My Weekend in Coed y Brenin
Discussion
Having 'jacked another thread regarding this I thought it would be more polite to start my own thread.
My friends and I speant four days last weekend riding the trails at Coed y Brenin in Northern Wales. It was awesome, I've ridden there before but this time everything seemed to come together so much better. I did some of the best riding I have ever done.
We stayed in a converted barn that was 1.3 miles UP the road from the start of Morticia trail on The Beast. Details of the place are here: www.glyn-yr-aur.com it is excellent. The barn is at 1000ft elevation so about 600ft above the visitor centre and 100ft below the start of Gomez on The Beast.
We arrived on the Fridy at about 1pm. Un-packed, sorted a light lunch then loaded the bikes onto the car and headed off to the Centre. We rode the MBR and finished it comfortably under the 1 1/2 hours mark. It was brilliant, dry and very fast. We headed back to the Barn and settled in for the evening (we had been up from 4am)
Saturday we rode out from the Barn and picked up The Beast trail at Morticia. With the intention of riding it down to the Centre and then riding the front portion of The Beast. We took a wrong turn and ended up joining the outward sections of The Beast and had mid morning tea at the Forest Cafe. A discussion ensued and in the end we did two laps of our 'wrong' trail stopping off at the Forest Cafe for a lateish lunch. Our route profile (GPS is wonderful) showed our total climbing for the day to be 4360ft which meant 4360ft of descending
.
Sunday we drove down to the Centre and rode the Tawr which, with the exception of Pins and Needles and the last section of Single track didn't really light my fire. But we had a nice BBQ lunch at the centre and then set off on the begining section of the Dragon's Back before turning left after the suspension bridge to pick up the MBR trail and more importntly the fire road up to the Pink Heffer. We then followed the MBR back to the Centre.
We set off fro home on the Monday morning.
The last time I rode Coed it was throwing it down continuously, cold and the trails were very slippery and a bit past my point of comfortable riding. Still rode them though!
This time though, the trails were dry, very grippy and free flowing - even Gomez.
We are spending the last weekend in June at Afan. We are riding the Skyline the Saturday afternoon. And then on Sunday we are riding up White's. At the top of the mountain we are crossing over to The Wall and riding this down to have lunch at the other visitor's centre. After lunch we're riding up The Wall and crossing over to pick up White's. The following White's back down to the Drop Off Cafe. Then driving home!
Can't wait.
Then there's Morzine at the end of August.
My friends and I speant four days last weekend riding the trails at Coed y Brenin in Northern Wales. It was awesome, I've ridden there before but this time everything seemed to come together so much better. I did some of the best riding I have ever done.
We stayed in a converted barn that was 1.3 miles UP the road from the start of Morticia trail on The Beast. Details of the place are here: www.glyn-yr-aur.com it is excellent. The barn is at 1000ft elevation so about 600ft above the visitor centre and 100ft below the start of Gomez on The Beast.
We arrived on the Fridy at about 1pm. Un-packed, sorted a light lunch then loaded the bikes onto the car and headed off to the Centre. We rode the MBR and finished it comfortably under the 1 1/2 hours mark. It was brilliant, dry and very fast. We headed back to the Barn and settled in for the evening (we had been up from 4am)
Saturday we rode out from the Barn and picked up The Beast trail at Morticia. With the intention of riding it down to the Centre and then riding the front portion of The Beast. We took a wrong turn and ended up joining the outward sections of The Beast and had mid morning tea at the Forest Cafe. A discussion ensued and in the end we did two laps of our 'wrong' trail stopping off at the Forest Cafe for a lateish lunch. Our route profile (GPS is wonderful) showed our total climbing for the day to be 4360ft which meant 4360ft of descending
. Sunday we drove down to the Centre and rode the Tawr which, with the exception of Pins and Needles and the last section of Single track didn't really light my fire. But we had a nice BBQ lunch at the centre and then set off on the begining section of the Dragon's Back before turning left after the suspension bridge to pick up the MBR trail and more importntly the fire road up to the Pink Heffer. We then followed the MBR back to the Centre.
We set off fro home on the Monday morning.
The last time I rode Coed it was throwing it down continuously, cold and the trails were very slippery and a bit past my point of comfortable riding. Still rode them though!
This time though, the trails were dry, very grippy and free flowing - even Gomez.
We are spending the last weekend in June at Afan. We are riding the Skyline the Saturday afternoon. And then on Sunday we are riding up White's. At the top of the mountain we are crossing over to The Wall and riding this down to have lunch at the other visitor's centre. After lunch we're riding up The Wall and crossing over to pick up White's. The following White's back down to the Drop Off Cafe. Then driving home!
Can't wait.
Then there's Morzine at the end of August.
Edited by mk1fan on Friday 11th May 12:31
I took a few piccies but my camera battery gave up the ghost on the Saturday. The shots I had taken were really poor - camera's fault, bad workmen and all - After crashing on Saturday pm I decided not to take my camera out again cause my Mule was packed pretty solidly and I didn't want to break my camera if I crashed again - I need it for work. My friend took some too but I haven't seen them yet.
Will try and get some up over the weekend.
Will try and get some up over the weekend.
Just come back froma weekend there as well, and it was the first time I'd been and absolutely loved it. We had a group stay at the Ferndale bungalow which was reasonable enough for what we wanted, and we actually avoided the worst of the shocking weather the weekend brought, which was a bonus.
Agree with you that Tawr just doesn't really work as a flowing, varied ride. Seems to be too much firetrail then short sections of rocky descents and then more firetraill, also with some rocky ascents. I'm not saying it should all be easy, but the other trails such as MBR and the Beast all hold together so much better and really get you into the flow of the route.
We did get wet on Saturday and some of the sections got a little slippery, but no nasty off's (clearly not trying hard enough).
I'd definitely go back, and can't wait to get out on the bike again tomorrow.
Agree with you that Tawr just doesn't really work as a flowing, varied ride. Seems to be too much firetrail then short sections of rocky descents and then more firetraill, also with some rocky ascents. I'm not saying it should all be easy, but the other trails such as MBR and the Beast all hold together so much better and really get you into the flow of the route.
We did get wet on Saturday and some of the sections got a little slippery, but no nasty off's (clearly not trying hard enough).
I'd definitely go back, and can't wait to get out on the bike again tomorrow.
Good post mk1fan.
Always looking out for places to stay, the barn looks ideal. Haven't been to CyB for a couple of years so should visit it this year.
Back to Afan in 2 weeks time. We stay at Brynteg House Cymmer. www.brynteghouse.com They welcome MTBers. Right in the middle of both trail centres which you can reach on footpaths. Near the pub as well. We drive from kent early friday morning and stop at CwmCarn on the way. Only a short route, but quality. So good we rode it twice last year.
How to clean bikes Afan styleeee.
You'll enjoy Morzine. Pics from last year. Shame the Tours not there this year.
Couldn't resist these roads even on mtb's. Road down fron Joux Plane. Route used on the tour. Sean Kelly was timed at 72 mph down here. Couldn't do that in my car!
French Swiss border.
General.
Going to Verbier this year. Will put a post up if I get back in one peice.
PS mk1fan, I think you must be beating me in the commuting stakes, I used my motorbike twice last week!
G
Always looking out for places to stay, the barn looks ideal. Haven't been to CyB for a couple of years so should visit it this year.
Back to Afan in 2 weeks time. We stay at Brynteg House Cymmer. www.brynteghouse.com They welcome MTBers. Right in the middle of both trail centres which you can reach on footpaths. Near the pub as well. We drive from kent early friday morning and stop at CwmCarn on the way. Only a short route, but quality. So good we rode it twice last year.
How to clean bikes Afan styleeee.
You'll enjoy Morzine. Pics from last year. Shame the Tours not there this year.
Couldn't resist these roads even on mtb's. Road down fron Joux Plane. Route used on the tour. Sean Kelly was timed at 72 mph down here. Couldn't do that in my car!
French Swiss border.
General.
Going to Verbier this year. Will put a post up if I get back in one peice.
PS mk1fan, I think you must be beating me in the commuting stakes, I used my motorbike twice last week!
G
Caught the train today as I had a meeting accross town that required resonably smart atire!
We stay here when we stay at Afan www.greenlanterns.co.uk/ Not as close as yours but they do welcome mtbers and have a good restaurant on the side!
We stay here when we stay at Afan www.greenlanterns.co.uk/ Not as close as yours but they do welcome mtbers and have a good restaurant on the side!
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