North Wales Wkend

So at just over 3 months since my operation me and Dan (and 40ish PACKERS members) headed to North a Wales for a mix of MTB and kayaking.

Just the boats to go

We left the shire and had an awful drive to the bunk barn, taking nearly 4 and a half hours! Once at the bunk barn we quickly unpacked the gear and headed back out to try and complete The Marin Trail before it got dark. All kitted up and heading into the trail got about a mile in before I heard "that's it, I can't go any further" from Dan. Unfortunately he had managed to snap his rear mech. Fortunately it happened so soon and we were able to head back to the car.

With the disappointment of not biking and probably not getting it fixed in time for a Sunday blast round Llandegla we headed back to the bunk barn. 

Katie kindly drove us to the pub and we drowned our sorrows in the pub with the rest of the bunk barners.

Saturday morning we headed out for an early 4.5 mile run up the side of a mountain. Finding the Welsh hills more challenging then the flatness of the fens back home. Back before most had got up we had breakfast and then made tracks to the Mighty T.

A fast change saw us on the river by 9am. I was a bit nervous for the first few eddies of the graveyard but managed to put this behind me after a few good eddies and ferries. We charged down the rest of the river and headed back up to the top. At this point the rest of the club had arrived and were getting on the Lower.

After completing another run of the Upper we decided to catch the others up and head down to Bala. It wasn't long before we caught them up and even sooner before we were fishing a few people out. 

Arriving at Bala Mill Falls we both got out above the drop river left to cover the left hand shoot. It wasn't long before we had our first customer. Still in boat, I lifted them over the rocks and posted them down the left hand drop. Unfortunately another person came out above the falls. His boat got pinned on the rock just above me, managing to recover the boat and post it across to the other side he was soon back in and off.

Something's changed since being off the water.....

In the afternoon we took a small group up to the top and had a great couple of runs down the river. After this my shoulder was becoming pretty sore so I called it a day.

Testing the shoulder out on the Cafe Wave.

Saturday night we headed back to the pub and found out the Welsh for Out is Allan, courtesy of the sign in the Shell garage.

A lazy get up on Sunday due to deciding to head home for an early finish.

Next up SICKLINE, for three quarters of the team anyway as I don't think I'm quite up for that yet.... There will always be next year and a few more races to enter too!