Kinnerton-Llangollen run

A family pub lunch booked in Llangollen, and me needing to get one last long run in before the forthcoming Boston and Manchester marathons: serendipity! The obvious response was to run there from home in a reversal of the route I'd done with Dave in preparation for the Icelandic ultra marathon back in 2008. It was a lovely outing, in cold but refreshingly still conditions of milky sunshine. Left Kinnerton for the gentle climb up to Hope followed by the savage triple kick climb from Abermorddu to Cymau. From here, Minera moor loomed ahead: clearly under a great deal of snow, and I began to suspect that the road might be closed! I descended to Ffrith, then up the bridleway towards Bwlchgwyn. This was blocked in 15-20 places by trees that had fallen over under the weight of snow. A mixture of slush, ice, running water and snow underfoot - much branch vaulting and limboing to make progress. With some relief, I gained the little lanes leading to a snowy Bwlchgwyn: several feet of snow have been lying in places here for over a fortnight now. Down towards Coedpoeth then up to Gegin and Minera and finally the start of the climb up to the moor on the World's End road. As I suspected, the road was closed, and after a mile or two of tarmac I realised why: it was choked with snow. Cue an interesting 4 or 5k section across the moor, unable to see the path of the road, forced to locate myself by the masts on Cyrn y Brain and other landmarks. Mercifully, the snow was still relatively solid at this time in the morning, although deep drifts and some surface breaking made the going pretty tough at times - good for the tan, though, with warm sunshine giving the moor an Alpine feel. The deep snow continued across the entire moor and down to World's End: it will surely be some time before this road is open. As soon as I gained the Eglwyseg valley floor, however, the road had been cleared. Superb running along this towards Dinas Bran and the final long descent to Llangollen: glorious views of the valley below. Met the family in town in good time for lunch (by strange coincidence, I'd also run from home to the Grosvenor Arms in Aldford last Thursday).