Trailhead Revisited

While its simplicity may be a turn-off to some thrill seekers, we find the newly extended Gwydir trail presses all the right buttons

- Sim Mainey

I’d not seen a riding buddy of mine for a couple of months — life having a habit of getting in the way of things that are important. A sunny Saturday and nothing in the diary meant that we finally got to head out and make the most of the uncharacteristically dry trails. Puffing away up a long, drawn-out climb, conversation flitted this way and that, months of backlogged chat working its way out. Talk, as it usually does when riding bikes, turned to where we’d ridden recently. “I rode the Marin trail last Thursday,” says I. There’s a pause. “What did you think of it?’ asks my mate, ‘because I rode it a month back and, to be honest, I wasn’t that impressed.”

As we’re both of a similar ability, and our idea of what constitutes a good ride is similar, this surprised me, as I’d actually had a good day out and (spoiler alert) came away impressed. So which of us was right, if either?

Points of view are influenced and coloured by all kinds of things. Expectation, ability, mood, company, weather, tyres — any number of variables can affect how you rate your ride and what impression a trail leaves on you. You’d imagine there’d be something of a common consensus though. That things would average out. It seems not. A bit of internet forum lurking reveals a similar split on whether the Marin Trail renamed (now the Gwydir Mawr) is hot or not. But then again, the internet is binary. It’s in its nature to be one way or the other.