Well, that's it.
The route has been ridden in it's entirety.
It's all logged, memorised and rideable. Well, apart from 1km of walking on a rutted 4wd track (on a Bridleway) bog which may be a bit better after a week of dry weather.
It'll be nice to get off and push the bike for a bit, anyway.
I stayed in a Hotel (The George Burrows) in Ponterwyd, so that I could do two out and returns. The first would be out to Machynnleth and back, and the second would be to search out the way to Strata Florida and back. Strata Florida, that is, without the 14 river crossings.
Saturday always starts too early. I left home and was riding by 10:45am.
I started up the road from the car park, in warm-up mode, and got overtaken by a guy who I recognised from his posh yeti bike, his face and his SITS 2008 buff. I looked at him as if I should be polite, and acknowledge that I recognise him. He just looked at me funny, as if I should be going quicker. :)
Am I the only one who warms up on a bike?
The route that I had satmapped flowed well, until it got to a big river, and pointed me straight across it. I'm sure that the little gadget was egging me on, and looking at me funny because I wasn't immediately following it's lead. It was 3 or 4 degrees at the time (judging my my numb feet) so I ran away, to find another route...
...10 minutes later, I'm up to my knees in another river. Two minutes after that, I'm walking back through it with my bike on my shoulder and muttering inanely about the bridleway that had stopped dead.
I found my way into Machynlleth and popped into "The Holey Trail" to meet Tegid. He had given me lots of help by email over the route I had chosen.
It's important to thank people for their help.
"That river you said was ok is massive!" says me, after conivivial introductions.
"Nah, It's fine. We've never failed to ride across it. It might be a bit higher now, after all the rain," came the reply from Tegid.
Cash exchanged hands for some overshoes, because I had a feeling that my feet were going to get even colder on the way back.
I rode back along the intended route and straight to the river. It looked really deep.
Standing there, nervous about the cold, I thought about going another way. This was especially true after I remembered a picture of Matt Carr, carrying his bike above his head and chest deep in water. But Chris Eatough's words of coaching wisdom "I want you to be super tough on the bike," bounced around in my empty and cold head.
It's about now, that you would normally expect to see a photo of the river- But my camera had frozen with the iris half open. You'll just have to take my word for it.
I picked the bike up (to protect the bearings) and walked through, up to my knees. That was a pleasant surprise since I thought it would be up to the body parts that tend to climb rapidly away from cold water.
This water was COLD.
I had done 4 river crossings already, and this was not my favourite.
Twenty five minute later and after a 6 hour ride I was outside my Hotel, looking forward to a big Lasagne. The food was excellent, and they are bike friendly, with storage.
Sunday was a surprise too. Looking out of the window at first light, it was hailing harder than yesterday but was also blowing sideways. Great.
"...supertough..."
Damn.
Breakfast done, I got out on the bike and the sun came out. It stayed out and I had a lovely ride.
WC2C goes over those 3 peaksFour or five times, I tried to take photos of the Kites, searching out the lift band on the ridges that they were soaring. They would fly directly above me for a few minutes, resplendent in their go faster stripe plumage. They looked like they were enjoying themselves.
As soon as the camera came out, they were off. Every single time. Do they know something, about the quality of my pictures?
The un-rideable bog came next. It's only 1km long, and it's reasonably easy walking, so that is fine by me. It'll be a good time to stretch out the back.
Again, I had to re-route using my satmap, since I had to navigate away from the bog as it continued for a few Km more. It took 2 minutes and was as easy as you like.
A long climb 22/32 or 34 all the wayAt the top of the forestry, about 4km South of Strata Florida, I met up with a few Enduro riders. They were complaining about cold feet. They had Motocross boots on! My feet were frozen, but I didn't want the discussion to turn into a Monty Python conversation about how we had it worse than you.
They were all impressed with the Satmap, especially the route sharing capabilities. I think they may be buying a few between them.
Right, job done!
I rode back. That was another 6hr day done.
Tonight, I can't sleep, and it's no wonder.
The route is 336 km plus about 10% due to the way that the log cuts corners whilst recording. So I reckon that the whole distance is going to be around 370km or 230miles. It's a guess at the moment, but I feel that the climbing will be around 8000m or 26,250ft or thereabouts (software problems- my memory map is playing up).
