Carrying on with the project we remain slightly handicapped by the low availability of original route maps. However there are fairly accurate maps of the course in the programmes although we do not yet have a full set of originals. In the past kind donations to Taff of scanned programs for the old website has resulted in only poor quality low resolution copies to work from but it is hoped this can be resolved with support from site followers.

The only significant area of doubt is the exact route through Crychan Forest, on days 1,2 and 3 which remains in use and is a very popular venue for Enduros. The likelihood is the ’54 ISDT would have probably found the forest newly planted so it is uncertain if it used tracks which predated the forest or used tracks that were produced for forest purposes. However maps before and after the planting period do not show an adequate track to exist that would match the route shown in the programme.

Day 1 Route ISDT 1954

Day 2 Route ISDT 1954

The second day route was day 1 ridden in the reverse direction, although the final part of that route was cut out and the route cut short though Llangammarch to allow an early return to the start in order to begin the Night stage of the event.

Day 3 Route ISDT 1954

Day 4 & 5 Route ISDT 1954

In the years after the first ISDT in Wales in1933 and the event of 1961 Wales saw a renewed vigour in the building of fresh water reservoirs not seen since the times of the public civil engineering frenzy in Victorian times.

We now have a pretty good idea of the route of the ISDT 1954 and in the case of the 4th & 5th days route which ran between the checks of Trefeglwys and Llangurig, the building of the Clywedog reservoir has interrupted the route.

On the 4th day the course passed along a narrow mountain road at Cwm Prysor between the checks at Trawsfynydd and Bala, this road later was substantially rebuilt with major realignments to enable the construction of both the nuclear power station at Trawsfynydd and the Llyn Celyn reservoir. Old unimproved alignments of the old road can stil leb seen in places running on the open mountain pastures alongside the new road.