I was thinking about this on a run the other night. I'd decided to take a slight detour to take in, possibly 400m of forest trail. Decent trails like this are an absolute rarity around Caernarfon, where you've either got roads/tarmac cycletracks or the usual farmland ROWs that are either impassible, muddy or require a suicidal dash along a narrow main road with no path to get to. So I arrive, and to my horror the beautiful, mushy surface has been covered in slate waste! Are people that afraid of walking on a bit of leaf litter and get their boots dirty? Are these the same people who've sent the 20000 signature petition to ask Nintendo to produce the Wii Fit: Snowdon Edition? I've no woodland trail anymore!

The same has happened to a great little stretch of path between Caernarfon and Waunfawr, being put over to a harder surface, not to mention the entire cycle track changing from a hard packed gravel to continuous, knee-jarring tarmac. Thankfully, another ancient trackway remains gloriously muddy and rough, and remains as the nearest stretch of decent trail I can reach in a direct run from town.

This is what it looked like in 2006. This track has now been covered over and is much wider, resulting in less hedgerow plants and the loss of the ancient surface. In the name of progress.

Look the other way, and this has gone as well...

Now this was timely, as the National Park Authority is going to tarmac the Miner's Track to Llyn Llydaw. I'm all for access, but taking this to it's natural conclusion, are we going to end up going all American with ROADS up to the summits? I don't expect the park to actually allow cars up there, but I see the day where the Llanberis path is tarmac all the way, with a couple of wide zig-zags below Clogwyn as being a natural conclusion to this. After all, there's railway, why not go the whole hog? Lets even put a cafe half way as well as on the top while we're at it!

Enabling more people to get on the hill would ruin the peace and quiet one experiences on reaching the summit...

This project as a discrete entity, if they manage to solve that eternal question of life, the universe and a tarmac that doesn't look like tarmac, doesn't really bother me. In fact, I think it's a pretty decent idea as it's damn near a motorway anyway so improving the surface slightly so a few more people can get there doesn't bother me. One argument is that it's going to increase the number of people getting into trouble on the mountain. Now I can't see the numbers involved being that great and that even if you assume that statistically the same proportion get into trouble as for those who can already access the area, i'd imagine it's going to come to a statistically insignificant amount. I'd imagine the greatest hazard is returning downhill. If you want a footpath of sorts, you do the PYG - jaywalking's kept strictly to the Miners'. What needs to be clear is what the park, which sets draconian planning regulations for most, will do and explicitly WON'T DO to our mountains.

Ever wondered what happened to all those people who would complain that we all got pissed on the 31st December 1999 because it wasn't the Millennium for another year? Well they're at it again, this time measuring mountains...

The idea is that a bunch of guys (and maybe gals) want to re-survey Tryfan so as to possibly demote it from the list of 14/15 peaks (depending on your definition). This doesn't bother me as such, but the belief that because it's slightly lower in altitude means it'll no longer be as significant, does. It is even suggested that it'll no longer form part of the 14/15 Peak challenge.

Even the Snowdonia Society's Director seems to believe that this means people may then choose to do a shortened version of the 14/15 Peaks. Is it just me who thinks that's just utter nonsense? The 14/15 Peaks is just that - a trip over a specific 14/15 summits - originally deemed to be over a nominal 3000ft in height. Even if one of those is found to be below a nominal value of an obsolete unit of measure, I can't imagine the tradition of Yr Wyddfa to Foel Fras (or in reverse) changing after 90 years.

Read more about it here.

Some pics from a walk on Dec 24th.

Saw four or five people on top and another four on descent who were the only ones other than the two of us to have ascended the Ranger today (unless they set off after 2pm). There was even a mountain biker on the summit.

Virgin Snow

I asked the guys who actually work in Hafod Eryri tonight what time it's meant to be open till...

The last train is the official line - so there... Seems the Beeb were fed some bad information...

I don't think anyone missed the point last week that Hafod Eryri, the new 'caff' on top of Yr Wyddfa has now opened. The highlight of that was definitely the fact that Our Rhods walked up rather than taking the train. Lowlights were the mangling of Hafod Eryri by the local news presenters(seriously, how difficult can it be?)

One worrying point is that I've seen in many places (including the BBC) that the caff is open till 8pm. Well - it's not. I was up Tuesday night and I'd apparently just missed it according to some friends I bumped into up there. They'd only managed to get served out of protest. Fair enough I suppose, we were well stocked anyway. One of them works for the National Park Authority, and wasn't happy that times given on their site meant that it should have been open till half seven.

Tonight, the same again. It was shut at half six - probably due to it being too windy for the train. Me - I'm not bothered, but there was a guy up there with his daughter who was assured from some source or other (and probably a reputable one!) it would be open. They weren't quite desperate, but were definitely annoyed!

I think that with the millions thrown at the new building, people might have a higher expectation that it will be open, especially in light of pretty high profile sites stating it is. So the correct information really has to be out there and easily obtained - or we're going to keep on getting people walking up in winter depending on the caff being open when they get there.

TBH, I'm not bothered about anything other than a coffee as, according to their website they have chosen to sell 'Village' pies and pastries. I've had the misfortune of their products in the past, and I personally don't rate them. Worse is that they seem to be the only pastry available in most shops when you want to buy something quick for a walk. I think I'm going to put a comparison of them on here with some real bakery products and other mass produced ones - though I might get someone else to do the taste test! Unplanned rant over, but my stomach never forgives...