botty kayer

Not from today, but I only got back to London yesterday having been in remote west Wales with no phone or internet connection. I met up with some mates who I met at school in neighbouring Powys nearly 40 years ago. We've all had an interest in wild camping since we were at school, but have had limited opportunities in recent years, but the stars aligned last weekend.

We set off to explore the neighbouring county of Carmarthenshire around a fierce climb I'd been meaning to cycle for years known as 'the Devil's staircase'. It's a remote and pretty part of Wales that is probably best known for the World Bog Snorkelling Championships which are held at nearby Llanwrtyd Wells . I have cycled the nearby Elan Valley before which on a dry day is absolutely stunning cycling country, but I'd been told this was just as impressive but with less traffic.

3 mates were in a car and planned on some walking, I had a road bike and 1 mate had a MTB and we planned some cycling. The walkers mission was to find a suitable out of the way spot for us to wild camp later that day, and as we had no phone signal we agreed to meet at the reservoir car park at 6pm. All our camping gear and changes of clothes and food and drink for the night was packed into the car, so thankfully us cyclists didn't have carry any of that, which made us feel very pro having a support vehicle.

My mate on the MTB had much wider gear range than my semi compact and was about 20kg lighter than me, the route was an alpine-like 3100 ft climbing in a 24 mile loop on road and gravel, so we figured we'd be about even, besides we weren't racing, we were riding together. We set off from the reservoir and immediately the road climbs upwards and keeps on steadily climbing around Llyn Brianne, which collects and supplies drinking water to south Wales.

I live in London along with millions of others, so cycling scenes like this are the stuff of my dreams....

The weather forecast was rain late morning for a few hours, then a window of dry and then lots of rain later. Not for the first time the weather folk were completely wrong, we had no rain at all during the day and relished amazing deserted roads through valleys formed by glaciers many moons ago.



And then came the 'Devil's Staircase', my camera phone has managed to make it look flatter than it was, the sign on the right indicates the gradient hitting 25% and had 3 brutal ramps that I only just got up in my smallest gear while out of the saddle.

The descent on the other side was a white knuckle single lane road also with 25% gradients with some hairpins and cattle grids thrown in that tested brakes and nerves. We then had a long climb up some more lanes and gravel fire roads where we saw a hare and a circling red kite and no traffic to speak of.


We then joined the road again and quickly sped back to the reservoir as we were an hour later than planned. We then headed off in the car and drove off to the improv camp our mates had found, clambered over a few fences and walked a mile or so with bikes and kit, put up tent, cracked open a beer, had a fire and cooked up a feast and sat with throbbing legs but grinning like a Cheshire cat.

At midnight the forecast rain finally arrived so we retired for the evening. It rained all night and at 8am it showed no signs of letting up, so after a revitalising morning tea we packed up and headed back to our base in Powys. We hung up all the wet camping gear to dry went and replenished our food and drink stocks and retired indoors to watch Wales v Ukraine in the vital World Cup football playoff. A nerve shredding game which tiny little Wales deservedly triumphed 1-0 to secure a place in the World Cup in Qatar in November and qualify for the first time since 1958. Cue wild scenes of celebration all around and I have still not got my voice back properly. We are now in a group of 4 along with England, USA and Iran, which will be fun, win, lose or draw its going to be one hell of a party. What a great weekend.

curbtender

And I thought we were the only ones who had Bog Snorkling Championships...

zukahn1

Very nice sunny day with temps in the mid 70's got some time and was able to ride the heavy slow clunker challenge 29er to Alma and back about 20 miles so I now have over 100 miles on this so challenge done. The ride up was pretty tough with the near 40lb beast but pretty a nice easy coast back.



Good chance this bike will end up here in the Alma bike graveyard in the near future. The blue Miyata frame was previous clunker that some how ended up here after it was donated.

scozim 

Sporadic riding continues thanks to the hectic work and family schedules. Converted the Trek 950 back to the original bars last week and took it out today to get in some climbing and loner time in the hills.

rccardr 

Palouse Tour Trip Weekend!
Your fans DEMAND it!,,,,

scozim 

I'm planning 2023. I think I have 2 weekends free until mid-August and then I move two girls to college.

leftthread

Beautiful day with really clear air, total of 79 miles.

Tango1

Another spot in my commute today on the Gardin

zookster 

Another Thursday night Trample ride with Redemptive Cycles in downtown Birmingham, AL. 9 mile urban ride this time out. Next time I will remember to take pictures.lol.

CV-6 

40 miles in Illinois. Great day.

20220609_151805 by L Travers, on Flickr

zukahn1

Very nice weather in the 70's and mild here in the Rockies so I put the original stem and seat back on the 2nd clunker challenge 100 bike and took it for a last round about ride back to the thrift store from where it came hopefully someone can use it as rider, just bit too small and hard manage for me.


Despite being only about 20years old it looks right at home at the tourist ghost town of south park city.



Hate to say it but the Sram X4 dive train sucks never got all 8 in the back to work and will knock out true adjustment if you look at it wrong.

smontanaro 

Rode from Niles to South Bend yesterday afternoon after knocking off lug filing for the day.

bironi

Sorry,
I just wrote a rather long brilliant report on today's ride.
Unfortunately I timed out and lost the content.
You'll never know what an amazing day it was.
My fingers are too tired to take you thru this momentous day.
Next time, I'll keep it short.

gaucho777 

I discovered a new-to-me trail. The trailhead is about 6 miles from my house, and just a couple miles past where I work, so this is going be a good option if I want to extend my commute home and take the road less traveled. Just off of Rifle Range Rd. is a trail that connects to Wildcat Canyon Creek Trail. You can take that for a few miles towards Tilden Park, a beautiful regional park that sits atop the Berkeley Hills and is bisected by a number of popular bike routes.


Heading down to the valley where Wildcat Canyon Creek run

Hard to see from the photo, but there are lots of bees coming & going from the hole in this tree. I was tempted to raid it for some fresh wild honey.

Nice hard-packed trail

Mirror pond, home many a turtle.

The trail ends at Little Farm, a sort of petting/feeding zoo.

It was a hot one today, at least for the bay area, with temps in the upper 80s. I hope these ladies remembered to stay hydrated. Most other animals had already sought shade shelter.

Little Farm

I ended the day just over 25 miles and ~2700' of climbinf.

thinktubes 

I initially thought you meant this Niles, which would be 110 miles one way.

CV-6 

My pics are a bit boring. Gravel Lejeune on The Katy.

eom 

Managed to get the Rear Admiral out for a ride on her bike instead of the tandem.

Tango1

No pictures but misjudged the weather and ended up riding 30km in thunderstorms this morning. Good thing about rain is once you’re wet, you can’t get much wetter.

cooperryder

Only 10 miles today on Bridgestone CB Zip squeezed in between activities with out of town visitors.


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Bianchigirll 

Just a little cruising through cul-de-sac land with Ugly Betty today. Going in and out of all the little nodules can really add up some miles.

curbtender

Took a side trip up Vista del Rio for a bicycle sale. Worth the trip.

non-fixie 

Nice weather today, so mrs non-fixie and decided to go out for a leisurely ride. A mix of woodlands and urban scenery.







I remember these machines from my youth, but the TikTok reference and the price were new to me:



Lunch: pork satay with fries and mayo.



After lunch we ran into a local crit race.



Lucky shot, given the speed at which these guys passed.

etherhuffer 

Boring ride today, crashed a week ago and had to lay low a bit. Got out the battle wagon with new fenders and new B17 to break in. Nice to not have filth flying off the tires for a change


Finally a sun break. Its been really wet

majmt 

I was in Colorado for the weekend and took a ride up the Crystal River to McClure Pass. Non-CV gravel bike but I was thinking of my CV bikes when I was riding.

bironi

Did you climb the pole?
More elevation gain!