I was up working @ 5.30am yesterday. Up to catch a data window at work which is only open between 4am and 6am. Fast forward 9hrs and I decided to clock off and go for a ride out to the Ogwen Valley. I’m in North Wales this week, staying with my folks which means I can find new places to ride. I’d plotted an 85km route along the coast to Bangor to pickup the Lon Las Ogwen path up into the Afon Cegin valley past Llyn Ogwen then offroad to Capel Curig and back via a steep climb through Gwydir Forest to the Conwy Valley and back to base. I reckoned 3.5hrs. Lon Las Ogwen had been on my to-do list for a while and here was my chance.
I took a last minute work call which pushed my departure past 3pm and I was off. The clouds and rain earlier in the day had cleared and it felt quite warm in the sun too.
I rode down to Llandudno Junction and took the bridge past Conwy Castle. I was in and out of the town walls in the blink of an eye and riding over the A55, where it pops back out of the tunnels, to pick up NCN Route 5 and follow the coast to Bangor. It’s predominantly a traffic-free route that tracks the A55 dual-carriageway. Great views but a bit noisy with the traffic at times.
Occasionally the segregated path splits you from the traffic because it goes through tunnels. Here you are rewarded with a moment of tranquility and awesome coastal views. But it doesn’t last for long.
You get to ride along the seafronts of Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan before climbing up under the A55. From here the traffic-free path literally sits next to the main road for a few miles crossing under as you near Bangor. It’s probably the safest segregated path I’ve ever seen.
On the outskirts of Bangor I was back on open but quiet roads and dropped down towards the town before non-descript right turn. Here I cycled around for a few mins trying to find the start of the Lon Las Ogwen path before realising it was underneath me. The signage down to it wasn’t great and the entrance to it is quite underwhelming.
Lon Las Ogwen starts off very green, tracking a wide shaded path. I passed a few walkers and cyclists but what really surprised me was the gradient. It was no where near as gentle as I expected. Steep in places in fact. We’d had quite a lot of rain over the Bank Holiday weekend and it was a bit moist too and no doubt subject to ice in the Winter. Great fun though. Quiet and a good surface.
Further on I was treated to a cool little tunnel before being stopped by a guy asking if I had a pump as he’d forgotten his and was taking his young lad for a ride. Tyres pumped I carried on and then found out some of the route past Bethesda was actually closed for works. Bollocks.
I reluctantly decided to ride through Bethesda on the A5. It has a rep for being really busy with tourist traffic but I have to say it wasn’t too bad. I rode past ZipWorld and could see their famous zip lines spanning the quarry and thought to myself that would actually be pretty cool to do at some point.
I turned right a little further on to try and find the Lon Las Ogwen path again but no joy and I couldn’t make any sense of the map at the works site so I just carried on until I found a right turn onto a narrow road that took me back onto my route picking it up around the back of ZipWorld. This backroad too me straight into the valley with it’s amazing backdrop
As the A5 gently climbed on the opposite side of the valley, I headed to a shorter, much steeper climb that popped me out at Llyn Ogwen
It was obviously quieter than normal as some of the car parks had spaces available. Maybe the time of day but there were still walkers donned in their all-weather gear walking back to their cars.
Just after Llyn Ogwen I got to ride offroad for the first time. It wasn’t the gravel utopia I was hoping for. Initially the sheer number of gates was ridiculous. One bridge over a stream had a gate either end of the bridge FFS! What I thought was going to be a fast, slate, gravel path was actually littered with big sharp rocks and and made the going hard and slow for most of it. Throw in some time to herd sheep and cows out of the way, in hindsight, I wished I’d not ridden it on my narrow 35mm tyres. It’s much better suited to wider, higher volume tyres. However it did get better for the last bit as I neared Capel Curig.
At Capel Curig I was back on the A5 briefly then a right to take a lane to The Ugly House which is back on the A5 but kept me off the main road. From here the road was straight up and steep as I began the climb over Gwydir Forest. 1st gear, pull a wheelie kind of steep in places but it did give way to a great view across the forest valley.
My original plan was to drop back to Conwy Valley via LLyn Geirionnydd but time was ticking so I just went straight over the top and dropped onto the valley road on the outkskirts of Llanwrst instead.
From here I ploughed on back up the valley trying to get back before 7pm. It was a bit of a slog as the legs and back were complaining a bit now. The draggy climb up to Tyn-y-Groes was ok and all I had left was the descent to Tal-y-Cafn, across the River Conwy there and one last long climb up and over back to base and I was done.
It was a shame I couldn’t ride the whole of Lon Las Ogwen and despite a tough headwind along the coast and the climb inland it was great, 3.5hr, predominantly traffic-free or very quiet route which I will attempt again.
Adios
