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Or something else entirely. We're at BPW on Sat and fancy something on the way back (to Hull, basically anything north of Merthyr and south of the Humber) but the weather's looking crappy and I suspect both of those will be more fun on a nice day.
Any ideas? Not the Peak, we do that all the time 😉
Cannock? Just off the M6 and is a good all weather circuit.
Aye Cannock is a bit of a last resort - pretty much guaranteed fun but we've done it a few times before. Good call though.
How bad is the weather looking. The Gap and Long Mynd will both be OK with a bit of wet but are quite exposed. Cwncarn isn't quite north of Merthyr but not far out the way.
Gap is as much about the big views as anything, so don't go in poor weather. The microclimate of the ridge means a high likelihood of staring at nothing but cloud 100 feet away on an unsettled day.
Having done both and if you haven't done either I would plump for the mynd. The terrain is more varied and the scenery is more pleasant. The start of the gap is straight onto a horrid stoney climb whereas the mynd you have a bit of a warm up before it kicks up. My favourite route is up Carding mill Valley, up to the summit cairn, down minton batch, right and climb through the forest, past the gliding club and then right along the ridge and off the end, back along the golf course.
Have fun!
Agree with the above. Given the choice I would take the Mynd over the Gap for variety and fun. But then I live in the Beacons and ride the gap regularly in all weathers, day and night so maybe just bored of it. There are plenty of other places like the Blacks south of Hay (try the latest MBR route if you like gnarly descents; though it has recently been sanitised a bit).
Cool, cheers. I reckon we'll stick to the Mynd then, always fancied it and love a bit of Singletrack.
Another vote for the Mynd, fantastic place to ride and holds up well in the wet, if a bit exposed.
Mynd - it's basically a rinse and repeat type place - you can climb back up it to do a different descent as often as you want, or bail easily if the weather turns terrible.
Sounds perfect. Especially the bailability, though I'm thinking more of my legs...
What's your route back to Hull, how about the Elan Valley, llanwrtyd Wells or Builth Wells - plenty of really good riding around those or less distance would be Afan?
Those would work Leftyboy, but it would be easier for us heading east rather than west - I reckon a Mid-Wales weekend needs to be done another time.
Jekkyl - don't suppose you have a GPX for that do you? Looks to be an awful lot of trails in a small space.
Yup I do mate. Drop me a quick email on my profile.