In Rhayader: Elan Valley loop

June 17, 2024

Rhayader is a distinctive town, admirably situated on the River Wye only about twenty miles from its source in the Cambrian Mountains. With cycling and walking routes radiating into the hills and along the waterways in all directions it makes a fine base for a variety of outdoor activities - an in fact the town’s website bills the place as the Outdoor Capitol of Wales. While we’re here we frequently see walkers and cyclists passing through its streets or hanging out on the sidewalk at one of its pubs.

And about those pubs - that’s another distinction about the town. Rhayader allegedly has the greatest per capita concentration of pubs and drinking establishments in the UK, at one per 173 residents according to Wikipedia.

My kind of town, obviously. We’re glad we’re here for three nights and would have been fine with an even longer stay.

We’re in luck and have fair conditions today with minimal chance of rain. The day starts with us enjoying breakfast in our apartment - a place we would like even more if it had any way of controlling the heat and it wasn’t so damn cold a lot of the time. It’s a nice change from the Full Welsh breakfasts that have started our days recently, instead enjoying scrambled eggs, store-bought pastries, and muesli.

We both start out close to eleven, after waiting for the day to warm up about as much as it’s going to do. Rachael’s plan is to take the 12 mile loop hike I drew out for her up to the summit of the plateau west of town, an island-like rise bounded by the Wye on the east and on the west by the Elan River and the reservoirs formed by its four dams built a century ago to build a water source for Birmingham. In my reading of this route, it should be a great hiking experience for her. She’ll get a lot of wide open views, should encounter a few sheep, and should be able to look down to the west over the Elan Valley and the reservoirs.

It doesn’t turn out quite as planned though. RideWithGPS didn’t indicate that when it’s been wet conditions can be really boggy up on top. When Rachael found herself getting mired down she dropped the plan for completing the loop, backtracked, and then walked a few miles west along the Elan Valley Trail to get her miles in. Not the hike she started out with, but a good one nonetheless.

My plan was a repeat of the ride I took the last time we were here. Its a circuit of that formation Rachael’s hiking on top of, following the Elan Valley Trail along the river and its dams and reservoirs for twelve miles and then returning to town by climbing out of the valley and dropping down along Nant y Dernol Creek. Before crossing that divide though I plan to continue west along the Elan for five or six miles before turning back. I remember this part of the ride as being especially dramatic as it crosses the so called Desert of Wales, a land stripped of its trees long ago. Not a single view blocker for miles, a place Mr. Garceau would love.

I’m especially looking forward to repeating this ride in today’s conditions. Last time it was late in the summer in a drought year, in the middle of a heat wave. Water levels were alarmingly low, it was a sweaty 90F, and worst of all I managed to leave home without any water at all.

As last time, the ride begins on the beautiful, very popular Elan Valley Trail. This southern half of the loop is entirely different from the barren north. The hills are generally still wooded, and the blue reservoirs and sky make for a dramatic contrast with the ubiquitous green of the land.

The trail stays high above the river here, but it would be worth dropping below to the visitor center if we ever come back. It’s down at the site of the village that was created to house the construction workers building the dams.

Caban Coch Dam, first of the four dams on the Elan River. All were built between 1893 and 1904 in a project to develop the water supply for Birmingham.

Surprisingly, this is the site of the second dam, the Garreg Ddu. The dam is completely submerged and supports this bridge across the reservoir.

Here’s the same spot from our last visit on August 22nd, 2022. The water level is much lower, but still not so low that you can see the underlying dam yet.

This is Nantgwyllt Church, on the opposite side of the dam. It looks old but was built at the same time as the dams. It’s a replica of the original one that sat in the village of Nantgwyllt that was inundated and disappeared when the reservoirs filled.

There’s an election coming! Such a strange system - its date was only announced about a month ago and the vote is on July 4th. So hasty! Shouldn’t there be a couple of years of polls and debates and vitriol leading up to it? How will people have time to make up their minds?

A beautiful day, a beautiful time to be here.

After four miles the asphalt ends. The next five miles are like this, a rough but bikeable surface interrupted frequently by livestock gates.

The Pen y Garreg Dam. All are elegant, built in the Victorian era. An impressive architectural and engineering achievement to lay down in just a decade.

It’s an excellent trail, with benches placed at scenic vista points along the way.

We’re leaving the trees behind and coming to the Desert of Wales.

Looking down on the final dam of the four, the Craig Goch Dam. The trail I’ve been following ended on the far side of the dam and I’ve crossed over and returned to the road network here.

Zooming in on a stream cascading down from the heights across the river. In my imagination, Rachael’s up on top over there looking down at me.

It’s been an excellent ride up until now, but for me the real highlights come when I leave the trees behind. For the next several miles I stop constantly to admire yet another striking view. Also though I frequently check in on Rachael’s position on the Garmin and become increasingly concerned about her because she’s not moving. At first I thought she must have stopped to have her snack somewhere, but it’s been at least a half hour now since I first noticed this.

I try phoning her, but there’s no service; and a canned text I try sending from the Garmin goes nowhere either. So that might be the problem - her location might just be frozen at the last spot there was reception, and she’s perfectly fine. It doesn’t seem like that though, because the Garmin looks like it knows her position. Normally when it loses touch her icon goes grey on the display, but not this time.

So I cut my plans short, as I start imagining her stuck up on that plateau somewhere and somehow - maybe she’s had a fall and injured herself or something - so I decide I need to get back to town. I drop the out and back west of the Elan Bridge I’d been planning, and other than continuing to stop for photographs and bird sightings along the way I head for home.

I really love country like this. Imagine living in such a place!

The Elan River. We’re above the highest reservoir of course, and not far from the source of the river in the hills a few miles to the west.

What a place! The field below looks like daisies from this distance but it’s cottongrass (Eriophorum), a wierd grassy plant with tufts that look like bits of sheep wool.

It’s not really a desert of course, else you wouldn’t be seeing all of these critters out here.

Here’s that divide where I climb away from the Elan Valley before dropping to town. It looks steep, and is - especially right at first when it leaves the river and climbs at about 15%.

This is a look west up the river to its source, the road not taken today. So I guess this is really the last look, not that previous frame.

And Rachael’s fine, of course. I knew it as soon as I reached the crest, when a text from her pops up on the Garmin that she’d sent a couple hours ago letting me know she’d run into muck and changed her plan. I’m back on the grid again.

I ride with a much lighter heart the rest of the way as I coast the remaining four miles to town, exhilarated by the views and the descent. I’d love to take this ride again; and in fact I resolve to, tomorrow. I’ll bike up this road and continue west on those miles I dropped out today.

Dropping toward Rhayader. For the next two miles I’m following the stream to the right, listening to its waterfalls.

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Today's ride: 19 miles (31 km)
Total: 2,196 miles (3,534 km)

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