Just back from a excellent weekend in Wales. Friday was rather wet but Mike, Antony, Simon and Brian still managed to get in a loop of the Red route at Brechfa. Sadly George, Mark and myself were delayed by problems with Marks car so never made it that far instead opting to go straight to Afan.
Come Saturday morning the six of us who were staying at 'Queens' b & b were joined by Huw to make a magnificent 7. After much flaffing about we headed out up the 'Whites' climb to do the 'July' trail. I love the climb, virtually all singletrack and very rideable. With fresh legs we made good progress stopping only occasionally to regroup.
I'd never done the full July trial before and really enjoyed it, even the 'closed' section through the forest workings. The final decent is very good but on my hardtail I found it very hard work, much more so than on previous visits.
On reaching the bottom of the climb we had a short pause for a rest of about 5 mintues before heading straight back up the 'Whites' climb again. Once again fast progress was made as we wound our way up to the top. This time we shot off around the black loop which was great fun before embarking on the W2 trail. I'd never ridden this section before either and despite it being mainly fireroad enjoyed the openess and views very much.
This of course led us to the 'Wall' and the decent. Once again the fast boys shot off ahead, Simon and Antony in particular flying off out of sight. Again I struggled with the bike, still loving the trail but getting a right battering in the process. After the wall it was off to the Afan visitor centre for some well earned nosh and eventually to meet up with the other 4 members of our group who were staying at a diffferant b & b.
After refueling myself, Antony, Simon, Mark, Brian John and Gary headed off to do the remainder of the 'W2' trail. By now we were tireing and Mark and myself struggled up the climb, just as it was all getting too much it topped out. The long decent was superb and although I was going a lot slower than I normally would it was still great fun. We eventually emerged from the trees as the light was fading and got back to the b & b just in time for Brian to watch the rugby.
After another heavy night out in 'The Hall' or what ever that bar is called (the less said about that the better) we were up early to pack up and head off to Cwmcarn.
At Cwmcarn there was just the 5 of us, Brian, Simon, Mike, Antony and myself the others having headed for home. Once again the climb was long and hard and also very busy. We slowly made our way up the trail passing numerous groups of riders on the way. The conditions were hard and what with all the traffic there were a couple of sections on the lower parts that we were unable to 'clean'.
Once in the clear faster, progress was made and eventually we arrived at the top. The 1st part of the decent was great, really good fun and we all flew down there. the rest of the trail undulated nicely before eventually we arrived at the final decent. What a blast that was and with the trail being less rocky I was able to give it a real go on the hardtail, probably the best decent of the weekend. so there it was 1hr 15 later and we were back at the cars and ready to make the journey home - lovely.
