Monday 17 November - Rhialgwm & Allt y Main

Weather: Gloriously sunny morning with just a few clouds bubbling around later.

Rhialgwm (SJ 055 211; 540m)

Start Point: layby by Ty Cerrig on B4396

Distance and ascent: 7.4km, 290m

If I'd looked at the 1:25k map on the hill, or the notes I'd made in advance, I would have known that the old track did, in fact, go almost to the summit, if I'd just taken more trouble to keep myself on it. 

There's a minor road off the B4396 that would have got me nearer to this hill, but my journey up there on StreetView had told me that we wouldn't be driving it. It's narrow, hemmed in by hedges, doesn't have passing places, and I'd read that the road surface degrades significantly after the house that's up there. Erica doesn't like rutted roads (she hangs low, with her wheelchair-accessible lowered floor), and it was no hardship to walk the extra distance from the B road.

Beyond the minor road was a byway, and it put me in mind of routes I've run and walked in France. That lasted until I got out of the trees and was faced with a field covered in dead (but not yet entirely flattened) bracken. A series of trods took me up through most of it, to a relatively newly replaced barbed-wire fence. A trodden line immediately next to the fence, via a couple of rotting sheep, took me to another fence, but that one I was able to step over (I had to go slightly uphill to where a rock effectively made the fence lower - pity I left my poles down at the corner, as it was rather steep making my way back down the other side).

I then picked up an old grown-over (but still pretty obvious) track, but lost it where there was a tree growing in the middle of it and I went right around the tree, missing the fact that the track turned left at that point. The subsequent yomp through dead bracken, then heather, was harder going than I'd expected on this hill. 

The reward came at the top. What an excellent summit! Helped by the weather, the views were extensive in every direction. It had been worth the effort. 

I more or less retraced my steps for the return, managing to walk more of the old track on the way back.  

A quick lunch back in Erica, and off to my final hill of the trip.

(Looks like we're going with photos out of order again today) 

Up the bridleway

Summit selfie

The friendly heather, with a line through it, and my first view of the trig point.

This would have been somewhere between the stuff of nightmares and impossible in peak bracken season (although in fairness, I was trespassing here, as the right of way through the forest is blocked by most of the trees having snapped in half during some storm). 
 

Allt y Main (SJ 162 151; 356m)

Start Point: end of minor road, SW of summit

End Point: Layby on A495, SE of summit

Distance and Ascent: 4.5km, 190m 

 

I would strongly advise against my route of dropping straight down the hillside from the summit. 

Mick dropped me at the end of the minor road to the SW of the hill, where I know that other people have parked. However, the only off-road space there, is through a gate just beyond the road end, and it's just off a track that leads to a house. Neither of us felt convinced that it was somewhere we should be parking, so rather than waiting there, Mick drove around to the layby I had originally intended to be my starting point (before laziness caused me to go for the route of least ascent). 

There's a track, then a path, that leads the whole way to the summit and with less than 200m to be gained over the course of 2.5km, it's an easy walk. Unusually for a hill in the UK, there's even a bench up there, and it's a fine place for a seat, being an excellent viewpoint. 

Having admired the views, I then took a rush of blood to my head and decided that instead of following the entirely sensible, but indirect route, of retracing my steps, I would just drop down the side of the hill, back to the track that I could clearly see below me. That was a mistake. Or to put it more precisely, that was a MISTAKE! Will I ever learn? 

It was fine for the first section, until I hit a big tangle of brambles, with two options: climb steeply back up, or bash through them. I bashed through (my Paramo trousers protected me from scratches). It was slow and awful. To make matters worse, I got to within a linear pace of the track, to realise that I was a vertically above it, with no way of getting down. Another big patch of brambles lay on my escape line. By the time I got back onto the track, it was clear that the long way around would have been quicker, easier and far more sensible*. 

The rest of the way was plain sailing, even if there was a period of great confusion in conversation with Mick when I found that my intended path didn't exist and thus I was going to come out further up the road than expected. We weren't helped by Mick looking at the wrong map, and thus not being able to fathom which path I was talking about. All was resolved when, to my great surprise, I came out exactly where Mick was parked. It turned out that the fault was my misinterpretation, at the planning stage, of where the layby I could see on a StreetView lay on the 1:50k map. 

So, five days and twelve more summits collected. A good time has been had, and thanks go to Mick for ferrying me around.

(*I've just checked the stats to see if my short cut really was slower, or if it just felt slow. Going back the way I'd come on the tracks would have been 1.5km which even at a walk would have taken me 15 minutes. I probably would have run some or all of it so it would have likely taken me 11 minutes. My ill-advised descent route took me 12 minutes.) 

As I now look at the view behind me in this snap, I realise that the notable hill over yonder is the one I'd been up earlier. 

 

At the risk of expressing a controversial view, I think that more summits in the UK (and more paths) would benefit from having benches installed.  

 

 

 

 

 

16 November - Tarrenhendre & Tarren y Gesail

Tarrenhendre (SH 682 041; 634m) & Tarren y Gesail (SH 710 059; 667m)

Start Point: where the track to 'Quarry Siding Halt' leaves the B4405 (no parking - I was dropped off)

End Point: Abergynolwyn 

Distance and Ascent: 16.2km, 930m 

Weather: Overcast but dry. Disappointing, against a forecast of wall-to-wall sunshine. 10 degrees in the valley.

 

Had I been by myself, I would have done this as a circuit from Abergynolwyn, going through the forest from Abergynolwyn Station. My other plotted route was from where I did actually start, but taking the more direct route using the track that ends W of the summit. In the event I decided I fancied the option that was a little further, but gentler and on a good track all the way to the ridge path. 

If I'd visited these hills yesterday (when the views would have been so much better), I might have been thwarted on my chosen route by two fords that were still swollen, with evidence that the streams had flooded very recently. As it was, I was able to cross a few paces upstream (I would say 'without getting my shoes wet', except the grass alongside was waterlogged in both cases).

 

Reaching a cairn on Tarrenhendre, I snapped my usual summit selfie, took a snap of the view (which turned out to be one of the clearest of the day, before the murk descended again), and sent a message to Mick telling him I was at the top. Fortunately, I then noticed that I had two waypoints marked on my map and thus came to realise that where I was standing was not the top - it was a spurious waypoint. Glad I noticed that when I did! 

 

With the actual top duly visited, onwards to my next objective, via a rather pleasing walk along the ridge (albeit there was a bit where I went around a small lump rather than over it). 

 

At the final dip before heading up Tarren y Gesail, I was surprised to see a newly laid track, terminating at a turning circle, off the end of which was a newly laid footpath. That wasn't marked on my map, but I had a good phone signal, so I paused to look at aerial maps to work out where it went. Up my hill was the answer, albeit it looked to take a rather indirect zig-zagging route. Given that I was 180m below the summit, and less than 1km away, I decided to stick to Plan A, which was to go straight up the fenceline. 

 

It turned out that: a) the path was newly surfaced at the bottom, rather than being a new installation  - further up it looked like it had been there for some time; and b) it zig-zagged to almost touch the fenceline so I could have hopped onto it at various points; and c) straight up the fence was the right choice for me - as much as I'd enjoyed the easier but less-direct route up my first hill, this path did seem to have taken the zig-zags to the extreme when it wasn't that steep (and not at all eroded) going straight up. 

 

This is one of those 'find the patch of ground that's maybe an inch higher than all the other ground nearby' jobs, so I did the best I could with finding the unmarked highpoint, before continuing on to the trig point (which has seen better days).

 

The first bit of the descent was soggy indeed, before I got onto nice firm grass again. I then took a short cut that was quite possibly both harder and slower than my intended route, but having picked my way down the edge of a felled area of forest, then down a field of long grass hiding some boulders and holes, I made it to the footpath through a large area of quarry remains (buildings and slag heaps, not just a hole with a pond at the bottom). That footpath was both overgrown and running with water, making me slower than I would have liked (knowing that Mick was waiting for me once again in the local cafe); the track onto which it deposited me was even wetter still, overtopping my socks before I finally got onto solid ground. 

 

A gentle jog along the road saw me back to Abergynolwyn only a short while after Mick had been ejected from the cafe as they'd decided to close early (I asked whether it was the only way they could get rid of him, but he had been the only customer, so probably an economic decision). I apologised for my slowness, before looking at my watch and discovering that I'd only been 10 minutes longer than expected. 

 

Photos in a random order today: 

 

The trig on Tarren y Gesail

Upper Dolgoch Falls

One of the contenders for highest spot on Tarren y Gesail (I think the actual high point was a little further on)

Summit selfie on Tarrenhendre, after I realised my first summit selfie wasn't at the summit.

Oh, to have had the forecast blue sky to show off the views to their best advantage

The clearest view snap that I managed.

Taking the long route up Tarrenhendre - you can see how gentle the track ascends

Why does a gate which has a perfectly serviceable spung bolt, also need a chain with a clip? And why, if you feel that the sheep may have learnt to open a sprung bolt, do you apply a chain so short that it's really difficult to clip it back together when you're on the opposite side of the gate to the clip? Because I couldn't bring myself to leave the chain off, even though it's clearly not needed, I nearly climbed back over this gate to secure it as I struggled so much once I'd passed through. 

Another view shot. 
 

 

 

15 November: Gamallt, Foel Cae'rberllan & Foel Cocyn

Weather: Sunny intervals (and no hint of the fog that the Met Office told me would persist all day)

Gamallt (SH 665 067; 288m)

Start Point: Car park in Abergynolwyn

Distance and ascent: 3.4km, 260m

 I'd considered doing this as a circuit with Foel Cae'rberllan next door, but opted for two out-and-backs. This was the right decision as it allowed me to join Mick in the local cafe at lunchtime, before heading back out, however, there certainly would be merit in doing the circuit.

The downside of the out-and-back was that I had to tackle some awfully steep terrain (where the map makers could only fit two intermediate contour lines) in both directions. Fortunately, it was easy, steep terrain, with relatively smooth and firm short grass, although in summer the bracken could be a bit troublesome.  

I'd just had to duck under quite a few low tree branches as I squeezed between a fence and a small rift in the landscape, when I saw a track in the forest just the other side of the fence. So, over I hopped and the going became much easier - not just because of the track, but because the gradient had eased considerably.

The downside of now being in the trees was the sparse views. The best bits of this hill certainly weren't near the top. 

It was by accident, rather than by design that I took a series of overgrown wheel-tracks on my way down, before finally joining the scraped tracks I'd used on the way up. I continued along the tracks until they veered away from the fence, whereupon I hopped back over and realised in descent quite how steep the hillside was. 

Summit selfie, and looking across to my next hill
 

Foel Cae'rberllan (SH 676 082; 380m)

Start Point: Where footpath meets minor road, to the S (no parking) End Point: Abergynolwyn 

Distance and Ascent: 4.3km, 340m

 I confess to being a bit lazy, by having Mick drive me up to where the footpath left the road saving me 1km of tarmac and a modest 30m or so of ascent. I'd examined aerial photos at some length for this hill, before deciding on this approach, following the public footpath until it crossed a field boundary, before cutting uphill to pick up an old track and getting onto the Access Land. On the outward leg, I followed the track until it switched back on itself, whereupon I continued straight on, initially on a trodden line. 

From the top I had a clear view of the sea and an unclear view of Cadair Idris, the top of which was hiding under a cloud. The other lumps and bumps around me were also a pleasing sight, as indeed, was the hill I was on. It was a good place to be on a largely fine afternoon (there was a bit of moisture in the air at a couple of points on my way up this one, but there was also plenty of sunshine). 

I opted to take a slightly more direct line back off the hill, rejoining the Right of Way just before I got back to the road. With no parking nearby, and not being lazy enough to have Mick come and pick me up when I was faced with 1km downhill on road, I trod the tarmac back down to Abergynolwyn, timing it nicely as the cafe had just closed and Mick, its only afternoon visitor, was thus ready to leave (I reckon he managed to spend around 3.5 of the 4 hours they were open today in there).

 Top: summit selfie. It wasn't particularly cold, but the wind was drowning out the podcast I had on, hence the hood

Middle: Pleasing lumpiness. My earlier summit is just out of the left of the shot.

 Bottom: Cadair Idris is hiding under that cloud

Foel Cocyn (SH 624 043; 313m) 

Start Point: Layby on B4405, by entrance to holiday park, SW of summit

Distance and Ascent: 3.1km, 230m

 I followed the public footpath from the road on my outward leg, but had forgotten to press 'start' on my watch, so I only started recording from the upper reaches of the woodland.

As you leave the road for the public footpath that runs through the caravan park, the first thing you walk through is their dumping ground. All sorts of tat and rubbish was lying around. Fortunately, I was soon past it and into the woodland. After a short stint on the road through the caravan park, I spied a narrow trail heading back off into the woods, onto which I happily trespassed. It clearly doesn't get a lot of traffic and there were lots of brambles encroaching on it. It got better further up, and I blindly followed it, which is how I came to go a less direct route than was strictly necessary. Once I realised I was heading away from my hill, I hopped the fence (relatively easy as it's very new and still nice and taught), and set out up the open hillside.

I had also pored over the map and examined aerial photos for this hill and had come up with a route that only involved one more boundary crossing once I was out of the woods. What I did on the ground bore little resemblance to what I'd planned. 

Once out of the woodland, I'd intended to head over to the right hand boundary of the next field, thus being able to access the summit without any more walls or fences in my way. However, as I made my way in that general direction, I spotted an ATV track and whilst I couldn't see a gate through the field's top boundary, I also couldn't see a fence there. Sure enough, the fence just ended on the left side of the ATV track, so I took advantage of the easier ground and followed it. 

I crossed the next boundary, which should have been a wall/fence combination, at a point where both were missing. Thus, it turned out to be a far easier hill than I'd expected - and it was another nice one.

Initially retracing my steps, I thought I would take a more direct line into the woods. That would have worked well, except that I gambled on following the easier ground on the outside edge of the fence (even though on the map it looks like I had re-entered the trees, I hadn't). That seemed to be working well, as there was a gap through the first fence and the going was easy; even better I got to a point where I could see a gate that would allow me access back into the woods without any need to tackle the fence. Alas, when I got there, I found such a tangle of brambles beyond it that there was no way I was going that way. My onward route around the edge of the trees was easy, but it rather conspicuously took me into a grazing field - immediately opposite the farm to which it likely belongs. I don't think anyone saw my trespass, and the resident sheep didn't make a fuss so as to draw any attention, as I made my way to the road.  

1. Close to the sea here!

2. A convenient absence of both wall and fence

3. Still not cold, but even breezier on this top than it was on the last.

4. Looking inland. 
 

  

 

Carnedd Wen & Craig Goch/Mynydd Cwmcelli

Waking at 0650 I went straight to the window. The pampas grasses weren't dancing violently and nor did rain seem to be lashing. By good fortune, it turned out that this slice of Wales was within a narrow gap between a weather warning for high winds to the west and one for rain to the east. It was still going to be wet and windy, but it looked manageable, and the gusts weren’t due to hit 50mph until 11am, so we made haste to get out as early as we reasonably could (without sacrificing essentials like breakfast and cups of tea).

Carnedd Wen (SH 924 099; 523m)

Start Point: shallow layby on A458 (to N) at SH 953 127.

Distance and ascent: 11.3km, 350m

 I reckoned this was a good choice of hill, with half of the route being deep within a forest. Perhaps not the obvious choice during a named storm, but the inside of a big forest is pretty well protected from the wind, so easier going for me, and unlikely that any trees would be blown over onto me (talking of which, three days ago, on a not-windy day, I was running along a lane near home when a dead branch fell off a tree moments after I’d passed under it). Plus, it looked to be a largely quite dull outing (for the same reason – half of it was hemmed into a commercial plantation), and better to do a dull hill on a dull day.

Had it been the middle of summer, with water levels low, I might have set out from the track further west along the A458, but I’d read reports that the mapped footbridge there no longer exists and there was no way I was going to be fording today’s raging torrent. So, I set out from the next track to the east, and took advantage of its bridges.

As I made my way into the cloud and then into the forest, I looked down on the A-road that I must have travelled hundreds of times between 1986 and 2008, and contemplated that never during that time did I look to the SW and think “I must nip up there one day”!

With 300m of ascent over the course of 5.5km, it was an easy walk too – all on good track and never steep – at least not until the few steps to get up onto the embankment behind the quarry at the summit. I’d been a bit confused before I got there, as the track I’d been following seemed to be going downhill before the summit. Even when I finally saw the lie of the land, I was further confused when I couldn’t see the trig point, but it turned out to just be hidden behind the rear bank of a quarry.

Whilst I was doing all this, Mick had driven a mile back along the road, not wanting to sit in such a narrow layby, being rocked every time a vehicle sped past. So, I called him to give him my ETA back at the layby, before I headed back down the way I’d come. The wind was head-on for part of the return leg once I was out of the forest, making forward progress harder than it might have been, but it certainly wasn’t stopping me in my tracks or blowing me around, so I saw no reason not to follow this outing with my second intended hill.

Summit selfie

Uninspiring views

Craig Goch/Mynydd Cwmcelli (SH 804 099; 468m)

Start Point: at end of track to NE of hill.

Distance and ascent: 3km, 188m

We were merrily driving in to this one when, at around SH 832103 we came upon an ‘unsuitable for motor vehicles’ sign. That caused a pause. I looked at the map and said “Well, I could walk from here”, but it seemed more sensible to park on the far side of the cattle grid that lay before us. Having got to that point, we contemplated the road ahead and a much older ‘Unsuitable for Heavy Goods Vehicles” sign and wondered: is it really unsuitable for motors, or just unsuitable for HGVs? I hadn’t read any reports of any issues with that road, so we proceeded. It was fine. A 20% gradient for much of the way, as various road signs told us, but no sharp bends and a good road surface (when I lived in Barmouth, I only ever drove up to the nearest road end to the house three or four times, but it involved a very narrow road, hemmed in by walls, with one section so steep and with a bend so severe that you’d only have three wheels on the ground as you went around it and it was almost impossible, in a 2-wheel drive, in wet conditions – I had visions of something like that, which also displayed an ‘unsuitable for motors’ sign).

Having arrived at the parking area without any drama, I had the unpleasant moment of putting my soggy waterproof back on, then I was off, up a track that looks more like a path, and that was running with water – making it a more interesting outing than had it been a forest road sort of a track. Getting towards the top of the track, the summit looked to be towering above me and I opted not to attack it head on, but rather to continue around to its east side for a gentler ascent. Ha! I could have taken a gentle line, but instead I opted for the eroded scar that, in retrospect, was ridiculously steep and inadvisable in today’s conditions. I resolved not to the return the same way.

The wind on the summit was nowhere near as strong as I had on some tops I did at the end of May, and the rain was unarguably persistent, but relatively light by now. The cloud was also well above me on this hill, so there were views to be had.

It’s rather unforgiveable that I then headed in the wrong direction off the summit. I’d decided to descend to the east and remember thinking about getting my compass out to check which way was east. I wasn’t even wearing gloves to use that as an excuse, but my compass stayed in my pocket and I relied on my sense of direction, which I’ve long known to be highly faulty. Fortunately I’d not gone far when I realised my error and if I hadn’t admitted to it here, I don’t think the indirect route shown by my recorded track tells too much of a tale of stupidity.

The path-like track and my summit ahead of me

Summit views

I can’t explain the reason for the pumpkin on the table, but the cakes were good!

 

 

13 November: Stingwern Hill, Garreg-Hir & Bryn Amlwg

Weather: Sunny intervals clearing to sunshine. 16 degrees on first hill, probably a little less by the third, but still feeling warm.

Stingwern Hill (SJ 133 014; 358m)

Start Point: Layby 200m NW of summit

Distance and Ascent: 0.5km, 30m

 

I’m not generally a fan of driving to the top, or almost to the top, of a hill, usually preferring to make a bit of a walk (or sometimes a cycle ride) of it. However, I’m also on an arbitrary mission to bag 22 more Marilyns by the end of the year, and I’ve been scuppered by having an unserviceable car for the last 4.5 months.

I had, in fact, intended to make this outing a tiny bit longer, by approaching from the road to the south, butI even though I’d identified a gate I could hop over (there are allegedly rights of way around here, but none of them seem to involve such amenities as stiles over barbed wire fences nor are they signed or waymarked), it turned out not to be a big enough gateway for Mick to wait. So, around to the N of the hill we went – only 1km out of our way.

Once round there, I left the car, reached the summit 4 minutes later and was back at Erica 7 minutes and 15 seconds after I left. The don’t get much easier than that, do they?!

That said, the 30m of ascent was (clearly, given the short distance) steep, and the hill did have merit – the views were good.

I’d read a comment that the ‘barbed wire fence has been enabled for access’. Sure enough, the strand of barbed wire between two close-placed posts had been snipped and bent back, and a couple of rocks were on the ground for those with legs of at least 30” to be able to step straight over.

Summit selfie.

View (with Erica in shot showing how far I'd come)

Garreg-Hir (SN 999 979; 485m)

Start Point: Verge parking (firm, even in the current wet ground conditions) at end of track to SE

Distance and Ascent: 4km, 118m

Mick only joins me on hills that have merit, but often that’s not something that can be accurately assessed until after the event. This is one that he would have enjoyed: a really easy walk, interesting terrain (first cropped grass, then a landscape of small rocky outcrops) and good views.

There’s not much else to be said about it: it was good; I enjoyed it!

Initial track

Path through rockiness

Summit selfie (the trig point is in shot, but the summit is 140m away)

View down to the two llyns

Bryn Amlwg (SN 921 973; 490m)

Start Point: End of public road to S

Distance and ascent: 5.8km, 165m

 

There’s a big parking area by the windfarm buildings and substation, not far from the end of the public road, but Mick drove me the extra distance right to the end, where there was a passing place big enough to park without inconveniencing anyone (the passing places along this road are sized for turbine-carrying vehicles, but construction is complete, so there was no danger of an oversized lorry coming along).

The first thing I then did was to head steeply downhill, dropping 40 metres before I could climb up to the windfarm and take advantage of its roads (unsurfaced, but in better condition than many a tarmac road) almost the whole way to the summit.

I contemplated on the way back: did I really want that steep re-ascent at the end? I concluded that no, not really. Thus I went past my outward route, cut across to the next dead-end turbine access road, then headed directly downhill from there. It was only 400m across country, the first half was really rough, the rest was cropped grass. I then only had a gentle 10m reascent to get back to Erica, reaching her an hour after I left.

Now that I think about it, it’s a long way to drive for less than 2 hours in total spent on all three hills. Good job that we weren’t driving straight back home!

There are two more hills on the agenda tomorrow. There are also weather warnings out for strong winds (gusting 50+), heavy rain and flooding, so I’ll review in the morning.

 

My outward track between road and windfarm was mainly a pleasant grassed-over affair. If you zoom in you may notice that the right hand side of the front of that old farmhouse is being held up by some boards and an angled telegraph pole.

Summit selfie

Mealna Letter (Duchray Hill) (NO 161 672; 703m)

26 October

Start Point: A93 at track entrance to Westerton of Runavey

End Point: Where the county boundary crosses the B951

Weather: Mainly wet – rain below 500m, snow above. Biting northerly wind.

Distance and ascent: 10.7km, 450m

 

I had on the agenda a TGOC East recce involving the tracks around Westerton of Runavey and a couple of locations around Loch Beanie, and it had occurred to me that it would be jolly efficient to combine that with a visit to Mealna Letter – taking advantage of having Mick as my driver to make it into a linear route.

I nearly jibbed on this plan, given the weather, but on seeing how friendly Mealna Letter looked from its N side, it made its way back onto my agenda. Looks weren't deceptive - it was easy going terrain. 

I'd not ascended very far from Loch Beanie before the rain turned to snow, and soon after I was up in the cloud too. Not being conditions in which I wanted to take off my mitts and overmitts, I was thankful for the voice control of my phone to call Mick to let him know that he could drive around to the other side of the hill and I'd see him there. To think that it was only a week and a half ago that I was warm in my shirt-sleeves on Ben Vrackie!

I seldom tarry long on a summit and this one was no exception. A trodden line took me down to the forest and a tall ladder stile over a deer fence at the point where I turned S to the road. There I dithered as to the best way to go and decided to head straight down the fence line, on the W side of the fence. I reckon this was the worst choice of the three obvious options. The best was probably to continue on to the next fence line and go down that. As it was, I made my way gingerly through grown-over forest detritus next to the fence until, about half way down I noticed there was a trodden line on the other side of the fence. A while later I crossed the fence to take advantage of it, and after some remarkably boggy ground, I reached the road. 

 Just after Westerton of Runavey

 

 

 Loch Beanie

 

Summit selfie

 Bonus snaps for Conrad: