A Day’s Glyding – Extreme Father’s Day!

Mum and Dad came up to see us for a few days so I took the week off work.  Dad decided he wanted to check out the views from the Glyders again – he did them a few years back but I’ve never tried them and the weather was looking perfect for a lad’s day out!  As it was definitely a Black Label route only Sami was coming with us – Paula and Mum would walk into Betws with Megan and meet us for pint and animated discussion of our daring do later.  It’s probably going to be the last walk I don’t take Megan on because I’ve done a couple of interesting routes since this one and she’s been better behaved than Sami…

In preparation for the week I persuaded Paula I couldn’t do without a decent camera so, after a trip to Jessops, I set off with a Canon 450D and a couple of lenses. Believe me, the photos in this blog are only a fraction of the ones I took on the walk and I couldn’t be more pleased with my new toy, although the operator could do with some more practice!

We parked at the bottom of the Miner’s Track near the Pen Y Gwryd Hotel – our rationale being that, although parking at Pen Y Pass would make the start of the walk easier, it would be really hard finishing it by trekking up the road, and for the extremely impoverished it was free to leave the car there!

 

The trek up the road is well known to anyone who doesn’t get to the Pen Y Pass car park at a reasonable time or isn’t astonishingly lucky (see Highs and Lows – Part 2 – Saturday).  Face the on-coming traffic and be ready to jump over the barrier when people come round the corners too fast – although generally there aren’t too many problems!  Once you get to the car park, instead of turning left to do the Miner’s and Pyg paths up Snowdon, carry on past the car park and buildings and turn right at the footpath sign on the other side of the road.  You cut around behind the buildings and the climbing starts immediately.  Within a couple of hundred metres we came across a huge water tank and a bunch of tents, although it seemed a strange place to have them (tents not tank) – admittedly sheltered from the wind but one of the few places in Snowdonia with absolutely no view!  And the weather had been nice for days…

 

With the first climb finished the ground levelled out for a while so we could get our breath back and start to admire the views.

 

 

 

That’s Llyn Cwmffynnon and of course Moel Siabod…

As the climb starts again you can follow the extremely helpful red blobs – patches of paint put down to show you the easiest route up the hill.  As always I had plotted our route into the GPS according to the path on the OS map; it didn’t follow the blob route exactly but we did. 

Our route up to the Glyders keeps Snowdon’s peak (in the background below) quite well hidden most of the time – behind Garnedd Ugain (in the forground), home of the rather terrifying Crib Goch route and not one I’m likely to be taking the dogs up…

 

 

 

Our much more pleasant path was still climbing relatively steeply and Pen Y Pass soon disappeared behind us.

 

And the twin peaks we were aiming for loomed up ahead of us.

 

 

 

A bit more climbing, a few more red blobs, and we were pretty much at the top where it flattens out completely and we started seeing other walkers, although we had been overtaken up our route by one guy, going like a rocket and looking like he could keep up that pace all day!

 

The views from the top were as you might expect, spectacular.  This one overlooks Llyn Idwal, down the valley following the A5 towards Bangor, the Menai Strait and Anglesey. 

 

 

 

 

A bit more wandering around and a couple of hundred photos later and we had done Glyder Fawr and it was time to take on the next peak, which is actually dead easy to do once you’re up here and very little climbing required!

 

 

 

But you do get a different perspective on the surrounding peaks and valleys, like this one looking down over the valley the Afon Glaslyn runs through, going around the base of Snowdon following the A498.

 

 

 

Another route up to the Glyders is over Tryfan, via Heather Terrace, which sounds like a pleasant stroll but is over the only peak in Snowdonia that supposedly cannot be reached without using your hands and knees. Another one I’m not taking the dogs up!

 

 

 

After all that it was definitely time for a rest and some lunch – this time round I even remembered food for the dog! I’d also recommend taking water for dogs as there are not a lot of natural water sources up here.  After some fiddling with the camera I managed to get the timer function to work!

 

 

 

I even let dad take some photos – this is the famous cantilever with me and Sami – although unfortunately you can’t see the sliver of moon in the background of this shot which set off the beautiful blue sky superbly!  We had been extremely lucky on the way up, quite a few clouds around to help us cool down occasionally but by the time we reached the top they had all dispersed and everything was completely clear.

 

 

 

I’ve even forced Paula to have that shot as the wallpaper on her PC!  The peaks of the Glyders are completely different to their surroundings – shards of rock jutting into the sky like a huge stony hedgehog.

 

 

 

With Glyder Fach conquered that just left the walk back down with the stunning view of the Glaslyn valley to occupy us.

 

 

 

 

By this time we had spent longer than anticipated messing about at the top and were getting late for our meeting with the girls.  Using all my pre-planning capabilities I had remembered to bring out my phone but didn’t actually have any credit on it and didn’t have my debit cards…  I had to wait for Paula to call me, once we were overdue the habitual “reached summit” phone call, to explain the situation.  Again we were lucky with the weather being recently dry and sunny because it meant we could take a short cut to the Miner’s track over what would normally have been knee-deep boggy ground.  Once we hit the track, the car and hotel were soon in sight but still a long way off.

 

Although we were following the Miner’s track down it’s still not a path you can take too quickly – it’s far from smooth and meanders around all the way down, cutting through numerous rivers – but it’s easier than making up your own path!  As the ground started to level out towards the bottom Sami spotted the car and went into sulk mode – even though we had been out for hours!

 

 

 

Her sulk mode involves sitting and then lying down and refusing to budge until I put the lead on her.  Once the lead is on she’s happy and will trot along willingly, although being lifted by her handle over the bridge at the bottom of the path never goes down too well…

The whole walk was about 6.5 miles (10.5km) long and we climbed nearly 850 metres in height.  We took our time, walking for about 5 hours and reached two peaks, Glyder Fawr at 999 metres and Gyder Fach at 994 metres.  Unusually for one of my treks neither of the routes, up or down, were better or worse than the other, both a challenge but no need for hands and knees scrabbling on either.  I would highly recommend them to anyone who fancies doing something a bit different to Snowdon and as my 70 year young dad managed them so can you – as long as you have kept yourself very fit for the past 40 years…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highs and Lows – Part 3 – Sunday

After my exertions yesterday I wasn’t up for a long walk but the dogs and Paula fancied getting out somewhere and I’d been eyeing up a large lake, right on the top of the hillside in between Dollgarrog and Trefriw, which I’d only spotted on the map.  By now you may be thinking I’m a tad obsessed with lakes… I’m not really they just give you a focus to go to and walk around – or something to focus the camera on as you walk past them, plus the whole water shimmering in the sun, reflecting clouds and landscapes – OK I’m a bit obsessed.  It’s actually a dammed reservoir called Llyn Cowlyn.  The road up to it seriously steep – even the map has >> signs on it, which means “Gradient: steeper than 20% (1 in 5)” which even on the tarmac bits tests out the Landrover and its driver!

 

You have to park up a fair way from the dam because the track has been closed off to traffic – the houses around the lake are deserted, presumably bought off with Compulsory Purchase Orders, and the landscape is about as flat as you get anywhere around here!

 

In the bottom right of the picture above you can just make out a black line which is the massive pipe coming out of the reservoir – it’s the first thing you see when you come over the brow of the hill.  The other thing you see are millions of sheep so the dogs were on their leads most of the time.

 

 

 

 

The dam is about a mile from where we parked the car but our route was taking us higher, up around the north side so we got a decent view of the lake as a whole.

 

 

 

 

About now the weather forecasters’ predictions actually became true and it started to rain for the first time over the weekend – only lasted ten minutes though.  Keeping the dogs on the lead, a spot of rain and a really quite boring lake were enough to make us give up even though we’d only been walking an hour or so.  Walking back along the shore of the lake did mean we could let the dogs off their leads because the sheep didn’t like the lake either… but they did like the dam!

 

 

 

 

The drive there and back was by far the most interesting part of the trip and offered some pretty stunning views.

 

And overlooking Trefriw

 

 

 

To round the day off we were planning to have lunch in the Ship Inn in Trefriw – great little pub with a nice beer garden we can let the dogs off their leads in but they have recently changed their lunch menu so it’s small starters which weren’t quite enough or large mains which were more than we were after – and they’ve even taken off their really nice ploughmans!  Disappointed we drove to Dolwyddelan to our local pub and got just what we were after – burger and gammon – although just as it was getting brought out to us the heavens opened and it absolutely pelted down completely soaking the serving people!  We were under a parasol and stayed perfectly dry, reading the papers and not moving until it stopped raining.  Although just as we were leaving Megan decided further investigation of the premises was required and Paula found her coming out of the pub kitchen following the chef!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highs and Lows – A Long Bank Holiday Weekend – Part 1 – Friday

As you might have guessed I’ve had to split this weekend’s blog up because it is soooo long!  Sort out a drink \ go to the loo before you start!

After last time’s pictorial homage to Sami you’ll probably get a few more of the scenery this time and maybe even some of Megan!

 

The weather people had been predicting rain for us for the whole weekend, with the possibility of some sun on the Bank Holiday Monday, so I wasn’t holding out much hope of getting a lot of walking done.  But, to be fair, the Met Office staff are a bunch of idiots who haven’t managed to predict our local weather correctly so far this year – we were even talking to a chap in the village who had specifically come out to Betws from Manchester because the weather had been predicted as terrible and he had correctly guessed that would actually mean it would be gloriously sunny most of the weekend.

Friday – I dropped Paula off at the hairdressers, which would give me about an hour to take the dogs around the Great Orme.  Unfortunately I forgot the camera so you’ll have to take my word for it, the weather was superb – it wasn’t even windy, which is really rare for the Orme!  Crystal clear skies and hardly a soul about.  As Paula wasn’t with me I did the path around the very edge – in a race with a spectacular 3 mast yacht as it sailed around the coast and into the marina at Conwy. 

In the afternoon I even had the time to re-pot some Livingstone Daisies – I had planted up one seed tray and managed to replant half of it – 160 individual plants so the conservatory window ledge looks like a greenhouse again.  I only stopped when I ran out of compost – the other half will get done next weekend.  The day finished off pleasantly with us and the dogs having our evening meal in the Royal Oak in Betws.

 

Things to do on a day off

Major news on the home front – we’re connected to mains water!! To celebrate the event, and make sure any emergency plumbing could be done, I took a few days off work. The Wednesday when the job was meant to start arrived and so did the workmen – who then pointed out that because our road is national speed limit they have to put up boards for road works at 600yds, 400yds and 200yds, as well as traffic lights – all of which they had failed to bring with them… I was not happy! Apparently this would mean contacting the local council and giving them 5 days notice before work could start. I was very unhappy! A small rant at an unfortunate girl in the contractor’s head office meant that the head honcho would call after 9:30 when they got into the office. The weather was great so I decided to climb a mountain instead of waiting – Paula didn’t fancy a mountain so she could deal with the water people!

I set off for Snowdon, map printed, GPS route downloaded – I was going up the Miner’s and coming down the Pyg. Not a route I’d done before and it would look cracking, with plenty of snow around once you got a bit of height. Paula got Sami sorted out – Megan couldn’t come because she had just come into season – while I packed lunch. We set out arriving at the Pen y Pass car park just after 10, to see the last space get filled. The day was not going well… I loitered with intent for a while but people seemed determined to stay and enjoy the day so I sulked and drove off. There was no way we were just going home – Sami sulking as well would have been unbearable, so I decided on Moel Siabod instead.

Siabod is our local mountain – you can see it from the field below our house – and it’s the 8^th highest in the Snowdonia range at 872 metres. It’s set apart from the rest of Snowdonia so you get some great views from the top, assuming the weather is clear enough, and the Lledr valley is classed as part of Siabod’s own range.

I parked up near Pont Cyfyng, opposite to some spectacular waterfalls that kill at least one muppet rock diver every summer – making it easy to spot because of all the “Private – No Entry” signs.

Once across the bridge you go past a couple of houses and then head up to your right over the first cattle-grid. Cattle-grids offer no worries to Sami as her harness turns her into a small carrier bag, although she’s not too keen on being picked up. This is where the hill starts and it’s harsh but once you get out of the trees and pop out above the farm, the views start. Once you’ve got about a mile from the carpark the path starts to flatten out as it goes into the sheep fields. Siabod starts to loom above you with Dyffryn Mymbyr and the A4086 on the right and the Lledr Valley and the A470 on the left. Over Dyffryn Mymbyr is the ridge I walked both dogs and blogged as Another Snowy March – no snow this time though.

As the flattish path ends it feels like you have reached the mountain proper – the Western ridge starts but I’m not taking a dog up that way! This is also the first of three mini lakes on the way up and this one isn’t too steep around the edges so once Sami’s checked with me she is straight in.

It’s not much good for stick throwing as there aren’t any trees around but chasing a bit of heather is always fun… and the huge splash as she jumped in scared the life out of a fellow walker sitting just around the corner.

With my breath caught back it’s time to set off up hill again – through the disused quarry and its slag heaps – but you do get a cracking view down over the valley, with Capel Curig beneath us, that even Sami seems to enjoy.

After another couple of hundred metres you get to the second lake, which sounds easy but it’s a steep couple of hundred metres. It’s the smallest on the way up but it looks the deepest and although they’re a bit hard to see in the photo it has a couple of decent little waterfalls.

Now the climbing starts again – pretty unrelenting until you reach the final lake, which I tend to give a fairly wide berth as the ground all around it is boggy unless it’s the middle of summer and it hasn’t rained for at least a few weeks, so in mid-April it’s going to be boggy. The path around it is fairly easy to follow though and on this walk it was our first proper view of the snow to come.

Once you get past the top lake the obvious path runs out and you have to start picking your own route although the sheep know the best paths and there are usually a few foot prints to follow. By this stage you have come right around the mountain and you have views overlooking Dolwyddelan.

It’s a hard and continuous climb from now on, with many stops to rest for a minute – you can’t get too tired here because you’re generally picking your way over boulders and this time round there was a fair bit of snow. Ideal opportunities for snacking and taking in the view, even if Sami just wants to keep going.

The snow wasn’t too deep so it didn’t really slow me down, not enough for the Yak-Traks to come out – Sami just thought it was great as usual but the pace she goes over the rocks is very disconcerting. From the start of the snow we were probably only three hundred metres (quite a bit of hands and knees climbing though) from The Fence – the first sign that you have nearly reached the top and I always feel sorry for the blokes who had to lug all the posts and wire up to erect it… Once over The Fence it’s just a few more hundred metres to the top but it’s all quite flat compared to what we’ve just been up! The snow was knee deep in places by now and the wind always picks up as you approach the summit – so it was freezing cold and the first time I’d needed to wear a jacket the whole way up.

That just left the peak to do – and to have a bit of lunch, which is always shared with Sami (and Meg if she’d been there). It always surprising how many people are at the top considering I only saw one fellow trekker on my route up but it was even more surprising to get to there and find a stream of squaddies virtually running up the other side of the mountain doing an orienteering course, especially as they were only wearing trainers, shorts and t-shirts while I was in full hiking gear with a pack on my back. It took me just under two hours to get here from the car park so I must be getting fitter!

It was quite cloudy when we reached the top, which is always disappointing after that sort of climb but luckily by the time we’d eaten the clouds had floated off and it cleared up.

That just left the trek back – going down the easy route although I did slip and go A over T three times on the way down so maybe a stick would have helped after all… This is where you see loads of people on their way to the top – it’s a long climb but quite gradual and safe, not half as fun as the route I took up and you only get to see one side of the mountain.

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This route takes you down the Capel Curig side of the mountain –looking over Dyffryn Mymbyr valley again.

There are some very soggy bits so Sami’s help in finding them saved me getting any wetter than I already was, although she did get seriously muddy.

Although with the view of Snowdon in the background it made a nice photo. I didn’t have the route plugged into my GPS because I had anticipated doing Snowdon so I can’t be too accurate about my placement on the ordinance survey map but this is about where the path appears. There’s a couple of stiles to get over – quite steep ones so I usually catch Sami on her way over and plonk her on the floor – she’d prefer to leap through the air but it goes right through me when she’s jumping from above my head-height!

As it starts levelling out you go into the woods on the opposite side of the lake from Plas y Brenin National Mountain Centre and you’re on the Forestry Commission paths. There are a few routes to get you back on to the road (A5) but if you keep taking the right hand forks on path splits you keep going along by the river, meaning Sami didn’t have to go on her lead until we reached the road where we initially crossed the bridge by the car park. Before then though there was just the little matter of getting Sami cleaned up.

And that was the walk done, one I highly recommend, Dad introduced this route to me a couple of years ago. You need to be reasonably fit but if you take your time rather than going as fast as possible (it took me just over and hour to get back to the car from the top) you get to enjoy great views from all sides of Siabod.

By the time I got home Paula had dealt with the water people who did manage to turn up the next day, although, after digging up both sides of the road and not finding the water supply, they realised they didn’t need the lights and signs because the main was right next to the house.

 

Totally red Label

Another snowy day but we knew it wasn’t going to last so we set out early. This is one of our favourite and most regular walks, setting off from our local village, Dolwyddelan, and walking around the valley leading up to Foel-fras. One side is based on an old Roman road, that’s now the drive-way for the couple of houses up there, and the other side is a wide Forestry Commission track so it’s one of Paula’s favourites as well.

We normally leave the car in the train station car park, go over the bridge and down past the station house. There is a small parking area on the right and then the start of the path. The path up the valley starts with a hill that isn’t all that steep but does go on and on and on. But once that’s out of the way it’s pretty much flat – which makes it a popular walk with lots of people so we nearly always see someone else on this one. This is about the highest point on our walk, guess where Paula is standing!

The walk is about 5 miles in total and usually takes about 2 hours – we’re in no rush. There are quite a few paths to take but the most obvious are the two that follow right around the edge – one at the bottom of the valley and one about two thirds of the way up. This time we were lazy and did the lower path – it still looks great from the furthest point up the valley though.

Our way back was down the left hand side of the valley in the photo above and just before the excavated site (Elan’s house, I believe) we cross back over to the other side of the valley using the foot bridge to get over the river. There are two reasons for this, the dogs stay off their leads for longer because we don’t walk through the village and this river is one of Sami’s favourite swimming spots – hours of fun can be had for her chasing sticks as they float off. Today was a bit flipping cold for all that messing around though – even if most of the snow had melted by the time we got here!

 

Another Snowy March

With Easter so early this year, it was a bit strange having some snow around for the Bank Holiday, even if it did mean trekking up the mountains to get to it. It was the first big trek out for Megan, she’s well-trained enough now but still much younger than when I first trusted Sami on a Black Label route.

I started from Capel Curig, using the car park behind the shops where the A5 splits to go off to Bangor or towards Snowdon. The map figured the trip was 5.3 miles and would take about 3 hours to complete but with decent snow I added an extra half hour to my estimate as I was meeting Paula and the in-laws in a nice little hotel at the other end for lunch.

My route was going to take me up Cefn Y Capel, across Bwlch Goleuni and straight over the top of Y Foel Goch, coming down the Miner’s Track and into the Pen Y Gwryd Hotel. We would basically go across the top of the right hand side of the valley if you are looking towards Snowdon, with Moel Siabod on your left.

We were walking in slushy snow from the beginning, with intermittent spells of ankle-deep mud – which is where the dogs come in to their own, if they sink you know to avoid that bit! Half a mile of continuous climb and we were in the snow.

With the first hard climb done it levelled out and gave me a chance to get my breath back – the dogs just seemed pleased I was finally picking the pace up a bit… The wind was howling by now but the views were stunning.

The next climb was a bit harsh and I had to get out the Yak-Traks to keep my footing, the dogs just thought it was great because the snow was getting deeper and they could dive right underneath it! But by the time I reached the top, visibility was quite low because the wind was whipping up so much snow and ice – with my jacket fully zipped up I was OK but the dogs were less impressed with their ears streaming behind them and their eyes just little slits – I didn’t have to mention walking to heel once! Having the map as well as the GPS was invaluable as I could pick out the path and know what was coming up ahead; you could see the path because the snow was very even rather than broken up with the heathers on either side. Even so, I relied on the GPS more than once to know exactly where we were going. We eventually hit the Miner’s Track and then it was all down hill.

You might have noticed the harnesses the dogs are wearing. They aren’t fashion accessories, or even to keep them warm, they essentially mean the dogs have a handle on their backs so they are easy to pick up and they also have a lead loop so you can attach them without getting soaking wet! If you’ve ever tried to put a lead on a wet spaniel you’ll know what I mean… They were especially useful at the end of this walk – towards the bottom of the Miner’s Track there is a footbridge over a small river, it’s a grated metal effort, half a metre wide, with a hand rail. I went straight over it without thinking only to turn round and see both dogs staring at me as if I was mad and may have just levitated across the water. Sami loves a bit of water and after a moment’s thought dived straight into the river and swam across. Megan on the other hand loves a bit of water but only if it has a lot of mud involved and she doesn’t actually have to do any swimming – so I went back, picked her up by her handle and carried her over, during which time Sami was back in the river, out the other side then back in again, thoroughly confused but very pleased with herself.

That just left the Pen Y Gwryd for a well deserved pint, roaring fire and roast beef with all the trimmings – huge portion so plenty for the dogs to join in! Happy spaniels must be one of the greatest aids to floor sweeping any human has ever witnessed.

We’ll definitely being doing this walk again but I’ll be waiting for some sunshine so I can properly appreciate the views and show that there aren’t always grey clouds in Snowdonia!

 

Red Label, Black Label

As I add walks to this site I’m going to start dividing them in various arbitrary sections – to start with Red Label and Black Label. Red will be walks that require effort but are ones that Paula is willing to have a go at – no steep heights on small paths, minimal mud, mostly on nice wide Forestry Commission paths unless I think I’ve spotted a sneaky short-cut. Black Label will be unknown before I set off, usually planned on the mapping software so I have a vague idea of where I’m going and then downloaded on to the GPS. They are often the most fun but it’s generally just me and the dogs – I can almost guarantee at least ankle deep mud (or knee deep snow) to go with really stunning views!

This was the view a couple of years ago on the way to the top of Snowdon – a dozen of us idiots set off and it was awesome – definitely a 20 year old single malt of a walk though… but no dogs, it was scary enough looking after myself! We started at Pen Y Pass and went up the Pyg. With no crampons I had to dig in with every step – my legs were killing me for a few days afterwards – I now use Yak-Traks!

 

Secret Snowdonia

As this is my first post on my first blog you will have to bear with me until I’ve got the hang of it!

I’m lucky enough to live in the middle of Snowdonia National Park with a wonderful “other-half” and two idiot Springer Spaniels – all of whom love trekking about the hills and valleys enjoying the fantastic scenery. We can go out for a three hour walk and never see another soul, which is great in terms of tranquillity but seems a bit of shame that nobody else is enjoying the views and so that is the point of this blog – as well as letting my dad (another keen walker) know what I’m up to and feel slightly jealous because he only has the Purbeck Coast and New Forest to play with until he (and mum, walker – not quite as keen) come up to stay with us for a holiday.

So, enjoy the photos and I’m afraid you will have to put up with dogs in action shots because I think they are more interesting than just great scenery!