Cae Amos Bothy
After riding the Elan Valley Challenge and coming down with something that knocked me for 6 for 3 weeks and also injuring my knee somehow sledging at 1mph! I felt it was time to get back out on the bike. Route planning on a Wednesday afternoon in-between hoovering the house and feeding the kids was interesting as always. A quick weather check for Garndolbenmaen in Snowdonia and my Thursday was planned. A quick post on Facebook and by the evening there were 3 of us ready to ride a route that we had never been on before and by the look of things on the day had not been ridden by many if anybody at all?
I needed to complete this ride in time to pick up the kids for 3pm, with an hours travelling to and from the meeting point this left us with about 3 hrs to ride 35k and to explore the area.
Once we got to Garndolbenmaen we started climbing steeply and my lack of any gears resulted in a push for about half a mile. Farm tracks and byways followed before we got to a point where there was no path at all which is quite typical in North Wales. We made our way up a wet boggy climb eventually landing on some sort of path, a byway apparently but most defiantly not suitable for vehicles. We had a good laugh watching Stuart attempt to cross a wet section on his CX bike resulting in an immediate stop with him being axle deep in bog.
Finally we crested the ridge and there in front of us with the sun shining on it was the Bothy. A tricky little descent down to it was good fun and to be fair Stuart displayed some good skills to get down in one piece. Steve on the other hand made it look so easy on his full suss bike.
After peanut butter and jam sandwiches and a few pictures we plotted a route back to the cars. A quick text to the grandparents asking if they could pick up the kids helped with the route plan and gave us an extra hour to get back. The initial plan was to return on the route we came on but we didn`t fancy returning through the bog so we headed towards Cwm Pennant along a bridleway which looked good on the map!
We eventually ended up on a single track road in Cwm Pennant which followed the river all the way back to Garndolbenmaen. It was a very pleasant little road to ride along with so much to see along the way.
We set off from Garndolbenmaen and we climbed and climbed for about 4k with my legs ready to explode by the time we reached the top. We were all glad of the descent back to the cycle route which resulted in a gentle pootle back to the cafe. With the promise of another paned at the end it was enough to kept us going as we were all getting a bit tired by now.
The meeting point for our mini adventure was at Inigo Jones Cafe by Caernarfon right on the National Sustrans Route 8 cycle route. After a quick paned (cuppa in welsh) and a catch up we set off down Route 8 with a plan of riding about 10km on it until we got to the little village of Garndolbenmaen, we would then climb up into the mountains along byways and bridleways until we got to the newest Bothy in wales, Cae Amos.
The cycle path was a perfect warm up being mostly flat for 10k. I set the pace on my single speed rigid MTB with Steve on his full suss bike and Stuart on his cyclo-cross. I initially said on my Facebook post that it was an easy pootle and suitable for a cyclo-cross bike but in all honesty I didn't have a clue what it was going to be like up in the hills! Sorry Stuart.!
Top of the first climb, overlooking the Llyn Peninsular
Stuart mastering the bog on his cyclo-cross
First impressions of Cae Amos were great, it`s just been refurbished and is probably the best one I`ve been in. Couple of bedrooms, kitchen worktops and a flushing toilet, luxury compared to some.
After peanut butter and jam sandwiches and a few pictures we plotted a route back to the cars. A quick text to the grandparents asking if they could pick up the kids helped with the route plan and gave us an extra hour to get back. The initial plan was to return on the route we came on but we didn`t fancy returning through the bog so we headed towards Cwm Pennant along a bridleway which looked good on the map!
It started off great but soon turned into another bog for about 200m with no distinguishable path anywhere and once we got through we were faced with a tricky descent through an old quarry which tested my skills on my rigid commuter bike and Stuarts skills on his cyclo-cross. It was good fun to be honest with us having to pick a good line and concentrate. Steve was laughing at the bottom probably due to us concentration so much we had our tongues hanging out which was funny to watch I`m sure.
We eventually ended up on a single track road in Cwm Pennant which followed the river all the way back to Garndolbenmaen. It was a very pleasant little road to ride along with so much to see along the way.
More food to top up our energy levels at Garndolbeanmaen and a quick discussion about the way back resulted in more hills to climb instead of the easy route along the cycle path. It was a cracking day for it though, riding in just a T shirt and having taken my gloves off because they were to hot hinted that spring was here but another "Beast from the East"was on its way apparently.
We set off from Garndolbenmaen and we climbed and climbed for about 4k with my legs ready to explode by the time we reached the top. We were all glad of the descent back to the cycle route which resulted in a gentle pootle back to the cafe. With the promise of another paned at the end it was enough to kept us going as we were all getting a bit tired by now.
This ride proved that you don`t need the latest full suss £3000+ bike to have fun. I was on a £300 rigid singlespeed which I bought to ride down the prom on, Steve was on a 2005 26inch full suss xc bike and Stuart was on his cyclo-cross. All of us had a cracking day exploring a different area, plodding through bogs and rattling down the descents. Good company+great weather=great day out.
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