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I know, i know muddy...but its on my bucket list and i have a pass for sunday. bit excited 
http://www.mbr.co.uk/routes/wales/doethie-valley-gps-route-download-324940
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/doethie-valley-worth-the-effort
Im actually going to try driving up saturday afternoon and sleeping at Llyn Brianne Dam (a la stoner) then i can do an early start.
Any tips, aside from waterproofs?!
Pack some Waders
and if its like here - a scythe for the bracken! 😆
We rode/walked it about a month ago and its no longer the trail it was, overgrown and many boggy sections....consensus was we'd not do it again until its recovered.
oh sh+t really? - i dont mind a bit of clambering, have the day for it but if its unrideable ill have to look for something else #sadface
One of our group broke his hanger midway, and we walked almost as much as he did....sections where you could ride were very short 🙁
You could always have a go and tell me I'm wrong 😀
oh b#gger - oh well thank you for your help Ponty, glad i asked now! hmm now where to go...[s]sarn helen[/s] cadair idris...?
I've done it once, quite late on in the year so the bracken was fully grown. This made it fun as you could just lean/fall over and the bracken would hold you up 😆
I'd say it was 80% rideable with most of the horrid bit being in the middle where there were a lot of tussocks but we could have got the wrong line.
Probably better in spring after a dry spell if you want the open flowing trails.
Cadair on a Sunday this time of year will be heaving... check out the Elan Valley, or Pont Scethin... email me (on profile) if you need GPXs etc
or Pont Scethin...
Think i've just found an old post on here searching for just that !
hmm maybe elan actually...this all started from going to ride cwmcarn from gloucester so might be a bit of a trek!
Elan Valley is easier to get to from Cwm Carn than Doethie Valley. Probably best to link Pont Scethin with Coed y Brenin or Cadair another time 🙂
Necropost.. Explored this today as its been dry recently and have to say came away disappointed. Beautiful scenery but it felt like the bike was there just to get round it a bit quicker than walking.
Felt like it would be ace for fell running but on a bike every 100m of promising singletrack was punctuated by a swamp, fallen tree, gate or boulder filled stream crossing. Even the better condition stuff is sufficiently rutted that it's a battle to avoid constant pedal strikes.
Anyone got a time machine? Sounded ace in 2011
It's the most over hyped section of trail ever. A dreadful biking experience that somehow one of the magazines managed to gush about years ago. I think it was MBR?
I loved it for the scenery, definitely worth it if you like being out there. But not the best technical riding. Go elsewhere for that (please 🙂 )
As per my post from a year ago I thought it was great, proper old-skool mountain biking where you have to work at it. It's not a convenience food like trail centre.
Like most of our footpaths and bridleways it's not maintained in any organised sort of way so if a tree falls across it then that will stay until either it rots or someone comes along with a saw and sorts it out of their own accord.
As for gates, get a life! This is the working countryside where stock needs to be kept in or out of fields.
Whitestone, sensible comments.
TBH I prefer to drop into the valley part way down. A totally stunning drop down via a set of grassy switchbacks. Accessed from the farm just off the main reservoir track.