Betws y coed - A week in North Wales
I just spent last week in North Wales. We hired a cottage from the National Trust (prices come down out of season) which was only a couple of miles from Coed-y-Brenin.
Weather was mixed for the week as were our plans - we did some walking, gear shopping (all that shiny kit ;-) and mountain biking.
At Coed-y-Brenin we did the Beast and the Tarw, this meant we covered pretty much all that Coed-y-Brenin has to offer as the remaining routes share much of the route with the Beast. It had been a few years since we last rode here and there is evidence of wear and tear on the trails - not sure if that had built up over the years or has been a result of our extremely wet summer. I had also forgotten how little flowing single track there is. There is a lot of fire road and much of the single track there is has a lot of technical switches and rock/root sections that mean you are working hard but not flowing, still they were both good rides even if I would have preferred a bit more flow and speed. Still the Enduro smoothed out the rocky sections, I seem to recall being shaken and battered when I rode my hardtail several years ago, but on the down side I also felt that the Enduro didn't handle the technical rocky switchbacks as well, although could also just be me being rusty on the technical XC stuff (sharp turns and climbs on roots and rocks).
We also hunted out Penmachno and did the combined loops 1 and 2. Finding the trail is easy if you head through Penmachno from the A5 and as you head out of Penmachno village towards Cwm Penmachno there is a fire road on the right that leads off as the tree line comes down to the roadside, it is easy to miss this if you come over the Cwm from the other direction (as we did!) there is a small free car park here, a trail map on a notice board and a donations box for trail upkeep. If Coed-y-Brenin is lacking singletrack (makes up less than 40% of the Beast) Penmacho is singletrack-tastic with at least 80% of it on all weather singletrack, this includes up as well as level and down sections. Putting both loops together makes about 30km and has a strong flowing XC feel to it. There seems a lot of up and level at the outset but there are some rewarding flowing sections in the middle and a fantastic descent at the end, nothing mental (it is aimed more at XC riders) but enough to keep you smiling. And whilst there is no maps available - the route is well signposted and the split for loop 1 and 2 is also marked. Ther is no trail centre but there is a pub in the village.
Having done the Betws-y-coed trail last year I would happily state that that Penmachno is by far the best of the three trail centres in the area.
And as a bonus when I got home my ibikeride T-shirt had arrived
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tomks
said:
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... cool blog man , i was at coed-y b this year and found that they hav changed a lot of the climb from last year, having spent a week there i found that the dragons was the best trail, if your thinking of going up again theres a top trail just down the road called the cli-machx, its one of my top rides, and i think that your enduro would love it ..  |
Mark Kellaway
said:
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... I must go back and do Cli-Machx again - I rode most of it a couple years back on my Rockhopper - unfortunately half way round I shredded my rear tyre, I managed to cobble together a patch out of all my self adhesive patches, but the inner tube still bulged quite alarmingly, and with the car being parked up the road at the bunk house I decided to stick to descending on the fire roads, so missed out on what I've been told is an awesome descent!! |
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