Snowdon - 3h 5m + 92.1 Miles, 6h 20m
Leaving the office to catch the train to Snowdon for the beginning of our Three Peaks ride, I was weirdly nervous, fumbling and dropping things all over the place. Thankfully this subsided when I finally got the bags mounted on the bike and headed off to Euston to catch the train.
There was a slight hiccup on the train with the driver being late as his train was delayed... but we eventually got underway, Jake jumped on at Crewe and we had a chilled journey to Bangor. Deciding to save our legs for the next day we got a cab for us and the bikes to the bunkhouse where we would be spending the night. When we rocked up at the bunkhouse it was deserted and empty which was a little eerie, but we bedded down anyway and got some much needed sleep before the next days epic efforts to come.
Day 1 began at 06:15 with a surprisingly steep but thankfully short climb up to the beginning of the Miners Track that we would be heading up Snowdon on. Having eaten nothing for dinner or breakfast I completely bonked in the first two miles and had to push... this did not bode well! Arriving at Pen-Y-Pass we had to find somewhere to stash the bikes, Jake having forgotten to bring the lock, we tried first in the YHA but the receptionist was extraordinarily unhelpful. Thankfully the warden in the cafe and tourist centre was a legend and let us hide the bikes behind his building which was relatively safe.
After buying a load of flapjack and Tango to get some energy into us we set off, about an hour later than we had hoped too. The walk up was fairly uneventful, pretty nice weather until we got near the summit when we were engulfed by cloud (which was to become a summit theme...). Being the first thing we had done it felt easy and fun, we decided to go up the Miners Track and did almost get lost due to us being spanners and deciding we didn't need a map... we went down a slightly shorter and easier to follow route back into the Pen-Y-Pass car park. The whole endeavour took 3 hours 5 mins which bought us back the time we had lost faffing and a bit extra which was a bonus.
This was thankfully followed by the mother of all fried breakfasts and Lucozade to ensure we were fully loaded up on energy for the beginning of the riding. Setting off, mentally prepared for some serious hills as we were in Snowdonia, we were blessed with nearly a solid 10 miles of downhill, sitting comfortably at between 25-30mph for the first section did wonders for our average speed that day!
We pushed on a solid 30 miles before we broke for lunch at a little place called Fresh Hut, which was completely mental. The staff were endearing and helpful but it basically felt like someones living room/kitchen that had gotten out of hand. Thankfully the food was good though and they did a weirdly large number of milkshakes with added protein.
Setting off, feeling refreshed and refueled we (read I) nearly managed to get lost taking the wrong exit off a roundabout and ending up having to do a terrifying U-turn on a dual carriageway... A mere 30-40 miles later we stopped again properly at a pub called the Harp Inn in Little Neston overlooking the military firing range of Sealand, which provided a very atmospheric shot of my bike...
While we were here we bumped into an older gent on an older bike who had just finished a 600km audax and was now cycling home(?!) he informed us that the ferry we were intending to get across the Mersey from Birkenhead to Liverpool stopped running at 18:40 and we were very unlikely to make that timing. This prompted a fucking lot of swearing and frantic Googling until we discovered we could ride the bikes through the Birkenhead Tunnel after 20:00. While this was later than we wanted it was preferable to spending the night in Birkenhead itself...
We ended up getting to the tunnel just after 19:00 and after pootling around trying to find somewhere decent to eat we settled on the Premier Inn, with it being the only place that looked even vaguely tempting! While we were chilling out I rang around to sort our accommodation that evening, trying Lyons Farm first which was our original plan, though they had no toilets or showers and a grumpy owner so we went for Hidden Corner Campsite which was perfect.
A couple of cheeky pizzas later and we were off under the tunnel towards our first nights camping. The temperature had dropped now and I shivered all the way to the middle of the tunnel where it ramped upwards and I could start pedalling again. When we were within a couple of miles of the campsite the Beeline decided we could do with a final off road piece just to spice things up. That tackled we rolled into Hidden Corner, handed over our cash and went to pitch up.
Jake pitched his tent got in and went to sleep. I put up my tarp and got into my bivvy bag and sleeping bag and attempted the same. However as I had bought a dirt cheap tarp from Amazon at the last minute it flapped like a bastard and I couldn't sleep... about 01:00 I gave up and decamped into the toilet block and got a few hours decent shut eye...
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