Trans Cambrian Way

KERM1T
KERM1T Posts: 24
edited December 2012 in Routes
I'm doing the Trans Cambrian Way in 3 days mid July with a mate.

Would like advice from people who have done it particularly on these topics: -

Full sus or hardtail - Luckily I have both, which would be better?
Navigation - would I need GPS or can it followed using just a map and compass?
What to pack in my rucksack? Want to keep weight down, but would should I not travel with?
How hard is it? I am training to get my fitness levels up, the elevation looks harsh, though apparently quite a lot is on road.

Thanks in advance.

K.

Comments

  • cborrman
    cborrman Posts: 125
    Did it last year, fortunately on driest days of year and still got up to our knees in water and peat bogs in places.

    We were six of us; two full sus, 4 hard tails. The full sussers if nothing else tracked river crossing floors better so made it through all the rivers without a fall! Hard tails are fine tho otherwise

    Hell yes GPS: We had 3 gps, one on OS maps, one on garmin topo with route, another garmin topo with waypoints and we still had to stop and work it out a few times. I have no idea how people do it without navigation - they must print off maps, lay it out on floor and study them!

    We travelled with:

    -quite a bit of energy bars / gels, especially day 2. (long)

    - nuts / sandwich or something else as nowhere on way sometimes and you get bored of sugar

    -As much water as you can, and fill up with clean water when you can

    -Sterilising tablets in case (do not dream of drinking any stream water - virus, bacteria and heavy metals through roof, dead sheep rotting, etc)

    - we all got racing ralph double defense 2.1 rear and snake skin 2.25 front and no puncture, except 1 guy with nobby nicks normal version and punctured 3 times, one puncture claimed 3 tubes and about an hour and destroyed day 2. It was so bad, my racing ralph rear has a 5cm cut from side wall, clean through the knobs and up to centre of tyre! without double defence defelcting it beyond the surface I honestly do not know how i could have patched half the tyre ripped open! If you are not investing in tyres take loads of tubes, patches, cable ties and strip rubber, maybe some vinegar and brown paper as well :)

    - space blanket for worst

    - dry top and phone etc in ziplock bag in you backpack in case you dunk in river and its cold

    Fitness; tbh its not that hard - if you can do a 30km+ route in north downs / run 10k sub 1 hour sort of level you should be fine. Only one guy was relatively unfit, just sunday ride training - he struggled day 1, slept 14 hours and was then fine day 2, 3!

    prepare for day 2 .... Its hard!

    Prepare for day 3 ... It's amazing!
    s-works stumpy FSR, sl2 tarmac, siglespeed rockhopper and a bog standard allez
  • KERM1T
    KERM1T Posts: 24
    Thanks cborman, that is a very useful post, starting the 3 day trip next Friday (13th), so it is looking wet and with all the recent rain it sounds like it could be quite tough going.

    Gonna take a GPS phone with the route loaded into google maps plus a paper map / compass as back up.

    Worth investing in waterproof shorts? I have waterproof socks, but maybe no use as they aren't very high.

    Worried about getting drinking water, are there many places to top up? Maybe I should get water purification tablets.

    Hope you are right about training, I've been doing 50-60km rides at the weekend, + a couple of short ones during the week, so in pretty good shape, unfortunately my mate going with is a bit of a fitness Nazi, so whatever I do won't be enough!
  • waby1234
    waby1234 Posts: 571
    Just a thought but have you got a way to charge the phone? Plus what's phone signal like?
    2011 Carrera Fury

    Earn cashback at CRC, Wiggle, Evans, Rutland, Hargroves, Halfords, and more at Quidco
  • KERM1T
    KERM1T Posts: 24
    No idea what the phone signal is like, I'm on Three, anyone know what the coverage is like in central Wales??

    I'm bringing a spare battery and a plug in charger, so will hopefully start each day with two charged batteries + my mate will have a phone, but he lives in Paris so will probably cost €10 just to turn it on.
  • welshkev
    welshkev Posts: 9,690
    this sounds awesome. this is going on my list along with the west highland way :D

    as regards phone signal, it's crap. but can't you make emergency calls (as in 999) anyway without signal? i know that used to be the case
  • cborrman
    cborrman Posts: 125
    There are huge sections without any signal at all, not even emergency. I took a travel sim that could roam on all uk networks and no better. Kighton only has a signal on the top of the hill, rhayadar and llangurig not much better...
    s-works stumpy FSR, sl2 tarmac, siglespeed rockhopper and a bog standard allez
  • waby1234
    waby1234 Posts: 571
    I guess my point about phone signal was not only for an emergency call but also to download mapping. Most maps are not cached.
    2011 Carrera Fury

    Earn cashback at CRC, Wiggle, Evans, Rutland, Hargroves, Halfords, and more at Quidco
  • cborrman
    cborrman Posts: 125
    You can cache them easily on nokia and android, but def would not rely on that for mapping!

    We just did it ths weekend, v.wet, we had to abandon first day route for road route, and first half of day 2 as well (first part of day 2 is basically going up a river, but there is a road alongside). Cannot stress enough about taking paper maps, this time we had two gps between 3 but one needed a hard reset on day 2 and no pc to put the route on again! Down to just one gps meant a lot more stopping. I would take paper map as well! I would def not rely on mobile, especially as this weekend was so wet i could not have got the mobile out of its ziplock bag a lot of the time.

    Even when you do have mobile its 2g / edge at most and even email / mms is painfully slow if not impossible!

    Another key is fenders like mucky nutz or rrp... There is a LOT of poo...
    s-works stumpy FSR, sl2 tarmac, siglespeed rockhopper and a bog standard allez
  • KERM1T
    KERM1T Posts: 24
    Must be bad if u had to abandon route, don't think weekend going to be much better, we may have to make alternatives too.

    Weather is looking very poor, getting worried about navigation now, do have paper maps, but difficult to use when very wet, but I guess a phone is too.
  • cborrman
    cborrman Posts: 125
    Bear in mind this weekend saw a weather warning and 2 month's rain in 2 days... Even then we could have used paper maps days 2 & 3 but you will need to prepare and have them in a transparrent ziplock or other bag/cover
    s-works stumpy FSR, sl2 tarmac, siglespeed rockhopper and a bog standard allez
  • cborrman
    cborrman Posts: 125
    welshkev wrote:
    this sounds awesome. this is going on my list along with the west highland way :D

    as regards phone signal, it's crap. but can't you make emergency calls (as in 999) anyway without signal? i know that used to be the case

    You can make emergency calls if your network, i.e t-mobile, does not have a signal, but one of the others does, but in most of the route threre is plain no signal on any network. Most phones will do their best to power up to ear-frying levels for an emergency call (122, 999) but if you are miles and mountains away from any signal there is not much you can do....
    s-works stumpy FSR, sl2 tarmac, siglespeed rockhopper and a bog standard allez
  • KERM1T
    KERM1T Posts: 24
    Completed the ride last weekend, took a lot out of me, but an absolutely brilliant trip, would recommend it to anyone who likes a bit of adventure.
    Navigation is a really issue, I managed to load the route into Google maps and follow it using my phone's GPS, I didn't need a signal, in fact I used Airplane mode a lot to save battery. Without this I would be near impossible to do.
    Weather was good, only rained once, but the ground was sodden. Very varied terrain.
    The countryside there is stunning.
  • Adrianstella
    Adrianstella Posts: 1
    hi
    i plan to do this trans cambrian ride in september and reading your posts has helped, thanks.
    do any of you have, or do you know where i could get the sat nav coordinates so i can pre programe the route into a garmin or my iphone please?
    also if you have any recommendations for over night stays on day 1 & 2 id appreciate those too.
    thanks again
  • cborrman
    cborrman Posts: 125
    I got the gpx files from the imba website and uploaded them to garmin via that dreadful excuse for software garmin call basecamp, i think only lotus notes beats basecamp in the worst user experience ever stakes.... They uploaded straight to the edge 705 but needed a bit of tidying up and name shortening for the edge 800... I can post the garmin friendly files somewhere if you have problems.

    We stayed in the nicest place we could find day two, the elan hotel but make sure you get the one 2 miles out of rhayadar (on route for day two) not the one in town which is not as nice. There is a great pub called the triangle where you will need to reserve a table and if you like 16oz t-bones ;)

    Day three we stayed in the fantastic lloyds hotel with its five course meal and all, but again you will need to reserve with time...
    s-works stumpy FSR, sl2 tarmac, siglespeed rockhopper and a bog standard allez
  • chrisw333
    chrisw333 Posts: 695
    I am planning to do this route next May.

    Has anyone got any recommendations for pubs to stay at Rhayader & Llangurig. We're looking for basic but comfy, good beer & decent food. There will be approx 12 of us. (Don't think Lloyds is really what we're after, although does look nice)
  • welshwoodsman
    welshwoodsman Posts: 8
    i'm also planning to do it in may 2013 with 3 of my mates. we'll be on roughstuff tourers though,wild camping and carrying everything we need.

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