A Loop of Moel Siabod

[summittoppler]

After nearly 3 months of trying to get a date were Aled Rallybiker and myself could do this it came as great relief to finally pencil it in for today. And to make it worth the wait the weather gods were kind to us.

We set of on the fire road by the Swallow Falls which met the Sarn Helen to Dolwyddelan. A puncture was had by Aled within 10 minutes. After resupplying with a banana as my original decided to bail and live in the forest we headed to the castle. A few gates later and a bit of country lanes it was on the 'new' bit over to Nant Gwynant. The going was tough in places especially for Aled at times as he was running them little 2" tyres However we soon caught up with two guys who were pushing their laden cross bikes, now they had a few miles of pushing!! Once we started the descent to the road we had visions of a belting one but this was soon diminished as it ended up a walk down On reflection though when we started the descent there was two tracks and yes it looked like we took the duffer
A bit of a climb on the stone track to Pen y Gywrd and then the tarmac blast back down to the cars.
All in all a great mornings ride, 22 miles, 3000ft of climbing.
A few pics:

[rallybiker]

As Jeff said, it's been a long time on the books to be ticked off. I picked apuncture in the first 5k from Cae'n y Coed. Once this was fixed it was over a smoothed out Sarn Helen (lots of felling going on over the top!). A stop in the Dolwyddelan SPAR for Jeff to replace his abandoned banana, then aclimb up passed the castle into the hinterland! I must say the F/S fat bike that Jeff was testing was an absolute tractor on that terrain, just ploughing through everything!! We made the wrong decision in following the map for the descent to Nantgwynant as we feel we should have forked left towards the camp site, which we think is a bridleway that joins the rough path we went down. This calls for a future explore, as it's a fair old drop to Gwynant!! Thanks for the company Jeff.

[motoxman]

Good effort boys. In the ride North Wales book it goes uphill from Llyn Gwynant not down to it but a few of their routes are questionable as we all know.

Give me a shout when you're thinking of looking at the alternative descent...I'll make sure I'm on holiday again:-)

[roger]

I looked at this over the winter after seeing a you tube vid of the Nant Gwynant descent, I picked the wrong day with rivers in flood - managed the 1st but decided against the 2nd just before the top as the stepping stones were way underwater
I'd planned on starting from the spar shop, over to Gwynant & coming back over Cwmorthin from Croesor, up the Crimea & down past the railway tunnel air shaft.

[summittoppler]

Jun 27, 2015 21:54:47 GMT roger said:

...I'd planned on starting from the spar shop, over to Gwynant & coming back over Cwmorthin from Croesor, up the Crimea & down past the railway tunnel air shaft.

That sounds like one to do Rog. We'll have to put that on the to do list!!

[summittoppler]

Jun 27, 2015 21:54:47 GMT roger said:

I'd planned on starting from the spar shop, over to Gwynant & coming back over Cwmorthin from Croesor, up the Crimea & down past the railway tunnel air shaft.

Hey Rog, plotted this route and it comes out at 28 miles and having rode it all as part of other routes I know it'll be a belter!!
How about I put it up in the Plan yer Rides section for the next couple of months?

[roger]

Sounds like a good idea but lets do it before the rivers flood I think there was a green lane up from Gwynant to Croesor as well.