On my way home from Conwy at the weekend I stopped off at Penmachno for a ride around the trails there.
I hadn’t been here for over a year and had fond memories of it from last time so was looking forward to it. This was helped by the fact that it was a lovely day, sunny and cool and not too busy by the looks of the car park.
I was soon ready and heading off up the long hill at the start and then onto the singletrack. It all came back to me as I started making my way around the trail and each little bit reminded me of what was to come.
It really is a good trail, not as up and down as most Trail Centres, instead, after some climbing it tends to hug the contours of the hills with endless miles of single track. There are a few more climbs throughout and even the flat bit can feel a little uphill by the end of it, buit as far as cross-country trails go it is really good. It has a bit of everything, fire road climbs, technical climbs, flowing forest singletrack, rocky singletrack, open flowing anf rocky singeltrack, even some raises boardwalks across the top and a couple of nice descents towards the end.
Both loops come to a total of 18 miles, which took me 2 hours 12 minutes at a steady pace. All in all, it is definitely a trail to try if you haven’t already, and one I’ll be looking forward to visiting again, hopefully in the not too distant future.
Penmachno Topography
I haven’t posted a ride report for a while or any route guides. Mainly because I had a few months off the bike after being in hospital and the rides I’ve done over the past few weeks whilst trying to get back into it have been pretty hard work and not that enjoyable.
Last nights ride felt much better though. I’d done some sessions on the turbo trainer this week – 50 minutes fairly hard on Monday, 35 minutes on Tuesday and then an easy 30 minutes earlier in the day yesterday – and I think it must be paying dividends. Right from the start I felt much better on the bike.
It was a fairly chilly, windy night, so not that inviting out there but Dave, John and I met at the ClimachX trailhead at 6.30pm. After the initial pfaff as we got ready we set off up the long climb along the fire-road. I didn’t feel that fast but made it to the top within 12 minutes which isn’t too bad for me. We then did the first couple of sections of singletrack before heading off the marked trail and down the Builth Descent. This descent was a little washed out after all the rain we’ve had lately and there was a large Hazel tree down across the trail at the top so it was a little slower than usual.
Then it was up the long climb back to the top. We were treated to a bit of a lightning show on the way up and we hoped it would remain off in the distance. I’m not sure if Dave and John were taking it easy, but I was keeping up OK and felt quite good on the climb. Certainly a lot better than I had on previous weeks night rides. We then rejoined the ClimachX Trail and followed it around. The little climb after the section known as ‘Va Va Voom’ feels pretty different after the forestry work that has been going on there, but at least some of the deeper puddle have disappeared.
As we came out of ‘Better Late Than Never’ we were hit by a huge hailstorm, that hurt to ride through. We stopped for shelter under a tree just as the storm abated. Dave did think about doing the ‘Elephant’ descent and then climbing back up, but I was feeling a little cold by then and John wasn’t too keen to doing anything extra either so we missed out the section across the top (Where’s my Ball) and continued along the fire-road to the final descent. Despite all of the rain this was in pretty good condition.
Overall it was a good night ride. I felt much better than I had done the last few weeks and the 11 miles passed by pretty quickly.
Here’s a plot of the topography (blue shaded area) and my heart rate (red line). – Click for larger image
Climachx & Builth Topography and Heart Rate Plot
You can download a Google Earth file of the route here: ClimachX & Builth
Raven Trail at Brechfa
I first did the Raven MTB Trail at Brechfa, not long after it first opened in August 2008. There were a few of us on that ride and it has to be said it was quite a mudfest! Some sections were closed due to the surface breaking up and others were barely rideable. It was fun and certainly showed promise, but it took us ages to complete it (over 3 and a half hours), we had several mechanical issues and although it was fun, it was quite a slog at times. You can read my complete session log from that ride here. I enjoyed it but as you can see finished up by saying:
Definitely a trail to do if you can, but it may be better when not quite so wet and muddy.
Well, last week I had the chance to do it again. Unfortunately it had been raining heavily for a week or so beforehand so it was going to be wet, but I’d heard reports that much of it had been resurfaced and the mud wasn’t so much of an issue.
I set off from the car park and the frist sections (that it shares with the blue trail) were all riding really well. Then when the trail split, the first climb was just as brutal as before, but it has been re-surfaced and lots of extra drainage has been put in, so although it still drags on and I was in the little chain-ring it is now rideable. It is still quite a tough climb though. The muddy, slippery descent is still pretty much the same, but they have re-jigged the final bend onto the fire-road to make it a little easier. It’s still quite a challenge though which is good and I don’t mind some mud in the right places. I’m not sure how long this descent will stand up to abuse from MTB tyres though.
Then it was into the trail proper, lots of climbing for the first half, but everything was much better than last time. Quite a bit of easy single track climbing and quite a bit of time spent in the little chain-ring for me, but all OK. The descents all seemed a little easier than last time as well. Maybe I’m getting better, or maybe my new bike helps, but last time I felt as though I was close to my limit much of the way around, this time it was just fun. The bit through the woods across the top has had quite a bit of work done on it and was much better and the section that we missed last time due to trail closure was really nice. A nice flowing section weaving in and out of the trees.
The final third of the trail is much more un-natural with some big man-made structures, lots of big berms, table tops, log balances and bridge crossings to really mix things up and by now I was feeling good and enjoying the ride. By the time I got back to the car park (1 hr 45mins after starting), I felt as though I wanted some more and did contemplate popping back up to do the final bits again.
Its a good trail. The black grading is probably justified, but it is all perfectly rideable. I might even get back next week for another go.
Here’s a Google Earth File of the Raven Trail at Brechfa.
And here’s the topographic profile, complete with my heart-rate trace!
Topographic Profile of the Raven Trail at Brechfa
Pennal Woods MTB Route
For a change from our usual Ystwyth-MTB weekly evening ride we headed off to Pennal Woods last night for a little guided ride by Shem.
Shem, martyn, Dave, Simon, Dan and I met in Pennal (which was looking a little grey) and headed off into the woods where we met up with Tegid and Andy. A little climb and then it was onto some slippery grassy downhill where Simon managed to snap his deraileur hanger so had to end his ride prematurely.
We then had a relaxed ride doing the usual fire road climb followed by grassy or muddy descents. I saw Martyn go over the bars once and then it was my turn on a dark, root descent my front wheel went into a dip and didn’t come back out again so I had a little excursion of the handlebars too.
Shem had built a couple of little wooden jumps on the final descent so we played around there for a bit before heading out of the clouds and back down to Pennal. It was a nice change from the usual trails at Nant yr Arian, Angler’s Retreat or ClimachX, and I’m sure we’ll be back for some more soon.
Click here for a Google Earth file of our route in Pennal Woods.
Dyfi Enduro Course
With one week to go until the Dyfi Enduro, we had planned a pre-event ride around the course as part of our training schedule. We didn’t quite do the whole distance as we missed out the bits on the road, instead starting and ending at the ClimachX car park. The course does change a little each year as well, so we weren’t sure what would be the exact course but it was pretty close.
Our party was 12 strong, Me, Dave, Myles, John, Mark, James, Jon, Matt, Stu, Paul, Pete and David who was about to go off on his own but I spotted him in the car park and invited him to join us. We started with the long climb up to the top of the final descent of the ClimachX. I soon ended up towards the back of the pack, but was pacing myself for a long day in the saddle.
At the top of the climb, we headed off down the first descent, through the forest and then out onto and across the open field. Thankfully it was all pretty dry and therefore easy going, but if it has been wet then this bit up to and across the fields could be quite tough, especially for those of towards the back!
We then dropped down over the very rocky descent from the field where we had the first incident of the day. James took an unplanned excursion over the bars, landed on his face on the rock, broke his glasses and cut his nose and face. He also had a swelling to one eye and was pretty shaken by the ordeal. After some first aid, the rest of us continued down the descent whilst James walked for a while. He did get back on his bike for the final couple of sections of the Baileys Descent, which also claimed a few victims further down with punctures, 3 or 4 on this descent alone!
Mark, John and David headed off to get James’s car and help him home. Mark and John ended up driving with him as far as Llangurig, and David headed back into the woods and caught us up later. The rest of us continued on the route, up the climb from Baileys Bridge, down a nice descent and then back up to the feed station where we stopped for lunch and were re-joined by David.
After lunch we headed off again, down one descent and up another climb, then down another descent and up another climb, and then down another descent and (do you notice a pattern yet?) up another climb. This one was pretty tough, steep, rocky and seemed to go on forever, but it was worth it for the three downhill sections after. Another stop for puncture repairs and then up a long climb back towards the ClimachX Trail.
We stopped again to discuss where to go next and ended up heading along the ClimachX Trail for a bit and then down the Elephant descent, before cycling across to the Builth Descent for the final bit of excitement for the day. From here it was back along the road and up the short but steep climb to the cars.
A good day out and its going to be tough next weekend with 700 hundred people on the course! Lets hope for nice weather.
Click here for a Google Earth file of the Dyfi Enduro Route. Download it and open it with Google Earth.
Distance: 27.38 miles. Total Time: 6hrs 5 mins. Moving Time: 3hrs 20 mins. Total Climb: 5395 feet.
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