Might have a chance for a cheeky midweek day’s riding in S. Wales and my eye is on a trip to Cwm Carn. It’s been a decade since I last went.

I’m a bit out of condition but I’m hoping I can get there early ish and knock out Twrch and Cafall in 4 – 4.5 hours with a quick cuppa / snack break. That was about what it would take me to do two loops of Twrch with a pit stop at the car last time I went when I was similarly unfit!

Question is has Twrch changed much in the last ten years (length or difficulty). I can still picture large chunks of it in my head. Secondly how does Cafall compare in terms of ride length and severity?

I rode yesterday both in a morning. Quite similar in many ways but with the pedalhounds option I preferred cafel. That was a great section for flat out fun!

Not mega fit myself and there are a couple of initial diversions but the initial climb for both I found pretty tough second time round!

Don’t think Twrch has changed but it’s been a couple of years.

Did Cafall on Sat morning, there’s a diversion in place that knocks off a few km at the far end (and a chunk of climb & descend). Twrch also starts on the Cafall route then rejoins further on but I think stays similar length.

Twrch has not changed by any extent that you will notice.

Cafall is bloody great.

The main change to Twrch is the lack of trees since the deforesting started a couple of years ago. The long zig zag climb from Bishop’s Finger up to Airstream is now totally devoid of trees, as is Castle Valley and Dragon’s Tongue.
The black option at Airstream has been rebuilt as well and now has more table tops.

Cafall is great with some good downs on it, but as mentioned above about 3km of the top is closed because of the forestry work going on.

As of this morning the initial climb shared by both trails from the car park up to the Scenic Drive ticket office is closed for 2 – 3 weeks so you’ll have to use the road to ride up.

Thanks all. Dove that’s a bummer but useful to know as I’ve done the road climb before when short on time and it’s a bit dreary and mind numbing!

Pedalhounds is I suspect out of my bravery/skill/desire to be in one piece zone!