My new year resolution of visiting some of the mountain bike trail centres around the UK is progressing nicely, last Sunday I took a drive over to South Wales to ride the Twrch trail at CwmCarn. It's only a 30 minute drive past the Severn Bridge, so dead easy to get to for those living in the south and close enough for me to drive there and back in a day. Bar a few hundred metres of wider fire road, the Twrch trail is 18km of excellent windy singletrack. It starts with a pretty hefty climb that took about an hour with a few stops to take photos and catch breath. It's an interesting climb though, winding alongside a river then zig zagging up the hill with plenty of roots and rock steps to keep you occupied. At the top is a freeride area with tabletops and berms aplenty, followed by about 45 minutes of mostly downhill or flat singletrack back to the carpark. The last couple of minutes of descent in particular is very smooth, very swoopy and very fast, which puts you on a nice adrenalin high when you come to a halt back at the car. Just time to grab sandwich and a drink before heading out for a second lap...
Definitely worth the effort for a visit, although next time I have a spare Sunday I might try Afan which is another half an hour or so along the M4 and has a wider selection of trails.
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