With a little bit of holiday to burn, and the weather forecast looking good, I decided to head over to Afan forest for a couple of days for a little mountain biking. 
 
Afan forest was the first the first trail center I visited outside of the South East of England, and still one of my favourites. 
 
Getting to Afan early afternoon, I decided to start the trip with a lap of the Penhydd trail as it's one of the shorter trails, and I’d arrived a little later than I’d planned. The weather was as predicted - nice and sunny, but not too hot either. Penhydd starts with a little single track warm up, then a long climb up on some fire track, then single track all the way down. I've updated the [Afan Forest guide](/place/afan-forest) with more details and some photos. This guide is still a work in progress, and I’ll be adding more photos in the future.

![Afan_Penhydd_20200909_1504_BigDipper](/uploads/Afan_Penhydd_20200909_1504_Big_Dipper_2dde34c3dc.jpeg)
 
The next morning I started with a run of White's level. White’s level starts at Glyncorrwg Ponds, a few trails start here, and they share the same classic single-track climb at the start. It took me the best part of an hour to climb to the top of it (did I mention I haven’t done enough mountain biking this year?). At the top of the climb there is the optional black loop - as I was planning on doing another trail after White’s level I did consider giving it a miss, but I was feeling pretty good so I went for it. I'd say this is quite an easy black section - and after the black section there is a short fire track climb to get back to where you were. Then it's single-track all the way down from there. I’d remembered the section called Energy being a stand out section in the past, which is good, but on this run I enjoyed the Windy Point section more. I’ll be updating the Afan guide soon with this trail.
 
After the first trail of the day I popped into the Cafe and picked up a little lunch, and a drink.
 
Next up was Blade - one of the newer trails at Afan. I've done Blade before, and remember not being too keen on it. Maybe I was having a bad day the last time I did it - this run completely changed my mind on it. It has the same single track climb as White's level - it took a bit longer the second time around! Blade has a really good mix of flowing track like Beacon view, and very technical tracks like the final descent into the car park. I found the final descent was quite tricky for a red - personally I found it trickier than the optional black section on White's level. This might have been because I was getting quite tired by this point though.
 
What strikes me looking back at the few trails I rode at Afan on this trip, is the range of difficulty of trails graded red. As someone who has been mountain biking for years. However if I was going with someone who hadn’t done lots of riding, I’d probably start with Penhydd. If I was only there for a day, and had to choose 1 of these 3 trails to do, then I’d go for Blade.
 
All in all a good couple of days of riding. I've added a bit more detail to the [Afan Forest guide](/place/afan-forest) guide. Looks like I still need some more photos, and need to do the Wal and Blue Scar. So I'll have to go back. Oh no.


Afan_Penhydd_20200909_1504_BigDipper

Afan Forest Mountain Biking Trip 

A nice peaceful paddle plodding down the Medway in the open boat. A little bit of wind made for a little bit more work than normal.  A nice easy Sunday morning.

![20200831_paddle_river_medway](/uploads/IMG_20200830_123040_bbfefb0851.jpeg)

I started from Hartlake bridge. Hartlake bridge is a bridge over the Medway, on Hartlake Road, just south of Golden Green. Coming from Golden Green there is a large layby just before you get to the bridge. Once unloaded I took the short walk from the layby down to the river, and got in directly under the bridge, and headed downstream. 

There wasn't much flow on the river, but heading downstream I was heading against the wind. I took the canoe pass at East Lock and then at Oat Lock, taking photos on the way to continue to add to the River Medway guide. Once I got to Sluice Lock , I briefly thought about just turning around - but I ended up heading down the Canoe shoot there - I didn't need to for the trip - but it'd be rude not too. 

After portaging back up around Sluice Weir, I put back in, and started upriver. I had the wind with me now, and this made for slightly easier going. I had a couple of locks to portage around before I arrived back at Hartlake Bridge.

When I got to Hartlake bridge there was a couple of people magnet fishing under the bridge - which isn't something I've seen on the Medway before. They hadn't caught anything. (Caught - is that the right verb?).

20200831_paddle_river_medway

River Medway Trip

River Dart

Parking - Dartmeet

Parking - Newbridge

Parking - River Dart Country Park

Afan forest is one of the larger trail centers in South Wales. There are 8 trails in total, although one of these, W2 is mostly a combination of Y Wal and White's Level. There is also a small bike park for practicing skills.

There are two trail heads - the Afan Forest Park Visitor Centre and the  Glyncorrwg Ponds Visitor Centre. There is a Cafe and a Bike shop at both starting points.

This was the first trail center I visited outside the South East of England, and probably still my favourite in Wales.

Afan Forest

This is the starting point for:
- White’s Level (Red)
- Blade (Red)
- Skyline Loop (Black)
- W2 (Black)


Parking -  Glyncorrwg Ponds Visitor Centre

This is the starting point for:
 - Rookie (Green)
 - Blue Scar (Blue)
 - Penhydd (Red)
 - Y Wal (Red)
 - W2 (Black)

Parking - Afan Forest Park Visitor Centre

Bedgebury Forest

sweetness

Car Parking

Genesis

genesis

Dads Army

IMG_20200726_111811

Show of Hands

show-of-hands

Holby

holby

Deer Stalker

IMG_20200726_113211

Helter Skelter

Cardiac

cardiac

Sweetness

Gloomy Wood

gloomy-wood

Prevaricator Pass

IMG_20200726_115403

Five Ways

five-ways

Bikea

bikea

Deliverance

deliverance

Fibreglass Trees 

Not so Pointless

Starvegoose

Cake Run

cake-run

As the evenings were darkening in the autumn, I realized it was time for a new headtorch. 

I have an older headtorch, but the elastic on it was starting to wear a bit, and even when it was new, I'm not sure it would be secure enough to run wearing it comfortably. 

I also have a Petzl e-lite, an excellent little torch - I did use this on a couple of runs at the beginning of the autumn when I got caught out and didn't finish the run before the sunset. However, I didn't find it bright enough, and it takes a pair of CR2032s, which are relatively expensive for a torch I am planning to use a couple of times a week.

So it was time for something new. I was looking for something mainly for running. I wanted something that would be bright enough and something that would be very secure on my head while running. I wasn't too concerned about weight or how small it folds away.

After looking at a few different options, I settled on the Petzl Iko Core. Instead of using a standard elastic band, it has an 'airfit headband' made of plastic and rubber, with some elastic string providing the tightening mechanism. The battery pack fits at the back of the head. The IKO core comes with Petzl's recharging battery called 'core.' The core battery pack is removable, and you can use three standard aaa batteries in its place. 

I've been using it for a few months now.

I've found that it is comfortable and secure on my head while running. It doesn't feel like the light is bouncing up and down. It works just as well with or without a hat.

It isn't the brightest head torch in Petzl's range - but I've found it is bright enough. It has three different settings; for running, I prefer the brightest setting. Petzl says this setting gives out 500 lumens for 2 hours and 30 minutes. The standard setting is probably sufficient for running, though, which gives out 100 lumens or 9 hours. There is also a low setting, which gives out 6 lumens for 100 hours.

It comes with a pouch to put it in. It's not a compact torch. 

![IMG_20210120_133659](/uploads/IMG_20210120_133659_1cefaf5b3d.jpeg)

I'd recommend the IKO core for running.

IMG_20210120_133659

Petzl Headtorch - IKO Core

I’ve been using Sweet helmets for paddling for more than a decade - I’ve always been pleased with them - they are the best paddling helmets. Well, in the UK anyway.

![IMG_20200910_140226](/uploads/IMG_20200910_140226_2f87418b07.jpeg)

So when it was time to look for a new MTB helmet, I thought I’d have a look at Sweet’s MTB offering. There is a lot more competition in the UK for MTB helmets. However, I was pleased with what I found.

They have a few helmets available for mountain biking - from a full face downhill helmet - the Arbitrator - to a couple of trail and enduro helmets - the Bushwhacker and Trailblazer - to a couple of all-purpose MTB helmets - Dissenter and Ripper.

All of their helmets are available with the MIPS system. A few years ago, I had a bit of a crash and knocked myself out. I still can’t remember how I crashed.

[MIPS](https://mipsprotection.com/) is a ‘brain protection system’ - was designed to ‘reduce the harmful rotational motion that might otherwise be transferred to the brain’ - this reduces the chances of being knocked out.

I went for the Trailblazer MIPS Helmet.

I like the looks of it. I went for one in black, looking again maybe I’d have preferred the gray and red option, but the black is ok.

I did purchase this online - ideally, I’d have tried it on before buying it - but having worn Sweet helmets before, I decided to give it a go. The helmet adjusts well and fits my head nicely.

![IMG_20200910_140317](/uploads/IMG_20200910_140317_62c5fd76b5.jpeg)

IMG_20200910_140226

Sweet Trailblazer MIPS Helmet

I've had this watch now for nearly a year - and overall I'm pretty impressed with it.

![20200907_garmin-vivoactive-3](/uploads/20200907_garmin_vivoactive_3_4771ca5998.jpeg)

I primarily got the watch for recording running, when I was training for a marathon, which it did very well. Since then I've used it for a variety of sports - road cycling, mountain biking, kayaking and canoeing. It easy to start to record a sport - you need to press the button on the side, select the sport, wait for the GPS to connect, and then hit start.

The battery life is much better than expected, and it also charges quicker than I was expecting.

The is comfy to wear, and seems well made - with nearly a year of use there aren't any bumps or scraps on it.

The watch connects to the Garmin Connect app, which gives you details of the activities you have recorded. You can look at the activities individual activities, and it can show your average daily, total distance, and total calories over 7 day, 4 weeks and 1 year periods. If you really want to crunch the numbers you can export the data.

I made a plan in autumn 2019 to focus on running over the winter and to do a marathon in early 2020, and then focus on road biking in the spring. It's was interesting to look back on much much running I did over the winter, and then to see that I really picked up the road biking again in the spring. But as well as just being interesting I've found it to be useful in a couple of different ways - seeing that I hardly ran at all in march, whilst focusing on biking, it reminded me to keep some of that running fitness and throw a couple of runs into the mix. In July I got busy with some other project, and I didn't do that much sport - but when I saw this trend in the app it remotivated me to get back into the routine of getting out.

As I do a variety of sports I want to see my overall level of activity for a month - and the app gives a couple of ways of doing this. Firstly you can look at the intensity minutes - this just measure just include the activities you have done in a day. Or you can look at active calories - the nice thing about looking at active calories is that this will also include activities that you didn't record - like if you took the stairs instead of the elevator. 

The app also records 'Health and Performance' stats, things like Heart Rate, Sleep, Calories and Stress.

I have had some glitches with it connecting to my andriod  phone, but if I restart the phone it reconnects ok - although this glitch might be caused by the phone rather than the watch.

I have used the Garmin pay feature on the phone, and this works quite nicely.

All in all a nice piece of kit.


20200907_garmin-vivoactive-3

Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS Smartwatch

adventure
signal

Articles

Afan Forest Mountain Biking Trip

River Medway Trip

Reviews

Petzl Headtorch - IKO Core

Sweet Trailblazer MIPS Helmet

Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS Smartwatch

Recently updated places

River Dart

Afan Forest

Bedgebury Forest

adventure
signal

adventuresignal

Articles

Afan Forest Mountain Biking Trip

River Medway Trip

Reviews

Petzl Headtorch - IKO Core

Sweet Trailblazer MIPS Helmet

Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS Smartwatch

Recently updated places

River Dart

Afan Forest

Bedgebury Forest

adventuresignal

adventure
signal

adventure
signal