Planning to go to Rhayader at the weekend with a mate, and (weather depending) may tackle the ride out past the far reservoir to Stata Florida.

Does anyone know of an alternative (rideable) route back to Rhayader, or is it best just to do an out-and-back?

Grateful for any advice, cheers.

There's nothing to see around Rhayader. i'd go somewhere else……

I dunno explosion, the falls are quite a giggle (in a small plastic boat), and there are a couple of nice cafes 😀

The route out to Strata Florida is straightforward. Making it a circular is less so. Routes are rideable but not all 100% so.
You can turn N up the hill just E of the farm at Claerwen by the reservoir and head over the monks road to Pont yr Elan. This is notoriously boggy but by joining it this way you skip the western section which is the worst.
Or you can turn L at the abbey and head down the Tywi track on this route
http://www.offroadadventures-online.com/rr049.html or a variant of it. All of the bridleway routes crossing the hills back to the bottom of Claerwen are possible but the tracks don't follow the map route exactly and disappear in places. I'd avoid the track down Afon Arban.

I've never been in that area specifically, but I've found that getting the OS map and the Google Maps aerial photography side-by-side on Bikehike lets you do a useful comparison of the two.

Also lets you find stuff that's not on the map 😉

I've ridden this BOAT from Strata Florida earlier this year:
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=280942&y=260685&z=120&sv=280942,260685&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=577&ax=280942&ay=260685&lm=0

There's a bridleway from just south of this point, back over the tops to the head of Caban Coch reservoir but I've never ridden it.

The track from Strata Florida to the streetmap position is all rideable but gets some hammer from the 4×4 brigade.
I was planning to extend over to Rhayader but haven't tried it yet, so I'd be interested to know how you go on and what the tops are like.

Cheers

Thanks everyone – if we go for it, I'll let you know ecky.

Cheers

Ended up turning out of the 200mph headwind around Claerwen reservoir to go north just before Claerwen farm, as described by Nostoc. Indistinct and frankly sh**ty (in every sense) sheep track, but the Monk's track at the top was OK, if a touch boggy. It was a great day out exploring, haven't done something like that for ages and it's excellent to get right out there. I did realise though that Conti Speed Kings were waaaaaay out of their depth in bog!

Thanks for all the advice.