Like all Bearbones events you look forward to the start as much as the end, mainly due to the unlimited hot drinks, toast and cake on offer. Add that to a personalised Bearbones flask and catching up with other  like minded riders and you have a perfect  weekend in your hands.

As we all know, the weather has been pretty miserable lately and the weekend was promising much of the same. Yet somehow we had a pretty good weather window on the Saturday until to around 3pm. Cloud lifted to reveal what Mid Wales has to offer and at our highest point we could visually trace our route out before us. 

Once again I let Richard be the route master, as he always seems to deliver a fine route with a great mixture of trails. Plus if I was left with this assignment I would probably blag it and make it up as we go along.

Within an hour or so, all thoughts of rain had dispersed and we were immensely enjoying our riding and exploration of another new patch of Mid Wales. 

The route took us deep into the forest and with the damp air lingering and the trail receding to nothing but an overgrown tussock strewn path, I knew we were back on a Bearbones event! 

Once we emerged from the depths of the forest we were kindly greeted with a view that made it all worth while. With the weather still on our side we refuelled and pushed on to try and get to our destination fro the evening.  

Our weather window was becoming ever narrower and the onslaught of rain was inevitable. We were hoping to make it the the Aleppo Merchant Inn before it arrived but it wasn't to be. 

The rain set in and the wind picked up making the last few KMs slightly harder work, even though from knees up we were pretty dry, nothing could stop the rain pouring into our boots. Within minutes, frozen feet and hands were forcing us to make some changes to the planned course and shorten our route to the inviting thoughts of beer.

The camera was stowed away in a dry bag from here on and our focus was solely on getting to the pub. 

After many hours, a few beers and hot food we decided on an urban bivvy spot. A first for me and a story I shall share again :) Thank you Stu and Dee for another great weekend of wet wild fun!!