Well I really can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get it together to blog about the wonderful walks in and around Capel Curig, especially the Gwydyr Forest.

It was here on New Year’s Day 2016 that we had our very last family talk with my precious Dad. Blazing a trail as always Dad took us through the forest on a path we’d not tried before, and after a while it got a bit late and a bit dark. True to their mountain rescue roots Dad and my brother had torches which certainly reassured Mum. If only we’d known this would be the last time we visited this place with him, though perhaps it’s much better that we didn’t. It was such an impromptu affair and a lot of fun – if memory serves, we stopped for a drink at the Ty’n-y-Coed on the way home for family cocktail hour.

Up in the Gwydyr Forest it doesn’t matter where you go there’s plenty to see – big fat pigs at of the farms and sometimes strutting peacocks, we’ve found newts in muddy puddles and plenty of tadpoles. There are fishing lakes, old mines, marked trails, plenty of geocaches, mountain bikes, mountain views and beautiful picnic spots.

Our most recent walk was a quick one, it was half term holiday and chucking it down – not to be defeated I headed out with the kids to look for adventure. Needless to say, they were not happy about it.  

We parked the car at Ty’n Llwyn view point and car park, there are lots of walks that we do from here.

We threw on our coats, shoes and rucksacks we headed off. With our backs to the car park we turned right and walked a little while before turning left up into the forest, where there is a marked trail.

After a while the trail meets a forestry road, cross the road and continue across the forestry road and along the trail. A large tree fell and partially blocked trail during winter storms, but you can shimmy by and continue on the trail until you come to the Llyn Bodgynydd, a fishing lake.

Once at the lake continue along the shore, after a short while there is a trail that leads away from the lake – we often go this way back to the car if we’ve taken a much longer approach to the lake.

On this occasion, and for the first time in fact we continued along the lake. It was very wet and very narrow but easy to follow. There were signs that people had been wild camping in the area, which is nice but it’s better to leave no trace at all.

At the other end of the lake we disturbed a lone hiker, we exchanged pleasantries and he went on his way. We stayed a while admiring the view and spotting small fry in the waters. After a while we headed back towards the car with thoroughly wet feet.

To get back take the forest road away from the lake, at the junction turn left continue along until you reach a path on the right. This is the way we came up and the best and quickest route back to the car especially if you’ve got wet feet and you’ve run out of sweets!

For a map of the walk follow this http://walestrails.com/my-routes/gwydyr-forest-bodgynydd-lake-short-loop/, please don’t rely on this alone for navigation. Invest in an OS Map – you never know you might want to do some exploring of your own.