Expedition Ideas Needed!

mfereborn

Hey guys, im wondering if you can help, as part of my degree i have to run an expedition over 5 days doing an activity of my choice, im a keen cyclist so this is what i want to base my exped around. additionally i am located in south wales, however have good ties with the north of england.

Basically i have free reign as to what i do and where but it will be held in march including wild camping my hammocks. I will have two vehicles in the team.

I need ideas of where to go with my group, i want to compare trail centres and natural trails, perhaps taking in a couple of significant peaks along the way by bike.

Im thinking:
Day1: Trail centre blue/red run to assess competencies
Day2: Trail (Red/Black) with some downhill sections which we can session
Day3: 'Wild' ride (natural trails)
Day4: Trail Centre + Night ride
Day5: Wild Ride then home.

I need all these locations to be within a spitting distance of each other, and within 100 miles of either south wales or the north east of england.

Can people please suggest some locations because to be honest im quite stuck!

Some of the lads are able to climb hills but dont find it fun, and one in particular loves his DH. Others just want a real mountain biking experience or to progress as amateur cyclists.

Cheers!

Thom

mkf

if i were team leader......
i'd go for north wales cyb for days 1 and 2
day 3 snowdon assent, camping in the foot hills
day4 move a little further down to coris. opposite this little village the locals have built an ace route in the forest (which would be ideal for night ride)with a techy dh run at the end.
day5 long mynd wild ride

how about that

mfereborn

Sounds like a brilliant idea, and the day 1/2/3 plans match my own very closely - i need to look into legalities of riding snowdon though due to the nature of it and the area!

This may be the plan i choose however!

bluechair84

There's an agreement which should be adheered too which says cyclists off the mountain during the day - don't know the hours off the top of my head. But you can do an early start and get to the summit to watch the sunrise, and get back down again before the agreement kicks in.
Something I've always wanted to do was a wild camp, a long out and back ride with a bivvy and portable stove, might be something you'd enjoy.

mfereborn

We'll be hammocking it, although i admit i use a bivvy in a hammock because im a soft buggar.

The course i do is outdoor education so we do a lot of the "wild camping" lark, even if its not actually all that wild in the UK, unfortunately im not that savvy with north wales so i shall have to hunt down some nice woods for a fire and beds!

Sunrise bike ride sounds amazingly good fun though on those cold crisp spring mornings.

bluechair84

It's absolutely stunning, I really wanted to do it again this summer but ended up in Morzine instead The only thing I'll say is don't expect to see anything off of Snowdon at 4am, the fog was so thick for us it was rolling off our jackets like a sodding downpour.

mfereborn

feel free to bump into us if you desire!

bluechair84

Cheers, a long way for me. But next summer I'll be that way for sure.

delcol

the daytime cycling ban on snowdon kicks in on the first may and ends on30th september, between those months there is a no bike policy between i think its 10,00am-500pm..

so in march you should be good to go.

milko9000

I was talking to a friend who's based in N. Wales and he was saying the best way he found to do Snowdon is an evening ride in the summer. Aim to start up at about 6pm, hit the summit at 8pm and be back down within half an hour. Should in theory mean the weather's a bit more reliable.

milfredo

I did a three day expedition round the Dark Peaks but if I had the chance, would have added in some of the Light Peaks south of Edale. To be honest, if you are fit, my route could be done in two days but I was leading a group of novice riders so it took a while longer (the fact they were novices didn't mean it wasn't challenging).

Here are my maps

Day one
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Da ... o-Langsett

Day two
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/La ... -Via-Holme

Day three
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Da ... obs-Ladder

peter_booker2003

bluechair84 wrote:

There's an agreement which should be adheered too which says cyclists off the mountain during the day - don't know the hours off the top of my head. But you can do an early start and get to the summit to watch the sunrise, and get back down again before the agreement kicks in.

I think the agreement for Snowdon is that between 1st May and 30th September you can't go up or down between the hours of 10am- 5pm. I think this is it but couldn't be sure/