A hike through the western hills of the Cadair Idris range, including first visits to two mountain lakes.

The outward line crosses the Mawddach estuary to ascend to the westernmost hill Braich Ddu and traverses the cliffs of Craig-y-llyn and Tyrrau Mawr to the major path junction at the centre of the range.

The mid-section follows a line below the cliffs of the eastern mountains to the corrie lake of Llyn y Gadair. The descent follows the lower section of the Fox's path to the lane near the Gwernan Hotel, leading to the fine woodland track that borders the Nant y Ceunant down to Dolgellau.

This extraordinary long spell of dry weather for Spring and early Summer continues, blue skies and sunshine for days on end in many parts. With a forecast of west Wales for the best conditions, we set off on this route that I mostly designed a few years ago, the section from Braich Ddu onwards being the intended latter part of our ill-fated Western Tarrens trip.

Below the Cadair cliffs the route uses a path, shown on the map as a pecked line, that I have never seen described anywhere except in a book from 1991 that briefly mentions its existence. In our new enforced slackpack mode, an unknown path in a mountainous region is a risk, this time we got away with it but only after much debilitating effort.

The first half of the trek is the unfashionable western arm of the Cadair galaxy where few walkers venture, but was completely deserted despite the unbroken sunshine. The big surprise though was the eastern half where we saw only three walkers. The Fox's path and lakes were deserted too.

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A very short 3-day route through the Crimea Pass north of Blaenau Ffestiniog, improvised late on the first day to replace our intended trek that proved too much for the circumstances.

The route follows the Afon Lledr to gain Access Land north of Moel Dyrnogydd, rising to join the excellent track around to the Crimea Pass and onward to the Llynau Barlwyd lakes.

The return descends via the quickest route through the moorland and quarries to Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Another morning medical appointment at the foot clinic meant a late start in mid afternoon for our trek, one contributory factor to our over optimistic expectation, another being the residual ankle soreness that was barely alleviated, if at all, by prescription-grade pain killers. The final factor was the excruciating terrain on the lower slopes that was both painful and debilitating to the point of exhaustion. We would have to think of something else: a short and simple route via Llynnau Barlwyd was quickly conceived from a mental map of the area and verified on our electronic mapping.

Despite the shaky start, we thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the trek. The ankle pain disappeared overnight and we slackpacked at a very relaxed pace in unbroken sunshine with fine views for the bulk of the walk, a highlight being an excellent lakeside pitch.

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