thesloth wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2024 10:33 pm
Once more unto the breach dear friends...
After failing and bailing on last years 300 (lets blame the weather), I felt compelled to return to the bog.
Good fun riding with a great group to Machynlleth. Mist in the valleys and golden light.
From our group the trail claimed a phone, a derailleur hanger and split a tyre. Hopefully the hanger and tyre got sorted.
The phone? ...well a there are worse things than an enforced digital detox.
My own mechanical woes were totally inflicted. My relaxed attitude to bike maintenance means I started the ride with brake pads that only had a quarter of meat left (front and rear
)
Both were replaced ok, but the stress and delays could have been avoided.
Just before Barmouth rode with James for a bit. He was going well, but sadly also became a broken hanger victim. He tried to bodge a singlespeed, hoping to get to train a few km away.
Tom, Nick & I enjoyed an alfresco dinner in the Co-Op car park Barnmouth and watched a few locals getting oiled for the Saturday night.
Then the climb out of town. Yes the 600m one. It took a long time. Long enough for it to get very dark.
I was riding with Nick, who at one point took an impressive sounding tumble (he was behind me, so I didn't see it).
He was pinned down by the weight of a carbon fiber bike, helpless and in pain. Thought about the rules about not assisting other riders, but then reasoned that it would probably be ok if I lifted it off him, so I did.
Before Tom shot off at a pace I couldn't match he said that between 150km & 200km it was all on the road. I strongly suspected that this was a lie, but mercifully it turned out to be true.
Not a very flat road mind. Was seriously struggling to stay awake. Sometimes the nights are kind to me, other times less so.
My bike may have left the road and ridden into a ditch at one point.
Slow progress meant the 2am closing kebab shop was out of range.
Salvation came in the form of the Llanuwchllyn Public Toilets. This was ride highlight. Seriously, that's not my attempt at humor. Just check out the
fine reviews of this establishment.
The two of us got in there and fired up our stoves had a hot meal and lay down and slept for an hour. Just lay on those super clean tiles. No mattress, no sleeping bag, just the warmth of contentment.
Four of us met up for breakfast at the shop in Llandrillo to swap stories about the night. Their coffee machine worked hard for us.
After the satisfaction, the action: Up and over Bwlch Maen. The crux of the route and I believe the highest point ever visited by a Bear Bones.
It wasn't a hard ride, because there was no riding. Push all the way. Pumping wind at the top.
Was not in a very good frame of mind (to put it mildly) for most of day two. "Never again" was thought a lot. It might have even been said out loud a few times.
Recovered a bit towards the end was hoping to smash the last 10km. But someone put a steep hill, a pathless bog and a muddy pine forest in the way.
Still I did see the humor when Nick proclaimed "Look up there on the path! It's a person! A person in a wheelchair!"
hmmm... looked like a tussock to me.
Quality hallucinations without taking harmful drugs. What a treat.
Some photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YawKB7QPmc74n4W46
(as joie de vivre was in short supply on day two, so most of the photos are from day one)
Well done to all who rode.
& much thanks to Dee & Stuart.
"Never again" ...but I'm thinking that the missing blue badge needs to be added to my collection.
There's a "trick" to the bog that avoids getting "too" wet, well at least not being up to your knee in slutch.