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| Sunrise at my wild camping spot |
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| My two day route over the Moelwyns |
What is Fastpacking?
Essentially, backpacking… quickly! Packing the bare essentials to survive for the number of days you are out, and moving efficiently, either walking / jogging or running.
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| All the kit I packed / wore |
I packed with the intention of covering around 25-40km a day for two days, walking and wild camping overnight in relative comfort. This meant packing enough warm clothes to keep moving, but if I got too cold or the weather turned horrific, I would accept having to move faster to generate more heat, change course or put my tent up. My first aid kit was essentially zinc oxide tape and a wound dressing. In case of an emergency I also had shelter, my poles, phone and power pack, and I was never going to be more than 6km or so from a road or building.
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| Bog and views across to the Snowdon Horseshoe |
The Moelwyns are one of those areas in Snowdonia that around renowned for being boggy, tussocky, hard to navigate through and bereft of visitors. My route started in Betws Y Coed, travelled along the North and Western side of the Lledr over as many summits as possible, crossed at the top of the Crimea Pass, and returned via the Southern and Eastern side. As is usual for most of my solo adventures I had a vague route with plenty of alternative ideas!
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| The view from my last summit of Day 1, Moelwyn Mawr |
Day 1, 36.71km, 2255m, 10hrs
A leisurely departure at 11:15am after quite a lot of faff packing. Today the weather forecast looked good and so despite my later start I knew I could walk until near darkness. Beginning by following the pathways along the Lledr was beautiful, sunlight shining through the trees, perfectly dry forest tracks and few people. At Dolwyddelan it is a steady climb until the Ddear Ddu ridge of Moel Siabod. Pleasant easy scrambling brought me to the high point of my route and from here I undulated along the tops southwards until Cnicht. I met four people along the way, one of whom I knew which was rather suprising, especially on some random sheep trod in the middle of tussocky nowhere!
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| Sunset at camp |
From Cnicht I had enough daylight to bag one more top, Moelwyn Mawr, before heading North to camp at Llyn Conglog. I didn’t meet anyone else until lunchtime the following day!
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| The weather starting to change. Moel Siabod is in the clouds in the top left of this picture |
Day 2, 25.11km, 942m, 7hrs
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| Walking over one of many summits |
An earlier start at 7:15, to make some headway before the rain and fog set in for the day - this didn’t take long. Plus, it’s always awesome to take in the sunrise when you’re wild camping. Leaving camp was pleasant, following sheep trods and vague paths over Allt-Fawr and along to Moel Dyrnogydd. In between the clouds I had amazing views of my route the previous day. Here, some of the fun stopped. The descent to the Crimea Pass was essentially steep grassy sheep poo filled tussocks! The only stile I could find on the other side of the A470 was at the car park, which I thought meant that there would be a path to Moel Farlwyd - the hill on the other side. How wrong I was!
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| The Crimea Pass on the A470, and the mountains beyond on the left that I would travel over on Day 2 |
More sheep poo, rain, fog, tussocks and bog awaited me… and not a trod in sight. Finally, after an age, I made it to the top. Heading around to Moel Penamnen was no different; at least by now I had accepted my fate! Once there though, a path like feature appeared and I had the pleasure of linking up vague paths through thick fog for the next few hours, navigating across the featureless moorland.
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| Happy to have finally found a sheep trod to follow, even in the rain |
At Y Ro Wen I received some respite, a summit shelter to eat in incredible double track to lead me down to Bwlch Y Groes. Enjoying walking on a path I then decided to follow the cycleway east onto the forestry tracks to complete my circuit. Oops. Despite the recent dry weather the route was still filled with the most horrific knee plus deep muddy bike ruts. Once committed it was almost as bad to carry on as it was to return and bog bash further north to a right of way that I wasn’t entirely sure existed! After an age I walked onto drier terrain and had a long plod through the Gwydir Forest.
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| The track down from the summit of Y Ro Wen |
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| Muddy trails at Bwlch Y Groes |
