Day 6 - Maerdy to Capel Curig (via Snowdon)

Saturday 7th August

Distance - 35.7 miles (overall 412.65 miles)
Max Speed - 27.6mph
Time on bike - 2h 47m 03s
Average - 12.8 mph

You skating back down son?

Woke up from a good nights sleep, apart from waking up at 01:00am by the sound of a few drunks angrily trying to get their pointless slurry points across to each other right outside the door. Had a big cooked breakfast in the pub which was packed the night before. It looked and felt the exact opposite of last night, empty and flooded with day light. On the road we cycled 18 miles up the A5 to the South side of Betws-y-Coed just in time for the rain to start. Again this was no normal rain, it was massive angry rain who had it in for Betws-y-Coed that day. On the way Logan was really struggling without the use of his lower gears as it was really hilly. He was cycling in front and I secretly was trying to mi-mick the gear he was in on the hills as I felt like I had an unfair advantage, silly I know but at the time I felt it was really important to keep things equal. 
 

First on our agenda in Betws-y-Coed was to get Logans bike fixed and finalize our route up Snowdon.  The rain was still on heavy so we were desperately trying to find shelter when we saw Ultimate Outdoors which had an awning and a good cycle dept. Firstly I would have to say, the service and banter we got in this shop was second to none. Logans gear cable was fixed super fast by a knowledgeable young lad who was also a downhill mountain biker. He also let us store the bikes in the workshop until we visited a few shops for food and the rain died off 
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The ultra efficient lad in Ultimate Outdoors in Betws-y-Coed

Ugly House

Once the rain had settled we set of on the A5 to Snowdon on a 10 mile uphill road via Capel Curig, although it was all uphill it was good going, a good warm for our legs. On the way up we cycled past Swallow Falls which got a glance of from the road. Also signs for 'Ugly House' started appearing, we thought this is worth a look. When we came across the house I wouldn't of said it was ugly, to be honest I thought it was cool but I could see why it didn't appeal to everyone. The house was taken over by the Snowdonia Society who rescued this cottage from dereliction in the 1980s, and now uses it both as its office and as a show-house. I thought that was ace.

Just around the corner from Pen-y-Pass

We arrived up at the car park at the bottom of Snowdon and managed to convince the handy man from the Pen-y-Pass Youth Hostel to store our bikes and kit in a store room, he obliged and gave us the code which was awesome. We quickly started sorting our kit our out, removing the cleats from our shoes (hardly mountaineering footwear but a lot more adequate than some of the shoes we saw people wearing that day) fitting the trucks to our skateboard (which were only finger tight as we forgot the proper tool), sorting our feet out and getting some extra warm kit. We knew this transition could potentially hold us up so we had it well planned before we got there, but that never stopped us having a look through all the store to see what was there.

A tree trunk full of coins halfway up Snowdon

We left at 15:20pm and climbed up via the Pyg Track for a summit we couldnt see. It was a lot more challenging at the start than expected, and there were a lot more people coming down than we saw going up. Nearly everyone cracked a joke about climbing Snowdon with a skateboard strapped to my back. "You skating back down son? now that's something Id like to see", was the question we got asked by everyone. The first few groups we stopped and explained the situation, charity cycle, lands end to john o groats, kick flip on top the 3 peaks etc etc. Eventually our reply was reduced to "yes, we are, thank you have a nice day".

The middle section was a lot more mellow and felt much more like a walk, the wind had picked up and the visibility was dropping slightly at this point, was still stoked on the fact we were on Snowdon more than anything though. We also met a few people on the 3 peaks in 24 hours challenge in which Snowdon was their last. After the mellow section we approached the last zig-zag section where we entered the clouds. Visibility dropped at the same time as the steepness and wind increased. A few times we both slipped causing us to freeze trying not move a muscle, the kind of pose you pull when someones gave you a massive fright. After walking through the 100th stream I started to regret not wearing goretex shoes as by now each step forward looked the same as when you squeeze a fully loaded sponge.

A wee moment of awesomeness on the way up

At the top of Snowdon

Logan taking it all in

Hardy seagull at the top of Snowdon

We arrived at the top at 17:15 (1h 55m up) and that's when we really felt the wind. It was 50-60mph winds at the top, and we were to try some kick flips on the cairn which was 2 square meters at the most. The best thing was the first thing we saw at the top was a seagull, standing as if to say 'call this a wind, pfffffft'. We had absolutely no view at the top and had none for the last half an hour of climbing. I was first to try a kick flip, by this time the trucks were flapping all over the place. I placed the skateboard down and put a foot on it, looked at it and thought 'this is nuts, I can hardly stand up in this wind, ace though!' For as much as I tried I couldn't get one to satisfy myself, I gave up after a sketchy nollie flip, nearly losing the skateboard when the wind caught the skateboard in mid air. We were left looking at the skateboard disappearing into the mist, thankfully it landed on a rock just below. It was then Logans turn, I knew he would nail it like he was in a skate park in the middle of the summer, hes the type of dude who does everything effortlessly first time, while the rest of us have to try and try to land something half as nice. He landed a kick flip clean in front of an audience of two three peaker's, who were crammed up on the cairn with us.

My ham and pineapple pizza cooking at Bry Glo

A few high fives and we were on the way down. The time was 05:45pm. The descent was a lot tougher than the ascent. We were forced to stop a few times due to our legs giving up on us and seem to bend the opposite way every now and again sending instant pains up our legs. We arrived at the car park at 07:00pm (1h 45m down) with gnarly feeling knees, especially my left knee. We visited the cafe at the bottom for a coffee and a cake, as we were the last customers we got all the end slices which were huge. Once we got our bikes we headed back on the same road to Betws-y-Coad where we would then be heading north towards Conwy. The huge down hill was super nice, a few close calls with cars overtaking and sheep running out in front of us but otherwise bliss. Our plan was get back to Betws-y-Coed to call it a night, that was until we cycled past 'Bryn Glo Guesthouse' where there was a dude outside cooking pizza's in a home made stone baked oven. The smell drew us in, and big pizza each later we were done. There were no rooms left, we asked if we could camp there and she said bluntly "you have sleeping bags? - Bunkhouse". We were then directed through an overgrown garden to an old static caravan. I couldn't see anyway they managed to get it here. It was amazing and had everything we needed, sink for washing some clothes, electricity for charging phones, a heater to dry our wet kit from today and a fridge. Once settled we had a few beers and checked out all our photos so far and was nearly crying with laughter, we also managed to get some music playing. This small piece of normality was a nice change from the frantic day to day. A cat also arrived outside which didn't have a tail, as we had a few beers we thought it important to befriend this cat, but all our efforts failed as he just sat there as if on guard staring out into the bushes beside our door, I couldn't help thinking I would love to know what he was staring at so intensely for so long, it must be amazing but all I seen was green foliage.

Our wee pal outside our 'Bunkhouse' in Capel Curig

So it was another day finished in a way that we couldn't have planned if we tried, it was the first of four legs finished. Although our knees were sore our feet were fine, I was expecting blisters after the mountain but none. We both felt a small sense of achievement today, maybe due to the fact we had time to reflect on what we have done so far, we also knew that there was still a long way to go and was looking forward to it.