You leave the tarmac of the old railway line and ride up and through the first MX barrier, followed 30 metres later by another set. Careful of the path you take, the end of the Skyline trail is beside the entrance to Whites climb, you don't want to meet another rider coming down!. Go through the higher or left hand barrier.

The first section is called 'Y Trywn', and up to the first switchback is quite technical, it has large areas of rock 'paving' (for want of a better word), can be wet, has several culverts to cross and the banking on your left is vertical with the occasional overhanging rock to catch you out. You'll need to keep your momentum up as it is easy to stall on some of the steeper sections.

Thankfully, after the first switchback the gradient eases and the track becomes a proper dirt trail, meandering up the valley wall via tight hairpins, gaining hight for 7 km. Sometimes you're enclosed in a dark tunnel of trees, sometimes you're out in the open and feeling like you're riding above the clouds (though you're more likely to be in them).

After several twists and turns you come out onto an old overgrown fireroad, follow this to the right where it eventually meets another fireroad coming down from the left, this tight uphill bend is onto a loose lumpy surface and can catch you out. A few yards further on a tight uphill turn to the right takes you into the next section of singletrack, 'Dastardly and Muttley' (who thinks up these names?!) .

'Dastardly' carries on in the same vein, dark tunnels, sudden exposure to daylight and marvellous views, flowing, swoopy bits and climbing, still plenty of climbing.

After Dastardly and Muttley comes 'ii', thats not a typo, that's the name of the section, 'ii'. Again more of the same, climbing, switchbacks, climbing. The end of this section finds you suddenly going downhill onto a fireroad, then heading straight on uphill again very suddenly and very steeply! A short intense hill climb then a sharp right onto more singletrack and into the trees again.

Out of the tree, across a grassy old fireroad and suddenly you need your wits about you. The track is slippy. rocky, rutted and climbs steeply for a little way. The rest of the ominous sounding 'Two Tombstones' is a gentle uphill gradient winding gracefully between pine trees, before you come out onto the highest point of this ride, through the MX gate, up onto the main fireroad and stop for a breather.

Looking left, slightly downhill you see a junction with another fireroad heading off to the right, this is the way we go, looking out for the signpost on the left that will take us onto the first downhill section, 'Windypoint'. From here, on a clear day you have fantastic views over to Swansea and the Gower, on a murky day you'll be lucky to see the valley bottom!

The first part of Windypoint after the MX gate undulates on an off-camber track with clearfell on both sides, speed picks up quickly but has to be lost even quicker at the next MX gate. Through the gate and into the trees again, then a sharp left bend over a culvert. From here the trail is swoopy and fast, with occasional muddy sections to make things even more 'interesting'. A hairpin bend is followed by a really gloopy section of 30 metres of so, then the trail dries out again (plans are afoot to make this mudbath a thing of the past). The trail gets faster and even more interesting, careful use of brakes is advisable as you can get airborne very easily off some of the jumps, (though that, I think, is the intention!). Thankfully, there are 'chicken lines' so you don't have to tackle 3 foot drops if you're not ready for them.

At the end of Windypoint you bear left (essentially straight on ), following a fireroad section that takes you past the old Whites Level drift mine, there is a small plaque on the left dedicated to miners who died there. Keep on the fire road for about 2 km. After about 1km you join a road coming down from the left, (if you want to do windypoint again, follow this road back up), we bear slightly right and downhill. Ignore the next left uphill and carry on going down, the road steepens and roughens up a little and bears left, a sharp left off the main fireoad finds the start of 'Goodwood'.

This is a trail of two half's, the first part is on open clearfell that is starting to revert to moorland, much of the ride feels like you are traversing the shoulder of the mountain, great views on your right of Glyncorrwg and Afan valleys. The undulating nature of the trail mostly follows the contour line and allows you to keep up a decent speed but watch for muddy sections, especially after rain. Back into tree cover and the pitch steepens slightly, speed picks up even more and the track gets a bit rougher with whoops and dips giving you a taster of the last section.

Out of the gate you head left uphill on fireroad for a few yards, then take a right off the road to the barrier starting the technical downhill that is 'Darkside'.

This section starts off easy enough, following the contour lines through a pleasantly wooded area, it even goes uphill for a bit! But then it goes downhill, (in the nicest possible way). The pitch steepens dramatically, the drop on your right seems more vertical, the whoops will have you flying if your not careful, large rocks stick out of the hillside and catch pedals or push handlebars. Some large rocks on the left of the trail are actually jumping platforms. A ridiculously tight hairpins weave you back and forth along the lower sections of the trail and then you're rattling down rock steps that seem to get bigger and bigger, you approach a bend that seems just a jumble of very large rocks, up a few steps, sharp left turn, down a few deep steps and out the gate.

The track gently joins the tarmac of the old railway line, head left, back up the valley for a kilometre or so to the ponds and retrace your tyretracks back to the visitor centre (which now has its showers operational).