Gwydyr with friends

Went mountain biking to Betws Y Coed today, an early start to get to the Marin trail at Gwydyr Forest in time to beat the A55 caravan-pulling traffic and get back home at a reasonable enough time to award us plenty of brownie points in lieu for another trip sometime soonish.

It's not a difficult trail seeing as most of it is made up of fire road climbs not too dissimilar to the crest of the one in my blip, but what downhill singletrack there is just about makes up for it - especially the last section which is simply brilliant fun giving enough of an adrenaline rush to want to do that bit all over again.

Slipped on the peddle a couple of times today, one where my right shin took my full body weight. I've clacked my shins plenty of times but to say this time it hurt like BILLY-O is one HELLUVA understatement - it wrecked so much I thought at one point I'd fractured something. Think some knee and shin pads are long overdue.

[camera held by my riding buddy O as we crested the final climb that was about to lead to the final downhill section, hence the excited expressions on our faces. That's me on the yellow one. Never realised it looked so child-like with my shoulders and legs balancing on top]