that someone has converted into a house GR736567 (don't overshoot like we did then have to ride back a mile). The path runs up the side of the house then becomes a "really pleasant" rocky climb up to the Clogwyn Llyd plantation, GR732548, this is crisscrossed with fire roads but as long as you head south and down there are no problems, watch out for the dogs and the metal barrier at the bottom in Pentre-felin.GR738525
We stopped to refuel in the petrol station (well what else can you call it), and discussed with the friendly attendant the route we were about to take, "that'll take you quite a while" I think were the words he used. Pickup the fire road at GR737521 that takes you South along the right hand side of the valley and when the trees start to thin look up. This has got to be one of the most impressive sites in the country and nobody seems to know about it, the valley ends in a perfect bowl some 1100 feet deep, check out the photo of Tony posing half way up it!
There are two houses in this valley and we were all on for buying either of them if money were no object (and the weather was good all year round). As soon as we'd stopped drooling over the scenery we realised that we'd got a problem, there was no path going up we could see, a couple of large streams yes, a pretty waterfall yes, but path no. Eventually we found it, a boggy cutting just wide enough to walk up (1 in 3 up sphagnum moss isn't in my category of rideable) that starts at GR737695, that soon becomes a near vertical drag up through the trees to the top, this would be one of the best pieces of singletrack in the world to ride down (with a big travel full susser) if there was some easy way up. It's all however very boggy see photo of Danny and myself knee deep in it.
Once on the top climb over the Barbed wire fence, GR736478 this is a bridleway, (MBR DESCRIBED THIS AS PLEASANT CLIMB, did they really ride the route?) then turn right and climb over the next fence and in the distance you should just be able to see quarry buildings GR734470. We stopped here for ½ an hour because Tim's GPS stopped working then the compass died and we didn't want to make any mistakes as evening was pushing on. There is no path (although marked as a footpath) to the quarry and is pretty much unrideable because of the tussocks, so more pushing, drop in to the quarry then climb up to the obvious path on the ridge and head south to the hut and small antenna, we missed this turning and dropped down one of the slopes they used to use as a tramway, but then had to climb back up. From the antenna the path is pretty obvious and some becomes tarmac which drops down south to Ffestiniog, to finish Day one. This descent was described by MBR as mundane; they must have different adrenaline glands to the rest of us (1 in 3, switchbacks, anyone)?
We followed the road A470 down to GR694394 then took the minor road past the Roman amphitheatre to GR718389, picked up the RUPP alongside the disused tramway down to the stream at GR727380, The bridleway doesn't exist on the ground here although we pushed the line of it (too boggy to ride), as an alternative it would be better to follow the path of the wall East and pick up the double track there, then head SW, at GR732378. The bridleway then becomes a metalled surface and heads South to meet the A412 at GR725360.We then followed this West to the A470 by Trawsfynydd, South till GR711348 junction and the SUSTRANS lon las cymru route 8 (13 year old girls route, I don't think so) to "Coed y heaven", and the last two pieces of singletrack on the Karrimor route down to Sian and Dafydd's cafe for lunch. After a bit of discussion about which route to take through the forest common sense (someone else's) prevailed and we decide to follow the fun shortcut down to Ganllwyd GR 727247, over the road to rejoin the sustrans route and the minor road on the East side of the river down to Dolgellau, (the sustrans route goes up to Cymmer Castle but it's easier to drop down to the A470 (will we never get away from that road)? Go East out of town following the road towards Tabor and the Cross Foxes Inn at GR 767167(there is an alternative heading SE out of Dolgellau that is straighter but the bridleways don't exist on the ground it also goes straight over the top).
From the Inn head South down the A487 to GR 762150 and pick up the sustrans route again on the right, this is an old metalled road that has grassed over (yeah kill the tarmac) 1 in 4 / 1 in 5 climb up to the forest at GR 762123. Then down the other side to meet the metalled road down to Aberllefenni, before you get to the metalled road though you have my favourite descent of the entire week, wet 1 in 3 loose slate, rutted with over 100 foot drop off on the right just in case you get too cocky. Danny suffered a little on this one, but every respect for the guy with his totally rigid Rocky mountain with 7 yr old cantis and panniers, it was scary watching him come down, Tim's ageing Manitou forks internals decided to die there as well. We finished the day off at Corris Youth Hostel just as it started to rain.
All hail the mighty sustrans if they let this trail remain as it is and not sanitise it. (It would be interesting to see some of the 13 year old girls from work try this one) MBR didn't even mention it in their route!
Low cloud/high rain greeted us as we left Corris YH and joined the Sustrans Route 8 to get to Machynlleth, (this runs on the East side of the river down past the Centre for Alternative Technology) GR 753043. A fairly pleasant warm up down the road to start the day off with, we knew this was going to be the most challenging day of the ride and so set off fairly early expecting a 10 hour day. After dropping in to the rail station GR745014 to book our tickets home and the bike shop to pick up some new brake pads and sunglasses (that cursed the weather) we headed along the A489 to the junction with the heart hospital and the minor road SE which is SUSTRANS route 8 to Forge to pick up the Glendower way. When we got there there was no sign of a bridleway at all, and after speaking to a friendly little old local woman, who informed us she had never seen a path there, decided to use the road to skirt round the hill. It appears that there hasn't been a bridleway there for years, you would have though that a path named after such a local hero would have been given a bit more respect by the farmers.
Staying on route 8 to the junction at GR797971 saved us about 1 hour I guess which made a lot of difference to the day as a whole. We then took the right hand minor road and then the left fork at both junctions to get to a farm at GR811961, the farmer had kindly removed the bridleway signs here so after a bit of faffing we found the correct route on the left hand side of the farmyard up a green lane toward the summit of Foel Fadian, this path starts out harmless enough, but as you leave behind the grass the path becomes slick granite and near vertical. It was impossible to ride up (we blame carrying backpacks) and pretty near impossible to walk up, at one point I was contemplating taking my shoes off and walking barefoot to see if I could get a better grip. This path takes some fairly sharp twist before running along the side the top of a near vertical cliff face at GR826951, this was under water but at least it was flat. The GPS came into its own here as visibility was down to about 15 feet, the path we needed turned out to be a 4x4 track used to the serve the nature reserve at Glaslyn GR825941, which we followed to just beyond Llyn Cwm-byr at GR819915 (the bridleway actually runs from the end of the lake over the top of the hill, but we chose to go round). Here we met our first rambler, who explained that the next section was a bit boggy and we'd find it pretty hard going on the bikes. This was met with a general "what does he know", was I the only one to notice the mud up to his knees?
On and around the corner to the Afon Hengwm valley, this is the closet I've seen to being in a Highland Glen without being north of the border, and is the start of the river Severn. We eventually found a piece of sheep track to follow after 20 minutes of trudging across sphagnum bog and fairly deep streams although much of it was unrideable due to the wetness. The bridleway is marked on the map as crossing the river by a set of crags at GR798893 but when we got down there the bridge had been washed out, so we did the only thing we could (and most stupid) and forded the river, thigh deep anyone. After another 10 min of pushing the bridleway on the South side became a doubletrack, but there was as much water running down it as in the river, gradually the water dropped away as the ground did to eventually become a tarmac road at Maesnant Outdoor Ed. Centre GR 775881. We followed this South down into Ponterwyd GR750809 and then to save time hit the A4120 to get food at Devils Bridge.
When we got there the café owners took one look at us and said they were closed, we didn't realise what time it was until then, to cross the pass had taken us 5 hours! Thankfully the café at the steam railway was still open and we sat there pretending not to be completely buggered, only another 5 hours ahead! The route we had got planned was to follow the B4343 to Pont-rhyd-y-groes then offroad all the way to the minor road at GR756681, but the Afon Hengwm had taken too much out of us so we stayed on the B4343 through Ysbyty Ystwyth to Ffair-Rhos GR738630. From here due east to pick up the Monk's Trod and descend into Rhyader.
By the time we had got to the Claerddu at GR805677 we were shattered but still kept going to hit the Monk's Trod. Unfortunately the ground was unrideable so it was a case of push and ride where possible, including many incidents of deep but narrow stream crossings. The most memorable one where Tony got off to jump a narrow gully, but Tim proved the ground was firm enough to ride, not to be out done Tony then proceeded to ride full tilt at the next one which swallowed the front end of his bike up to the handlebars (good job titanium doesn't rust) and sent him flying into the bilberry. We were losing light rapidly at this point and decided to cut the day short and follow the bridleway/4x4 tracks down along side the reservoirs, this meant fording another river GR820674 rather than trudging across the bog. It was a good job we did as Danny had blown completely, although it still wasn't easy riding as the path was pretty exposed and there was a nasty headwind blowing. I've ridden round here and love this track, the vistas are stunning and the surface rough enough to keep your mind occupied, before eventually making it down to the Severn Trent works and the nice new cycleway into Rhyader. Total 97 km time 13 hours. Boy was that B&B good!
After the mammoth ride of the day before we were all looking forward to a much shorter day down to Brecon, the was only one problem to overcome, leaving the excellent B&B in Rhayader to head out into the torrential rain! There doesn't seem like a lot of offroad routes south heading the way we wanted to go and so decided to try and out distance the rain on the road. So off down the A470 (we just can't leave it alone), to Argoed Mill then East on minor roads to sample the delights of the National Cycle museum in Llandrindod Wells. Pretty cool place, I'm quite impressed that I've got a bike at work that the curators' not seen though! After a brief food stop we headed back out into the rain, we had got a really nice section of route to do off road. But thought it would be a slog through the floods and so rode down the A483 to Builth Wells using all the concentration we could muster to make the rain go away. (If no one else has tried this then it helps to give a focus to riding in downpours, basically we really psych yourself up into believing the rain will go away, even if it doesn't the adrenaline rush you get helps). Oh it stopped raining as we got into Builth just as my front mech decided to explode (I was just riding down the road, honest). A quick nip into the bike shop and £60 poorer and with oily fingers richer we carried on South along the B4250 to GR038049 and up the bridleway just over the bridge that goes up onto the top of the ridge and to the reservoir at then road at GR036459, here all my hard work in route planning went out the window as the group "sod it lets just ride towards the Brecon Beacon" mentality won through, we dropped down in a generally SE direction to the road at GR054436 then east to the junction at Gwenddwr, then SW to junction at GR061424 and left slogging up it the hill till the tarmac runs out, then doubletrack up to the forest at the top. From here the tracks headed south and down a blocked bridleway (this would have been ace in between and old haw/yew double hedge) to meet up with the B4250 and into Brecon.
****I've simplified this a bit as I don't have the map for it anymore *****
We were planning on stopping in a Youth Hostel just outside of Brecon which Tim assured us was only a couple of miles up the road, so we decided to stop for a balti in town. Tony's rear cassette body then decided to strip on him as he climbed up the road to the Tesco's carpark, ouch! After a bit of a bodge with locktight we got it working well enough to allow him to spin, so carried on. 12 miles of trudging up the A470 into a headwind later we got to the Youth Hostel! I was there last as I had a slight incident with upwardly mobile Balti, and was greeted with the statement that the Hostel had been closed! After much ranting the wardens agreed to ferry us by car to the other YH in Brecon, where we'd just come from, to be greeted by the offspring of Hitler (well his attitude sucked) and after much negotiation allowed us to stay.
The last and the easiest day. The aim of the day was just to follow the Taff trail (TT) from Brecon to Cardiff, easy, no maps it's signposted! (LOL) After having to leave our bikes at the other hostel in Brecon, we got a taxi back to there to collect them and continue, the plan to follow the East side of Pen Y Fan down and join up with the cycle part of the Taff trail at Merthyr Tydfil, (the TT splits in to two parts at Merthyr heading north one for walkers, the other for bikes).
The warden at the hostel informed us that we would be okay following the TT even though it was the section for walkers as most of it was bridleway. So we dropped out of the hostel grounds down a footpath (non existent on ground) to join up with the path proper heading south. This starts off as an old coach road until it meets the A470 (it's still following us), where it crosses to the west to pick up a fire road that soon becomes a slog in boggy ground up through the trees, then along the eastern face of the ridge (this section is a footpath, although it looks as though the only people to use it are squaddies out training). You hit another forested section here and climb some more until the it levels out, we spied a bridleway dropping down the side of the face through the trees and couldn't resist it, tight twisty and nearly vertical, very overgrown with a large tree across it just on a blind corner, ace! This gets very boggy at the bottom (it had been raining here for four days solidly by then though) and drops down to the Garwant Forest Centre. But yet again what a drop it was, sinuous singletrack along the edge of the trees that was barely visible over roots, rocks and fallen branches, not one of us made it through without dabbing, the only problem is it is a footpath, whoops!
After a food stop at the visitor centre café it was back out into the rain and to save time and trudging along a fairly impassable path we hit the A470 into Merthyr. We headed for the centre of town and joined up with the Sustrans route going south by the big sculpture (god these things are ugly), which follows the river Taff south to the coast. In true Sustrans style this track is metalled and mostly away from the road and is actually fairly pleasant in places, the main problem with it is that it goes through some of the more "colourful" areas of the valley towns and it soon became a betting game on how many burnt out cars and other associated artefacts of civilization we would see on the way down. A local we had met in the hostel the previous night asked us if we had any weapons with us after hearing how much the bikes were worth! In places the tarmac gave way to stretches of offroad, and some potentially interesting bits of trials stuff, but no time for that we were averaging 15 mph with our heads down talk turning to beer and dodgy massage parlours in Cardiff! When we eventually got in to Cardiff we had the customary pose for a photo out side the castle (I suppose this should have been called 2c's to 2c's Conway castle 2 Cardiff castle rather than coast to coast) because we didn't fancy nipping down to the docks, after hearing some fairly dodgy rumours about the place. After eventually finding the youth hostel and having a very cold shower (the electricity seems a bit temperamental not that we hadn't seen any approachable members of the opposite sex for a week!). We headed into town for some well earned food and beer.
We covered a total distance of around 250 miles, in 64 hours, of which over a third of that was spent walking / standing around navigating, Tim and I are very tempted to do the route again now that we know it, we think we could do it in 4 days weather permitting. Perhaps next year!
The riders Danny Rainsford, Tony Mifsud, Tim Jones, Ian Fardoe
The casualties:
Snapped XTR front mech
Snapped titanium spokes
Splines stripped on chris king hub
Destroyed pair of manitou forks
Buckled rear wheels
Disc brake pads
V brake pads
1 pair of gonads when my chain snapped on a loose steep climb
Last Updated 13-10-2000
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