Coed-y-Brenin, Tarw Trail

Uphilla and I had already hatched a plan to take in a couple of the north Welsh trails before the end of the year, namely the extended Penmachno and Coed Llandegla.

The day before arrived and we were pleased to see that the weather forecasts all looked favourable and before we set off we quickly checked the trails websites for the latest maps, etc.

"Oh-no", Penm was closed with a rally AND Coed-L had it's car park closed due to snow ! :O

Over the next few hours a sketchy plan-b was hatched with options of Coed-y-Brenin (which has lots of choice) and even Machynlleth to the south (time permitting).

The 'hillas' made their way NW after the Friday rush but by bedtime I still hadn't received final confirmation of our venue - so I guessed the lads were out in wilderness without a signal. Come 5am Saturday morning (yawn) and they'd managed to find a signal to confirm CyB @ 9.30am was indeed the center of choice(b) - game on.

3hrs later I'd enjoyed traffic free drive and been rewarded with inumerable truely jaw dropping views of the autumal colour with picture postcard snow capped peaks. All under a bright blue sky - which has been quite a rarity this year. Actually the drive wasn't without incident as I had a near miss playing chicken with a pheasant (thank you mr.ABS) and a windscreen strike serveral turns later of either it's dumba$$ cousin or a partridge. I do know that it was big, went with an almighty and in an instant took my ticker from calm and relaxed to pounding harder than Afan's 6km climb. But I digress, where were we ?

Whilst I waited for the center to open I assembled my trusty steed and watched the car park gradually fill as the daylight ticked by. The casual 'hillas' rolled up, unloaded, twiddled with this'n'that before we all rolled down to the trail head to decide which of the 6 routes we'd tackle.

Our opener was to be the medium length Tarw trail and off through the 'horns' we dived.

We've all ridden this in the past but not since CyB's overhaul and after a few short sections of singletrack we began our climb up the fireroad to into the short Heart of Darkness. I don't know about you but I find I need a few miles to adjust to these trails (they're so different from my home patch) and I through here I took many a bad line and fumbled plenty of dodgy gear choices. However I soon settled down and hammered through Snap, Crackle and Pop which were familiar from the ol'Red Bull trail. My 5Spot felt great with loads-a-grip from the NNic's, amble braking from my Mag's and the Pike felt so good being rammed into every rock that came my way :thumbu

Onwards we cranked and after thumpin' our way through the Rocky Horror Show, Mantrap and Flightpath a quick glance at my buddies showed the same moosive grin that adorned my chops :p

Back at the cafe we plunged into some lunch whilst deciding what the afternoon might offer...

The only photo I snapped was in the car park, before 9am.

Tracklog.

Posse: DDave (4x), Farqui (5Spot), Uphilla (5Spot)

Mechanicals: None
Weather: Fabulous autumnal day, cold breeze but dry and sunny