Ride Local

So how many times do you think "I'm going to go riding" and immediately start piling all your gear into the back of the car? Quite often I would guess - It certainly had started to feel like that to me!

I guess that hikes in fuel prices started making me think about whether or not I needed to do a journey before I did it. Don't get me wrong, I'm blessed living here in Swansea I've got a surfeit of great riding within an hours drive, so was never driving very far with my two wheels in the boot - but it was starting to cost me more every time I did.

So that led me to thinking back to when I first started mountain biking, when I couldn't drive. Or when I was a student in Glasgow and couldn't afford to drive. I always used to ride straight out of my front door, and head for my nearest trails. Why wasn't I doing this now? Well probably because Afan is only 20 minutes drive away made it a good reason to drive there... doesn't it? No. It doesn't. Its there, and it great - but what is just round the corner? Do you know what riding there is within a miles ride of your door? My guess is that a lot of people don't. I didn't - I was new to the area, so I kind of had an excuse. But if you've lived in your current home for more than 6 months, what's your excuse?

So I made it my mission to learn my new area, find all the local trails - there are ALWAYS local trails to be ridden - wherever you live - you just need to look! So I looked and I found, and I keep finding. So some of them are a let down, some are hub deep in mud, some are covered in broken glass, burnt out scooters and brambles - but some are absolutely magic - beautiful, technical, swooping bits of singletrack - often down the back of a housing estate, or through the middle of a patch of wasteland.

They'll definitely give you a different view of your area - here's a stunning view of the end of Swansea Bay that I came across by following a white line on a map. So get out to the shops and buy yourself a map - the OS Explorer 1:25000 ones are brilliant - they give every last little bit of detail - even where peoples garden walls are! Get yourself acquainted with your local riding, explore and experiment, and feel good that you didn't get into your car to drive to a trail head.

Pink Socks Are Cool!

Just thought I'd get that out of the way - by Griff's comments on the last post he seams to think they're a badge of shame - they're not, not even close - and I'm sure there's a pic of me rocking my pink socks at last years 24/12.....

Anyway - I digress - I actually thought I'd give you a run down on my 'holiday' last week. It was actually meant to be a 'training' week, and one of my bezzie mates, Chris (who's the Trek warehouse whip-cracker), came to stay with us in sunny Wales for a week. Well, we did a heap of riding, but obviously we did our share of bar propping too - and after the first days post ride drinks I decided that stopping off at the pub when you're nearly at home after 40 miles isn't a good idea - Look road cleats, 3 pints and slippy floors don't mix - if you see what I'm saying....  suffice to say that I haven't shown my face in there since!

So - first day down with a road tour of the Gower Peninsula, and feeling a little silly after the pub adventure on the way home, led me to describing a route which I'd been eyeing up on the map ever since I moved out to Wales. It starts in one valley, just up the road from Neath and heads over the (big) hill into the Afan Valley, descending via the Whytes Level route to cafe for another session of bodily abuse - this time by way of Welsh Rarebit. Realising that we were only a few hours away from darkness and at the furthest point from the start, led to us climbing up the Whytes Level far quicker than was comfortable with a belly full of melted cheese - we weren't even rewarded with the view from the top - having climbed right into the cloud cover - we did get to experience being able to just see the huge wind turbines at the summit peaking ghostlike out of the murk. Also was the first time I'd been able to hear the forest I've been heading to before seeing it, very surreal. Heading down into the next valley - was a blast - a network of old mining tracks, crumbling bridges, buildings and small viaducts gave a very 'Lord Of The Rings' feel to the landscape. There's a massive amount of riding to be had in these South Wales hills - not just the usual trail centre destinations - I've been studying maps quite obsessively over the last weeks planning new epics! We did make it back to the car just in the light, though stopping to help/hinder a farmer heard his sheep on the way down didn't help!

The next day was a bit 'organic' in that we had no plan - we were due to drive to Bristol that afternoon for Shaggy's birthday - so we didn't have the whole day to ride (because I didn't wake up 'til late morning...). So we decided that a trail centre would be the easiest option. We headed up the road 30 minutes to Brechfa Forest. A pretty new trail centre, and quite strange in that it has two trail heads, and the two trail networks being separated by a large hill (again) - I'd always thought there was a way to link the two networks up by heading over the hill (again...) at the top of one trail and joining into the descent of the next. I was right - sort of - we did find the next trail after an extended trail blaze through undergrowth, forest and farmers fields - always good for a change!

We managed to find the 'correct' route on the return route - but lets just say the Ordnance Survey aren't on my Christmas cardlist at the moment....

Here's Chris railing the berms on the Gorlech descent at Brechfa. Brechfa has so much going for it, nice trails, great views, really quiet (at the moment) - they're due to open a new black route very soon, which'll have a much more natural feel to it - and offer a 'real' challenge to riders - if you're the type of rider who thinks fullface, pads and 6" are needed at Afan, then this stuff will scare you! Also planned is a cafe - which will definitely turn this into a destination riding spot.