stories

Or how not to do it in Coed y Brenin.

Perhaps we shouldnt have had that last cup of tea with Sian and Dafydd in the café Perhaps we should have got up earlier, perhaps perhaps perhaps..

Well, we were here now. In the dark, in the middle of Coed y Brenin forest, and with the most technical riding yet to come. It had seemed like a great idea yesterday, to try to combine all of the routes in Coed y Brenin into one big Combo. The best of the classic Karrimor Trail, the rock delights of the MBR and a smattering of Red Bull, Pink Heifer and Sport. The other thing every last one of us had forgotten was a watch, and none of us had the slightest clue what time it was. By the time we reached our first planned stop at the tea shop at Dolfrwynog it had already closed. Luckily for us, the nice people who own it, leaned out of the window to see if we were OK and offered to put the kettle on.
Fortified by large cups of tea and even bigger slices of cake, we pressed on. At 6pm we were toiling up Moel Hafodowen with a little more urgency than earlier in the day.

It was still light when we rode back into the forest and down the steep swooping delights of Uncle Fester. By the time we reached Morticia it was getting hard to see the trail at all.
Poor Simon, was having a bit of a mare. New to mountain biking, on a borrowed bike, and on some of the most technical riding in the forest, things werent going too well. Meanwhile, I was experiencing one of my finest moments of riding. Feeling the trail like braille underneath me, I had that feeling of flying over the rocks and bumps. I was almost laughing with the euphoria of it. It got funnier and funnier as in the distance there were sporadic sounds of crashing and swearing.

It was too dark now to even stop and read the map, we just had to press on. Thankfully just as we were approaching complete sense of humour failure, we dropped onto the big forest track and the sound of the river and road next to us, told us we were on the home run.
Five minutes and a lot of hilarity later we were back in a lonely deserted visitor centre, our cars the only ones left at 8pm at night.
 
Simon and Sophie resuming sense of humour
As Sophie and Simon headed back across to Nantwich and we trucked back up north I thought perhaps, we should have taken a torch. But then, maybe we wouldnt have had nearly so much fun.

Find this and more adventures in Coed y Brenin check out  'The best mountain bike trails in Snowdonia'