Looking forward to Afan. What’s your top trail?
Looking forward to Afan. What’s your top trail?
So, I’m off to Afan, Wales in less than 2 weeks time. Four of us have planned a one-day dash to the Welsh hills for some awesome Afan trail fun – as long as it’s not hammering it down, believe me, a 3 hour drive followed by a wet and wild 3 hour ride, topped off by another 3 hour drive home is not entirely fun. But Whites Level in the dry is by far the best trail I’ve ridden, IMO. What’s your trail of choice?
As sick as it might sound, I always look forward to riding the Whites Level climb. Despite being a relatively long 9 km climb, it has to be the most pleasurable climb I’ve ever ridden. It’s technical, keeping the mind occupied, which therefore makes it challenging, and when completed at a good steady pace, it’s very rewarding. Not only that, but when you reach the top, the next section is the black run, which is a fast and furious decline ending in a very steep descent.
After this, it continues onto the boardwalk section, which has been revised more recently to include more boards through open countryside. Fun, but brutal in high winds.
The final descent takes in a breathtaking range of big stepped drops, switchbacks and fast narrow off-camber adrenalin rushed fun. I’ll tell you more of this experience later on my return.
In the meantime, tell us what your favourite all-time trail is…
Looking forward to Afan. What’s your top trail?Related posts:
- London to Afan, Whites Level, Afan to London - All week, we anticipated the worst whilst we closely monitored the weather forecast for the Port Talbot area. As the week passed, the ambiguous reports suggested the conditions were improving, from “heavy snow” on Monday with midweek reports indicating “heavy rain”, “light rain”, “thick fog”...
- Trails: Whites Level, Afan, Wales - My personal favourite, Whites Level is the most technical of all the trails in Afan Forest Park and is 90% purpose-built singletrack. A 6km sheep-track climb gives fantastic views of the Afan Valley, extreme exposure on tight singletrack means ultimate thrills and long, demanding descents...
- Video: The Black run at Whites Level, Afan - Although video can never do this trail justice, this should provide a good idea of how much fun this particular section of Whites Level is. Exhilarating! Thanks to Wooty22 on YouTube for making this video of the black run at Afan’s Whites Level trail....
- Trails: The Wall, Afan, Wales - Some of the best singletrack descents in the UK, this trail essentially traverses the North side of the Afan Valley on singletrack, varying from fast, open and flowing to tight, technical and rooty. Great views of the valley and coastline open out at different points,...
- Video: The Hidden Valley on Afan’s Penhydd trail, Wales - Here’s a piece of video of a great section of the Penhyyd trail in Afan. The section is called The Hidden Valley and is a lovely sweeping single track descent through tight switchbacks and tree lined trail. Great fun! Taken on my Oregon Scientific ATC5K,...
