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A Wale(s) of a time....

Da Peach

Da Peach

Outwitted by a rodent
Jul 2, 2002
13,686
4,919
North Van
So, went to Wales and checked out some the MTB action!

Was a blast. Went to two spots. Afan Forest and Gwydyr Forest.

First day out, we weren't really sure what to expect in terms of bikes. I'm not a huge bike snob, and haven't had a decent trial bike for a long while, but we rented a pair of Giant hardtails. They were very well maintained and worked great:


We decided on trying out "The Wall". A 24km trail with a great mix of fire-road style climbs mixed in with some great single track. This is what the climbs looked like mostly:


Which would then be followed by some great single track. Me:


La Belle:


But a strange thing, after every section of great single track of a couple hundred yards, there were these fences we dubbed "Bummer Barriers". Annoying, but we guessed they were there to keep out the dirtbikes:


A couple more...



the view:
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,470
7,826
cool pics. as SS points out it doesn't jive with my mental image of wales.
 
Da Peach

Da Peach

Outwitted by a rodent
Jul 2, 2002
13,686
4,919
North Van
Alright alright, I was not aware of the "THREAD GETS LOCKED FOR APRROVAL" baloney, and was not sure if the pics were going to display right. What you have all subjected yourselves to was a work in progress between shirts while ironing last night.

I hit "post" instead of "preview" to see what it would look like. Still not an ace at posting pics...

I've got more. Maybe if I've got time at work today...
 
Da Peach

Da Peach

Outwitted by a rodent
Jul 2, 2002
13,686
4,919
North Van
There...

Aaaanyhoo....yes, it was sunny while I was in Wales. In fact, it never rained once in the 9 days I was there. I got a little misty a couple times, but never quite rained.

So the day at Afan Forest was great, the bikes worked great and the terrain was exactly what we were looking for. Each of the descents was a traverse through pine forest single track with lots of fun humps and bumps. If it weren't for those stupid bummer barriers, the flow would have been a lot better.

So then we wanted to go to Coed-y-Brenin (say: Coidybrennin). According to www.mbwales.com, this is a great spot to ride. But the drive there was plenty 'O fun itself. We decided to take the scenic route:

That road is no more than 10 feet wide.

our Renault Clio. Not uber-powerful, but with tiny roads like that, it was just the ticket:


nothing but sheep and hills, sheep and hills. The driving was an absolute blast!


Due to a mixup in driving times, and conflict of schedules, we didn't manage to do any biking in Coed-y-Brennin, but man, that place looks like it would be great...

The entry to the trail we wanted to do:


What I believe to be the exit of the trail we wanted to do, but didn't....


The main event of the trip was to hike Mount Snowdon, which was great. Going up, see the ridge on the right?


On the ridge:


The next day, we decided we had the energy to try and make up for what we missed in Coed-y-Brennin. So we hit Gwydyr Forest trial.

We go to the shop, get our bikes (GT Avalanche 1.0s) and set off for the Marin Trail. We ask how to get to the trail. "Just hang a left, follow the road until you see the trail markers". Sounds good.

We proceed as directed and are met with a killer climb up an extremely steep road. We figure it's just a matter of climbing a couple of these bends and we'll see the trail markers. Nope, bend after bend, just more road and more hills. About 20 mins of constant climbing and morale was starting to fade. After the previous day's hike, we were really looking forward to the single track. Give me a climb through single track any day...but a paved road? This is one of the nicer parts:


Once we did find the single track, it was good, but very brief. As soon as our legs started to recover and the smiles came back to our faces, more climbing...until you saw another one of these:


The single track was smooth and fun:

, but FULL of needle like rocks just waiting to puncture your tire. I held out well for a while, but I finally got too carried away down a fun downhill section.


Altough a fun ride, I wish we had hit Coed-y-Brennin instead. It really did look like THE place to go. The Gwydyr Forest trail was just too much road climbing for not much single track for my taste. We were too excited to ride the single track to take many photos there. Difficult to fiddle with a camera while you're huffing an puffing up yet another fire road...

Overall, it was a great trip. We were insanely lucky with the weather. Who knew that the Brits reversed their brakes? They just HAVE to be different I guess.... kinda retarded if you ask me... It did almost send me ass over tea kettle a couple times, but not quite.
 
Da Peach

Da Peach

Outwitted by a rodent
Jul 2, 2002
13,686
4,919
North Van
Oh yeah, the guy who rented us the bikes at Afan Forest claimed that "The Wall" trail we did was rated the #10 trail in the world by Mountain Biking magazine in 2004 or 2005. It was pretty awesome...
 
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