Advice - Llangollen to Dolgellau

mikeage

Hi, a few of us are trying to organise a 3 day ride starting from home in Staffordshire and finishing in Barmouth in Wales and would like some route advice from people who may know the trails better than us just picking routes off an OS map!

We have a route planned for the 1st day taking us to Llangollen and have broken the route down a little more, but no specific route sorted yet so we are looking for routes people may have from Llangollen to Bala, and from Bala to Dolgellau.

We don't mind climbing (and there's gonna be some I know!) or spinning along fire roads (or even real roads for a bit), but would like some nice interesting bits thrown in there as well!

Thanks!

sparrowlegs78

Have you looked up the Mawdach trail, dollgellau to barmouth? It's supposed to be brilliant.
Caz xx

ed_arnold

The Mawddach Trail is a 7/8 mile cycle path from Dolgellau to Barmouth along what used to be a railway line - beautiful estuary but no challenging trails. Good pub at the start though - The George. You'll have to pay 5p to cross the wooden railway bridge at the end to get from Fairbourne to Barmouth though - extortion!!
One (road) route that I used to enjoy is cycle route 8 from the centre of Dol, up Cader road past the Gwernen, and then down to Arthog, crossing the road onto the Mawddach trail.

I'd be very interested to know what routes you are planning as I lived in Staffordshire, and until recently Dolgellau.

From Bala, rather than following the A494 there is a track round the south side of Llyn Tegid
Before that, you should be able to find a good trail over the Berwyn hills.

Of course, to make it REALLY interesting, you could detour slightly north of Dol and do a lap of Coed-y-Brenin before reaching your final destination >:D

mikeage

Thanks both of you for the info, I have looked at the Mawddach Trail for the final stretch for a gentle roll in after the mountains but also had heard it may be a bit dull so may venture up the hills alongside before dropping back down to cross the wooden bridge!

From Stafford we will be using the old railway line to Gnosall, then joining the canal north to Audlem, a few miles of road riding will take us to Whitchurch where we will join the canal to Llangollen.

We have a few options from there and believe we can us the River Dee as a navigation device to get down to Bala across the hills.

From there we have a couple of options, if we stay on Barmouth side of the estuary we can stay within A414 and the A4212 heading southwest to the coast, picking out trails as we find them! I think if we stay that side we will head through Coed-y-Brenin forest and I don't think we will resist adding the odd mile to blast down some of those trails before getting back on track!

tsenior

Llangollen -bala: got 2 options for you:

if you follow the Dee, you'll basically be following the A5 along the base of the valley, now, i've not tried to ride it but there is a dismantled railway track between carrog (10km west of llangollen) and bala which would make a nice easy level ride all the way to bala, i've been considering trying this out for a while, its marked as a path (though not public) on the maps and looks ok on google earth -i reckon its a goer.

Alternatively cut the corner and go straight over the berwyns: lovely area and quiet but proper big hills and watch out for the bogs!

Theres part of a route called the wayfarer that will get you over the watershed in one piece, you'll need to pick a route between llangollen and Glyn ceriog (only 4km) then head over between points 5 and 6 on this map:

http://www.singletrackworld.com/trailgu ... -route.pdf

then cut off west at some point between 5 and 4, south of llandrillo if you want to stay in the hills and, again pick a route for the last 10km into bala!

EDIT: just noticed the map is marked "Easy Route", dear god what sort of people are they?!?!