A couple of years ago Tom, Hugo and myself cycled the Lakeland 200, it's a brilliant but tough bikepacking route around the lake district that pulls together the best rough riding of the area.

I thought that Snowdonia could do with its own version so I started plotting and planning and came up with a route.

In late August I once again gathered Tom and Hugo as well as our friends Will, Issy and Mike to test out what I had made.

The route took in a number of mountain passes, the Penmachno Trail, the Gwydyr Trail, the Ogwen Valley, the Llanberis slate mines and the summit of Snowdon itself.

We had planned an early ascent of Snowdon but as we didn't fancy getting hit by lightning we decided to move the start to the other side of the mountain and to finish up there instead.

We set off with rain showers coming and going but luckily no thunder and lightning to be seen. It stayed like that most of the weekend, just the odd shower here and there but generally good weather for wiggling around the mountains.

I thought the ride up and down Snowdon would be the crux of this route but after lunch on the first day we found the real crux. A forest trail where you could sink past your knees in mud and bog, though with no alternative route we smiled and tried to see how far we could cycle through each section. Sometimes you'd come to an immediate stop and sometimes you'd disappear quite deep but somehow reach the other side.

We were glad to get past that.

The rest was fun with good views and nice trails.

A highlight was of course the Ogwen, a treat every time you go and especially so when you go by bike.

After there we looped over the hill and down into Llanberis via the slate mines.

Then it was just Snowdon left to do.

I wasn't sure if leaving this to the end would be a good idea or not. But after fueling ourselves up we started the ride and push to the top no problem at all.

There were many a hike a bike in this route but they're just part of this silly game where we take our bikes to interesting places. In some weird way it's not enjoyable and so very enjoyable at the same time. It reminded me of the hours long push and carry of our bikes up and over Black Sail Pass during the ride that inspired this one.

Then once we were at the top it was just a wild wild almost 1000m of descent back to the bottom.

We had a good laugh as we always do on these trips but I'm not sure I can recommend this route to you just yet, I need to get back to the map and iron out the creases a little.

Jacob.