Read issue 63 last night and saw the route guide for that really long singletrack route nearish to Builth Wells in Walse.

Anyone done it? Looks pretty long (in my current state of fitness) and they said 8-10 hours to ride so I’m wondering if it’s a good enough route to do over a couple of days, staying at a hotel/B&B somewhere mid-point-ish with cars being relayed to that point to avoid carrying loads of kit.

There is a youth hostel a couple of miles from the start (to the north of the valley trail) of the Doethie valley singletrack. You can get to the start of the trails without even going on roads, that would be my recommedantion.

Yes (or something very like it) in the monstrous floods a couple of years ago. stayed at the hostel too (arrived at 9pm after wading through lots of waist-deep rivers in the dark)
Click pic for a few more

P9060024 by ir_bandito, on Flickr

would you recommend it?

Yes. The Elan Valley singletrack is superb. And the hostel was lovely.
Its one of those rides that I can’t wait to go back to in better conditions.

We had to bail halfway through our second day as one of the guys fecked his knee-up and was psychologically struggling with the effort. So we stopped at the pub and paid a local a small fortune to give a couple of us a lift back to to get the cars from the next valley.

We rode the long singletrack section (middle route) last year and it was very muddy – I almost lost the bike in a huge mud pool- I think that it would be best on a hard frost or summers day. Although summer doesn’t mean dry in that part of Wales.

God bless Gore-Tex boots.

Can’t believe I’m the only one shouldering my bike too.

you’re shouldering your bike because you were worried about getting water in your excessively expensive King hubs…. and becasue you are a wuss. 😉

There are 2 hostels, one almost at the top of the doethie valley, and dolgoch which is where we stayed whish is a little further away.

Dolgoch has no electricity so has the edge in my opinion…

It was a great adventure ride.

Worth doing.

Go ride it.

I think I was more concerned about my Shimano HT2 BB… 😕

Proper ‘out there’ route. Definitely worth a poke.

I’m thinking of doing it in one day in May/June as part of my Transrockies training…looks good!

It’s a big ride 😯 There’s a good climb straight from the start and another good climb from Trallcwm over to Rhayader on hard to follow sheep trails, fairly easy going around Claerwen and a good track onwards from Strata Florida but… and it’s a big but… if there has been a lot of rain then this track crosses a river several times and the water rises very fast. When the river is in spate 4x4s have washed away there with fatalities! You’re totally self-sufficient too unless you go off course into Rhayader.

quick question…I don’t recall seeing direction arrows on the map in STW..do you do it clockwise or anticlockwise…or doesn’t it matter?

There are 2 hostels, one almost at the top of the doethie valley

This one is privately owned I believe.

There is also a bothy pretty much on the route which would suit a Rhayader start/finish better.

The mag says anti-clockwise which gets all the climbing out of the way first and follows the flow of the river back although it is equally rideable do-able in both directions.

cheers psling. will add it to my list of possibles!

So the verdict for riding this route at the moment? Likely to be a mud-plug? Thinking of popping over there at the weekend for a solo ride on the SS.

When the river is in spate 4x4s have washed away there with fatalities! You’re totally self-sufficient too unless you go off course into Rhayader.

We saw the aftermath of one. 🙁

I believe this was her: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1052242/Girl-17-killed-car-falls-swollen-river-dead-torrential-rain-gale-force-winds-lash-Britain.html

Thanks all – sounds like one to save for a time when we’ve had a bit of dry weather to firm things up. Or some really cold weather to freeze it.

I’ve created a gpx track of the route & uploaded it to HERE. Feel free to download.

There’s not a lot of mud-plugging on that route really. The first few miles are tarmac, most of the route (other than going over the hill to the Elan Valleys) is on good surfaced tracks but they just tend to get flooded in places 😕 It’s just a long, not very technical ride in some seriously remote [for England & Wales] countryside 8)

Sounds perfect for what I’m doing, cheers. Reckon I’ll have a punt at it.

This sounds like fun – I’ve always wanted to do more riding round there as it’s not too far from me and there’s huge potential looking at the map….. just need the mag to turn up now.

ir_bandito

Nice pics – great car as well (I’ve got one too)

Cheers

Thanks. 🙂

Cars not mine, photo went on flickr cos the guys in it were 5 hours late (hence finishing the ride in the dark)
If we ever go back to being a 2-car family, I’d love a bic Merc.

slight aside, but on the subject of big rides in in issue 63:
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/sannys-caingroms-route

pedalhead – Member
Sounds perfect for what I’m doing, cheers. Reckon I’ll have a punt at it.

Well, if you’re doing it on your SS and you start as per the mag, don’t let the 1st hill put you off… it’s bad enough on a road bike with a triple 😆

Well, if you’re doing it on your SS and you start as per the mag, don’t let the 1st hill put you off… it’s bad enough on a road bike with a triple

I’ll bear that in mind, cheers 🙂

There is a second bothy close to the very Northern tip of the map. Stayed there last year and then rode to Strata Florida and down through forest as part of the WRT. I did a few ‘bonus’ miles in the forest after not checking map correctly….

It is probably my favorite ride, the Tywi Track is wonderful and will be fine this weekend provided that it doesn’t rain much between now and then.

I’d ride it anti clockwise btw- you get all the best downhills that way.

I wrote about the route a while ago…

The route passes two bothies as well as the youth hostels mentioned above.

Is there any reason why you wouldn’t start / finish from the Elan Valley? Much easier to get to for a weekend.

Cheers Ambrose!

ononeorange – Member
Is there any reason why you wouldn’t start / finish from the Elan Valley? Much easier to get to for a weekend.

The only downside (if ridden anti-clockwise as a 1 dayer) would be that the major climbs are in the 2nd half of the ride.