Dragon's Back, Coed Y Brenin

Length:   25km
Climb:    450m
Grade:    Red
Time:     2 -4 hrs
Rating:   3.5/5

Classic at heart - venturing out into the picturesque mountainous countryside - but with plenty of very good, and technical, singletrack elements.

Dragon's Back is one of the jewels of Coed Y Brenin and does share some sections of trail with MBR. Particularly the final descent. It does segregate though, and carve it's own path in to the surrounding hills and valleys.

Starting at the shared gate adjacent to the visitors centre you embark by passing through a large set of sculptural suspension forks. the trail immediately lets you know what's in store with its characteristic boulder fest; yard after yard of well placed rocks - the trail is anything but smooth.

After a good kilometer or so, following a brief rise in elevation, the route eases off to hard packed earth (with a smattering of exposed rock patches to keep you on your toes) and the trail heads downwards. Speed ramps up and one is treated to the first real, flowing descent of the day. You don't loose a massive amount of elevation but the distance covered is fair and with gravity on your side the fun factor is immediate. The descent ends with some nice bike park style surfaced berms [pic].

But, the inevitable does happen and you do have to go up. A long climb ensues.  The farthest most point of the trail, around the tail of the dragon did feel slightly tedious and, dare I say, pointless. Mainly all fire road with altitude gained and wasted in equal measure. It felt a little like a tool to help increase the distance but what follows puts all thought of wasted elevation and pointless fire road right to the back of your mind.

A couple of singletrack sections (Hermon for example) break up the monotony of the double track but it was this portion of the trail that gives Dragon's Back its classic and remote character. The tail section does have one major selling point; opening out above the tree line upon some wondrous views across Snowdonia National Park. A major bonus for the effort exerted to get there.

The loss in altitude that follows seems a shame, initially. Hurtling down fire road is never a great way to descend a hillside but it does level off and, eventually, leads to some very very good trail. 'Gomez' to 'Uncle Fester' just flow, are fast and offer a very engaging technical challenge.

Singletrack the entire way, a good 3 or 4km of downness is split only by the ascending fire roads in to 5 or 6 chunks, but the fire road does little to really slow you down. The descent also incorporates sections of the traditional rock slab trail surface common to Coed Y Brenin and with its testing gradients to boot it provides a proper roller coaster feel, particularly 'Lurch'.

After a brief interlude, the ride opens out at the bottom of the hill. You pass along the bi-directional link and then there are two options, complete the trail with a final (long) climb or head back to the trail head along the public road. We opted for the climb but with a slight tinge of panic as the day was fading and the sun was getting low.

The climb is fire road and slowly winds its way back to a pretty fair height. It is best taken at a modest pace and use the time to chat with your riding buddies. It can lull you in to thinking you've reached the top with its mini crests but the rise keeps going. Once, finally, at the top take time to have a break too as the descent that follows leads all the way back to the trail head and gets pretty full on in places with very rooty/rocky trail surface.

Coed Y Brenin has an absolute myriad of trails to explore and Dragon's Back is a great trail. I would certainly like to try some of the black trails but this red graded loop was worth the effort, just. Whether I would recommend over others, only time will tell; better to just spend a few days here and try them all.

With such great facilities there seems very little reason not to spend a few days here. The trail centre itself has everything you'd need for the day. Great cafe, workshop, toilets/showers etc. There are also plenty of places offering accommodation, so get booked up and get riding.