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Morning guys,
I've ridden Betws before but never Penmachno. I figure it's probably not too difficult to link them both into one big ride.
Anyone done it before or know a decent way to get from one to the other? A GPS link / Strava route would be great if possible.
Cheers
James
The logistical difficulties are that you need to cross the railway line and a river.
You best bet (IMHO) is to take the lane up behind the Cotswold 'Rock Bottom' shop at the south end of Betws and follow this until it meets the A470. Keep on the gravel track alongside the A470 for about 1/4 mile and take the first left onto a lane that crosses the river pretty much immediately.
After about 200yds, you come to a junction with 3 other lanes / fire roads - from here you're on your own:
Left most option (almost straight on) eventually (about a mile) takes you to the B4406 where you could turn right and ride up through Penmachno village to the 'official' start of the Penmachno trail (about another 2.5 miles). "Safest" way of finding the trails.
Right most option, ignoring any turn-offs, and (probably) going through a few gates crosses loop 2 of Penmachno after about 3 miles. Turn right onto the trail.
The middle option gets you onto the forest fire roads. In theory, first left, right at T junction, sharp left and keep left brings you to loop 2 in about a mile, but you might want to confirm that! 😉 - Again, turn right onto the trail.
I've ridden the first option, but not the others. All options involve 2-300m of climbing from the 3 way junction.
The problem with trying to link any of the trails around Llyn Elsi is that you're the wrong side of the railway and river, and need to come back to the lane out of Betws (or head a long way west) to cross them.
If you haven't ridden Penmachno before, it might be best to go with option 1, even though it involves a bit of (quiet) road riding. (You will go straight into a long fire-road climb, btw!)
Conwy Falls cafe (where B4406 joins the A5) does good food, and has a box to pay your dues for Penmachno that's less likely to get robbed than the one at the start of the trails. It's a fast (down hill) road ride from the cafe back to Betws on the A5.
HTH.
You could follow the above and use the tarmac road that leads to "ty mawr wybernant" a national trust property. Eventually you will pick up where loop 2 crosses the tarmac road, or carry on to a wide crossroad very close to the loop 1&2 split.
Personally I would use they road option above and ride through the village.
Give northwales trails a shout he knows the area like the back of his hand and all of the best local bits to link the trails together northwalestrails at hotmail dot co dot uk
Thanks guys that's really helpful. I'll try and match it up against a map and go from there.
Thanks again.
Tillydog middle option is a good choice. I wouldn't do the Ty Mawr route as the road is insanely steep.
Don't know about linking them but rode penmachno the other day and the middle section was very wet. Some very deep puddles that swallowed the front wheel. The beginning and end where pretty dry though
Obvious green lanes, brilliant when trail riding.
Leave Betws where the road to Capel Curig starts to climb and head south to the A470.
West to the station at Pentre Bont and over the Bwlch y Groes
Leave Betws where the road to Capel Curig starts to climb and head south to the A470.
West to the station at Pentre Bont and over the Bwlch y Groes
Sarn Helen route, effectively? then over the river and west along the track the other side to Dolwyddelan?
I didn't realise you could get over Bwlch Y Groes (it's off the bottom of my Snowdonia map 😳 ) but see now that there's a track marked - it would be a cracking route! Any idea what the Bwlch Y Groes track is like to ride?
It opens up the possibilities for some epic loops.
First bit from Pentre-bont (station) is a good, wide, hard track uphill but then is becomes a boggy mess and hard to find. Well, it was/has been like that, but was due for some work I believe, so I'm hoping it's changed now. The descent should be a nice singletrack.
As sts said.Good surface and wide at the start and steep as hell,then disappears for a bit (bit of hike a bike to a stile) ,then a boggy hell with water filled waist deep motorbike ruts.
I hope they are doing some work on it but the mx'ers seem to love it (must use it as access to somewhere else).
Makes for a big day out with a stinging climb over Sarn Helen to get back to the Marin (and a another to get back onto the Marin).
^Thanks, both. It looked as if it might be a bit boggy from the map. I'd probably want to recce it before planning a big ride along that route.
(Have done a Marin - Sarn Helen - back to Marin route. It is, indeed a big day out, but also a bloody good one!)