On the right track PART 2
Join us back in the Brecon Beacons as we resume our treasure hunt adventure, guided by the OS Maps app
Our breathing is harsher and more laboured. Hearts beat fast and legs burn with lactic acid. Only a few more pedal strokes now, though. The top is tantalisingly close. One final effort and we’ll be there. There being the saddle of The Gap – the cleft in the hills that splits the summits of Pen y Fan and Fan y Big, and gives its name to the most famous descent in the Brecon Beacons National Park.
We’re up here, grinding out the final few metres of the climb, on a treasure hunt set for us by MBUK’s production editor Chris. He’s provided us with a set of written clues, and now, armed with our phones – equipped with the OS Maps app and its ingenious snap-to-path function – our job is to solve them and use them to navigate to our secret final destination.
Each clue gives us the next waypoint on our ride. All we have to do is input this into the OS Maps app, hit the magnet icon and let the software do the rest. The route will automatically snap to the most direct trails and rights of way in National Parks. We’ve made it this far with no mishaps (you can read about the first part of our adventure in MBUK 396) and, with a good chunk of climbing already under our belts, and nothing but blue sky showing over the horizon, something tells us the reward for our efforts isn’t far away.
Sandstone speedway Sure enough, as our wheels tip over the watershed and the ground begins to slope away, we’re greeted by a view that stretches for miles, down a wide, rolling valley that curves all the way around to the town of Brecon in the far distance. Stopping to catch our breath and drop our saddles, Ben – our friend who’s come along for the ride today, and to help us decipher the clues – reads out the next of Chris’s instructions. “It’s all downhill from here – we hope it’s not a rocky road.” This merely confirms what we’ve guessed. The snaking line of a trail visible along the left flank of the valley is all the encouragement we need, and after a quick glance at the app to check there are no turn-offs we might miss, we flash a grin to one another and drop in.
The acceleration is instant, as is the abundance of rocks that Chris knew all too well would be here. Years of footfall and rainfall have washed away the dirt, exposing the strata of red sandstone underneath, and overlying this is a jumble of rubble. While I pick my way through, arcing from left to right in search of the smoothest line, Ben opts for an airborne approach. Cutting up into the trailside banking, he shoots for a small grassy knoll to kicker off and, with a deft flick of his bar, gaps clean over the roughest section, landing on the gravel beyond. Both techniques lead us full-speed into the first left-hander. Converging in the apex to send the carpet of loose scree flying, it takes our best foot-out speedway skills to stay rubber-side-down.
Ovine audience
After this, things only get quicker, as the next bit of descent is less technical and totally straight. No one wants to be the first to touch the brakes, so it’s a headlong dive towards the next bend, hands clenched on the grips and ears praying not to hear that dreaded hiss of a pinch flat. It doesn’t come, and after 30 seconds or so of pummelling, the rocks relent and the gradient mellows.
We’re now hopping and skipping our way along dirt doubletrack, which has been baked hard and fast by the sun, gapping between the ruts in pursuit of the smoothest line. Several more minutes of this leads us to the valley bottom and a rolling field full of grassy undulations. These make for an awesome natural pump track – although it must confuse the resident sheep to suddenly see a pair of two-wheeled humans launching and jumping across their lunch!
When the hill finally runs out, our fun is halted by a stone wall and a five-bar gate. A glance at our GPS location on the OS Maps app shows we’ve reached the next waymarker. It’s time to make sense of the next clue and see what lies beyond.
To be continued…