'Brechfa' is a loose collection of manmade trails a little past the end of the M4. We went to try them out, along with some natural riding in the Doethie Valley. Here's how we got on:
9 of us met at the Gorlech Trail on the Friday afternoon, ready and raring to tackle some. As is traditional the trail opened with a fire road climb. And then another one. And then some woods, still going uphill. Then more fire road, so not so much fun so far. However, then the trail turned down, opening with swooping berms and accompanying tree stumps to jump off/over, rapidly putting grins back on faces. The rest of the trail was a good succession of swoopy singletrack and big bermed sections, eventually spitting us out grinning at the car park, wet, happy, hungry and looking forward to the pub. After a clean up at the B&B, with Welsh cakes laid on, the Black Lion was the destination of choice, serving hearty food and beer. A good start to the weekend then!
Saturday was a little different, with natural trails in the Doethie Valley our aim. With Aled and Gwyn joining us to take numbers to 11 we set off from the Llyn Brianne reservoir. A long rising and falling (mostly rising) route round the reservoir was our warm up, then a brutally steep rocky climb with landrovers coming down, and a lot of pushing. The other side repaid us with a fast, skittery rocky descent. Naturally, the front runners got carried away and overshot...
After a steep push back up, we turned down the bridleway that would take us down the river. The only way out now was down! The trail turned out to be absolutely soaking, making it very slippery and causing a few offs including Gwyn 'hucking it to flat' off the side of the path, Phil nosediving into deep mud and my slow speed over the bars in a 'deeper than it looked' puddle. Absolutely great fun though! We got lucky with the weather and had a fantastic morning, albeit curtailed too soon by the monster climb back over into the reservoir valley.
With cloud coming over the temperature dropped, so we ate a quick late lunch and headed off the Cwm Rhaeadr trail. This is only about 4 miles long, with one long climb and one almost continuous descent. And was it fun? Compared to the micro-brewery ale that was the 'slippery and trying to kill you' natural trail of the morning, this was the sugariest alcopop of 'grin plastered all over your face as you try and go faster' mountain biking. Easily accessible but huge fun as a result. Some of us couldn't resist a second lap! Then shower, pub, food, good company, ready for more tomorrow.
Sunday we rode straight from the B&B to the Raven trail. Again, a lot of climbing to open, but the trail made the intent behind it clear early on with a set of massive berms dropping height fast. No eking out every foot of descent here, this was fast and fun. More of the same was to follow, with big berms, big tabletops and general all round giggling. A quick switch to the blue run for the final stretch to the car park was worth it for flat out swoopy, roller-y fun, definitely worth another run. Then it was, alas, time to head home to grey and dreary England.
We'd been incredibly lucky with the weather, the trails were fantastic, as were the B&B and pubs- huge thanks to Gareth for organising it all. We had fun! Can't wait for Coed Y Brenin in April....
Photos from me: http://www.flickr.com/photos/80976333@N08/sets/72157631846543067/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/80976333@N08/sets/72157631846682501/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/80976333@N08/sets/72157631846806187/
From Phil C: http://www.flickr.com/photos/philseparation/sets/72157631852117186/
Mat