Wentwood Forest - Downhill Trail

Wentwood forest is an ancient woodland to the north-west of Newport in South Wales. It's hella pretty, and home to a very good downhill trail, as well as numerous forest tracks and cross country singletrack trails. The autumn is an excellent time for the vibrant forest colours, although, unsurprisingly, the ground is sloppy as all hell.

The downhill trail starts about here, winding through the woods, heading west, along relatively flat terrain. The trail is dominated by roots, but a lot of fun. After meandering through the woods, the trail starts heading north west and downhill. Trail features are more obviously intentionally constructed here, including berms and jumps.

View Wentwood Downhill Trail in a larger map

The local mountain biking association have not revealed the route of the downhill trail. Their website is apparently no longer active, so I've put the map here. If anyone from the local club would like it removed, I'm happy to oblige - contact me with the address here.

I haven't got photos of the last third of the trail, but in current conditions it was constant error correction, basically surfing down the hill on the tide of leaves and mud. It was good fun - and none of the drops were obligatory - some of the beginnings of the sections were steep and fairly sketchy. In general, even novice downhiller will be mostly fine.

The crisp leaves and (occasionally) clear skies of autumn.

The forestry commission have been busy.

Looking south-east, towards the Severn.

Elliot cocoons himself against the cold.

Trail slop.

Two steeds o' aluminium at rest.

Amphibious riding.

The flat part of the trail winds through the coniferous trees - it's rooty and rugged and a lot of fun.

The trail goes over a bridleway/track, and starts another section. This section is currently dominated by a comically thick covering of leaves.

Elliot rails the berm on the first section of the downhill.

Wentwood Forest is great fun. The downhill trail is fun and challenging in places, but mostly just a good time. Much of the singletrack is delightfully rugged. Aside from the main downhill trail, there are numerous little pieces of singletrack and normal footpaths throughout the forest to be found.

Ridge Ride - Grwyne Fawr Reservoir and Rhos Dirion/Bal Mawr

Taking advantage of the dry conditions of summer, myself and Elliot took cyclocross bikes (Surly Crosschecks) into the Black Mountains, north of Abergavenny. Lacking cars, there was a road ride before hitting the moors, so as a compromise we took (hopefully) off-road worthy cyclocross bikes and crossed our fingers conditions would be favourable. The typical state of the moorland is boggy. With anything but the chubbiest tyres, you sink in. Even if it hasn't rained in a while, the peat retains moisture and makes riding frustrating - sapping the energy and the will. Especially if you make the mistake of wandering into an actual marsh, in a poorly devised shortcut.

Fortunately, the moors were as dry as I've seen them, making the route we went was 90% ridable and 100% awesome. The valley leading to the Grywne Fawr reservoir is dramatic and lush, with either a road or gravel tracks leading up through the valley. Then come the rocks, but only a few kilometres or so, leading you to the moor. Once you reach the trig point, and set off south along the ridge it's almost exclusively downhill, predominantly singletrack and excellent views of the black mountains in all directions.

The route we took is shown below, although it'd be easy enough to modify it for arriving by car. Just park at the bottom of the Grwyne Fawr valley, cutting out the ride to Abergavenny and back.

View Grwyne Fawr Loop - Ridge Ride in a larger map

Initially we rode up the paved road up the valley, then crossed a bridge over the Grwyne Fawr. This took us form paved roads and onto gravel/dirt tracks.

Ell-dogg shows his skidding skillz on the track.

A short, rocky descent led us towards the edge of the Mynydd du Forest forest.

The Mynydd Du Forest.

Looking north up the Grwyne Fawr valley.

Looking south down the valley , on the edge of the Mynydd Du Forest.

We ride up the Grwyne Fawr valley. The path here is decent, there's couple of slightly rocky spots, but nothing extreme.

My new build 'Handsome Dan' looking, in reverence, at the reservoir.

Ellsworth takes pictures on his ancient film camera, and I use the opportunity to take a confusing photo.

The reservoir's edge.

A camping spot for the future? At the north end of the reservoir.

We ride up the track alongside the reservoir. The riding is easy, prior to the end of the reservoir.

A profit of the coming rockstorm, alongside the Grwyne Fawr river.

Elliot put up a valiant fight against the loose, rocky ascent. Ultimately, walking progressed at similar speed and was much less taxing.

These are the tracks nearing the top of the moor. They're remarkably dry, so easy to ride. But not for long - when winter rolls round the moors will get sodden.

The trig point atop Rhos Dirion.

The descent (southwest) from the trig point. We made rapid progress from now on. We were both thoroughly loving this descent. There's enough of a descending gradient that you bomb along the path effortlessly, and only one steep section of descent. The path is currently great riding, compact, lumpy but not taxing, so just a good ol' time. Go ride it if you can. It was fun on a 'cross bike, it'd be even better on a mountain bike. There's a couple of short ascents but these are minor compared to the descent.

Heather lines much of this path, adding a sprinkling of purple to the hillsides.

These sandy tracks were surprisingly solid.

Looking east.

Looking north, along the ridge towards the peak of Rhos Dirion.

Looking south.

Sublime singletrack. Not techy, just hella fun.

Looking south toward the Sugarloaf.

The track towards the southern end of the ridge, near Twyn-y-Gaer, an iron age hillfort (more info here.

There's a nice, and convenient pub (the Queen's Head) at the bottom of the final descent, on road, from the ridge.

I creeped out some teenage girls taking this photo. I was waiting for the flag to fly, damn it.

This is an excellent ride, even if you're relatively new to mountain biking. The singletrack is great, the views are excellent and dams are cool. Do it before conditions turn the moorland into a slog-fest.

Not relevant to the ride itself, but interesting to some; We met a fella on the train transporting an old postie bike he'd just bought. Rod brakes and all.

Pen y Fan Horseshoe Loop (from Merthyr Tydfil.)

Pen y Fan is the the mightiest mountain in the Brecon Beacons, standing at 886 metres. It forms part of a strangely interconnected ridge system between Fan y Big (yeah, ha ha), Cribyn and Corn Du. On a nice day, or even a fairly shitty day, this place will be painfully overrun with numerous groups of hikers. The marked paths are a mixture of large and often loose rocks and groomed gravel. You can't miss the paths, and the basic 'horse-shoe' route can be eyeballed from the majority of the trail, making path-finding easy, even if you're a shitty navigator like me. I chose a day that threatened heavy rain with sunny spells, which worked out well, the dramatic weather improving the photos and minimizing the number of walkers. Since I was illicitly cycling on footpaths, the presence of walkers was a concern, although much of the time was spent dragging the bike up the steep slopes. It's a good ride though, if you don't mind the pushing, the second half spent bombing along the technical rocky paths along a plateau or ridge. My initial plan was to take an extended off-road route when returning south to Merthyr Tydfil, although I wasn't sure of the quality of the paths, and was running out of time, so cut this short, although I'd like to check this section out in the future. Here's the route map. For a chunk of the exit from Merthyr, I took the Taff Trail/National Cycle Route 8, which crosses a couple of viaducts and avoids spending ages going uphill through depressing suburbs or Merthyr.

It rained on the way, but that was fine.

A track, marked as bridleway, leads you gently up the 'gap' mountain pass, a famous mountain biking route. Having only done the first half of this route, and then diverting onto footpaths, I can't really pass judgement on it, but I will anyway. It's pretty dull for the most part. Maybe the descent is really sweet, but the ascent was predominantly technically featureless. There is only one potentially challenging section , a small channel cut by a stream, with a steep descent and loose rock and dirt. The rest of (the first half) of the gap path is just track. You ride up it. Then you get to the top.

I diverted at this junction, head west avoiding Cribyn, sticking to a rocky piece of rocky single-track the mostly followed the contours. This path is covered in rocks, which are large and often loose, making even the flat portions challenging although in a satisfying way. Since this route is designated as 'footpath', and the area is popular, I had to allow people to pass numerous times.

I elected to push up the ascent to Pen y Fan. The ascent to Pen y Fan seems to take forever, and is steep. The path is well maintained, but features run-offs for water. During much of the ascent you have an excellent view to the north, at the edge of a steep escarpment.

Near the plateau of Pen y Fan, large blocks of rock form the edge, although it's still perfectly passable.

Apparently the summit is often cloudy, according to some guy I met near the top. This holds to be true with the one other time I hiked there, when the cloud was so thick that often fleeting glimpses of the surrounding countryside were visible. There are three main paths down, the east, which I'd come up, the south-east and the north. I south-east allows to to circumnavigate the Neuadd Reservoir. I should have inspected the North Route; it looks fierce, based on the gradients.

Heading south-east takes you down a rocky staircase, which was too techy for me for the most-past. A heavily groomed trail heads towards Corn Du which is similar to the peak of Pen y Fan. After Corn Du , the path slopes gently downhill, close to the east edge, along the top of the escarpment. This sections of path (along Craig Gwaun Taf and Rhiw yr Ysgyfarnog ) is good, techy fun. The gradient is on your side, and despite all the rocks, the boggy or muddy portions and the height, this section is great fun.

The descent back to the upper Neuadd reservoir seems to be on top of a stream - the dirt is loose and muddy, and steep. My original plan has been to go along a path just above the tree line, over Twyn Mwyalchod and Bwlch Gwyn, then rejoin the road. however, time was running short and I picture myself waist deep in mire and having to stay in Merthyr.

It was a good ride. Lots of pushing though, there might be another approach that could allow for a ridden ascent.