Wicklow Way preparation - Stage 2.1

Today was perfect choice to go ahead and ride the next stage of the Wicklow Way: the weather was brilliant and I preferred a proper bike ride rather than visit the St.Patrick's Day parade in town. This time I wasn't riding alone, my usual training partner Csaba has joined also to complete todays stage up in the mountains.

Well, we did ride the whole stage 1.1 and 1.2 once again all the way from the Marlay Park but since the reports are up on the blog already I will only write about the stage 2.1 this time. Before I even start I need to tell you: this is where the Wicklow Way gets savage!

We started the stage 2.1 from Cloon and finished it around Djouce Mountain. From Cloon we hit a short and easy tarmac climb and then we started a long enough downhill towards the valley. After this fast tarmac decend we hit some sweet off road section. 

It started wide like some fire road and got more and more narrow as we went along. It has reached the point where the path turned into a lovely, narrow singletrack. This track started to get steep and very enjoyable decend and because the place was muddy it was definitely lot of fun to ride.We have crossed a big, opened field and hit the Glencree River. It was beautiful to ride along the river and cross it over on the bridge. 

After we have crossed the Glencree River the climb started again. It got steep straight away but it was only a short section on fire road. At this stage we got as far as Crone Woods where we crossed the huge carpark that was full of cars and people. So many people was up there, trying to enjoy the spring and great weather. 

So after we have done all the fire road and singletrack climb we got to the best spot of our journey. The trail was just going along the edge of the cliffs they are surounding the beautiful Powerscourt Waterfall. I was amazing! I've never seen the waterfall from there! 

The Powerscourt Waterfall from the top

The trail was going along the edge and started to get more and more narrow. On one side with bushes and on the other side with the railing. It was as wide as the handlebar. 

After this section the route started to get difficult! What we have seen was amazing: we did not see the trail!!! All we have seen is cut off trees and hundreds of roots. Of course the mud didn't make it any easier. Never seen anything like it before! It was very tricky to ride, constant starting and stopping. This section was only about 150m long so we got over it quickly. But it didn't end there! We've had the steepest decent of the day: long and straight downhill with lots of rocks and drops on the upper section and super steep gradient on the lower section. This decend took us to Dargle River that we have crossed on a little bridge.

When we crossed the river we've had to face the most difficult climb of the day. It was steep and very technical with loose surface, very slippery grass and big rocks all the way up to the top. It was a real challenge after all what we have done since we left the Marlay Park. At this point we crossed over a gate with couple of steps, this was the point where we have left the Wicklow Mountains National Park. After a short downhill we have reached our finishing point of the day, we did not get any further than Djouce Mountain, we have done enough for the day. The Wicklow Way leads towards the mountain but we turned back at this point and decended to the the Djouce carpark. From the carpark we made our way home through Enniskerry and Stepaside all the way back to Milltown.

Best photos of the day:

General information on the terrain:

• tarmac road
• fire road
• singletrack 
• singletrack with grass
• technical singletrack with rocks 
• extremely technical singletrack with roots
• river crossing (on bridges)

Difficulties:

• some of the steep singletrack climbs are very technical
• watch out for the extremely steep decends
• the steep rocky downhill after the waterfall is difficult, only ride it if you are 100% confident
• the edge of the cliff over the Powerscourt Waterfall is not secured with fence, watch out!

Today's spin was fantastic, for me it was the best way to celebrate Paddy's Day. Next time my plan is to ride the whole lot again from the Marlay Park and get as fas as Lough Tay, I hope I don't need to wait too long to do the next stage as my preparation for the big ride.

Some interesting datas of the day:

We have covered the distance of 57km in 4 hours and 5 minutes. The spin had 1377m elevation gain and it took me 1794kcal to get the spin done.

This graph shows the full spin (with each stages of the Wicklow Way marked that we have done)