Cwmcarn DH trails

Hi. I’ve got a trip arranged for a few days at Cwmcarn in a couple of months, I’ve been doing a bit of research on the trails etc, want to get the most from my time there. I was just wondering though, i’m not bothered about the uplift but still fancy a run down the dh trails. I can see it’s quite easy to access Pedalhounds, how about pedalling up to Y Mynydd? Is there a straightforward way?

Both are quite straight forward to get to. Pedalhounds you just get to the top of Cafell and you can’t miss it.

Y Mynnd you go round the Twrch trail until you hit a steep concrete ramp. The main trail goes straight on there but if you join the tarmac road to the right and follow that up and round to the right you eventually get to a right hand gravel road option and it’s up there somewhere. I went to try it yesterday for the first time but it’s closed for maintenance 🤦‍♂️

The main trail goes straight on there but if you join the tarmac road to the right and follow that up and round to the right you eventually get to a right hand gravel road option and it’s up there somewhere.

Bear in mind that once the Forest Drive reopens, the cars will be going around the hill anti-clockwise (and the same will be true of the uplift trailer). The above route is the shortest, but will send you against the flow of traffic. Taking the far right tarmac road, and turning left into the drop-off track will be safer once everything has reopened.

Didn’t know that road would even see a lot of cars tbh – although the tarmac makes sense if it is going to.

Will try the other way next time I go – hopefully the DH will be open then!

I’ll be honest, the road has a 10mph limit, it’s a scenic drive. I’ve never had a problem ride the ‘wrong way’ when it was last open, you’ll be fine.

Darrell who runs the uplift was talking about reopening in June / July when restrictions lift (so about now) so you’ll probably be fine by then. I doubt he’ll uplift Pedals Hounds, it’s a bit of an unloved stepchild of a DH track, they’d be better of smoothing some of the rougher bits and making it an Black graded option on Cafal, which it sort of is anyway.

That’s how I treat it really – if I want a shorter lap then pedalhounds does the job. Plus actually, since all the trees were felled the main descent just isn’t so fun anymore. I don’t know if it’s because you get headwinds or something else but it feels more pedally now. I remember it previously as flowing better / faster and being more swoopy. So pedalhounds is actually more fun too.

Plus actually, since all the trees were felled the main descent just isn’t so fun anymore. I don’t know if it’s because you get headwinds or something else but it feels more pedally now

It’s certainly rougher, like every other TC that’s been felled in the last couple of years (most of them it seems) once the trees go, the soil follows and you end up with very rocky surfaces.

Also, when they rebuilt it they put in a lot of those sort of step-down, jump/drop things, if the planets align and the mojo is following I can gap them easily and it’s lovely, most of the time though it’s more of a plop off the end and I lose speed and it’s all a bit stop-start.

Maybe it’s the soil and wind combined then. It did used to have a earlier / muddier looking surface through the tree sections – probably helped keep rolling speed. All those bits where it sort of whooped and down with a slight corner in used to be ace fun jumping – but the speed isn’t the same to do that anymore.