This is a mountain bike route of 19 miles in the Clwydian Range, a chain of hills just inside the North Wales border near Chester. It crosses the eastern flanks of Moel Famau, heading to the village of Cilcain and back. The riding is on a good mixture of trails with wide forest tracks, muddy and rocky singletrack, fast sweeping descents and technical rock sections. The trails are pretty much ridable all year but when it's wet it's muddy.
1. Start from the Moel Famau lower car park (GR172611). Follow the trail, signed as a cycle route, out the back of the car park almost opposite the entrance barrier. Follow it around to the right, past a junction with a footpath on the left, and straight up to where it meets a fire track on a bend. Climb straight up the firetrack. Go straight on at the first junction to the second junction, at the crest (GR178616).
2. Turn left up a short climb then bear left on the fire track to the next junction. Go straight on at the junction and follow the trail as it contours around the eastern slope of Moel Famau. Keep to the main trail as it climbs and descends through a number of bends. The fire track finishes with a descent that turns into a thin rocky track with bushes on either side. This turns left after a short distance and climbs to a gate (GR169633).
3. After the gate turn left and climb towards the trees on the grassy trail by the drystone wall. Go through the gate at the top and follow the boggy section of trail, keeping the trees on the left. The trail soon becomes firmer before it reaches a crossroad junction (GR163633), with a steep trail on the left leading to the summit of Moel Famau. Go straight on along the singletrack through the heather. This track soon goes up a short, steep climb to the left then descends before jinking right through a drystone wall. Continue straight on after the wall to some rocky sections a little further on. The track then comes to a junction with the choice of climbing straight on or turning off to the right (GR156630).
4. Turn right to follow the track just below the line of the ridge. There are two choices when taking the right turn, either try to clean the rock section on the first right or take the easier option and go straight on for about 20-30m then drop down the grassy singletrack on the right, opposite the fallen wall on the left. They both join up again to follow the muddy and rocky singletrack. At the next junction (GR153630) turn right and ride over the fallen section of wall, past a post with details of the trails concessional status. If you bear left and come to a stile on the ridge you have missed the junction.
5. A short distance later at the next junction take the right hand track and go straight on for the start of a great descent. If it is wet the top section can become a stream. After a few bends the trail turns right for a short, steep and often boggy section over some big rocks. It is rideable but gets quite soft when wet. At the bottom the trail reduces in steepness and becomes a fast, flowing and grassy singletrack. Be careful on the first blind left hand bend, there are some rocks just after that can catch you out. Follow the obvious singletrack downhill. Go left up the rock section out of the dip by the tree, to follow the track ahead with the wall on the right. At the end of the wall turn 90deg right and descend the steep, wide, muddy and grassy trail to the junction by the stream crossing (GR154639).
6. Turn right and cross the stream using the ford or the plank. After the stream follow the muddy trail down to the small gate, just after the gorse bushes. Turn right and descend the doubletrack straight on, through a couple of gates. Go past a junction with a track on the right to the junction with the lane at the bottom (GR172647). Turn left and follow the lane through a dip. Climb right and then left to a junction by the church in Cilcain (GR176652). Turn left and climb through a right hand bend to the next junction. Turn left and climb the lane through a few bends. The lane soon flattens off and straightens out before going past a parking area on the right and coming to a crossroad junction (GR166653).
7. Go straight across and follow the lane straight on. Go past a farm on the right where the lane becomes a dirt track. Bear right then left on the double track to a gate. After the gate follow the track right then left again. This leads to a straight section of trail that comes to a junction with a byway signposted through a gate with a white gatepost, on the right, just before the track starts descending (GR161661).
8. Go right through the gate for a long, fast and straight descent with a lot of rocks and mud, it can also be a bit wet. Follow the trail straight on all the way to the bottom where it gets really rocky, before finishing with some very muddy ruts. Follow the ruts through a couple of bends to the next junction (GR171671). Turn right and follow the double track a short way, then at the fence turn left along the singletrack. Follow the muddy and rooty singletrack down through the trees and bushes to a junction by a house on the right. Go straight on and descend the steep double track to a junction with a road at the bottom (GR177672).
9. Turn right and follow the road past and open junction on the left. After the next lane on the right the lane comes to a crossroad, with a house on the right that has well kept hedges (GR177660). Turn right, following the sign for the viewpoint, and climb the lane to the next junction, just after a right turn. Turn left and continue climbing, then go straight on at the next junction for a steep climb to the previously visited crossroad junction (GR166653). Go straight on and continue up the now gentle climb. At a junction with some tracks on the right, on a left hand bend, bear left to stay on the tarmac. Climb past a farm on the left and go straight on to where the lane changes to a wide rocky track (GR160651).
10. Keep to this track and climb for roughly 1mile, going through a couple of gates on the way. Climb to the junction with the three trails on the left, at the end of a drystone wall on the left, just before reaching the ridge (GR146642). The lowest trail goes over a fallen part of the wall to descend through a grassy field, the middle one is signed as a BW and the highest trail is signed as a concessional track. Follow the concessional singletrack and climb into the heather. At the vague junction bear right up the short, tricky climb to the next junction. Turn left and keep to the obvious trail that follows the direction of the ridge. After a couple of short steep climbs the trail bears right. Continue along the trail, through a few undulations, until it bears left and comes to a junction. Turn right and ride over the fallen wall, for a second time, to a junction with the previously ridden trail (GR153630).
11. Turn left and retrace your wheel tracks along this trail. At the next junction (GR156630) turn left and re-ride the rocks sections. Jink right through the gap in the drystone wall and climb over the small rise before a steep, twisting descent through the heather. Continue along the trail all the way back to the crossroad junction below the summit of Moel Famau by the start of the trees on the right (GR163633). Go straight on to the gate at the start of the grassy descent. After the gate descend the fast, grassy track all the way to the bottom. Go past the gated track on the right halfway down that you previously came out of. Continue straight on and take care on the following left and right bends, it gets less grippy and steeper and there are usually walkers. Go straight on through the following gate to descend under the trees to the junction at the bottom (GR177637).
12. Turn right and go through the gate. Follow the dirt double track through a few gates, going straight on at the farm on the left. The track eventually comes out at another farm at the end of the track. Go straight on and descend the broken lane to the junction just after (GR184634). Turn right and climb the tarmac lane to a junction by a farm on the left (GR179629). Take the rutted double track on the right and follow it to a gate. After the gate descend to a ford then bear left up a short, loose climb. Descend through the next gate to a junction. Go straight on down the grassy, rutted track that follows the line of trees on the left. Continue straight on through a stream and the mud to the gate leading into the forest (GR174625).
13. After the gate follow the trail left and climb the singletrack that becomes fire track further up. Bear right at the top and descend to a junction (GR176621). Turn left and follow the track up the next climb. Bear right up this track and go past all the tracks on the left and one on the right, to the junction at the top (GR178616). Go straight on for the last descent. Halfway down take the track on the left and continue downhill to the junction on the hairpin bend. Go straight on down the path, then at the junction with the footpath on the right, bear left and return to the car park to complete the ride.
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