Can anyone more familiar with afan say if this would work?

Been pouring over maps as going to afan with some mates soon. We need to start at glycorrwg and finish at afan centre. So I was thinking do most of blade but cut short of descending all the way back to the centre by stopping at the fire road at post 90 on the map.
Go down fire road and either rejoin blade to go along dastardly and mutely again or take a fire road up to where trails and fire roads intersect meeting w2 at its post 14. Then follow this to the bike park for a play and finish with y wall descent.

Any thoughts from the evening crowd if this is a good route and easily navigable ?

Sounds easily doable to me. I’ve not ridden the blade trail as yet but will be going there in June when it’ll hopefully be less muddy than what I’ve seen on here lately.

I don’t usually go post numbers so they don’t mean much to me but I wouldn’t miss out a blast down Windy Point. One of the best sections in Afan if you ask me.

Yes, you could easily do that if you are familiar with the area. You would need to do windy point (part of Whites Level) and follow the W2 signs towards The Wall instead of heading back to Glyncorrwg via Energy.

How much of the blade you do is up to you, it would be a shame to miss the final decent, however you would end up riding the whole climb twice unless you were good at navigating the fire roads.

Rode Blade a couple of weeks ago and while there are a couple of good bits on the way round it really is all about the final descent, long, bit more techy than the other Afan descents, rocky and loose in places, lots of little rock step downs etc. Having ridden all the way round blade (it’s a fair bit of pedalling) I wouldnt miss it out.

If you have this months MBR there are some good pics of Blade.

What’s best way to start of Blade?

it really is all about the final descent, long,

doh, when we did it we turned back up the hill where the final descent crossed the initial climb to do a combined Blade/Whites Level circuit so never did the last section of blade descent.

The tight downhill hairpins after the wide-open-logged section (Beacon view?) are a bit bizarre, massively boggy and too tight to ride at any speed, seems a waste of descent and just an odd choice of trail build.

What’s best way to start of Blade?

From where? Just follow the signs.

The tight downhill hairpins after the wide-open-logged section (Beacon view?) are a bit bizarre, massively boggy and too tight to ride at any speed, seems a waste of descent and just an odd choice of trail build

I agree to an extent,(pretty hard to get round on an XL 29er!) but there was only a few of them, then it opens out into longer faster rocky section as you traverse the contours back towards the cafe. To be honest I like the fact they’ve made something different to the other descents (Wall / Whites).

its only a small section of a long trail but will have taken a lot of time and effort to build and left me wondering why?

pretty hard to get round on an XL 29er

aha, the trail builder is a 26er fan.

Thanks for replies.

doh, when we did it we turned back up the hill where the final descent crossed the initial climb to do a combined Blade/Whites Level circuit so never did the last section of blade descent

That’s exactly what I’m planning you seem to get the vast majority of the descent including some rocky stuff of you go to marker 90 and then take the fire road back to the initial climb. Don,t know it so if there isn’t a clear 90 marker to match the map I may struggle to navigate.

follow the W2 signs towards The Wall instead of heading back to Glyncorrwg via Energy

Again this is the plan and I know this section so should be straightforward.

we did it (blade into whites) without any pre-planning and on a whim as we had loads of time. The Blade DH meets and crosses a fireroad above the centre, feet away from where the initial “all trails” climb joins the same fireroad. You’d have to be tunnel-vison to miss it, and as you know the trails you’ll recognise it.