Coed-Y-Brenin & Coed Llandegla
The previous weekend Vaughan, Matt and myself headed up on a Friday evening to stay in Dolgellau to ride a few trails. None of us had ridden for a while. The drive was pretty arduous on the Friday (well for Vaughan at least – well done sir!) to get to the B+B. So after a decent breakfast and plenty of fettling with the bikes at Coed-Y-Brenin it was out to to ride the Dragon’s Back which is a great 30k route round the forest with about 700m of climbing although fairly evenly spread out. The trail is pretty varied and pretty rocky in places. I managed to rack up 3 punctures in total which was a little testing on all our patience really! Must remember that skinny tyres and a hardtail are not quite as easy to blat through rock fields as the 6″ travel full suss I used to have.
I can never remember the trail names but the section shown below is great. I think it comes after Gomez. You head through loads of switchbacks, rocky and rooty sections and then through a rocky stream into this rocky paved area which twists you down into more sweepy singletrack. Note the use of “rocky”.
Here’s another shot from Matt on Dragon’s Back. Can’t remember where though.
It was an absolutely beautiful day, crisp, clear and bright and actually warm once you got going. Nice riding in shorts and T-shirt again!
I treated myself to a larger rear tyre after we’d finished, hoping to stop the punctures for Sunday. Then it was back to the B+B for a quick shower then out to watch the rugby in Dolgellau. England vs Wales in the local pub! England won so we left fairly sharp for fish and chips then more drinks and then back to the B+B.
Sunday we headed out to Coed Llandegla which is kind of on the way back to the M6. It’s certainly a popular place with the car park rammed by the time we arrived at 11am. Pretty grim weather for it and all feeling it a bit from the day before. Still we got going heading out to the forest. Biting winds and plenty of snow left certainly made a difference to the warm feel of Sat.
We rode the black route again. This time it seemed to flow a lot more and I think I started to get the hang of riding again. Some of the jumpy sections were incredibly good even in the wet.
Here’s a quick group shot taken by Matt.
Anyway, a superb weekend and I think I found myself being interested in riding again. Must head up there again soon.