Haven’t been to Cwmcarn since it had all the fire. Have the trails been reopened now? And how’s the top of the Twrch trail? There used to be some wicked DH runs to session, last time I was there they were closed for felling I believe.

So, what’s the current state of play?

Last time I went about a month ago the Twrch was fully open, I think the older downhill was open, but pedalhounds was shut as was Cafell. I think Cafell now has a route that is open but it’s not the full lap as some isnstill closed for logging – I assume pedalhounds is the same.

If you find mtb park ranger on Facebook he updates trail info for Afan and Cwmcarn quite regularly.

I was there last weekend, and Joe is right – Twrch fully open, Cafall open but diverted. Don’t know about downhill trails.

Fwiw, the Twrch is riding really well…

I went a couple of months ago and did the DH uplift. Not sure what the trails are called, but 1 black open and 1 red (with 2 start options) all of which go through that tunnel at the bottom. Good fun, was running nicely.

Mtb Ranger South Wales is the FB account to look at.
He put a message on yesterday saying they are hopefully going to reinstate Pedal Hounds shortly and are working to get Voodoo and Dragon Run open on Cafall.

I was there last night.

Cafall is sort of half-open. Unfortunately that means a lot of climbing, 2 descents and it spits you out for a long fire road descent – BUT there’s an option to carry on up the hill and tag into Trwch.

Makes for a great 20k-ish loop.

Twrch itself it fully open and riding beautifully.

If you haven’t been for a while. there’s a lot less trees and a lot more scorched earth.

The original DH got a polish over about a year ago, it’s a not as ‘wheels down’ as it was, especially the bottom 3rd, but it’s very good.

Cheers for that P-Jay, I think we’re going on Sunday for a trail centre option after all the rain and knew about openings and closings but that’s a good tip about carrying on uphill a little and going back into Twrch.

Cheers for the replies all.

Heading up there Wednesday, was hoping it wasn’t going to be a wasted journey.

I was planning on going Saturday am, with so much rain the regular fod offpiste is a little on the damp side!
Cheers for the info. Don’t have Facebook so it’s hard to get updates

This is the ride p-jay alluded to. Its a pretty good loop.

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/2AwvtjM0tX

I’m planning to get up early and go Tom CC to ride for a couple of hours. I like the sound of combining the 2 laps to get around a 20k ride. I’ll check out that Strava link – but at what point on Cafell so you need to split off to get to the top of Twrch?

It’s either that or try and do the reduced Cafell then the whole of Twrch but hat might be too tight on time and I’d prefer not to waste time on a fire road descent.

I have got a Lezyne watch which apparently does turn by turn nav but I think it takes fit files rather than gpx which I’ve not figured out how to do yet.

Terpentwys is running very well right now JIC Cwmcarn isn’t working for you.

Terpentwys?

I’m defo doing CC tomorrow as it’s not too muddy even in biblical rain.

That video just makes me want some assistance uphill- going to be a grind tomorrow.

I didn’t think terpentwys would be a goer in the wet? That place is ridiculous! Heard Barry sidings still runs real good in the wet too.
Cwmcarn is an easy option in the wet to be fair

Anyone know the current mileage of Cafell with the diversions?

Anyone know the current mileage of Cafell with the diversions?

About 13k based on my ride last week. However, keep in mind that it ends at the very top at the moment. You choice of descent is either 100% fire road back to the car park (which an option to go up Twrch about half-way) or the Pedalhounds DH track, it’s very dry at the moment, but a lot steeper and more techie than the usual descent.

Remade sections are good, but they’ve had to replace the tight single track with jumps and drops.

Is pedalhounds open at the moment?

Whilst it’s classed as a dh run and has lots of warnings at the top it’s not that bad at all. A few little drops of maybe a foot or so but it’s not wildly steep or tech or jumpy. Just take your time first time down and I do t think it’s difficult at all. If you go hard at it downhill it can be quite tiring though so pace yourself.

Any news on Cafell?
Mtb Ranger South Wales hasn’t updated for a couple of weeks.

Diversion still in place on Cafell earlier in the week. The diversion is pretty good though, extends the ride by half hour or so.

Any news on Cafell?
Mtb Ranger South Wales hasn’t updated for a couple of weeks.

Two more sections opened more recently, but I forget when exactly. It’s now open all the way to the top of Pedal Hounds, there’s a few options.

1) Ride the first 2 descents, turn left, down the fire road a bit an pop out just where Twrch crosses the Forest Drive just before the last 2 switch backs and climb them to finish twrch.

2) Ride 2 more climbs and descents to the start of Pedalhounds, then take the fire road down, I’m not sure where that takes you, probably the same as above.

3) As above, but ride down Pedalhounds which takes you to the the ‘Big Wheel’ just before the rangers station which you can use to climb up Twrch or head down to the last section back to the car park.

As of the weekend Cafall and Pedalhounds are powder dry and getting loose, probably more so now, I don’t know we’ve had any rain since. Pedalhounds is fine to ride on a trail bike, it’s steeper than Cafall and there are some natural and man-made drops you probably couldn’t roll, but most have ride-around or you can walk them.

How many dh tracks are there now?

Rode there yesterday afternoon – As said Cafall open round to the top of Pedalhounds which was fine on my trail bike, not sure why it has the grading it does. They’ve done a good job signing the diversions with a sign before the climb up to Pedalhounds pointing you to Twrch. If you get to the top of Pedalhounds and decide against it they’ve signed an ‘escape route’ which I presume is fire road. I’d printed maps off thinking I’d need to work that out for myself (you would at cannock), but it was all straightforward to follow. As P-Jay said, the surface is very loose/dusty, so there’s not a lot of grip to be had on the flatter corners.