Rough Riders go MTB'ing at Coed y Brenin

Base Camp:

After a long journey up to the Welsh mountains we set up camp in an excellent spot by the river in the grounds of Kings Youth hostel, just outside Dolgellau. Some time was spent erecting the tents, but after a little swearing 'base camp' was ready.

We then explored the local area on bikes, finding a nearby hotel for beer and grub halfway up Cader Adris. The Landlord's attitude was, shall we say, 'interesting - but the food and beer were fine. An exciting ride back to camp in the twilight with no lights and lots of sheep poo, closed gates and cattle grids finished the day.

First trail was the Tarw. Starting right from the centre through the 'horns' trail head, it immediately sets the trend for the rest of the ride - technically challenging with twisty, rocky sections, between the steady climbs with fast flowing descents and great views across to the Snowdonia range. A couple of entertaining 'offs' in the rocky sections and some hair raising near misses in the fast single track section made it a great morning's ride. Also don't miss the last new section just before the finish, it's knackering but it's cracker.

We fuelled up with a good selection of biking food and drink at the Centre Café and took time to rest our aching limbs. The centre is very nicely done and has excellent environmental credentials, apparently all self sustainable.
MBR was selected as the afternoon trail. Again, straight from the centre through the giant forks the first section sets the pace (Badger) - fast and technical - then there's a steady climb to gain altitude. After this the trail is mainly open and flowing offering some long sweeping descents (Pink Heifer) as well as some Coed y Brenin's most demanding technical stone pitched sections.

The day ended with all riders tired but having enjoyed one of the best days mtbing they could remember, pushing the bike skills to the limit.

Cli-machx - Machynlleth:

Next morning we packed up camp and headed south to the Cli-machx trail, just outside the town of Machynlleth.

It starts with a long steady climb interspersed with little technical single track sections just to make it interesting and break up the assent, but it is still quite a climb. The complete trail is a 15km round trip, with 9km of built single track with compressions and whoops, rock slab drop offs and some beautiful flowing turns.

The last descent is the longest in Wales and features rocky jumps, drop offs, sweeping single track, and technical sections with an ever present very steep drop to your right. The finale is a sequence of eight huge berms following quickly after each other.

Very challenging when you've already run out of energy! Everyone made it down OK, - huge grins and expletives said it all, it really is a fantastic decent. The rest is boring - just the trip back home and constantly talking about 'the next time'.

Neil Pafford.