I hadn't visited the 'Worlds Poshest Bothy' for a few months so decided to take a trip down and meet up with SBF, Wotsits, AW and Taylor. Riding down seemed like a better option than driving, so 9ish Sat morning saw me off with the promise of sunshine and adventure or rain and suffering ... in reality I was happy enough with either. Obviously, I could have chosen a route I knew and kept things simple but trying to link up some random bridleways seemed like it might be more fun.



There was a very loose plan to join forces at the Elan visitor centre around 12.30. I had no idea whether I'd make it but at 12.15 one of the best bits of singletrack I've ridden for quite some time spat me out on the road a couple of miles from the centre. SBF arrived just as I'd polished off my sausage roll and true to form Wotsits arrived just before 2.00 ... which was handy because I'd picked up a few thorns on the way down and he had a track pump in his van

A few miles before the bothy Taylor caught us up and the four of us rolled down the track to the bothy to be greeted by AW and offspring. There were two couples in residence but we quickly put their minds at ease by being really friendly and spreading muddy, wet gear all over the place.



A very pleasant evening followed involving cheese, wine, smash and someone elses 10 year old single malt. Quite how Wotsits and SBF managed to explain away the vanishing whiskey next morning, I'm not sure, as Taylor and myself had a slightly earlier start, him needing to get back to the visitor centre and home and me having a date with some more unfamiliar tracks.



We rode the first 12 miles together before going our seperate ways ... here he is seemingly morphing from Taylor to Wallace.



I spent the remainder of the day, riding, pushing and generally having a great time. I made it home around dusk having found some new tracks that although appearing like full-on death-marches on the map, turned out very rideable ... this one looked like it was going to end in disaster but resulted in a fantastic descent involving a very big drop into the valley below should you get it wrong.

Cracking weekend ... but I really should swap my saddle

Turning into Wallace must be a result of excessive wensleydale consumption :)

adjustablewench wrote:Turning into Wallace must be a result of excessive wensleydale consumption :)

Cracking toast.

We knew the evaporation theory would be instantly dismissed by the PHD student, so we fessed up!

Stu, can you shed any light on which tracks you rode there/back? Cheers

Ha I was also wondering which trails he used. Got my fatty now ian so ill be up for another beasting over the bogs soon

I see what you mean by being able to fit all your kit into just the saddle bag!

Stu, can you shed any light on which tracks you rode there/back? Cheers

Going out.
BW from SN945707 up onto top of Golf Links ... better kept as a descent, very fast, very steep and really, really steep through the woods at the bottom.

BW from SN942696 ... nice descent but very muddy before Treheslog. Turn right onto road and onto BW at SN949682 (upper Ochr-cefn) and follow it through the woods bearing right and reaching the road at SN963675. The woods are lovely (some nice overnight spots in there) and the track's a belter, nothing technical just really enjoyable ... flowy?

Going home.
I decided to risk the BW at SN898720 ... starts off as a good track but that ends after the second ford. I expected it to get nasty after that but there's a fairly distinct, dry path on the ground. Follow to the ridgeline saddle and keep to the right of the gully where you'll pick up a well defined grass track that zig zags down the hill side before depositing you into a farm and then onto the Llangurig back road ... wouldn't be pleasant the other way round as the descent would be a hell of a push. Seeing where this starts I'm wondering whether it might have once been a continuation of the Monks Trod?

Just been checking out ur paths stu. May have to try those couple next time im up there as iv never ridden any of them. Think ur right about the trod would make sense that I went straight across. Would be interesting to see if the monks route is documented anywhere on net. That will keep me busy for an hr this evening

Great, thanks for that Stu.

Had a great weekend, thanks for posting up SBF

My first time at this bothy & i was well impressed, it's like a tardis inside. The 2 couples that were already there were great in that they moved into one room in order to give us more space. One of the guys was also very generous with his single malt & Paul made me take advantage

I've never seen so much cheese, i think we'd each brought enough for the whole group. We did make a good effort in finishing it off though!

Also got to thank Paul for managing to hold his laughter in when i 'took a dip' when trying to find a better place to cross the stream further up from the ford. I though you was going to crack at one point, but you held it in well mate

Some pics-
IMG_20141123_105034 by wotsit_legs, on Flickr
IMG_20141123_083422 by wotsit_legs, on Flickr
IMG_20141122_183648 by wotsit_legs, on Flickr
IMG_20141123_083504 by wotsit_legs, on Flickr
IMG_20141123_104435 by wotsit_legs, on Flickr
IMG_20141123_105902 by wotsit_legs, on Flickr
IMG_20141123_111852 by wotsit_legs, on Flickr
IMG_20141123_122256 by wotsit_legs, on Flickr

Brilliant trip - the boys loved it despite being slightly sleep deprived from a sleepover on Friday night they seemed to cope quite well.

A huge thank you to Wotsits for going back to get my bag - don't know quite how i managed to put it down and forget it, think i was distracted watching you taking a dip

I am particularly rubbish at posting pics - so out of pure laziness here is a link to my photos elsewhere

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 9c1a2bf3a0

adjustablewench wrote:think i was distracted watching you taking a dip

No probs AW, i could do with some extra miles..
I thought you'd missed my 'dip' & had got away with just Paul seeing it. Dam!

You were quite the dashing hero. Except when you fell on yer arse!