Winter Event '25

[RIP]

OK, I'll open proceedings with a surprisingly sunny evening at Caersws station. Something definitely wrong with the weather. Very chilly though. Right, off to do battle with Llawryglyn hill......



Not a sound but the birdies and the (mad) moos....



Lurv is in the air.... the good ship Venus...and her luna-tic friend....



Looking forward to hearing about all the japes, jollities, jamborees, and mishaps....

[Verena]

Is thar a kitchen sink there strapped to your handlebars?!?

Enjoy all

[frogatthefarriers]

A Winter Event for Seniors. Combined age of over two centuries.

Cow Picture. The only cows we saw..


Daisy contemplating the geology...


Each layer taking perhaps millions of years to lay down, millions more to fossilise, then more to make it back to the surface again. Makes me feel very small...

Daisy in the well..


Neil, Reg, Frog. Three Caballeros on the way to another...


... disused slate quarry And it wouldn't be a ride with Reg if there hadn't been a tramway...



We found a log cabin, that while locked up tight, could still provide a bivvy shelter in the overhanging verandas, front or back.


Lord of all he surveys. Or, "I'm the king of the castle - gerroff you dirty rascal"


Hotel for the night. The power was off and the water too, so no toilet, but hey, palatial or what?



You may notice that there's no sleeping mat - that's because I'd forgotten to take the photo and already packed it away.

Breakfast at the White Lion in Mach...



Reg's benchmark for a good breakfast is a proper fried tomato, while mine is a decent meaty sausage and not one of those soft squishy things you tend to get in greasy spoons. I can report that the White Lion's offering passed both those tests, , but oh dear, how hard it was to pedal after all that breakfast?

Nowt else for it though, so off we pedalled into the un-forecast rain (that only lasted just long enough to get us to put our waterproofs on) and found this disused chapel beside the road, complete with harmonium.


Reg, in full fulmination from the pulpit...


He does like a good fulminate, does Reg There's a story to tell about the little dolly on the pulpit, but Reg can tell that.

The harmonium could play - the bellows still worked - but the keys would stay stuck down making it unplayable. Perhaps with a toothbrush and some WD40...? I can't remember where it was - indeed I've no idea where we'd been. I'd just followed Reg and relied on him to lead the way. I remember a lot of hills, but this is Wales, after all. By the end, I was down to walking anything that was even vaguely upwards, but eventually, at long last after miles and then more miles (in reality, it wasn't that far, I'm just saying it for effect), LBM came into view and it was all over bar the tea and cake.

And lastly, a couple of pics of stuff that caught my eye...

A bit of natural artwork of leaves 'n' stuff that flood water had made into something that could have been a decoration for a Christmas dinner table...

and..;


... a tropical rainforest in miniature, atop a gate post.

There - my Winter Event. It was brilliant and made all the better by Neil and Reg's company. I've no doubt Reg and Neil will have more to add - indeed I hope they do.

My thanks also to Dee and Stu for doing it again. It must seem a right chore for them at times but for us, it's worth it.

[RIP]

Yep it was real Last Of The Summer Wine stuff. If Lu was Clegg and Neil was Foggy that would make me, er....

[frogatthefarriers]

Yep it was real Last Of The Summer Wine stuff. If Lu was Clegg and Neil was Foggy that would make me, er....

Ha ha! Until Neil joined us we were Satler and Waldorf.

[RIP]

Having ridden over the hills from Caersws station on Friday evening, I popped in to see Stu and Dee for a quick brew. It was nice to see them and the 'quick' brew lasted several hours so I didn’t get to The Wynnstay until 22.15, where Allen, Cath, Emma and Dave were already in residence, and I didn’t extract myself from there until just before midnight. Only a few minutes left to qualify for January’s BaM, arg! A high speed search in the freezing cold around the village turned up this sports equipment storage shed, and I was in the process of starting to make a bit of room when I noticed an interesting aroma and the, oh, hmmmm… droppings. Out we go again.



The next port of call was this rather more commodious establishment, no walls but a nice ‘warm’ wooden floor. In we go, mat down, bag out, and lulled to sleep by the nearby stream. A rather bracing -3degC overnight.





On waking next morning it was a short trip to the school and some nice tea and toast courtesy of Dee. Myself and Frog/Lu were going to ride together for the weekend, although NeilA had decided to make his own arrangements after initially thinking he might come along with us. This year’s “goodies” included an extremely useful bar of chocolate plus a very nice double-ended spork, both of which would see action over the next couple of days. Anyway, we managed to get away by 10am and took the lane north from Llanbrynmair to head for the northerly group of GR’s around the Corris area. A nice crisp day, frost everywhere but sunshine already cheering things up a bit.



Towards the top of the lane a number of fords crossed the stream next to us, and never turning down the opportunity to ride through a ford we selected one and ploughed through. Hmm, a bit deeper than it looked, so we already had wet feet only an hour into the trip. Before reaching the A458, a farm track turns off and leads west around the edge of Foel Mallwyd, which was a much more appealing prospect than the A458 itself. It turned out to be a lovely little trail through the woods, crossing a number of streams, until it dropped down to bring us out right next to the garage at Mallwyd.



The garage has a handy shop and also “Caffi Carys” where we indulged in well-timed elevenses. At this point I realised that I couldn’t find my credit card, the first of many forgetful moments for both of us this weekend . In fact it wasn’t the first because I’d already lost some of my daily dose of dried frog pills the previous night, only recovering that situation by using my emergency stash from my first aid kit. At least Lu still had his full complement of equipment, including his notorious glasses and even his gloves. I managed to phone the card company and freeze it, although this meant that Lu now had to buy everything for me for the rest of the weekend…..



Suitably refreshed we headed off downstream along the Dyfi on the back lane to Aberangell where I’d already warned Lu that we would turn off for our first quarry exploration. The Hendre Ddu slate quarry was one of the more obscure ones in Wales, with a very stop/start history as the slate industry went through its frequent ups and downs. However they obviously made enough of a go of it to build a narrow-gauge railway from Aberangell station up the valley to the quarry, and we set off along the old trackbed which ran through an attractive slate-walled cutting.



Lu organised a small diversion along a very soggy bridleway through the trees next to the Aberangell river, and this popped out at a crossroads in the Dyfi Forest. At exactly the same moment that we arrived we saw another Boner appear down the lane crossing ours. I envisaged a sort of Keystone K⁹ops encounter - a slightly speeded up film of us crashing into each other then jumping up and down then trying to pull the bikes apart but getting into even more of a tangle. Anyway, obviously we stop and say hello and it turns out to be none other than….. NeilA! What a ridiculous coincidence. Neil was aiming for the pub in Corris via the desperately steep lane through the forest, but after a little persuasion he decided to join us after all – The Last Of The Summer Wine show was now primed and ready for action!

The track of the old tramway now turned north up the very remote Angell valley, passing isolated farmsteads and old slate-dressing sheds, eventually reaching Hendre Ddu cottages where we zigzagged up the mountain to arrive at the quarry itself. Unfortunately there’s not much left apart from the old manager’s house, and our attempts to find the adit into the mine proved fruitless. I’m sure it was near this point that Lu suffered his first loss, sitting on his glasses in an obligatory spectacles-based catastrophe.

Further zigzag climbing brought us to the quarry reservoir at 1200’ and the adventure centre log cabin as seen in one of Lu’s photos earlier. From here we intended to drop down through the forest to Aberllefenni although I remembered from years ago that the bridleway tends to get very carved up by motorbikes. Fortunately it seemed to have been refurbished and we swooped down a very fast surface to arrive at the Aberangell to Aberllefenni road, bumping into another Boner going the other direction (apologies for not getting your name), and our first cattle grid grid reference.



If you look closely you can see a mad cow attempting to cross the grid. We’d been given her by Dee and thought it would be fun to make sure she appeared in plenty of photographs as she toured round with us. See if you can spot her in some of Lu’s earlier as well.

There was still plenty of time before the pub opened in Corris so the lads got “treated” to yet another Reg quarry inspection, this time being the spectacular Aberllefenni quarry. This has a long history and was in fact the last underground slate quarry to operate in Britain, only closing in 2003. I recently bought a 300-page history of the quarry, which details its operation and the living conditions of the workers. By the end in 2003 some of the underground chambers had grown into enormous chasms, some of them 600 feet deep from top to bottom. It’s impossible to get a feel for the scale but this photo gives an idea – note the miner lower middle, with daylight at the top and the chamber going down the same distance again.



Another chamber but from the outside... the top being the huge hole in the mountain and the bottom being at the level of the rails in the road where we’re standing.



Anyway, industrial archaeology lesson now over . We retraced our steps to Aberllefenni village where we admired the various features from the quarrying days, including this superb flight of slate steps.



Down to the pub in Corris where we partook of a nice dinner and chit-chat.



At this point we had to make a decision about a bivvy spot. We’d already inspected a picnic site and a football pitch which were perfectly satisfactory, but I was keen to return to a spot near Machynlleth I’ve used many times before which also conveniently has my favourite pub nearby as well. Would be rude not to pop in, so we did. Lu and Neil relaxing after a hard day’s slate quarry touring.



Even the mad cow had a drink bought for her….



Weird things always happen in this pub. The first was that Lu suddenly realised he no longer had his bumbag. Not a major problem in itself, but what was a major problem was that it contained his heart meds. We all thought back to where Lu might have last had it, even using our photographs to try and spot it. The consensus was that it was probably back at the Corris pub and we didn’t fancy going back there in the dark. Four phone calls later and they couldn’t find it, so things were looking a bit serious. Eventually I think Lu went outside to check his bike, and lo! There it was . I eagerly awaited the missing gloves too, and I was well overdue for losing my phone as well, but so far they all seemed to be present and correct.

Shortly afterwards I made friends with a dog slumped on the floor…



… and struck up a conversation with a lady and gent sitting at the next table, who seemed to be the dog’s owners (or vice versa). She asked what we were up to, and of course I explained a bit about Bear Bones and the Winter Event. We had a fair old chat about bikes and bike adventures, and eventually I asked her if she was a bit of a cyclist herself. She said she had been in her younger days but now she mainly enjoyed watching her kids do the same instead. What sort of biking did they enjoy I queried. Well, they are world champion downhill mountain bikers she replied, I’m their mother… Mrs Atherton. Ah. By supreme self-control I managed not to sit mouth embarrassingly agape, but continued chatting about their achievements and the cycling world in general. Eventually I left her in peace and she asked us where we were kipping, obviously receiving the usual reply after which she said “well, you must come for breakfast tomorrow morning we’re only just down the road”! Okkaaaaayyyyy………

We managed to stagger out of the pub towards midnight, and wandered around the old corrugated iron huts nearby that had once been offices of various kinds but were now derelict and mainly all locked up. However, each time that I have visited one of the huts has been unlocked, allowing an excellent night’s indoor kip. Strangely, it’s always a different hut each time I’ve been. Unfortunately this time they were all locked and we resigned ourselves to extracting our shelters and sleeping on the grass instead. I made a last-ditch look around just to make sure, and suddenly noticed that one hut had a hole in the wall which a body could just about squeeze through. I duly tested it and came back out to tell the lads. Here’s Lu doing a bit of “entering” without the “breaking” bit of the transgression. As mentioned before, I reckon gaining entrance to somewhere which involves no damage or breakage is fair game…..





Impressively, Neil opted for the hardcore kip-outside-on-the-frozen-grass ploy so that he could keep an eye in his bike. However Lu discovered a back door that opened from the inside, meaning Neil could park his bike inside so he joined us in our hotel after all.

Having gained entry, we discovered a labyrinth of rooms, meaning we could each have our own private bedrooms – complete with carpet, wallpaper, and curtains! Lu discovered that even the doorbell still worked, which seemed rather superfluous but quite amusing. Oh, and when I extracted my sleeping bag from its seat drybag out popped.... a credit card. I wonder whose that is?




[to be continued…..]

[godivatrailrider]

Excellent report (so far) Reg and what looks like a great route !

[Tractionman]

Great to read that ^^^ a proper adventure, I do like Corris, with its little railway and amazing industrial past, I remember, 1988 I think it was, taking my (then!) girlfriend to see the remains of the narrow gauge lines at Aberllefenni, looking at Google streetview I see there's still some rails about:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/xJmTn2PeHXtf1dv86

[RIP]

[continued....]

Here’s mad cow waking up after a superb night’s sleep in our 5* hotel.



After a first breakfast at the Athertons place, we couldn’t resist a second one at the White Lion in Mach, as Lu has already explained, so off we went down towards Mach. The Dyfi Bike Park is just off the main road and I’d forgotten what these places are like. Carpark full of flash BMWs and Porsches etc, lots of macho posturing, bikes with 1000mm of suspension or whatever. The sign said the uplift cost £50, admittedly for all day but OUCH. I thought it might be fun to go there and take the mickey a bit – maybe take a shopper bike or a Brompton and ride it UP to the top of the trails then get the “uplift” vehicle back DOWN again.

A nice second brekkie in the White Lion…… Frog impressing us with his camping-lamp-on-head-balancing skills...




…. then ablutions in the toilet, then away along the back road from Mach to Cemmaes Road to pick up the bridleway next to the railway to Commins Coch. This was after we’d spent a bit of time trying to find Lu’s key for his bike lock outside the White Lion, managing to do so just before deciding to go to the garage for some bolt croppers .

As Lu mentioned, we passed an old chapel and being chapel-visiting fanatics I noticed that the door was ajar. We slammed on our brakes and turned back and had a look inside. Could be a future bivvy spot too. While Lu practised his scales on the harmonium I noticed a very sinister doll on the pulpit. All looked rather voodoo to me, and a note next to it explained that I might have been close to the truth . “We are not playing about” .





After the bridleway to Commins Coch there’s an annoying hill on the last leg to Llanbrynmair which is impossible to bypass. A nice route is up and over Mynydd Ty’r-sais but we were far too knackered, leaving the only options as a extremely steep but short track past Cwm Bychan farm or the longer gentler forest route up Cwm Bustach. We took the latter, the only problem with it being you have to go off-piste to get back on track again, with a 40’ very steep drop down through the trees.





At half past four, almost the last ones back to the school as usual, to indulge in nice tea and cake with Stu and Dee. I have to say that Dee’s raspberry and white chocolate sponge buns would more than hold their own on a Harrods afternoon tea cake stand. And mad cow certainly agreed with me….



It only remains to thank Stu and Dee for their hard work putting the event on, and remind myself that at least it’s only 364 days until the next one; and equal thanks to Lu and Neil for putting up with my ridiculous obsessions on the way round.

Lost items? Oh yes, on the train on the way home I was asked for a ticket inspection. Lots of pocket tapping. Ho hum, can’t find it. Pay up for a replacement, at least not too pricey for that section.

Get home and unpack everything, clear out all pockets for clothes washing. Oh look, there’s a train ticket.

[MuddyPete]

An excellent weekend, with plenty to satisfy the inner 9-year-old .

There's an award category here too: most outrageous carpet kipped on during a bivi .

The 70s have a lot to answer for... .

[NeilA]

Winter Event 25 and BAM 1 Feb... 2 of 2, 38 of 38
Planned a solitary one, ended up a tremendous trio!!

Arrived late to the party, set off after midday.
Fortunately was able to catch Ben for a prearranged purchase of a nice down gillet. Thank you Ben, love it
Following my intended anti clock route of Stuart's OS points, I slowly clocked up miles as reluctant muscles warmed.
I enjoyed my first experience of using Komoot, viewing the route on the mobile, enveloped in its new case( a beautiful bodge by me!), firmly handlebar mounted.
After Aberangell, scenery changed to forest, with rising ascent.

At the 9 mile mark I virtually collided with several mountain bikers who appeared out of the corner of my eye, from my left. A cacophony of shouting and a very loud bell greeted my presence. In shock I responded, instantly recognising a couple of BAM legends, none other than Reg (RIP) and Lu (Frog at the Farriers).
Now I am seconded as crew member .
Ironically there had been prior discussion with Reg about joining the guys for this event!!

................................................One for the Cow...............................................................


With plenty of banter we head on a magical mystical tour, courtesy of Reg, who seems able to navigate while rarely consulting a map!

................................Our kit at a potential Bivvy spot up in the forest.........................................

Through the forest and a forever uphill slog we inched towards Corris, with a brief interlude hunting for a mine entrance, hidden somewhere in thick foliage. A future visit for Reg beckons!

...............................................Reg in a quiet moment! ........................................................


Then it was downhill, and at the edge of Corris, another distraction, viewing a slate mine of some distinction, and local infrastructure geared towards slate transportation. Very interesting too.

..................................................Slate mine entrance..........................................................


....................................................The Seat of Legends........................................................

Now in Corris, as light faded, we viewed a cracking potential camp spot, a junior football pitch.
Much as was written in the scriptures we entered the portals of the Slaters Arms for beer and a meal.
Now I faced my contemporaries for lots of conversation, food and a plan for an early escape to a magical pub far away in the dark. My fear of how much the team can drink crept in!!

Two pints fuelled us easily uphill to suss Reg's proposed first choice camp spot. I am bound to 'official secrets' regarding the building!!!
At that stage no luck with access, but the pub impatiently awaited our arrival.
So we sat by the open fire in a ‘bound to secrecy pub’, more beer flowing. I was smitten, Reg had sung its praises, which indeed all came true, a veritable alternative place for alternative peeps, hosted by an affable and talkative landlord. We played out a live interactive crime scene, gleaning evidence from our victim (who lost the padlock keys!!) eventually leading to said person finding them attached to the padlock securing our bikes!! Fortunately four phone calls to our previous pub saved a monumental effort in retracing our steps.
We even reached a whisky period much later on.
Now time was short so we left with half notions where sleep would fall.

Over to my colleague’s account of how things panned out.
I will say, I wasn't happy sleeping within the building with my bike outside, so I set up my bivvy bag etc to sleep on a nice patch of grass.
Fortunately Lu scoured the building and discovered another door was openable from inside.
He called me to join them.
All bikes were now in the building.

Gratefully I set up in a bedroom which looked like the officers quarter area!
Thankfully a cold cold night passed us by and sleep came easy in our abject luxury.

..........................................A Reg 5* experience...................................................



Next morn, an earlyish and quick make up led us to cycle not too far to a bike park and cafe (see Reg’s account of his famed contacts!).
A cracking resource, for those who like going downwards.
We jested about our presence in amongst virtual aliens. It seemed they were threatened by our demeanour and obvious hard core set ups .
Another early escape to a safe haven for Boners, the White Lion hotel in Mach for a super brekky.

...............................................Lu about to tuck in................................................


From here it was all lovely (he said), brushing over the many slogs and looooong uphills, but all in mostly good weather, and far further than I envisaged, both on and off road. Our pace dropped somewhat, but the resolve to continue never waned, faced with considerable ascent!!
We did experience a 3 person gate open/close procedure which would do justice on a You Tube video, featuring three hapless bikers!
The last leg was downhill as befits any Winter Event.
We were near as damn it last time wise, so were lavished plenty of attention from Stuart and Dee. Dee presented me with the largest chunk of gluten free chocolate cake ever. Thank you it was so gorgeous although I was tripping on the drive home!!
Thank you Stuart and Dee for organising this great event
And thank you Reg and Lu for an unforgettable trip

[fatbikephil]

Another 5* effort folks!