So a few weeks back, we went to North Wales, Coed Y Brenin to be exact. This time it was the turn of some of the South Wales trails, with the opportunity of a 'Woo hoo - 4 day weekend' at our disposal.
5 of us travelled together in the Land Cruiser. Alaric and I, Alex, Jon and Graham. We left on Friday morning and arrived at Cwm Carn for our first trail at lunchtime (the beauty of South Wales is that it's so much closer). After an interesting time parking the car and trailer, going to the loo (miles away) and finding water (not as far away as we thought) we got kitted up and hit the Twrch trail. 15km of mostly singletrack. This trail has always been a favourite of mine. There's a new section in the middle which is a freeride area, table tops and stuff - or so I hear - I didn't ride it, just did the usual stuff. Its called the black run, but Alaric didn't think it deserved that name, but it was fun.
After the fun of the down part, we hopped back in the car and headed for Glyncorrwg Ponds where we were to set up camp for the next few days. After about an hour's drive we arrived at Glyncorrwg. After our initial excited amazement that the place was so organised that we had our own labelled areas, we were disappointed to find our allotted camping area was under 4 inches of water! The folks in the cafe said we could set up where we liked, so we did so as close to the cafe as possible. Just as we had finished setting up, camp security arrived demanding to know who had allowed us to take over someone else's pitch. We were slightly worried for a short time, but the guy who had reserved the pitch in the first place, never actually turned up!!
As planned, Jon had cooked up some chilli and I had made some spag bol. So, as we were all starving by now, we started warming up the bol and cooking the spag. Very nice it was too.
As the sun went down, it got very cold. The problem with bright sunny days at this time of year, cold cloudless nights. I was also suffering with a stinking cold. This is fine while your riding, just blow all the snot out onto the person behind you as you ride along, but when you're trying to sleep, its a whole other story...
Saturday morning arrived and we got up early and had brekkie, loaded up with fuel and water and rode on down to Afan Forest Park to ride Y Wal and Penhydd. Both nice trails, but I struggled with the narrow parts close to sheer drops (only when the drop was on the left though, I have no problem when the drop is on the right). In between trails we stopped at the trail centre for sustenance. Graham made a start on Penhydd, but was well done in by then and instead chose to take the road back to Glyncorrwg.
After riding the Penhydd trail, the few miles back to Glyncorrwg seemed to take and age. Straight long tarmac path...
We got back to the campsite and the boys left we to keep an eye on things whilst they went to Tesco to buy rice and breakfasts. 2 hours later, just after I finally decided to put everything away just so i could go to the loo, they returned, some excuse about getting lost on the way back :)
Another yummy dinner of Chilli and another chilly, early, night followed by another glorious frosty morning.
Sunday we rode White's Level. Excellent trail because (a) it starts from Glyncorrwg and (b) its the best trail in the world, ever! 95% singletrack and what seemed to me to be more down than up - well that never happens! Jon dipped out on this ride, he tried to blame the bike, but I think he just wanted the day off :D.
Monday, White's level again! This time, Me and Graham dipped out, which gave Jon the opportunity to ride my bike.
Monday afternoon, it remained sunny while we packed everything away. We had lunch at the centre at Glyncorrwg. The food there is excellent and proper mountain biker portions. It's open until 10pm and they serve beer.
It was such a great weekend, relaxed, great weather, great trails 100% swoopy. Highly recommended.
When someone uploads some photos, I'll post a link to them here (and maybe steal some to make this entry look a bit more interesting).
14 April 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
