Friday, May 30, 2025

Ruta del Cares and trail goats

 I went from the southern part of the Picos de Europa park to the northern part, a drive of approximately 20 miles tho it took almost 2 hours with all the twists , turns and construction.  The northern part features Spain’s most popular trail- Ruta del Cares.  I don’t know about that as the day I did I would say that no more than 10% of the population was on the trail, tho it was a week day. 

The trail is a legitimate “wow” as you hike through a granite canyon on a cliff edge trail (6’ wide tho) high above the River Cares with 2000’+granite mountains rising dramatically above you. The walls are pretty sheer tho the trail is good.  Just stunning and unique scenery in my experience.  Pictures do it no justice but this is an unjust blog so-






Mountain goats made their appearance along the way 


 But then some unaccountably wandered down to the trail plainly reserved for humans.  I wish goats as well as people would stay in their assigned lanes  

In any case, for Lord of the Rings fans, the trail required that I brave the Paths of the Dead- 



Here is what I looked like before I went in-



I kind of looked the same when I came out except I put my sunglasses back on  

It is a long trail- 16 miles in and out if you manage to park a mile or so away- but truly worth it and well deserving of its reputation . I would put it in my top 10 hikes-






Don’t miss it if you are in Northern Spain and like company while you hike-








Thanks again to Geo for his planning, fun company and for being a good sport.  That’s all folks  






Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Picos de Europa and Fuente De

 Geo exited our joint biking and wine tasting trip and returned to Bordeaux for his flight home. Despite the kidding, he did a great job planning the bike routes, which wasn’t easy. How he found that stream to ford while we carried the mountain bikes I will never know.  

I dumped Geo at some rundown bus stop and sped away in my comfortable rental car to hike a couple days in Picos de Europa in NW Spain. It is called Picos de Europa because they were the first mountains mariners would see when returning to Europe from the New World. They are little known in the US but are a very popular hiking destination in Spain according to the WSJ article I read. I may be the first American to bike them since Ponce de Leon. 

The first night I stayed in Potes- not to be confused with POTUS- a charming Spanish mountain town-




I am not sure what the Spanish would do without stone. 

I then got up early the next day and was one of the first people up the mountain the next day as day. broke and the cable car opened at 10 AM. Still the hike at the top of Fuente De and then down is a Spanish classic supposedly -




Now I see where the Spanish get all their stone. But Picos also has some pretty green valleys and snow capped peaks too-







So the Fuente De hike had some pretty impressive
mountain scenery-





But it is only set up for the next day where I hiked Spain’s most popular trail- Ruta de Cares where the scenery is some of the best I have ever seen. See next blog if only for the pictures. 

Sunday, May 25, 2025

Pig Biking and Rjoha finis

 Spain is definitely more sophisticated and refined than say Ecuador or Chile.  In South America, you are frequently woken up by barking dogs at 3am, but here there is a cat that meows most of the night.   Refinement as I say.  

Geo generally done a great job plotting our biking routes which has not been easy.  However, he was flummoxed by this sign on our of trails which seemed to prohibit pigs on bikes-


As we didn’t view ourselves as pigs, we continued riding. 

Our Rjoha tour today took us through some very pretty country with some interesting variety-





At one point, we came to a 15th century castle where some Spanish women were waiting outside. After a short conversation, I agreed to give them a tour and we posed for a group photo at the end-



Unknown to us, our route today necessitated that we ford a stream. Contrary to real horses, we had to carry our iron horses-




A bad trade .  Not easy on the bare feet and  pretty cold  Wasn’t supposed to be a swimming tour  

We did bike past a very pretty field of poppies 





As I say, a good variety in the scenery and enjoyable if not easy cycling-







As I mentioned previously, the food and wine in Spain are both really good and pretty cheap. We had some of the best lamb either of us had ever had.All accompanied with its own grill-



That’s all for Geo and beautiful Rjoha-






Next for me- a couple of days of hiking in Picos de Europa in Northwest Spain