SOCIAL RIDE FROM LLYN ALWEN North Wales 30th April 2006
Five of us met at Llyn Alwen for a social ride. Lynda and her neighbour Elaine, Sue Hudson (Barefoot Cleo) and her friend Steph and myself, Jenni (trailrider). Once we’d tacked up we he
aded for the main road and crossed over to the minor road leading to a bridle path through a field with a nice grassy track.
The horses were eager to get going and when Lynda had remounted after closing the gate we headed uphill being careful not to let them have their ‘heads’ too early.
The day was dry but there was a chill in the air! The sun not being obliging, it was overcast. We reached the next gates and turned left onto the lane from Pentrellyncymer towards the Llyn Brenig dam.
Just below the dam we passed though another gate and turned left towards the Llyn Brenig visitor centre entrance. The verges here offered us an opportunity to have a nice canter. At the top we changed direction following the road down to the dam. My mare Shar-nina had a red headed moment and took to racing 
on a bit over the dam!
Following the track round the dam we negotiated a weighted gate that I held open. I have difficulty in mounting from the ground and by the time I had remounted from a gate Lynda and Lorili had disappeared!
Lorili was on a mission! Sue, Steph, Elaine and I tracked the hoof prints where they were visible and re-entered the forest getting another good canter up a lovely grass track. Most of the grassy tracks have disappeared in the forest so this is a rarerity. The motor sports such as the Astra race, wreck it regularly each year and the Forest Enterprise are busy harvesting. The grass is scraped and a new surface laid for the machinery.
We continued, eventually catching up with Lynda past a cottage Ysgaer Wen and near what we call Denbigh Crossroads. This is a crossroad with a wide, open area good enough to park vehicles and ride fro
m. We dismounted here for a short while.
The horses were getting sweaty and we let them have a bite to eat. Elaine decided she was going to meet us further on because her horse Darius has still quite a thick coat and she was concerned about him getting chilled. She wanted to walk him so he could cool down. The rest of us were doing an extra two miles and have Arabs with thinner coats.
We said fond farewells till later and turned into the forest again on the track towards the bird hide at Rhyd Galed.
There is a rutted grass track opposite the hide that we turned down. It was hard going, but made a change to the riding on easy surfaces. Heading right at the end we cantered a short distance to rejoin the tarmac lane.
Here we turned left and carried on the road for some distance, passing Tal Cefn Isaf, and down the hill, arriving at the track whi
ch runs along Afon Alwen (River Alwen). We met Elaine just inside and continued in a homeward direction along the river to Pentrellyncymer.
We passed Nicky Fraggle’s place and I yelled at Geeves of DoodleIT but he didn’t stick his head round the front door!
We carried on to the main Denbigh road crossing back to where we parked the trailers.
It took about two and a half hours and we went about ten miles. All in all an enjoyable day! Thanks to those in being there and making it so.
Jenni (Trailrider)