Nice to see everyone again, doing a full-time job and driving 110 miles a day
has left me with too little time to follow the newsgroup regularly.
However I happened to notice one of the threads about expedition 15 and thought
I'd take a week of work and surprise everyone by turning up.
Some notes on the walks:
Saturday:
The descent to the dam wasn't very nice, very steep and not much of a path.
The 'energy challenged' group wouldn't have liked it at all.
Coming down off Pen Llithrig y Wrach was equally steep - but a slight path.
Neither descent did my 'quads' and good at all.
Sunday:
Wasn't actually sure which route Martin had in mind, but I'd got a map out
and Martin pointed out a track from the car park - so I led everyone up it.
At the point we needed to leave the track and gain the nearby ridge we had
already climbed 200m - so it wasn't worth going back to plan A.
As we crossed Gledrffordd (at about 12.30) I also thought about lunch,
and was thinking that if we found somewhere in the lee of the summit it
would be worth stopping, I'd already forgotten by the time Martin mentioned it.
We had lunch somewhere near 699651.
After lunch we continued uphill (now in cloud) following a path that (I think)
skirted south of Foel Grach to Carnedd Llewelyn. We needed to go higher and
further north so headed straight up the steep grassy bank (having lost the
steep drop to Melynllyn on our right).
The local (false) top 691653 was occupied by two women who had come up via
the Carnedds and were looking for Foel Grach (689659). I looked at their map
(the other side of the sheet), and my GPS, and realised that there were two
summits 'just off the map' rather than the one I was expecting. So I'd actually
been looking for a summit about 1km further north :-)
In any case we pointed out where they were, and said they (and we) needed to go
north. Martin pointed out we were losing height - and we corrected to about 330.
On reaching Foel Grach, Martin said his back was hurting and Phil was getting tired
so they both decided to take the 'easy' route back via a long looping track.
I reconned there wasn't much more ascent, so decided to continue on the ridge to
Garnedd Uchaf and Foel-fras.
The path on the ridge was wide - the only really eroded path I saw all weekend.
The weather did worsen, and was blowing and raining from the NW. Climbed to the
wet rocky summit of Garnedd Uchaf, then across to the flat Foel-fras (was I the
only one who actually visited a trig point?), crossed the boundary wall and sat
in the lee of it while eating my second lunch.
Continued along the ridge in the lee of the wall heading downhill - wall ran out -
crossed fence back to wider grassy track (and a group of 15 walkers).
At fence junction I turned SE (directly back toward the cars) steeply downhill
through long (and wet) grass on a roughish hillside to cross two more fields,
to a small dam (and a tunnel into the hilside with notices about a power station!).
I'd dropped out of the cloud at 777m, and taken my waterproofs off, but the clouds
started looking ominous so I put of a brisk spurt to get back to the car before
it actually started raining. I think I got to > 4.5mph on the downhill track.
Martin and Phil were still there - almost 4pm. 5 hours walking and 2500ft ascent.
(I should have a GPS track for all but one section of the ridge)
Martin managed to leave the car park before me - so didn't have to open/close the
gates at all.
Monday:
My quads are definitely knackered. Drove upto Hollyhead and looked at the birds
on South Stack. Chuffed to see a chough.
Tuesday:
Weather not especially inspiring, quads still [censored], walked up to Capil Curig
and back - then drove to Betws-y-coed to actually buy a pint of milk.
Wednesday:
Quads still not 100%, weather worse than yesterday.....
Finished the books I'd got with me.
Half a plan to do the Carnedds tomorrow (I'd thought about doing them today).
Some DoE types pitched their tent right next to mine while I was out.
(only just enough room for the car in the gap.)
Thursday:
Mist down over camp site, forcast for Friday and the Weekend not looking good
either. So I packed up a wet tent and come home.
So much for any more walking.
David