The oldest purpose built trail in the country? Perhaps not, but it must be one of the more famous early mountain bike trails built in the UK that is still in regular use.
It’s fair to say I’m pretty familiar with the Marin trail, build in the edges of the Gwydr Forest at Llanrwst in North Wales. It was the nearest trail to where I grew up and I’ve ridden it on a variety of bikes with a bunch of different people in all kinds of weather over the years.
As trail centres go, it barely qualifies. Originally the car park was more of a layby although today the facilities have expanded to include a proper purpose built car park and... and, well that’s about it.
The evening before, following Llandegla and Delamere, I’d had to do some emergency surgery to my rear wheel using a vice. Brutal but effective. It completely held up all day too with not so much as a hint of my brakes rubbing.
The heavens opened as I was approaching and I sat in the car for a few minutes in the car park hoping the rain would go away. Just as I’d built up the resolve to get soaked and had started assembling my kit, the rain gradually stopped and the sun tentatively peeked out. It turned into a lovely day.
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| I love this view! |
I may have moaned a bit about the first climb at Llandegla, but nowhere I’ve ever ridden has a climb like the fist one out of the car park on the Marin. I’ve always ground slowly up it but it really is a killer, sit there and spin sort of a climb.
But, the reason this is all good is that the quality of the single track at the end of each section of fireroad climb is excellent. True virtually all the singletrack is downhill, but is that such a loss? Around 2000/2001 I’d ride this on a Marin B-17 and it was a great choice for this trail, light enough to climb but enough suspension to make the descents super fun.
I don’t think much maintenance is carried out on this trail but you know what? I don’t think it has really suffered. Other trails seems to get ruined with braking bumps and pot holes but the singletrack on this beast just seems to survive and it’s as rideable today as it ever was in my opinion. It’s like some primal force is keeping it going, ready to welcome more riders.
This day, there were some signs that forestry work was being carried out and that a section (called Blue) was closed. Being a Sunday I decided that I’d follow the original trail anyway and was rewarded by seeing the changes that have happened to this section. The fir trees had really closed in over the last few years, giving the section a completely different feel, and likely helping with the drainage too. Another big shock was the amount that the woods have grown in around another deforested area, just before a section called Endor. In the past this areas was quite open with just some young trees. I've seen birds of prey perched on the taller remains of old, larger trees in this section but today it felt similar to some other parts of the trail.
Aside from the final descent, my favourite section is the Dragon’s Tail; an undulating section with incredible views to the South West, built to follow a rocky ridge. It can be a back-breaking ride on a rigid bike, and duly my back felt a bit worse for wear after. If anything though I rode it just as fast as ever.
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| Same view, no face(it was camera phone only today, sorry for the pics!) |
As usual I was glad to see Llyn Parc toward the end of the ride, knowing that just one killer climb lay ahead before a superb descent to the finish. Had a really sketchy moment when my mind wandered and I got caught in the wrong place on some crazily muddy double track and nearly caused a high-speed close encounter between my face and a fir tree.
All was good though and the last descent was just as good as ever. In fairness some corners need maintenance but in the grand scheme of things the trail is technical in an old school sense so some deterioration almost adds to the charm.
Three centres in two days had made for a pretty full on weekend. Back to the Midlands for a rest and work on Monday!
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