Heading over to Afan to do all the trails in a oner next week. Just finalising the route and have one question you guys could help with… looking at the map for skyline loop off blade, it looks as though if you add on skyline you miss out part of blade, is this right? http://www.afanforestpark.co.uk/default.aspx?page=11333 looks like you might miss markers 76-79 of blade? In general though the map is a little confusing if anyone could shed light?

Also posted here but thought it might get lost in STW past http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/afan-all-of-the-trails-in-one-day-doable

cheers

Matt

I found it even more confusing on the ground the other week

It seemed like there were different final descents too???

Hmm doesn’t sound too encouraging, will ring one of the shops as well tomorrow.

Blade is about as exciting as an afternoon nap. Just not as enjoyable as an afternoon nap.

It’s pants. Avoid it.

captainflashheart, done blade a few times now, thought it was pretty good personally. What’s not to like? We’re doing ALL the trails so won’t be avoiding any of them and certainly no napping for 10hours

For me, as per an earlier thread, it just lacked any fun. Every time I thought, oooh, here we go! It was a short bermed section, a gate and another annoying climb. There wasn’t any real fun in the trail. It was as if it was designed for people with dropper posts. Hell, there were even sections with signposts saying “Lower your post” only to have about ten seconds of average singletrack followed by another climb.

Dull as dull, IMHO.

W2 and July are the pick of Afan these days.

^get a dropper post and ride it faster. 😉 Great trail.

love the blade, great trail.

willing to bet that mr flashheart loves the tedium of cwmcarn.

I always chuckle at his posts. (Thats not laughing with)

Blade has the best bits of skyline. Was never a fan of skyline because of the double track. When you come off blade before the descent turn back up the hill climb and you can pick up whites or W2 and wall etc for great day out. The final descent of the blade is the old skyline one which is pants IMHO compared to darkside and new darkside.

Wenanwhere, yes you do miss out a bit of Blade if you do the Skyline loop. However, you could easily ride up the fireroad and join Blade at Helter Skelter (78) and continue.
Blade final descent is different to Skyline BTW. It runs parallel, but is all new and even better than the Skyline/July descent and IMO the best descent in Afan. Darkside/ZigZags/Jetlag are a bit old school nowadays (still fun of course)

Final descent of blade isn’t the skyline…….you have to turn left and go 20yds down fire road for last descent.
Personally a massive fan of the blade, tight berms down through trees at halfway point a personal favourite.
Isn’t it interesting how people prefer different trails……..

Final descent of blade isn’t the skyline…….you have to turn left and go 20yds down fire road for last descent.

will note for next run, bah missed it last time – its not that well marked

Final descent of Blade is a lot of fun.

That was my old thread. i like blade too, and im on a scott scale with the saddle at xc height…did have sore wrists by the end of it.
Your question around navigation, it was confusing there does seem to be multiple ways to go at places. Just before the final descent i saw a sign to yhe right saying a new section was open (jetscream?? Might have made the name up). Didnt head that way.
Rookie is confusing appeared to be random bits off the railway line. Penyhdd / blue scars climb is very featureless and dull. Id do those first rather than last. As you want something interesting to distract you from the pain.
watch out for downed trees and have fun

Back to your original question.

Ride blade to Marker 81 (start of hokey kokey), which is a bridleway which you takes you down to the fire road over to grenada, you ride back up it on the bridleway on your return.

Or, ride blade fully until hokey kokey/start of joyrider then turn left up the fire road to the start of Grenada. Do skyline loop then back onto blade as normal where you do Hokey Kokey again and carry on to finish on blade.

This is one of my rides when i done what you are asking but rode the old skyline back to the start of Joyrider.

http://www.strava.com/activities/137736545

Thanks Phil, think you’re first suggestion looks to be the best and most straightforward, best to keep an eye out for those markers then!

I think you’re going to have to ride up the White’s climb one more time to take in both the Skyline and Blade descents for your record to count 😉

It’s a great idea, though, right up my street, I will have to have a crack at it on the singlespeed some time. But what happens when they build another trail and reopen the rest of Skyline?!

Good luck, and don’t forget spare brake pads.

Capt, did you do a different trail to the one I did? Don’t recognise your description of Blade as anything like the trail I rode…

weird.