Corwen/Llangollen Review - 14-09-08

Smashing day, going to post pics and wot nots later as feeling a bit fluey and want a lie down, hope you lot got home safe n sound

Yeah, got home OK, no damage to report (that I can see), always a bonus! :lol:

Glad you got home safe and sound Phil. Was the bala road open in the end? Yeah, what a cracking day, it was interesting doing the wayfarer from west to east, not done that section before, i enjoyed that. Like you, I do prefer whitestones north to south, but time was getting on. One or two interesting moments on the steps! :shock:

It was great to get out and meet some new people, I'm looking forward to getting out with you all again soon. Jonny, I hope you and Heather got home safe and sound, will be in touch mate. Shame you couldn't make it Harper, you missed a good day, maybe next time. Shame I forgot my camera in the rush this morning, never mind :cry:

. Looking forward to the pics!

Flippin eck guys .. where are the pics and how did it go? we want all the gossip

Yup we need photos

Ugh, Sorry bout delay with pics. I started feeling ill not long after we started. Flu like symptoms, Achy joints, temperature etc. Anyway, feeling a bit better today and am uploading pics now.

We met up in Corwen carpark at 9.30am and after the preliminary chit chat we headed off to the Carwash, then onto the Wayfarer via the rocky entrance before heading towards the Pheasant Steps and Whitestones before finally finishing off with a nice amble along part of the Ceirog trail.

I would like to think we all had a great day although there was a hair raising moment when I was genuinely concerned about Jonny and his Disco. Il let him post pics of that, in all the confusion I didnt take any of it.

Just waiting on Jonny and Heather to upload their pics.

Come on Jonny, more pics

Nice pics Phil! Yeah as you said "a real cigarette moment" :lol:

Shame about the irate angler at the car wash, might be worth mentioning, he seemed to be concerned with us churning up the silt. It may be better to leave this lane alone until the salmon fishing season is over sometime around the middle of october i think.

come on jonny,,,,,
come on jonny,,,,,
come on jonny,,,,

No we didn't speak to him as such. We had just gone through and had decided to recross for some more photos (for you lot :lol:

).Any rode this chap turns up with rods on his roof rack, it was obvious what he was on about, by his hand gestures, he wanted us to continue up the lane rather than come back accross. He also made gestures which I understood to be something about the swirling up of the silt on the bottom. However we had not done anything wrong, it does have public access etc etc. We decided not to aggravate him any further and left him to his sport, I hope our presence there didn't desturb him too much.

Not too sure about the sediment issue (thats been raised before as I recall), particularly when you consider the amount of sediment that has been washed down in the recent floods for example. A lot more sediment (and worse) comes in from land drains from fields, roads etc. It is true that sediment in the gravel can ruin slamon spawning "reds" as they are called, but I am doubtful that our activities have had an adverse effect on them. The Alwen is a spawning ground for salmon that come up the Dee however.

salmon spawn in november/december and trout in early spring

so you have not damged any spawn

Hi guys,
sorry about the delay in posting...got home late and was absolutly knackerd..

Had a super ace day. Good to meet you guys

The angry man at the corwen carwash was on the other side of the ford after we had crossed it... waving his hands and shouting that we were messing the river up.. :shock:

so we couldnt cross it to speak to him. Although on reflection, maybe we should have drove back over for a chat... :mrgreen:

Anyway, drove the wayfarer from east to west, starting on the very tight rocky climb. Think i may have collected a couple more battle scar's now i have washed the disco and can see it.. :roll:

Had a really good drive to the top, different to do it that way round for a change. Stopped at the top for a brew and photos. Had a chat to a couple who were on their quads, drove there from sandbach, and a guy and his wife in a nice shiny new shogun, i think it was... Phil somehow managed to convince him to have a go at the way we came up. We waved him off with a knowing smile. Wouldnt like to see his paintwork or the state of his marrige today.. :lol:

From there we went to the steps and the event of the day.... :drive:

had a great drive along the lane, jim led for the first part, then phil took over and i brought up the rear in case jim grounded out on the ruts and needed a tug free.. No problems at all with that though. We got to the tricky technical part and had a good look. Phil and i decided on the big drop way down, jim took the sensible option...
Phil rolled over the edge, held it on 3 wheeels for a moment, then dropped off to the sound of cheers...
Jim was next, taking a nice tidy clean line down. no problem at all...
next up was me in the landy. Roll over the edge, take a nasty unexpected bounce off a rock and.......... :shock:

Only some quick thinking and grabbing of the rear passenger corner stopped it rolling over. So there we are, me stuck in the drivers seat, couldnt open the door as it was to close to the ground, Wifi holding the back down to stop the possibility of a roll, jim and phil moving their cars out of the way sharpish. At first it was decided to try and get phils fronty behind the disco and try to anchor it with a rope and take it from there. Problem was that when phil tried to squeeze past the disco, there wasn't quite enough room....
time for plan B. Some good thinking from phil resulted in the front passenger wheel being deflated and a bit of balence being brought back to the situation. Then with some careful positioning of stones, a good bit of spotting, wifi hanging off the back and jim and phil holding up the side to stop it tipping, it was a case of inching forward until we made it down safe... :dance:

so a big Thank You to wifi, jim and phil, who kept their cool in a very tricky situation... i owe you a few :drink:

after that, a calming brew while phils compresser blew the tyre back up, and we were off again. Having spent what must of been 45 mins at least on 'the incident on the steps', we were getting a bit short of time. So we took in a couple more lanes, the white stones and a nice final gentle run through a forest track and it was time to say our farewells and head for home.

Thanks again guys for the help and keeping cool when it was needed, and for not taking the pee too much, (yet)...
A great day was had, certainly wont forget it in a hurry...

Looking forward now to heading to phils part of the world and following him around there.. and over to buxton way with jim for a days laning...

Over to the pics....

start of the day, heading up the wayfarer....

jim in his fronty

rear view of phils on the wayfarer

fronty's on the wayfarer

jim splashing

phil splashing

top of the wayfarer

fronty's on the steps

phils front wheel in space.. as anyone who has driven the lane will know, that drop is so much bigger in 'real life'

rear wheel off the floor

jim picking his way nicely down

and down

erm...