that was one well earned curry pal
Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2014 9:32 pm
So Xmas is nearly here so I thought why not get another trip in before hand. Hux and I decided a jolly over to mid Wales again for a night at a bothy was in need. You would think he would of learnt his lesson by now when he leaves me to plan a route for us.
Having decided already on a route it was simple. Start in rhayader and head up the common. Its harder on the fatties when fully loaded!
We dropped down to the river crossing via a nice trail I rode last time I was there with ian. After a push up on to the start of the monks trod what could be easier than a nice juant across to claerwen reser down to strata Florida and over to moel prysgau for dinner??
Well we didn't get riding till 3pm!
It was getting dark by the time we arrived at the trod path, I was thinking to myself this is going to be a interesting crossing. It was a doddle to cross a few weeks ago but not this time.
It was pitch black and foggy with a head wind of around 30-40 mph gusts!!! It was the hardest crossing iv ever done on that trail. Not only could we not see the track very well but as soon as one of us got a bit carried away with riding ahead you soon lost sight of the one in front apart from a misty light mass up front somewhere. We had proper challenge to get the bikes over some horrendous bog sections which were flooded out due to all the rain. Oh yes rain we had some of that for awhile too!
Finally after what seemed like two hrs we made it to the track at claerwen. By now it was about 630 and we had only rode 16miles. We both looked at each other and being totally battered from lifting n lugging a full laiden fat bike around a boggy moor decided that MP bothy would have to wait. So now we were off to claerddu bothy. Neither of us have been to this bothy before so I was keen to visit. And stop!
We found the track to it straight away and made our way down. No lights on the approach so we again had it to ourselves.
What a hard ride that was. We made up for it though with three blocks of cheese n crackers. Two bottles of port and some whisky. Two chicken jelfrazi curry's n rice and twelve assortments of onion barjees pakoras etc etc etc etc. The wind outside got worse through the night and we woke to high winds and a lot of low mist n cloud. Luckily for us our ride back down the reservoirs we had a tailwind. I had found some new trails to try out on our way back to the car which turned out to be great riding at times right on the shore. And the sun came out to end our ride
Overall a great couple of days even if we were nearly broken by the end of it. Heres a few pics...
PC210173 by mjc_226, on Flickr
PC210179 by mjc_226, on Flickr
PC210191 by mjc_226, on Flickr
PC220198 by mjc_226, on Flickr
PC220206 by mjc_226, on Flickr
PC220244 by mjc_226, on Flickr
PC220242 by mjc_226, on Flickr
PC220248 by mjc_226, on Flickr
Having decided already on a route it was simple. Start in rhayader and head up the common. Its harder on the fatties when fully loaded!
We dropped down to the river crossing via a nice trail I rode last time I was there with ian. After a push up on to the start of the monks trod what could be easier than a nice juant across to claerwen reser down to strata Florida and over to moel prysgau for dinner??
Well we didn't get riding till 3pm!
It was getting dark by the time we arrived at the trod path, I was thinking to myself this is going to be a interesting crossing. It was a doddle to cross a few weeks ago but not this time.
It was pitch black and foggy with a head wind of around 30-40 mph gusts!!! It was the hardest crossing iv ever done on that trail. Not only could we not see the track very well but as soon as one of us got a bit carried away with riding ahead you soon lost sight of the one in front apart from a misty light mass up front somewhere. We had proper challenge to get the bikes over some horrendous bog sections which were flooded out due to all the rain. Oh yes rain we had some of that for awhile too!
Finally after what seemed like two hrs we made it to the track at claerwen. By now it was about 630 and we had only rode 16miles. We both looked at each other and being totally battered from lifting n lugging a full laiden fat bike around a boggy moor decided that MP bothy would have to wait. So now we were off to claerddu bothy. Neither of us have been to this bothy before so I was keen to visit. And stop!
We found the track to it straight away and made our way down. No lights on the approach so we again had it to ourselves.
What a hard ride that was. We made up for it though with three blocks of cheese n crackers. Two bottles of port and some whisky. Two chicken jelfrazi curry's n rice and twelve assortments of onion barjees pakoras etc etc etc etc. The wind outside got worse through the night and we woke to high winds and a lot of low mist n cloud. Luckily for us our ride back down the reservoirs we had a tailwind. I had found some new trails to try out on our way back to the car which turned out to be great riding at times right on the shore. And the sun came out to end our ride
Overall a great couple of days even if we were nearly broken by the end of it. Heres a few pics...
PC210173 by mjc_226, on FlickrPC210179 by mjc_226, on FlickrPC210191 by mjc_226, on FlickrPC220198 by mjc_226, on FlickrPC220206 by mjc_226, on FlickrPC220244 by mjc_226, on FlickrPC220242 by mjc_226, on FlickrPC220248 by mjc_226, on Flickr
