Cwmcarn Camping Trip

Off to ride the Cafall trail at Cwmcarn

A group of 21 of us braved the bank holiday traffic to travel to Cwmcarn for a long weekend of riding.  We based ourselves once more at Cwmcarn Campsite, a mixture of carvans, Pods for the glampers and tents for the brave.  No one could be left in any doubt that Wales can be a very wet place after the weekend although that did not seem to stop anyone. 
For Saturday, we had booked the uplift service at Bike Park Wales, apparently the biggest group to book to date.  Pre ride nerves were not helped by the amount of body armour in the car park followed by some horror stories coming out in the van on the first lift.  These fears were soon ended however as we made our way down the first blue run to find fantastic weather proof trail flowing all the way to the bottom.  Some moved up onto harder trail grades, others were happy to stick to the blue for what proved to be a great day despite the non stop rain.  A couple of runs with Olly can be found on the links below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWrE-FfE4i0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0UTrBmY3L4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9xcHnXPp_U

After a night of rain, the rain eased on Sunday AM and the morning was spent replacing brake pads and spokes (the bikes had taken a bit of a hammering), we set off in two groups to tackle the new Cafall trail in Cwmcarn.  This can be a tough ride in places with 550 metres of climb over 15.5 km (which seem a lot further when actually riding).  Again, the weather soon closed in with some of the varied trail turning into small streams which is a shame because the scenery would have been stunning in the sun.  That said, the new trail is a great addition to Cwmcarn giving some more variety to what is on offer at the centre.  Final descent with Jordan on the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjrgP3idw1g