Mountain Biking in the Dyfi Forest

My brother Brad was staying with us for the weekend and wanted to do some mountain biking. So, rather than take him out onto the waymarked trails of the nearby trail centres I thought I’d take him for a ride through the Dyfi Forest to give him a taste of the Dyfi Enduro.

Saturday was a pretty miserable day, that started off with drizzle and then started raining properly. The trails were wet, the rocks were greasy and slippery, the mud was muddy, the puddles were puddly and the views were non-existent. Well, Brad did want a taste of mountain biking in Wales, so that’s exactly what he got. Although it wasn’t too windy and it wasn’t dark so that was a bonus!

We started at the ClimachX Trail car park and took the long climb around the back that is used as the first climb on the Dyfi Enduro. I went at Brads pace which was nice and easy for me and I think Brad was taking it fairly easy anyway as he knew that with me leading he was in for a long painful day. Next was the first taste of a loose, slaty Dyfi descent for Brad and I eased him in nicely with a quick jaunt down ‘Elephant’. At least I thought it would be easy, but Brad managed to fall off and didn’t really take too well to steep, loose and slaty – Maybe the day was going to be longer and more painful than we thought!

We then climbed to the top and up and over the fields towards Baileys Bridge Descent. The top of Baileys Bridge descent went without incident so we continued through the mist, murk and pouring rain around to the new steep descent in the Dyfi Enduro. This was riding nicely but Brad was getting tired by now and managed to fall off again. He wasn’t too wounded so we continued on our way, around the fireroad and then down the final section of Baileys Bridge to the river.

Across the road and then we climbed up to the top again, following some of the Dyfi Enduro route but rather than following the fire-road around we took the steeper, technical little climb between them. The top of this was competely overgorwn though and VERY wet so we ended up pushing on the final section. Although, Brad has already done quite a bit of pushing here and there by now.

We then rode the big dipper, including all of the puddles across the top, some of which were pretty deep and then headed over to the World Cup Descent. Brad was a broken man by now and couldn’t face another Dyfi descent and certainly not the long climb afterwards so we decided not to do the World Cup Descent. A shame really as that’s why we’d ridden out this far, but it’ll be there for next time. We therefore headed back, across the road and then up the steep little climb back to the top of Baileys Bridge Descent. Back across the fields (which ride quite nicely in this direction) and then finished the ride off with ‘Better Late than Never’ and the Final descent of ClimachX.

A lovely easy ride for me, I actually felt fresher and better when we’d finished than when we started. The same can’t quite be said for Brad… At least I gave him exactly what he was expecting!

1 Response

  1. Avatar forComment Author Jason Cole says:

    All I need to know is. Did he get passed by someone walking their dog? and, did he throw up at any point?
    Brad also needs reminding that he doing another 12 (12:12 torq in your Sleep) next week, followed by another 60km race the following weekend, …

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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.

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