Welsh coast to coast

Hi all. A few of us are planning on doing the Welsh c2c next spring. The plan is to follow the “rough ride guide” route, the one that takes in sections of 7 trail centres. I have bought the info maps from them but any advice would be very much appreciated
Thanks in advance
Kevin.

Will watch this post with interest, having been unsure of the pros and cons of the various routes out there.
-The Bear Bones Great orme to worms head
-Sarn Helen trail
-lon las cymru / Sustans route 8
-Dave Duchanan / Matt Pages route.

Any others?

The first two ending up in Swansea and the other two in Cardiff. I’m guessing your Rough ride Guide route also ends in Swansea, to pick up 7 trail centres?

The Rough Ride Guide route ends in Swansea. It’s got a bit more technical riding in it than Dave Buchanan/Matt Page’s route, which was intended as a solo off-road time trial. You can knock it on the head in Port Talbot if you like – the last bit to Swansea is just Sustrans path and a bit of a slog.

Having done it a couple of times (once testing out the route with Max from RRG), my top tips are:

– Don’t go off too quick on the first day – there’s a huge amount of climbing in the first 10 miles.

– Do the Llyn Cowlyd rather than the Marin Trail if the weather’s good. There’s some pushing involved but the scenery’s ace.

– Go carefully on the “cycle route” after Strata Florida. It’s wetter than an otter’s pocket, and I suffered a full dunking after hitting a submerged rock, which could have been nasty on a cold day.

– Expect the Doethie Valley to be a bit of a soggy disappointment, even though it looks amazing in the photos (below). You get to ride Cwm Rhayader soon afterwards which more than makes up for it. As does the food and beer at the Royal Oak.

– The bridleway across the Black Mountain is the vaguest bit of the route, and probably the most exposed too, so take it steady and check your bearings regularly.

Overall it’s a flipping excellent route, and as someone who cut his teeth riding trail centres it really opened my eyes to the wealth of natural riding in Wales.

Having only experienced Doethie in the dry, after a decent spell of hot and dry weather, I feel like I shouldn’t risk spoiling the good memories! (Even then there was one small boggy bit!)
Rough rides route sounds good, how many days is suggested?

Decide how long you want to take doing it, then plan the route accordingly.

If you want to do it in a day, then that is possible – but although it touches a few trail centres it isn’t the most interesting.

A 4-6 day route is perfect. It will be 60-80km per day, maybe a bit more on one day and you can go through all the best areas. You can ride Marin, Penmachno, CyB, ClimachX, Nant, Cwm Rhaeadr and Afan.

Cowlyd is good, but Crafnant is better travelling South. Probably avoid the Black Mountain, there are better routes available.

Doethie is a love it/hate it thing. I love it, many people who I have ridden there with hated it.
If you like/want/enjoy flowing trail centres then chances are you will not enjoy it.

Thanks for all the advice guys!! The rough ride guide is the one we are going for. we will be going the 2nd week in may over 4 days (praying for reasonable weather). Mr Agreeable, did you use the gpx file supplied by RRG?? if so is it reliable??. we will be using garmin and backing this up with os mapping and the RRG info pack. I guess what I’m trying to avoid is wasting lots of time stopping reading maps and getting lost.
Last thing advice on places to stay and stop fror lunch would be great.
Thanks again in advance

Are there any links for the route that includes all the trail centres?

you can get the pack for around £15 from “rough ride guide” you get a gpx file and the laminated route. This include all the trail centres