Ffridd, Oct 2002
8 of us pitched up at Brookside on a fairly mixed Friday evening. The rain
managed to hold off long enough to start digging kit out of Chris'
Landrover so as to get bikes in... Oh well, never mind, it'll dry out
later...
By 1930 we were all ready to go; what would this weekend have in store for
us? The weather forecast was looking quite interesting...
Having successfully negotiated the M6 we arrived in Shrewsbury for a
half-time snack in Burger King, which was still open despite expectation.
The reason why was soon revealed - a load of minibuses full of scouts.
Amusingly, in true British style, the manager of Burger King was busily
turning everyone away suggesting they go to McDonalds down the road as
they were open later and that, despite queues of starving teenagers, they
were trying to close. Anyhow, appetites sufficiently satiated, we
continued. A fairly blustery journey over some of the hills later we
arrived at Ffridd at 0100. Time for bed...
The next morning dawned bright and sunny. Nice. We all felt it wouldn't
last so we ate breakfast fairly rapidly and then evacauted to
Coed-y-Brennin. A days casual riding followed sampling the delights of
some of the newer pieces of singletrack in the forest. A valient effort
was put in by Adam who'd never ridden off road before, and some great
skills by Andrew when he pringled his rear wheel! Not too serious
thankfully, and the day continued climbing up fireroad and descending on
beautifully crafted singletrack. Shane unfortunately had a bit of a stack
which turned his hand a funny shape... I think he said ouch and rode on...
My day came to a bit of an unexpected end when my forks fell apart off a
small jump, so the rest of the group bar Adam and myself went on to
complete the Karrimor trail (where Jon blew his rear shock out...) and we
rode back gingerly on road before retiring for tea and cakes. Top work Chris
and Jon for singlespeeding it!
Everyone later reconvened back at the car park suitably tired having had a
great time. I'd found my forks has disassembled themselves rather than
completely failed, so a bit of reassembly rendered them operable once
more. Dan then stole Chris' bike to bomb down the bottom of the Red Bull
trial on and then the whole bike swopping thing happened for about half an
hour of silliness!
Back to the farm it was to get showered and to eat. Once everyone had had
their fill of curry and beer we then retired off to bed on what was
looking to be a bit of a wet and windy night...
Wet and windy it certainly was as by 0200 Sunday came along the howl of
the wind and the sound of lashing rain started to periodically wake people
up (a bottle of beer too many as well perhaps!). Then at about 0700 a gust
of wind ripped the door latch out of the door frame; quiet impressive for
a fairly meaty bit of iron. A short piece of improvisation later involving
cable ties (which didn't work), a rock as a hammer and a whacking great
boulder to act as doorstop the door was closed once more. As the power
went off amusement consisted of eating breakfast, going for a short stroll
along the ridge near the barn and getting blown inside out and watching
the newly christened 'Llyn Ffridd' gather on the kitchen floor. Everyone
remained in pretty high spirits and waited for the torrents to stop.
By 10:30 the worst of the rain had gone, so we decided to vacate the barn
and head down to Barmouth for a short ride. Shane and Jon decided not to
ride due to injury/mechanical failure and then Andrew got a call from
Claire (his better half) who was stranded in Cardiff without a train. They
headed off and the rest of us led by Chris, pedalled slowly across the
railbrige over the estury with an amazing sidewind. Up to Arthog and then
up a ludicrously steep 1:4 hill which not even Chris managed to
singlespeed up! About 30 minutes of climbing up 1:4 and 1:6 hills followed
before turning onto a tiny, semi-metalled, forest track which overlooked
the sea from about 700-800ft. Quite a sight as we descended into a gale,
watching the clouds fly over and sea rage beneath us! An exhilerating
descent later we then headed back along the coast road and over the rail
bridge once more.
A short stop getting sandblasted and changed followed before devouring a
large amuont of fish and chips before heading back home.
A great time I think was had by all, despite adverse weather conditions,
and shame on you if you didn't come this time around!!
Many thanks to all who came along and made the trip possible, most
noteably to Chris, Jon and Andrew for driving and transporting kit.
Bart Hallmark
Photos can be found here
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