On Friday night Paul and I made the marathon road trip from Exeter to
North Wales, arriving at the appointed campsite shortly before
mid-night. Fortunatly we saw Aaron in the car park and he directed us to
the right side of the field. A little gossipng later we got our heads down
for some sleep in preperation for the exertions to come on saturday.
Saturday dawned coldish and showery, a rag tag convoy left the campsite
in dribs and drabs to re-group at Coed-Y-Brenin ( CyB) vistor centre
where we meet up with a few more riders. Equiped with maps we then began
the ritual discussion " what ride are you doing/ is that the long one/ is
it too long/ do I want to do it too" before spliting into two rather
un-even groups. Five people wanting to do the MBR trail - 22km long 300m
climbing very hilly with sustained technicial sections- and about 17
wanting to do the Red Bull Trail - 11km, 330m climbing with short but
brutal in places technicial sections linked by easier tracks with
shortcuts possible.
Both routes start together with a sharp up-hill ection that most people
walked, at the split off point we five MBR riders ( Joe M, Paul S, Roger
D, Mark W and I) dived off down the hill on " Flightpath" The first of our
man made single track for the day, it was a fun swoopy ride I managed to
stack it badly once and ended up some 8ft from my uni spwarled on my back
across a log below the trail un-able to get up. NOT thankfully because I
was hurt, but because my pack straps were hopelessly caught up on the
dead tree.Paul dis-entangled me and I was very gratfull I was wearing
wristgrauds, lid and knee pads or it would have really hurt.
The MBR trail turned out to be full of tricky decents and also had some
fantasticly swoopy stuff, a lot of the taril is on stone packed narrow
paths, I had to concentrate hard on the next 3 ft of trail most of the
time and managed to do a few things I thought would have me off. On one
steep section we watched a mountain biker go over the handle bars on a
section most of us had just riden (I allowed my self to feel pleased about
it). The two wheelers we meet were fine, we were traeted with the some
respect any other two wheeler would have got ( so the level
varied!) from curt " on the right" or “rider” as someone hurtled down the
hill and wanted to pass to " no you go first I want to see you do it" with
the accompanying " wow , that mad".
The rain came down a few times while we were out but it was intermittant
and we were riding hard enough to dry out.Eventully ( after about
3.5 hours) we got back the Cafe expecting to find the other group back
already as their ride had been only half as long. They were not there and
hadn’t been seen, so we settled down to stuff our faces and wait for
them. The rain got heavy. Twenty mins after our arrival Leigh and Lucy
dripped into the cafe, they had taken a short cut and come back from Red
Bull , it was another 15 mins before the front runners came in who had
riden the whole trail, and about 4.5 hours had elaped since starting the
rides before they were all back.
As Aaron and Sam put it, they stopped to play a bit, and it took ages to
re-group at the end of some sections. but no one was hurt and a good time
had been had.After lunch the groups re-jigged a bit and some wentinto
town , soem went to ride flight path and play on a few fun bits near the
cafe while Joe M, Paul and I accompanied by Aaron on two wheels ( he
borrowed it he had already done the route on a uni) did the Red Bull
Trial.
Paul confronted his nemesis in Snap and then went on to ride Crackle, Pop
and Als loop that he had been forced to miss through injury last
time. Then joe lost a pedal and was forced to walk the second half of the
route, then Pauls knee started to play up and it started to get
dark. Oopps. We shortcutted as much a possible so I still havn’t managed
to ride the whole of the Red Bull trail:-( . The Rocky Horror show was
once again neither rocky or horrid, while the root of all evil and Man
trap again defeated me.
I trailed into the car park behind Aaron to find that his Dad had left
with out him but Mike (thanks Mike) had stayed and waited with a bike
rack on his car. Paul and Joe walked the last sections together and we
loaded up the unis onto Mikes rack in the gathering dusk and headed back
to the camp site, tired out.
The evening saw a gathering of muniers almost take over the front bar of
the Ship in town,I think the 4 locals who stayed deserve a medal. We all
dryed out and yarned about exploits past planned.
Sunday dawned cold. Very cold, iced up tent zips cold, ice on tents cold,
frost on everything cold. Pauls knee problem meant that he and I didn’t
go to Mount Snowdon with the others so some one else will have to tell the
tales of Sunday at the BMW.
Sarah
–
Union of UK Unicyclists
By and for UK riders
