Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

Well done on the blue badge!

??

Thanks andy.

Well, if you want an honest review, I'd probably never ride that route again. They had had heavy rain for the past 2 weeks, it was incredibly wet, even tracks that should have been rideable were pretty sketchy, and climbs over 10% were walking climbs after the 20 or so people ahead of me had churned it all up.

The hike a bike sections we massive. The first one started on a track that was actually a river, so wet feet. That took two hours to cross the tussocky bogfest, carrying the bike on my shoulder as you couldn't even push the bike through the tussocks and reeds. There were a further 2 or 3 massive hike-a-bike sections, one which lasted nearly 3 hours, in the dark with reeds taller than me! I rode into a puddle on a farm track that was deeper than i thought, it went up to my headset, and then i fell on my side into it, filling my waterproof gloves with water. Once it got dark, the massive valleys filled with freezing fog, my feet got really cold even in winter boots with 2 pairs of merino socks on, my only choice was to take off my shoes, wring out the socks, then put the socks on and put a plastic sandwich bag over my socks, to keep the cold water from the boots soaking into the socks, I did this twice more during the night. There's incredible scenery up there, and as a test of mental resolve, I couldn't recommend a better ride. But the route had too much unrideable stuff. It basically felt like a road ride (7-10 mile sections of road) connecting up death marches across wasteland that even the hardy welsh sheep don't bother with.

26 hours and 44 minutes of hell. I'm glad I did it.
http://www.strava.com/activities/206674292

Barmouth viewed from the other side of the Mawddach Estuary

Cadair Idris viewed from above Barmouth

The hike-a-bike bit. I'd rather forget, not sure why I took a photo!

There is bog water (corrosive) in everything. Time for a deep clean.