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Hi all,
Heading up to Afan / Brechfa this weekend. Have ridden the raven trail before but cant remember much.
Couple questions for the massive re Brechfa then...
1, Do the Black Raven trail and Red Gorlech trail both start from the same position.
2, Opinions on both, are there any other trails there ?
3, Anyone have a postcode and / or directions to the trail head ?.
4, Is the bus cafe still there / open ?
Thanks
1. No, but you can link the two. Raven starts in/near Brechfa and Gorlech a few miles further on assuming your travelling from Carmarthen direction.
2. The blue and green are short and sweet. Good for a warm up. Cwm rheadr is also not that far away in a car
3. Just look for brechfa on the map. Cant really miss them. They'll be on the left
4. No bus as far as I know
The Raven starts from the car park at Byrgwm 1½ miles east of Brechfa on the B4310.
The Gorlech starts from Abergorlech, another 3 miles further east on the same road.
From the M4 continue on the A48 then turn left at the sign for the National Botanical Gardens. Follow the B4310 to Nantgaredig and go straight across the A40 here to Brechfa.
You can link the red and black together, or do various combinations of the green, blue and black. See the [url= http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/BrechfaMtBk2008a.pdf/$FILE/BrechfaMtBk2008a.pdf ]FC trail guide leaflet[/url]
The bus cafe is no longer there. Nearest place for food and drink is the Black Lion in Abergorlech. Nearest shop is Bryn Stores in Brechfa.
We were there yesterday.
Postcode we used was the pub http://www.blion.co.uk/ which is about 50 yards down the road from the red car park. Biker friendly, a decent pint and an idyllic beer garden by the river.
We did the black via the signed link from the red, you can probably do vice versa too. Some of this was also on the blue which was way fun as well.
Some of the black was reasonably steep but it's steep and swoopy, I wouldn't call it gnarly, no obilgatory jumps or big step-offs. It's all rideable by a wheels-on-the-ground rider like me.
Both are well worth riding. There is _lots_ of climbing. Strava clocked our route at 23.3 miles 3,760 feet of climbing.