Monday, June 13, 2016

North Wales Part 5: Hiking

Hey everyone! We're back with another exciting and totally exhausting blog post.

Last week, on Thursday, we didn't have any plans, so that morning we decided to go on a hike. As our cottage was in Conwy, hiking up Conwy Mountain was a priority. At first, we didn't really know what we were doing, so we went to the tourist information centre to get some direction and a map. Our hike went fairly smoothly, except it was practically all uphill. But once on the summit, the view was totally worth it. We could see for miles. It was beautiful! After summiting, we were all exhausted, so we turned back and did a total of just under 5 miles. After that we had a relaxing evening around Conwy.

On Saturday, things got a little more interesting. We were going to go on another hike, only longer. A lot longer. Because of this plan, we had a fairly early start leaving the house just after 9:00 a.m. This time our destination was another village by the name of Llanfairfechan. The estimated mileage was 13 miles, which certainly seemed a little daunting at first. Anyhow, the hike went smoothly the first few minutes, until my dad realized he'd left his phone at home. Mom went back to the house to get it, while we explored the surrounding area we were in for a few minutes. After that incident, we headed to the trail we'd taken only two days prior. We soon passed the point we'd turned off of to go to the summit, while we continued on the trail going on the side of the mountain. The trails were pretty easy to follow, and I'd say we made pretty good time. As time passed and with it the miles, we took in the beautiful views and landscape.
Our next major landmark was a big mountain where a large wildfire had completely charred it the previous weekend. Although the fire was out cold, it was still amazing to be right next to an incredible display of Mother Nature's power. Next was a valley with a crazy steep and narrow trail running through it, that I doubt anybody had used in a while. We then were a little confused about the trail, so we asked for some directions from a group of guys who looked like they knew what they were doing. After that, the landscape changed from mountain to more hills, covered with grass and sheep. It started to rain on and off, but never too hard. After a while, we sadly came across a dead lamb, which looked to be the victim of a dog attack. We avoided it but I nearly stepped in what looked like it's lung! Then we came across some horses, and we started getting tired. Our hopes and spirits were lifted when we came across a sign with a You Are Here dot on it, letting us know that sadly we were only about halfway through, but at least we knew where we were. From then on the hike was tiring, and even a little bit boring! Our next stop was a sign letting us know we only had 3 1/2 miles to go. Yay! We soon got to a modern slate mine, on a hill with a view of Llanfairfechan, our destination. Our terrain soon changed, with trees and plenty of annoying midges to keep of company. We arrived at another confusing intersection, and at first we took the wrong trail, but soon "corrected" ourselves. However we soon found ourselves in a field with no exit except the one we came through, so the only logical option was to climb over the locked gate, which at least I found fun. After that we were on a road in the town, which we followed to the seafront. We ate a splendid lunch and took a cab back to Conwy. In total we did a little more than 12 miles, and got back around 4:00, in time for football. We had an excellent hike, in my opinion at least! See you next time.

-Teddy

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