# Spring trip to N. Wales ~ The Beast & Marin Trail



## PeteXXX (23 Mar 2013)

Five of us made the journey to tackle Coed Y Brenin last Wednesday ~ the 1st day of Spring...

We wanted three days of good riding on the trails in North Wales.
First day, Wednesday, we unpacked and got straight onto the 8 mile' Cyflym Coch' trail ~My Strava - Cyflym Coch ~






Me on the rocks.

which is a taster of things to come before riding 'The Beast' on the second day.





One of the climbs

The weather was really good with sunshine but the wind had a bit of a chill factor that made us want to keep pedalling to stay warm!

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On Thursday, we tackled 'The Beast'. ~My Strava - The Beast~ And Beast it is!





The sign of the Beast (The skull & crossbones is a suggestion that you check it out before you go barrelling down!)

From the very start, it's a tricky technical ride. The trail covers about 23 miles with some really challenging climbs. A470 is a Cat 2 1.2 mile hill, but the real killer is a 6.3 mile Cat 4 hill. We were fairly slow on it and only averaged just over 4 MPH. We didn't realize that we'd been climbing for 90 minutes. Jeez!

The descents more than made up for the pain though. Fast and fun, but you really have to keep an eye out for the drop offs and rock gardens.





One of the Rock Gardens

Overall, we didn't rush it too much and stopped to take pics and have a slice of cake to sustain us, plus we were enjoying the scenery and with two Old Farts in the group (Me 60 and Bob 62) we had to give the heart a few minutes to slow to normal every now and then!





Cader Idris in the background





Me half way up the Main Climb





Thar's gold in them that hills!


We celebrated our conquering of The Beast with a visit to the local Pub and had a pint or four to 'replace lost fluids'.. That was our excuse anyway..





Well worth a taste!

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On Friday we packed up and headed North to Betwys Y Coed to try the Marin Trail.





The Marin Trail is well signed

Having seen that weather forecast was bad, we checked before we set out and reckoned we had a window of 11:00 to 13:00 to get a few miles ridden before the snow came.
After a brief climb through the trees from the car park, the Marin Trail climbs up for just over two miles on Fire Roads.





Nearly at the top..

These took us over the snow line and they were darn slippery to say the least!
We got to the first single track descent and decided to give it a try (slowly).





The first snow covered descent





Bob giving it a try

The weather was holding at this point but after this downhill, a slight climb then another downhill rock garden covered in snow, we decided it was to dangerous and took the chicken run back to the car park before anyone got hurt. We'd all managed not to do ourselves any damage until this point and we didn't want it to end in tears.





The exit ramp to the car park

Great shame really but a wise decision as, by the time we got the bikes loaded up and headed homeward, the snow hit.





This is the main A5 out of the area. Very pretty, but not exactly Spring-like!

Had we done the whole trail (usually about 1 1/2 - 2 hours, probably 3 in these conditions) we would not have got home as the roads were being closed all over the place.

We definitely intend going back in the summer/autumn and trying some of the other great trails in the area. For anyone thinking of going, we stayed at Trawsfynydd Holiday Village. Nice wood chalets. Reasonable prices divided by 5. There's lots of accommodation catering for cyclists in the area.


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## Cubist (23 Mar 2013)

That Beast trail is on my to do list for this year, looks awesome! 

Shame about missing the Marin, it's a great "Oldskool" trail, plenty of rocky descents, and a lot of climbing. I loved it because it was a chance to really hammer my susser down it. However, looking at those conditions it would have been nasty on the day, so a wise move to bail out. 

Looks like you had a great weekend nevertheless.


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## PeteXXX (23 Mar 2013)

Yes, we were a bit disappointed to have to bail out, Rule 9 and all that, but we thought it best under the circumstances. We're planning a return trip some time and will certainly give Marin another go. From what we could see, under the coating of white, it's a great trail.

You certainly have to be fit and used to rough terrain to tackle The Beast. My Hardtail SL4 was bouncing all over the place but nothing dropped off and apart from re-shaping my left testicle on one mis-landed jump I enjoyed the whole 23 miles!!


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## lukesdad (24 Mar 2013)

Good stuff.


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## Tango (25 Mar 2013)

I first did Marin about 8 years ago and thought it was awesome.

Back in September last year we did coed y Brenin dragons back, Llandegla and Marin.

I must say the Marin was a huge disappointment apart from the last 10 minutes

Penmachno which is only about 5 miles from Marin is fantastic IMHO


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## Motozulu (25 Mar 2013)

That was a great read - well done. I'll be branching out from Cannock in the summer and that beast is on my to do list for certain.


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## Tango (26 Mar 2013)

Cannock is a real good day out, the lower life descent on the monkey trail really makes you grin

But there are some great places to pedal in Wales and the peaks and soe good trail centres that are doable as a day trip if you have transport


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## PeteXXX (26 Mar 2013)

We certainly intend going back to do The Beast again, and Penmachno. As was said, there's loads of great trails in North Wales.
Cannock is a fun day out as well. I've ridden that many times.
Hearing the Travel News on the radio yesterday, we only just got out of Wales in time! The A5 near Betyws Y Coed and the road from Llangollen to Corwen was STILL closed..
Mind you, we could have left the cars and ridden out I suppose!


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