During my drive to Conwy on Saturday morning I stopped off to do some geocaches. None of them were too extreme, being quick cache-and dashes by the side of the road, but it broke the journey up a little.
The first was just a little way south of Conwy called ‘This Daughter became a Conwy Valley Tour Guide‘. It was right beside a road so I managed to park pretty much on top of it and make a quick grab.
The next was just on the outskirts of Conwy in a little garden beside a stream. Unfortunately there were quite a few people about so I didn’t feel comfortable nosing around too much. I found the garden but not the cache itself. So, Gyffin Garden was a DNF for me.
I then spent a day do ‘naturalist’ type things and found a geocache called Watch the Birdie just outside the RSPB Conwy reserve. This one was an easy find and despite the fact that there was quite a few people around who had gathered to watch the starling roost I was able to sit down on top of the cache and retrieve it with raising any suspicions.
With the Mawddach Goldrush looming on Sunday I’m now taking it easy for the second half of this week so that I’m fresh for it. I did however have to do some bike maintenance earlier this week and whilst at it did a wiper seal service on my forks and a rear shock air can service too.
So, yesterday I felt that the bike needed a bit of a shake down before Sunday so went for a ride around the Pendam Trail at Nant yr Arian. All felt fine with the bike, but I’m not getting any faster. Last time I did the Pendam Trail it took me 40 minutes and 42 seconds, which was pretty slow in comparison to my best ever of 37:22. Yesterday I was slower still at 41:05.
It was pretty windy out there which may not have helped, and I did go to circuits and swimfit the night before so wasn’t well rested. However, it doesn’t look like I will be breaking any records at the Mawddach Goldrush on Sunday!
Pendam Trail - March 3rd
After the first lap of the Pendam Trail I then went around the lake again and did some geocache maintenance on one of my Watery Wales 1 series of gecoaches before fiddling with the suspension settings on my bike and doing the Hippity Hop section again. A nice afternoon out in the hills, but I’m not as fast as I should be!
It has been ages since I’ve been geocaching. I’ve been out to repair or replace a few of my own caches now and then but hadn’t done any finding myself as I thought I’d have to travel to find any new ones.
How wrong I was. I had a look at the Geocaching website yesterday and there are loads of new caches in the area. Someone called ‘nitroglysarine’ has hidden an entire ‘Alphabet Series’ in the local neighbourhood, so that’s at least 26 geocaches that I haven’t found and there are lots of others too.
I had a few meetings in Aberystwyth yesterday so before I left I loaded a few cache locations onto my GPSr and stopped off on my way to my meetings for a few quick finds. All were really easy and accessible by car so they were quick ‘cache and dashes’ that took me no time at all. I even got an FTF (First to Find) on one of them.
I prefer the caches that are out in the middle of nowhere really, but those take quite a bit of time and effort to do and I don’t always have that time. So for now these local, easy caches will have to do and it’s good to see so many new ones in the area and new cachers out there hiding geocaches. It looks as though the number of Aber-cachers has been growing and will be keeping me busy for a while. I shall load up my GPSr with all of the new caches today so that I can find them whenever we are out and about.
As an owner of several geocaches, it is my duty to maintain them every now and then, so yesterday I went out in the rain to visit a few of my boxes dotted around the local countryside.
The first was along the Afon Clettwr, where I had a nice, peaceful walk along the riverbank in the pouring rain.
Afon Clettwr
I’d forgotten to take my GPSr with me so had to remember where I’d hidden the box, but after a bit of searching soon found it. The box was a bit smashed, but the contents were in good condition. I did remember to take a spare box with me though so replaced the container, re-hid it and then headed back off to Borth.
The next stop was a geocache overlooking the little bay of Aberwennol. This involves a little walk along the Ceredigion Coast Path from Borth up to the war memorial. This of course provides some nice views of Borth, despite the miserable weather.
Borth in the Rain
Grey Skies over Borth
The geocache here was actualy in really good condition, despite the fact that someone had reported that it was wet.
I then headed to Clarach and along the Ceredigion Cost Path for a little way. There has been quite a bit of erosion along here and the path has been diverted in a few places. Unfortunately I didn’t quite have time to get to the geocache along here as I had to turn back before too long so that I could do the school run so maintenance on this ‘Sarn Cynfelyn’ and ‘Seascape’ will have to wait for a another day.
Once again though it just goes to show that it doesn’t matter what the weather is doing, it’s nice out there anyway.
I haven’t done much geocaching lately, but need to get out and maintain some of my geocaches that need attention… Hopefully this weekend if time permits.
Meanwhile, one of my geocoins has been continuing on its mission to visit as many UK counties as possible and notched up a new one, West Sussex, yesterday. A geocoin is a little traveling token with a unique identifying number that allows you to keep track of it. Gecoachers move it from geocache to geocache whenever they come across it and I can track it’s movements online.
My ‘Dressel Dragon Geocoin‘ has the mission to visit all of the counties of the UK. It has quite a few to go yet though.
Counties it has visited so far
Map and topo section of Dragons Back
Thanks to the fact that I have a lovely and very understanding wife (does that earn me some more brownie points?) I was able to get out for a MTB ride on Sunday. Rather than head to the usual trails around here I headed north for a ride under the mighty trees of Coed y Brenin.
I stopped off on the way to get a first to find on a new geocache at the Dyfi Osprey Project and then continued on my way to Coed y Brenin. It was raining when I got there and although there were a few people getting ready in the car park it wasn’t that busy. I got changed and soon found myself slipping and sliding over the click rocks and roots of the Dragonsback trail.
I overtook a few people on the first couple of sections but as I got further away from the trail centre there were fewer people about. At about 5 miles into the ride I snapped a spoke in my rear wheel. I didn’t have a spare with me so I stopped and removed it just as the heavens really opened and gave me quite a soaking. I then continued on my way taking it easy so as to minimise any further damage to the rear wheel.
I did overtake a couple more people on the climb after the little cafe and then stopped (once again in a torrential downpour) for a mars bars and to check my rear wheel just before the rocky and more technical sections of the Adams Family. The people I overtook earlier caught me back up whilst I stopped so I rode with them for a little while before leaving them behind again. I’ve only ridden the Adams Family sections once before and that time they were really difficult, slippery, slidey, steep and with big rocks in the way. They have now been completely rebuilt and rode much easier this time. A little too easy in a way, but still good fun.
The last few sections of the trail were closed for repair and re-building so all trails were re-routed along a nice easy route back to the visitor centre. There were loads of people going along here which gave me a little motivation to pick up the speed and overtake them and before I realised it I was back at the visitor centre and the ride was over.
Only about 6 mile in total as the last few bits were missed off, but good fun and definately worth the drive there. I bought a new spoke in the shop and will have to dosome work on my bike tonight. Not only does the spoke need fitting and the wheel truing, but the rear shock could do with a service as well. Oh, and the bottom bracket has seen better days!
Topo section, speed and heart rate
After a long search and several unsuccessful missions, air28uk has finally found our Assume Nothing #2 geocache.
These Assume Nothing caches are supposed to be a little difficult and tricky and judging by his log, the persistence paid off and made the eventual find all the more satisfying.
This is the log entry:
Location: United Kingdom
air28uk found Assume Nothing Wales #2 (Ivy) (Traditional Cache) at 4/2/2009Log Date: 4/2/2009
and on the fourth day of searching (thanks for the helpful clues westies) i found it , i actually touched the hiding place every time i visited !!!! arrrgggghhhhvery very clever
remember assume nothing……..
Well done, and good luck with Assume Nothing #1, that one is proving difficult for most people.
After a failed attempt at hiding the latest in the Assume Nothing Wales series of geocaches, we returned to the top secret location at the weekend and got some better co-ordinate readings.
The cache is now live on geocaching.com and the First to Find (FTF) is up for grabs.
This one is quite a bit easier than Assume Nothing numbers 1 and 2, so those of you familiar with the concept should have no problems at all.
Enjoy.
Eye Eye!
Morgan and I headed off this morning to a top secret location to hide a new geocache as part of the Assume Nothing Wales series.
The weather wasn’t great, grey and overcast with snow around in places so we wrapped up warm, parked up and headed off to the chosen spot. Morgan was on his bike and I was walking.
Unfortunately I had forgotten to charge the batteries in my Garmin Forerunner GPSr so although we were able to find a suitable hiding place for the cache, I wasn’t really able to get enough co-ordinate readings for an accurate geocache listing. I did manage to get a few readings but I will have to pop back soon and verify them.
Not to worry though as we had a nice little walk / bike ride and there will be a new cache in the area soon.
Readers of this blog will know that I’ve been doing quite a bit of mountain-biking recently and armed with my trusty Forerunner GPSr have of course been recording where I’ve been. Many of the routes have been along properly way-marked trails at trail centres, other have been in more remote areas so I thought I would share some of my favourites routes with you here.
First up is ‘Anglers and Artists’, a nice remote route around various lakes in Mid Wales. It also passes close to some of the geocaches I’ve hidden in the area. The total route is 20km long and starts off relatively high, has a steady, undulating start followed by a nice descent into Artists Valley and then a long climb back to the car.
The best place to park is just over the top of the hill on the fire road that leaves the Nant-y-Moch road at SN 702 909 and park at SN 731 911. (See Google Earth File below). If you head up here from Talybont on the A487 then the drive up is pretty interesting in itself.
From here head up towards the forest and turn right at the crossroads onto a nice little descent through a recently clear-felled area of forestry. There is a tricky little rocky step part way down this and then a nice descent down to the mines and back onto forest fire road.
You come out at the bottom of this and turn left and then look out for a turning left onto double track about half a mile along the forest road. This track can be quite wet at times but flows nicely through the woods down over a little rocky bend and then through a river crossing so you’re going to get wet anyway so don’t worry about the puddles!
From here you follow some trails used by moto-cross bikes which again can have some pretty deep and very muddy puddles. It is best to find a way around some of the deeper ones. The trail then heads up through a little gate and then into a shallow, steep sided gully full of loose rocks. Time to select a low gear and grind your way up through this gulley. There are one or two tricky sections but nothing too technical.
The path opens out for a bit and then undulates across the hills. The views from here are worth the effort. The lake of first New Pool and then Llyn Penrhaeadr are off to your left and there are great views across the hills to Cadair Idris. There are a couple of nice little narrow raised sections to negotiate and the odd little stream crossing, plus some more rock garden gulley to negotiate before you come to another gate and then a steep climb up a junction where you want to turn left. (It is possible to go right here and join up with the Mach 3 route). Going left take you up past some farm buildings to a gate which is normally locked. Over this and then up to the forest where you turn left and over another (usually locked) gate before plunging through the forest on overgrown double track towards Llyn Penrhaeadr.
Here you come to yet another locked gate before cycling along rocky double track above the lake and on towards Anglers Retreat. The fire roads open out here. If you are tired at this point then you can simply carry on along the fire which will take you up to your starting point. The route however continues off into Artists Valley. You go through a gate and then just before the fire road starts to head up into the forest turn right onto another fire road up towards Llyn Conach.
This takes you past one of my favourite lakes in the area and is a perfect place for a little rest and some flapjacks if you’ve brought them with you! Once recuperated continue on along the track and then down into the forest on rocky double track. the descent is quite a long one but easy going. It takes you across a fire road and then down through a clear-felled area before taking you across another fire-road and then onto a bridleway along the edge of the forest. There are no major obstacles, but it can be quite a nice descent. At the bottom the track continues along through the forest for a little way before emerging at the bottom of afire road.
You now follow the fire-road up on the start of quite a long climb back up to your starting-point. At the first junction go left and then when you come to a large junction on a right hand bend just follow the fire road around to the right. There is one steep section of bridleway not long after this that you need to turn left off the fire-road onto. This cuts off the corner of a fire-road bend and will get your lungs going for a short time! At the top of this turn left again and simply follow the fire-road to the top. At the top you come to the first set of crossroads in the fire-track where you started the ride. Turn right here and head back down to the waiting cars.
The route is fairly easy with no major obstacles but care should of course be taken. It is quite remote and there will be no mobile reception for much of the route so go well-prepared with spares, tools, extra clothing food and water…. And a plan should it all go wrong!
If you have a GPS unit with you whilst on this trail then it passes several geocaches that I have hidden which may provide you with an excuse for a rest:
The first you get close to is Watery Wales 2 – Pistyll y Llyn. This is a little way off the trail as you plunge through the forest towards LLyn Penrhaeadr. As the trail bears down steeply to the left go straight on through the tress and ride / carry your bikes out through the other side of the forest. It takes a bit of effort to get to but is well worth it for some amazing scenery. I especially like the way that the valley suddenly opens out before you as you approach from this direction.
Next up is Watery Wales 2 – Llyn Penrhaeadr which you cycle pretty close to on your way past this lake.
Followed a little while later by Watery Wales 2 – Angler’s Retreat which is just a short distance off the trail near Angler’s Retreat.
There is another up above Llyn Conach too, but it is a a little bit of a trek across difficult ground, especially with a bike.
A Google Earth file of the trail is available here: Anglers and Artists – Google Earth File (Just download it and open with Google Earth). A topographic plot of the route is below.
