After several months (years?) of being vetoed for doing big rides in North Wales as convention says the Lakes and Scotland are better I finally managed to get consideration agreed for a North Wales loop. Several evenings of planning, raiding of maps, known trails, guide books old & new and a route is planned to try and cover as many of my favourite welsh trails as possible. As a secondary goal it was also an attempt to link together as many welsh trail centres as possible.

The route met with the route-master generals approval and Easter was set as a date to go ride it.

Day 1 was Dolgellau to pont scethin, coed y brenin, trawsfynydd, moelwyns (Croesor), beddgelert forest, wayfarer track and telegraph valley to Pete's eats in llanberis for tea.

Day 2 went through the slate quarries and over to Tregarth before climbing around the north side of the carneddau near Aber falls to cwm eigau, colyd and then from crafnant to capel curig. Then climbs past dolwyddelan and bwlch y groes (and an off route push) took us via penmachno to Conwy falls pub and campsite.

Day 3 was a series of climbs and pushes from penmachno to llyn celyn above Bala via ysbyty ifan before a loop around the Arrenigs, with more type 2 fun, and dropping back into CyB at capel hermon

Day 4 was supposed to follow cycle route 8 south and then to cemmaes road and south to Nant yr Arian before north to Mach and finishing around Cadair but the legs were somewhat lacking and a dose of manflu was looming so the full route is still awaiting completion as we finished at the end of day 3.

Distance for the short route was 291km with 8400m of climb (despite Alan's gps claiming in excess of 10,000m of climb). And although I say so myself it is a thoroughly enjoyable route with good varied trails and the requisite amount of pushing to add a bit of type two fun. Day 3 is a little short on food shops/cafés as evidenced by a confirmed veggie and allround healthy eater making a bee line for a roadside burger van to get a fried egg sandwich. I can PM people the gpx if required as there are a few short sections of trail that aren't strictly for bikes but nothing that hasn't previously been published or filmed by a bloke with a large beard riding to a bothy.

Photos here:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=F ... der%2c.JPG

Looks brilliant, not very Welsh weather at all!

That looks excellent - Welsh bridleways look to be well used (only by you!)

The weather was great, if properly wet weather some of the sections would have had moments of type 3 fun. Once away from the trail centres I think we saw 2 other bikes and very few tyre tracks, and one of these was on the non std bike trail section. Which in some ways is nice as it adds to a sense of solitude but is also disappointing that few riders now think of riding in the hills rather than round in small forested circles.

Which in some ways is nice as it adds to a sense of solitude but is also disappointing that few riders now think of riding in the hills rather than round in small forested circles.

Or maybe it's because everyone thinks this

convention says the Lakes and Scotland are better

I'd love to see a gpx please Mike: stuart@bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk

jodra wrote:The weather was great, if properly wet weather some of the sections would have had moments of type 3 fun. Once away from the trail centres I think we saw 2 other bikes and very few tyre tracks, and one of these was on the non std bike trail section. Which in some ways is nice as it adds to a sense of solitude but is also disappointing that few riders now think of riding in the hills rather than round in small forested circles.

They might not be riders in any form otherwise, besides for me it was a gateway drug!

Could I also scrounge a .gpx please? j464ubh AT hotmail.com

Cheers. :)

s8tannorm wrote:

Which in some ways is nice as it adds to a sense of solitude but is also disappointing that few riders now think of riding in the hills rather than round in small forested circles.

Or maybe it's because everyone thinks this

convention says the Lakes and Scotland are better

I'd love to see a gpx please Mike: stuart@bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk

Mike blank out the bits of type 2/3 route when you send it to Stu.

Nice looking trip though. Shame you didn't get down to mid Wales as much as you planned, the Nant-y-moch track is a great ride.

Will send GPx out at the weekend, I am away from my computer for a few days so sorry for any delay. There wasn't much potential for type 2 fun and it was mostly because Alan failed to follow the line on his gps properly and charged off in the wrong direction.

I like the nant y moch trails, we rode some of them again for there n back so it seemed sensible to add them as the bottom part of this loop as well.

Share the wealth! Can I have the gpx as well please?

I think this has been suggested before somewhere and not sure if its even possible but couldn't we start a thread where by people can upload gpx's so that we can grab them at our leisure? As it would be good to share routes on here.