To Montenegro de Cameros: Over Puerto de Pina Hincada
Yawn!! The festival was still going strong at four this morning, with drums throbbing in the background. We're fortunate that we're in a quiet hotel a bit away from the action, or we'd have gotten no sleep at all.
We show up in the dining area at 7:30, the time we reserved the night before. It's a small dining area and the hotel is fully booked, so I think they're trying to control traffic a bit. The other six diners are all French and eat together, and are obviously walking the Camino. When we check out of the hotel later, we see that they're on a catered tour - their luggage is lined up by the front door, waiting for transport to the next stop.
No one is waiting to port our luggage, so we pile it onto the bikes and roll out. A few blocks later we realize that Rachael's rear tire has completely flattened. Annoying, but there are certainly worse places and times for this - we have plenty of time today, it's sunny, and we're in the plaza in front of Najera's Great monastery. Not a bad spot to pause for awhile. While we're there, Camino walkers pass through the plaza with regularity. An English speaking couple (she's Dutch, he's from Oz) stop and ask directions, which surprisingly we can provide. A lone Japanese walker stops to chat as well - he's from Tokyo, and he's pleased and amazed to hear that we've biked in Japan. He's especially surprised that we managed it with such funny looking bikes with such tiny wheels.
Total elevation gain: today, 4,900'; for the tour, 13,900'
Santa Maria la Real Monastery, Najera. This is a stop on the Camino - the route to Santiago passes in front of the monastery and then turns south behind it to the left.
Finally, we're moving. It is a beautiful morning for a ride - the best weather we've seen so far. The ride begins with a lazy riverside ride along the Najerilla, slowly gaining elevation as we near the mountains ahead. The plan for today is to follow the river south to Viniegra de Cameros and then cross over the Cameros range and drop into Montenegro from above.
The first few miles are through open, cultivated land; but within ten miles the valley closes in, the road starts undulating, and the scenery grows increasingly dramatic. We stop for lunch after about twenty miles of this, at an attractive bench overlooking the valley. It's a bit early for this, but we want some time for our food to digest before taking on the pass.
Biking south from Najera, we followed the Najarilla River for about 20 miles.
After lunch we continue upriver, but encounter some navigation distress. I haven't mapped out today's route as carefully as I might have, and the GPS won't track to the road I had planned - it insists on throwing us onto a different, longer traverse of the range. We don't know what to make of this, but several possibilities come to mind. The most likely one though is that I completely hosed the plan for the day, and the road I had in mind either doesn't go through or isn't paved. In fact, I can't actually find the road I thought existed on our GPS map.
Neither of us likes the idea of a steep, long climb up a pass on a road that might be terrible so we listen to our GPS and hope for the best. Good choice - the road we follow is a narrow, decently paved path that feels more like a bike path and leads us up a very beautiful pass, one of the most enjoyable I can remember.
After climbing through the woods for several miles, we come to a small village, Brieva de Cameros. It's an attractive, interesting place, with a fiew sights of note and a panel giving historical context, surprisingly posted in English. Brieva is one of a string of historical mountain towns that supported seasonal livestock across these mountains and cattle droves to markets in Burgos along a trail established nene hundred years ago.
Leaving the highway, we followed a minor mountain road east and into the hills. Immediately the climb became more challenging, and traffic virtually disappeared.
Just outside of Brieva we leave the trees and begin climbing steeply up a rocky canyon. It's not at all clear where we're going - at first it looks likely that we'll reach the base of the cliffs ahead and then bend right along their base. Instead though, the road bends around the nearest slopes and then turns left and keeps climbing, eventually topping out above the cliffs. It is a hard but very satisfying climb, and on top it's blissful - open pastureland, sheep and horses freely grazing. Rachael, who arrives first, encounters a horse in the road slowly walking toward her, and a huge sheepdog warning her to keep her distance.
Leaving the valley, we immediately start climbing steeply. It looks as though our road will bend to the right below the cliffs, but instead it curves to the left, and up. By the time we top out we'll be looking down from above those cliffs.
This switchback looked much worse when we approached it, but the upper half wasn't bad by comparison with what proceeded it; and we picked up a refreshing bit of tailwind as we rounded the bend. Rachael is nearing the summit, toward the top on the left.
Bilbao to Sete, horse photo no. 2: at Puerto de Pina HincadaI. Wish I'd had the zoom camera handy a few minutes earlier. Rachael was a few hundred yards ahead of me when she passed this point. As she approached, one of these horses and a threatening sheepdog both stood in her way on the road, facing her down.
Now this would be the actual summit. When I arrive, someone is already there, waiting for their portrait to be taken. Here's Rachael's video from the top of the pass.
The north side of the Pass is completely different. Soon after dropping below the summit we enter a beautiful lush pine forest; and after dropping another five hundred feet of elevation we transition to oak. The road quality is a bit rough; It keeps us downto about ten or twelve miles per hour. Toward the bottom of the Pass Rachael hails me from the rear - she's got another flat tire - the same tire, actually. I'm not certain, but I think the patch failed. There are worse places for this though - it's beautiful, sunny and warm; and we're still OK for time but are starting to use up our margin.
We finally drop out of the pass and join the main highway through these mountains to Soria. Not that it's much of a highway - again, there's very little traffic. We climb gradually for the final eight miles to Montenegro, our only worries are anxiety about whether we'll flatten again and arrive after dark. Mentally, I start calculating how long it will take if we flatten and then just walk the rest of the way.
The road surface down the north side looked like this the whole way - an attractively mottled mottled mosaic, but not the best riding surface.
We arrive at our hotel at about six thirty. It's atop a gruelingly steep, rough side street - paved, but out of the question for cycling so we push the last few hundred yards. We're greeted outside the hotel by Pepe, the host, who looks quite relieved to see us and welcomes us into the hotel. Speaking rapidly and continuously, he cheerfully conveys his welcome and tells us about the hotel. Or whatever - he doesn't speak a word of English, and we have no idea what he's saying. Fortunately Helena arrives soon thereafter, and speaks English almost fluently. She notes that I know a few words of Spanish and offers to speak in Spanish if we want to practice our language skills. We decline.
We're staying in La Almazuela, which is a posada - one of Spain's state sponsored modestly priced hotels in traditional areas. It is really a thing of beauty, and a wonderful place to stay. Helena tells us that it opened up five years ago, after having been closed for sixty years. They're from Valencia, and took on restoration of this hotel over a decade ago. It feels like we're a part of their life's dream, and it's an honor to be here as their guests.
Our bedroom in La Almazuela, a beautiful mountain hotel we highly recommend.
