Mountain Biking – The Climachx Trail

Continuing my exploration of the local trails I decided to have a go at the Climachx Trail to the north of Machynlleth yesterday. I’m not feeling much fitter yet, so I have to keep plugging away and get out doing some exercise as often as possible and the write up about this trail sounded interesting:

The cli-machx is is sited in the Dyfi forest; home of the Raw Dyfi Enduro. It’s a 15km round trip, with 9km of built single track with compressions and whoops, rock slab drop offs and some beautiful flowing turns. The last descent is the longest in Wales and features rocky jumps; watch out for the ‘eye of the needle’; a huge jump with a narrow landing between two trees on the other side. The finale is a sequence of eight huge berms following quickly after each other. Hit them high enough and fast enough and they ride really well, but don’t look down!

It also sounded as though it may have been a little out of my league so I planned to take it easy and enjoy the ride. It starts off with a long climb and then there are a few bits of relatively easy single track and then more climbing. In fact the first half seemed to be uphill almost all the way. Most of the single track was pretty easy, but it felt hard going all the way around. the final, long descent is good, with a few pretty technical sections, but even this descent felt like hard work as there are still a few little rises within it that need a bit of effort. My first circuit took 1hr 14 mins and felt pretty hard.

I was then contemplating whether or not to have another go when a couple of other guys turned up in the car park. I was going to watch them set off and see if it looked as though I had a chance of keeping up with them before deciding to do a 2nd circuit or not. then a third guy, who certainly looked the part turned up and headed off up the hill so I decided as it was liekly I might see other people out there this time to give it another go.

I had a quick chat with the third guy who was visiting Wales from Belguim specifically for the mountain biking and to participate in a few marathon events. He certainly looked pretty fit so I told him not to wait for me and watched as he headed off up the hill leaving me behind him. I went at my own pace as the other two guys set off behind me, and to my surprise didn’t get dropped too easily. In fact, around half way round, as I cam out of the forest at the top of the hill I could see the guy from Belguim about a minute or so ahead of me and then on the long descent I caught him up and overtook him. I waited for him by the car and we had a little chat. He seemed like a really nice guy and was enjoying his mountain-biking here in Wales. He then set off back to Machynlleth. My second circuit was a little quicker than my first at 1hr 4mins, but once again it felt pretty difficult.

I hen packed up in a leisurely fashion waiting for the other two guys but by the time I set off they had yet to appear. I’ll definitely be back for more, but will try the other Mach trails first. The Climachx was good, but I never really got into any sort of rhythm with the trail and think I prefer the trails at Nant-yr-Arian so far. Although once I’m a little fitter this may change as the Nant-y-r-Arian trails may become a little too easy.

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.