The recent spell of dry warm weather provided an ideal opportunity to enjoy riding some of the lanes in North Wales. As I hadn’t been able to have a long ride this week, I suggested a ride out to Caerwys to the brisk group. Thursday morning was dry and warm and 6 riders, John’s M & W, Ivan,Richard & Nick met me at Rossett for our foray into North Wales.
The first 16kms was on quiet roads which meandered through Hope and skirted around the cement factory at Buckley and on towards Mold. We stayed above and to the west of Mold town rather than taking the more direct busy traffic route through its centre. On entering Mold, we turned onto the first climb heading up towards Nercwys when one comedian piped up that according to his Garmin “this is the first of nine climbs today and this one is 2 miles long”. I quickly enlightened him that there were more than 9 hills on my route profile.
Turning off the main road below Nercwys, we traversed above Mold through Gwernamynned to Gwernaffield where the snowdrops at Fron Hall were putting on a super display in the morning sunshine. Unfortunately around this point, John W dropped behind because he was struggling with back pain and decided to abort the ride and head for home. Ivan chose to accompany John and they rode off via Shotton back to Chester.
Our now depleted group carried on into Cilcain arriving via the steep climb up from the River Alyn which according to Richard’s Garmin was rated at a 22%. It was all downhill from here to the valley bottom where a short section of main road had to be endured before we could turn off onto the quieter lanes towards Nannerch. John M excused himself from this section because his bike was too highly geared for climbing the hills through the village so he opted to stay on the main road and meet us in the cafe for lunch. The stiff climb through Nannerch village soon gave way to a descent back to the valley road and the start of the long climb up to Caerwys and lunch.
The Corner Cafe turned out to be a very popular meeting place but fortunately I had heeded Clive’s advice and booked our table. Once seated our orders were taken, the food arrived promptly and was as good as I remembered from my previous visit. During lunch Nick showed us pictures of the damage that had been inflicted on his sister’s house (in New Zealand) by recent storms. The house is uninhabitable as they have no water or power and it will several weeks before the utilities are restored.
Lunch over it was back on the bikes and it felt quite springlike in the sunshine as we climbed over the Halkyns with views opening up towards the Dee estuary and the Wirral peninsula beyond. We then climbed the undulating but good quality road surface through villages of Pentre Halkyn, Halkyn to descend into Rhosesmor.
Turning left by the church in Rhosesmor, we entered a narrow steeply descending lane towards Northop. This road surface had a generous coating of mud and debris so both caution and concentration were required. Unfortunately, Richard’s front wheel slipped away from underneath him and he ended on the floor. Fortunately he escaped serious injury and soon recovered to sort his bike out .
We set we off again paying even more attention to road surface we all safely arrived down at the valley bottom. Our route now took us on familiar roads past the Horticultural College and onwards through Northop and into Hawarden. Here Nick and I turned off towards home, and John and Richard carried on towards Chester via the riverside cycleway from Saltney Ferry.
Today's ride was ridden in near perfect conditions, warm with light winds, and sunshine. The ride totalled 75 kms with nearly 1200 metres of ascent but everyone completed over 100kms of riding when going back to Chester.
See route map and/or gpx file download
KP
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