Guilsfield Hill Walkers

A small group, a clear day, a dry day and a rough tough mountain make for something special. And Brian led a special day in my favourite mountains – The Rhinog. Today it was Rhinog Fach, but a day on which I left my camera in the van – again!  So the pics in the gallery are all stolen from the WWW.

Five of us squeezed into Brian’s BM and headed up to the car park in the woods at Graigddu-isaf; off the Bronaber straight north of Dolgellau. Welcome to Dave from the village for his first outing with us – a good walk to start with – look forward to you coming again.

This is always a good way to start a walk and get you going – a couple of miles through the plantation on forestry tracks, but it stops dead about 10m from the fence over which you climb and jump the stream into the rough tussock grass on the other side.  From here the route follows a substantial wall nearly all the way to the top but it gets steeper and rockier the higher you go.  Good patches of sundew, common spotted orchid and bog asphodel showing well. We learnt from Dave that livestock are poisoned by eating bog asphodel.

We breasted the ridge and the whole of the North Wales coast spread out before us – from Harlech right rount to Bardsey and beyond – stunning, and not a pedalo in sight. A quick lunch and then down the rocky end of Rhinog Fach, past the tiny Llyn Cwmhosan and then we dropped down into Bwlch Drws-Ardudwy, which was not its usual sloppy boggy self, but dry.  We followed the track up to the cairn and over the top to look down on the wide land that stretches up to Trawsfynydd and picked our route back to the cars through the now partly felled forestry.

Thanks to Brian for a good day, not only did he lead the walk but he also drove – thanks Brian.

Derek Brockway has to be thanked for this walk and Graham for picking it up and leading us – it’s a star of a walk and we did it on a star of a day. (Go here for the route map and details of what to see en route. Scroll down to Rhayader and click.)  If you get a chance, choose a good day and give it a go: you wont be disappointed.

The route starts in Rhayader town and heads north up the ridge on the west side of the A470 and crosses this road at Pont Marteg by the entrance to Gilfach Nature reserve. From here it follows the Afon Marteg up to the the nature reserve buildings, then turns south following part of the Wye Valley Walk back to Rhayader town.

Rather than write a description of the walk, have a look at the photos and read Derek’s account of the route: much better than I could do.

Thanks to all who came and all who drove. Pics in the gallery.

A very special day for Mr Richard Rees: not only did he lead us on one of the wettest walks ever but he also became a Grandfather.  Congrats to his son Chris and wife Debbie on the birth of their daughter Arrya Lily Ann Rees in the early hours of Sunday morning.

It wasn’t actually raining when 6 of us parked up at Cae Adda on the south side of Llyn Trawsfynydd, but we had had a wet journey out and the day looked set for universal dampness. It was only after about 20 minutes that we decided to stop and delve into the depths of the rucksacs to drag out the overtrousers as it was now raining steadily. We were heading west over the shoulder of the north end of the Rhinog heading for the wonderful valley of Cwm Moch, underfoot is was very boggy and much wetter than the recce ten days earlier. We splashed on pausing only for drinks at the top under that well know Rhinog mountain called ‘Pile of Stones’.  Down the valley soggy and across the flooded valley bottom to that wonderful old house – Nant Pasgan-Mawr where we took an early lunch in a lean-to shelter at the rear much used by sheep.

From here we headed North-east along the Nant Ddu and picked up the conduit that leads round to the Trawsfynydd dam.  Just above the dam the old footpath has been replaced by a very posh cycle path. As we turned to the south-east to join the path the heavens decided to unleash some of the wettest rain available.  We all retreated into our own wet world, put our heads down, engaged auto pilot and started the trudge up and over the hill back to Cae Adda. By the top the rain was easing off and when we reached the road it had stopped and the world was a much nicer place.  On the road we played the good shepherd, re-uniting ewe 61 with her twin lambs, 61 and 61. We cornered them both and I managed to scoop 61 over the fence to a very relieved mum, but the other 61 didn’t want to be caught.  After much chasing and ushering we managed to get all three 61s together again with much suckling and tail wagging to prove all was OK.

Back to the cars and a splashy drive home in steamed up vehicles to wet the baby’s head in The Oak.  Thanks to Richard for leading after only 3 hours sleep and to all who came and all who drove.  Pictures in the gallery.

Peter booked a jolly nice day for our walk – sunshine nearly all the way – with plenty of interest and excitement.  Two contrasting features of the landscape dominated the skyline all day – Chirk Castle and Kronospan – both providing interesting photo opportunities.

Seven of us headed down Chirk Bank and under the canal and railway – supposedly the railway is higher than the canal to emphasise its higher status – and set out west along the Afon Ceiriog, which was rushing and brown, much like the Vyrnwy on the last walk.   We crossed the river at Pont Faen and walked up to Bronygarth via Pentre Wood where we saw a profusion of Sarcoscypha Coccinea – the Scarlet Elf Cap fungi – and the first shoots of wild garlic which was perfuming the damp air;  then back down to the river and joined The Offa’s Dyke path.  Here were learned about the Battle of Crogen from a very impressive plaque on the bridge.

From the river we had the second climb of the day: up the side of the valley to the west of Chirk Castle through the woods, coming out on the tops with good views of both the castle and the Kronspan plume. We continued NW across sheep dotted fields and joined the lane past the old kennels and onwards through some rather sloppy gateways and down the bank to the canal at Pentre. By this time even Graham’s boots had lost their shine. We stopped on the canal bank for refreshments before tackling the challenges of the tunnels that lay ahead of us.

The first, the Whitehouse Tunnel at 174m, was an introduction to the very much longer Chirk Tunnel to come. The torches come into good use here and some of us found that they were not as good as we thought they were and were glad Graham was there with his searchlight. Tunnel two, Chirk Tunnel at 421m,  loomed, this is not quite straight and gets VERY dark in the middle. But all safely through and out onto the aqueduct.   We crossed and returned then it was back up into the village and to the cars.

Thanks to Peter for another Grand Day Out and thanks to all who came and all who drove. 

What a day! Hard overnight frost left the lanes from Chirbury through Priest Weston and onwards to The Bog a bit iffy in places, but all arrived safe and sound in the car park. The sky was brilliant blue, and the air was crisp as we left the car park to meet the most treacherous part of the walk – crossing the road on the harpin – it was like glass.  We headed up to Black Ditch and turned south and round the end of the Stiperstones ridge on good paths to the big car park below Cranberry Rock. It was then up the wide track to the ridge and the views from the ridge were terrific.  As somebody said – “… if it wasn’t for the heat haze we could have seen forever …”

The ridge path was as troublesome as ever, but made more so with the addition of a good layer of frost on the rocks.  We paused at Manstone Rock and then on to the Devil’s Chair.  It was along here that Julie nearly stepped on a Red Grouse that was feeding on the edge of the path.  It errupted in an explosion of wings and chattering calls and glided away into the heather – a real bonus for the day.  Elevenses was called at the Devil’s Chair and I offered to take folk up to sit in the chair.  But it was far too icy on the rocks to get into the chair but we had an adventure with stunning views.  Go here for the Legend of the Devil’s Chair.

After refuelling and more admiring the views we left the rocks and on down to the top of Perkins Beach, turning west down past the reservior and onto the good path heading south back to black Ditch.  And then just a short hop back to the cars in The Bog Visitor’s Centre Car Park.

Just long enough for a morning walk and we couldn’t have had better weather.  Thanks to all who came and all who drove.