Twrch Cwmcarn

Thewaylander
Thewaylander Posts: 8,594
edited June 2016 in Routes
Hola People,

Quick note that the Twrch trail will be reopening on Sat!! big win this as its a great trail in the wet where it has tons of Grip and minimal claggy mud.

Awesome days

Comments

  • joebristol
    joebristol Posts: 327
    This sounds good - everytime I've been to CC the Twrch has had at least part of it shut, so I've only ever done Cafell.

    Love Cafell's downhill (hate the uphill obviously) - what's the Twrch like in comparison?

    Got a mate who has done bits of biking (and has suggested FOD for a ride next weekend) and wondering whether I'm better doing CC or FOD.

    I've never done FOD to know what it's like, but from what it says online (and a mate said) it sounds like the XC trails aren't that exciting - but the DH trails are quite steep / technical if you're not a confident dh'r. I'd say my skills are average on the DH front and I like a 130mm travel trail bike (Boardman Pro FS 650b) - but I prefer downhill to uphill.

    Thoughts?
  • welshkev
    welshkev Posts: 9,690
    FoD is a great trail centre. nothing like cwmcarn. there's not much climbing, but it's fun all the same. the DH tracks are short and not that technical. I ride FoD quite often nd live 10 mins from CC.

    the twrch trail at cwmcarn is similar in level to cafall. steep, hard climb with amazing descents, I prefer twrch to cafall personally
  • joebristol
    joebristol Posts: 327
    Thanks for the reply.

    I ended up doing Afan then Swinley since my last post. Like Swinley and the way it flows with huge berms and whoops. Afan was ok - I got through Whytes ok, but my derailleur hanger snapped when almost at the top of the first climb on the Wall so just had to coast back to the car park and go home (think a small crash I had on part of Whytes must have weakened the hanger). Have to say I prefer Swinley to what I've seen of Afan so far.

    Now got another trip planned, but found the FOD uplift is fully booked again (must book earlier).

    Options instead are uplift at Flyup417 at Cheltenham and uplift a Cwmcarn - both have spaces available. My only concern is I'm more trails than DH and would Cwmcarn be biting off more than I can chew in terms of difficulty?

    I'm ok with drop offs up to about 2 ft high I'd say, but my jumping is fairly small / early days since getting back into biking mid way through last year. Any thoughts on the difficulty of CC downhills? (I think pedal hounds is shut so it's the other more difficult route I'd be attempting).
  • welshkev
    welshkev Posts: 9,690
    I can't believe you prefer swinley to Afan!!

    The wall is one of my favourite trails anywhere.

    Anyway, pedal hounds isn't shut, they just don't uplift to it. Y Mynydd DH track is amazing, i absolutely love it.

    But if you prefer swinley to Afan, I'd say you'd probably prefer fly up 417 to Cwmcarn. All man made rather than the natural feeling trails at cc.

    You can push/ride to the top of fod DH trails in 20 mins btw
  • Stevo_666
    Stevo_666 Posts: 58,501
    welshkev wrote:
    Anyway, pedal hounds isn't shut, they just don't uplift to it. Y Mynydd DH track is amazing, i absolutely love it.
    Yay, Y Mynydd is open again, ta for pointing that out Kev. Had assumed it would be closed for ages because of the logging.
    "I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]
  • welshkev
    welshkev Posts: 9,690
    Stevo 666 wrote:
    welshkev wrote:
    Anyway, pedal hounds isn't shut, they just don't uplift to it. Y Mynydd DH track is amazing, i absolutely love it.
    Yay, Y Mynydd is open again, ta for pointing that out Kev. Had assumed it would be closed for ages because of the logging.

    No probs :D it only opened again a few weeks ago. I've only ridden it from the tunnel near the top, down, but it's still the same and riding amazingly well
  • Stevo_666
    Stevo_666 Posts: 58,501
    welshkev wrote:
    Stevo 666 wrote:
    welshkev wrote:
    Anyway, pedal hounds isn't shut, they just don't uplift to it. Y Mynydd DH track is amazing, i absolutely love it.
    Yay, Y Mynydd is open again, ta for pointing that out Kev. Had assumed it would be closed for ages because of the logging.

    No probs :D it only opened again a few weeks ago. I've only ridden it from the tunnel near the top, down, but it's still the same and riding amazingly well
    Good to know. Think I need to have another go soon, just wish Darrell would do uplifts during the week !
    "I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]

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