UKC

It may not be news but I did not know until repeating these rides this year and I thought others might be interested. The trail surfaces on both the Drum climb and, particularly, the Wayfarers were improved from the previous times I rode them. In the case of the Wayfarers I had stopped riding it because of 4x4 damage/ruts on the Ceiriog side but these are now all repaired and the ride is back like it was when I first rode it. In the case of Drum, the first time I tried it there were several technical rocky sections. These are smoothed over now. It is still a long effort but is much less technical than it was unless recent rains have reversed the process.

In reply to harold walmsley:

harold - on the Drum route what start/ finish did you use and whats the highest point? ive not done that one on bike

In reply to owena:

The highest point reached is the summit of Drum (except you have to climb over a fence/stile without your bike to get to the cairn).

On the recent occasion I didn't have much time so I started at the end of the road by the col above Rowen and traversed the bridleway westward to the junction high above Llanfairfechan, which is the start of the main independent part of the climb. Here I just turned L and kept on climbing. The junction can also be reached from the Aber falls car parks, from Sychnant Pass (quite complex with several options) or from Conway via Sychnant.

In reply to harold walmsley:

thanks, ive walked / run that way several times so its a familiar route, Ive always fancied starting at aber and cycling up to the summit of Carnedd Llywelyn and then descending via Gyrn Wigau to Moel Wnion and down to the north wales path and back down to aber. Might get around to it this year

In reply to owena:

Please don't do that. Illegal and damaging. Stick to the Drum route.

In reply to Removed Usersimongwyn:
thats one of the reasons ive not done it, although if youve been up that way there is what looks like a track going up from the moel wnion track up the side of gyrn wigau. Any idea if this is a vehicle track or is is remnants from quarrying?

In reply to owena:

There's an old (ancient?) N-S track marked with small standing stones - or this is one of the quad-bike tracks used by farmers, to whom the rules don't seem to apply...

In reply to Removed Usersimongwyn:

thats what I thought, they do look like wheel ruts, although not used very often Id say.
I doubt a mtb will make any mess especially compared to the scrambler bikes that are up there regularly, but rest assured I wont be tempted to sully the hills with my 2.3 inches of soft rubber.
Ill stick to running it instead