This is for Jnrs (15) first Welsh Wales trip next week with a program of:
Day 1: Cwmcarn: Twyrch AM, Cafell PM
Day 2: Whites level
Day 3 AM as above? Then home
Which trail is best for the final day?
I was up last weekend and there was trail closures all over the place at the moment due to forestry work. On the plus side, that could make the decision of what you ride for you.
I did blade with some very slow mates on a very hot day. They hated it. Tough ups, had trouble on the way down. Average speed 4mph. I'm fairly sure they could have walked it faster as the wouldn't have needed to stop evey gate.
Same group - the least fit bloke the next year loved the phenyyd.
If it's the last day of 3 and you have a (long) drive I'd go the shorter route.
Why finish the trip on a death slog? Finish on something fun which could be repeated after a caffe stop.
I love the wall. The only trail I've ever done 3 times in a row without an uplift. So that's my vote, but I'm not 15 and it's not my first Wales trip 😃
Don't forget the bug repellent. If you don't need it you won't care. If you do need it you'll be happy you packed it
Just to add, when I said whites level I meant W2. Penhyyd then sounds like the best bet.
My suggestion would be to ride most of Penhyyd, but towards the end take the newish (old) Genesis trail that lets you cut through to the fire road which takes you up to the start of the Blue Scar descent. I think it is all sign posted after Rocky Rebellion. That is normally the route I use for a final morning ride after a couple of days at Afan with my kids.
Was there a few weeks ago and the trail closures were a bit of a nightmare - worth checking what you can, maybe ask at the shop - he seems to know what’s happening, but it’s having a big impact…
(no idea about closures)
So for whatever it's worth I thought Penhyyd was pretty terrible- I don't know if this is correct but it felt like what happens when a trail loses a bunch of sections and the rest is just barely hanging together. A lot of effort for not much reward, though I did like some parts.
We were grumpy afterwards and went and did Blue Scar and had a much better time. Definitely prefer Blade to Penhydd too (though in fairness I've only done it twice, one time it had loads of erosion which made some sections hilarious and brilliant, the other it seemed not quite finished and the waymarking was completely broken and I ended up totally lost and damn nearly hallucinating by the time I got home, on the next visit I was constantly expecting to find bits of trail that I think don't actually exist) Trouble with doing W2 is you're knocking off a huge chunk of Afan in one go in both centres, and doing Blade and Blue Scar as a ride makes absolutely no sense. But then Whyte's and Blade together feels like a big ride.
If it were me I'd go to BPW for that 3rd day 😉 YMMV.
Concur with Northwind re Penhyyd.
Blade is an absolute slog with very little reward. The last bit of the last descent is the only good bit.
Penhydd has a boring main fire road climbs but at least the middle and end is fun. Plus you could loop blue scar if you feel the need to cut short or add extra.
I presume these 15 year old are all fit as the first two days are big long days of riding. Cwmcarn both trails is a lot of climbing. Great trails tho.
Totally would do BPW uplift 3rd day after 2 days of a fair amount of climbing. Or depending on where you live / what you usually ride / where you have to get home from - go to FOD for some variety. Loads of good off piste to explore from the main centre.
Or do a non-trail centre ride. There’s a fair amount of ‘natural’ xc/trail/gnar in South Wales away from the centres.
Or do a non-trail centre ride. There’s a fair amount of ‘natural’ xc/trail/gnar in South Wales away from the centres.
Such as Afan Masts, just across the road from the TC stuff.
I would have suggested Afan Masts but from various threads about xc racing I wasn’t sure steep tech was Krypton’s bag. But I’d rather ride the Masts than anything else at Afan.
Penhydd + blue scar to finish
or the Brecon Gap? I know you're north London, not sure of whether jnr has done any riding that's a bit more err 'backcountry'.
Thanks. No Jnr hasn’t done much back country and although he’s very very fit I don’t want him on anything too technical. He’s racing sub GB / Regional triathlon and I don’t want him injured before his season starts by his teenage testosterone driven tendency to go gung ho at everything he sees in front of him, especially when I don’t know it’s coming either.
The gap ride mentioned above isn’t very tech to be fair. Can’t recall any very technical descending at all really.
What's actually going on with Blade? Last I read they were closing Ghost Train permanently, and if I understood rightly changing the heartburn climb into a descent to replace it? (Ghost Train was a mess both times I rode it but a fairly glorious mess, definitely out of grade for a red but really good fun with the erosion.)
<quote>chrismac
Full Member
Plus it’s the same climb as whites level so nothing new on the way up either. </quote>
Yeah but- and I cannot believe I'm going to say this- it's a bloody excellent climb.
Actually, looping Peregrine Rock etc (end of skyline I think?) off of that climb is a really good wee loop.
I was there the other day and set off with out looking at the signage, big mistake.
I rode from the bike shop at the visitor centre to the wall, then back.
I then did blue scar and added in the big dipper descent.
You could do the wall via the link from whites level? What I would've done had I of done any research before going out.
I'd have said that the Gap is a less technical ride than W2 - there's two stretches of rocky descent with some fairly chunky babyheads in them but other than that there's no drop offs, steeps, tight switchbacks or anything of that ilk.
Not sure about current closures but we used to do Y-Wall and then blue scar.
We did
A "best of" Penhydd / blue scar on Friday afternoon.
A "best of" Whites / Blade / Whatever on Saturday. There's a lot that's closed but if you just string together what's open it's a really good route.
FoD blue on Sunday. The Blue trail is mostly filler so you feel like you've earnt a couple of push ups of the DH tracks, but still good fun.
Can this by done by following the signage? It’s been a long time since I was there, I don’t really want to spend ages navigating.
Penhydd/ blue scar
Do Penhydd, but then on the climb back up from the southern 'loop' keep going back to the top of the hill rather than following Penhydd back down, this takes you back up to the top of the Blue Scar descent. Basically skipping the red descent for a bit more climbing and a much longer blue descent.
Whites / Blade
The climb up form the ponds, follow Whites down for the descent to the bottom (Energy?) , then rather than carry on (after crossing the stream and a bit of singletrack climbing you come out on quite a rocky fireroad where the trail goes fire road right (south), then immediately off to the right again (west), instead take the left fire road (east, turns north) )straight up rather than towards the trail. This takes you back upto the top of the main climb from there you can carry on and do Blade.
Depends how long you want to be out for, it wasn't a long day out but long enough to feel like we'd had a ride and the beginnings of mutterings about people cutting out the next climb etc.
Thanks for the advice all, a good 3 days was had and Jnr has very much enjoyed his “man trip” and first Welsh trail centres.
Although I don’t remember it being that hard. Twrch at Cwncarn, W2 and then Penhyyd, my arms and legs are aching badly. Still, he’s aching too and enjoyed every bit of it, including smashing the beefeater menu at the Premier Inn Port Talbot, and that’s what counts. The weather held until today so Penhyyd was a soakfest.
The Afan trail diversions are a bit odd IMO, the complete upper link on W2 closed, and the final wall descent closed also. Shame that the Afan centre cafe still doesn’t have a resolved lease.
