Am likely to be over in Brechfa in a couple of weeks and was considering combining the Gorlech and Raven trails into one big route. Any comments on this would be appreciated – particularly as it looks like 1700 m of climbing.

Thanks

Dont think I have done the Gorlech does that have a colour?
But the Raven is a great track I loved it 🙂

Yep – start with the Raven and then onto the Gorlech. If you start with the Gorlech, you end up with a pretty grim climb over half way through the day. Best to get it over with earlier in the day in my opinion.

Great day out though, have fun

Went there for the first time in May, kind of got mixed up with the trails and lost, but it was great fun. Some of the climbing on the black was savage, especially as I was on a single 34t ring. I pushed quite a bit….

That’s a fair bit of climbing!

Did the Raven (black) not long ago for the first time, with the final descent of the Gorlech (red) instead. Really enjoyed it, but had a constant feeling of “I’m sure I’ve got a puncture” any time I wasn’t riding downhill. I’d totally underestimated how much climbing, and just how steep the climbing is there.

Put it this way, these days I ride just about everywhere on the middle ring, but at Brechfa I was sat in granny any time the trail pointed up!

Went there for the first time in May, kind of got mixed up with the trails and lost, but it was great fun. Some of the climbing on the black was savage

Yup, we got mixed up too, ended up riding one bug section twice by mistake. Glad I took my bike with full triple chainring setup, not my 1×10…

Its a great idea. (Gorlech is the Red trail)

The link between the two is signposted so not a big hassle to follow.

I like to start it from the Raven Car park but its fine from the Gorlech car park and thats nearer the pub.

Doesn’t feel like 1700m climbing but then again if you start on the Raven you can miss the fireroad climb out of the gorlech carpark.

Thanks for the replies so far.

If anyone can confirm the climb figure that would be helpful. I got the figs from the mtbwales website which showed 700m for Raven and 1000m for Gorlech. The reason I ask is that I see that Skyline in Afan is said to be 2000m of climbing which I’m pretty sure is wrong having done that route myself.

iirc the vertical as posted on the routesheets is substantially out- I’m thinking it showed about 2/3 or so of the expected height gain on my gps, but can’t remember for sure. It’s but still pretty gruelling though, especially in the heat.

did the Raven trail once. very indifferent.

no flow. felt like a lot of climbing for little downhill reward.

in no rush to go back.

😕

Start from the Raven cp. Half the Raven – link to the Gorlech and finish with the other half of the Raven. You can also link in bits of the Blue to avoid some fire road. If you’ve got any energy left you can do the Blue and Green as well!

Did both in one day and loved it – be careful near the end – there’s a ‘hidden’ left turn that takes you to the super silly rock garden and the enormous table tops just before the end of the Raven.

When I combined the 2 I messed up and missed the turning off to Raven when you are descending part of the blue. Its very easy to miss as its on a fast, bermy downhill. You can see it my vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI2ZcRi8jSw

Not sure what the total climb is, but Skyline is no where near 2000m. I measured it at around 1500m, although I cant find the stats right now.
found it: 5606ft (1700m)