It may not have been glorious sunshine and it has been pretty windy and cold, but today has still been a great day to get out on the hills – and Moel Hebog was today’s calling.
I’ve stared at Moel Hebog a lot over the years when I’ve been around Bedgellert and for some reason the closest I’ve ever been is when I did Moel Lefn and Moel Ogof about 6 years ago as the second day of a two day expedition and I was a bit gutted at the time for missing it out (even if I was knackered by that point in the day). I’m not sure why its taken me so long to get around to this one, but today seemed like a good day to.
I arrived in Begellert early enough to dump my car on the road just out of town and headed off over the river following the new signs for the footpath between Bedgellert and Rhyd Ddu. The landscape has certainly changed since I last walked in this area as the steam train now runs through the valley and the footpath has been resurfaced. Here is the junction to head up Moel Hebog.
The route up Moel Hebog is straightforward to follow as you pick your way through the boulders and zig zag up. It feels like you should head for the col (sorry, Bwlch) between Hebog and Moel yr Ogof, but resist the urge to add miles and follow the polished rocks where feet have gone before you, heading directly up the spur.
I was certainly surprised to reach the top so quickly as from the valley Moel Hebog looks quite oppressive. But up close it is a friendly scramble over the rocks making the walk interesting. Once at the cairn the wind was strong so it was a bit of a battle to reach the trig point, so I was grateful of the wall to hide behind to refuel myself with chocolate.
I strongly resist the urge to return the same way on any walk so I continued across the top to descend south and then east to head back to Bedgellert. While its easy enough to do so, picking the way through the scree is less fun on this side of the mountain.
This last photo shows the route down across the top and down through the scree, if I was heading up this way I’d be less than impressed having to pick through it. I take the rocks to the northern side any day! Once out of the scree the going is quick over the grass heading down Cwm Cyd following the river.
My intention was to head for the top end of the thin strip of woodland, but got carried away descending and found myself bashing through the woodland instead. Ah, brings back memories of evenings on close country search exercises with the Mountain rescue team!
Once I’d made it out of the assault course I could eventually see the route to head through the woodland of Parc Cae-Morys, which is a much more pleasant woodland to walk through and eventually takes you down to the railway and the road.
And once back in Begellert there is nothing else you can do to top off a really good hike but to have a fabulous ice cream from the parlour. Whatever the weather!
