Hi,
This post is about my first trip using the Carry Freedom Y-frame bike trailer to go kayaking in January of 2015.
Previous to this trip I had used the trailer a few times around town to move my boat about or just test it out, I had never ridden a loaded bike with the loaded up boat before. All my camping gear and clothes are in the panniers on my bike, all my boating gear is inside the kayak on the trailer.
A few notes about riding with a loaded kayak;
- The bike will no longer go uphill.
- The bike will no longer slow down when you brake while going downhill.
- If you want to park the bike on even a slight incline then you can’t.
- You can no longer get through gates.
- Builders will now take pictures of you on their phones.
My plan for this trip was to head North from Aberystwyth where I am a student to somewhere near Dolgellau and hope for there to be some water in the rivers, unfortunately the precipitation was of a more frozen nature and as such the rivers did not come up very much, however I did manage to get on a cold snow-melt Wnion.
I set off early in the day and cycled to Machynlleth, from there to Dolgellau there is a bike path, so plenty of gates and cattle grids.
That night I stayed at a bothy North of Dolgellau in the Coed Y Brenin forest, in getting my boat up the steep bank to the bothy I managed to snap the blade of my paddles, good stuff.
The next day I went to check the Mawddach and found it low, I headed over to the Wnion and it turned out to have good levels, probably a result of the sunshine melting the snow on the hills, it was cold. A short video of the boating is here.
After the boating and a few hours of hitchhiking up and down the road alongside the Wnion, (I left the keys to my bike lock at the bottom, I was at the top) I camped on an old railway. Old railways are made of stones, tent pegs don’t go into stones.
The next day I was about to head over to the Tryweryn for a days boating, halfway there it began to snow then hail then rain and the thought of putting a damp (frozen) wetsuit on put me off and I decided to take a road that on my map looked like a great shortcut home. The Bwlch Y Groes pass is actually the highest pass in North Wales and it turns out I sometimes make bad decisions.
How to park a bike plus trailer on a hill.
I got home in the dark that evening, it took me twice as long to cover distance with the trailer than it would without.
A couple of lessons to learn;
- Take less stuff.
- Change the gearing on your bike.
- Kayaking when you have cycled there is better than kayaking when you drive there.
- Don’t go kayaking, kayaking is wet, cold and unpleasant.
Thanks for reading!
Joe
Boating and Biking 