el Escorial to Cercedilla

el Escorial to Cercedilla (10/27)

This was a long day: 19km by the intended route, 24km by my Garmin and we didn't get lost that much.

As always, the tricky part was getting out of town. Our directions didn't use street names much of the time but landmarks, so it was challenging to follow. Once on the trail we only had a single time when we missed a turn.

Most of our altitude gain was near the beginning: a pretty steady climb to the saddle just below Abantos Peak. And what did I see as I walked the last few steps to the saddle? A mountain bike rider enjoying the short side!

And just as I crested, along comes a small group of MTBers up a gravel road and down the other side. As I waited for Janet to join me a group of trail runners came out of the woods between me and Abantos Peak. After they all showed up at the road there were about 15 of them, regrouping and taking cell phone pictures of each other. After a minute or two of rest they were off again.

Just as we arrived at the summit of Abantos Peak two more MTB riders headed back down.

From here we had a long, rolling traverse to Collado del Ciervo de la Mina and from there several kilometers of downhill dirt road to Leon Pass where we were picked up by a taxi and taken to our lodging in Cercedilla.

Along the traverse we saw a number of very interesting things.

First of all, of course, was the scenery. It's high and dry so there were great expanses of open space as well as open forest. The high ridges felt very rough and remote. The pine trees here are beautiful with reddish brown trunk and limbs after the outer bark has fallen off. There are great expanses of rocks and sky; lovely!

Along the way we passed 2 refugios that have fallen into disrepair. The stone walls are still intact but the roofs have fallen in. Both very lonely sentinels up on their ridge top locations. We also saw a very old stone shelter, totally roofless.

But most surprising of all was our overview of Valle de los Caídos, a mass grave site for Spanish citizens killed in the civil war and, until just last week, the remains of Francisco Franco who was dictator of Spain for about 40 years. The memorial site is topped by a huge cross, the top of which is the first thing to become visible. Then, as we climbed a ridge, more and more of the site became visible until  we could see the full memorial built atop a spired plateau with the huge cross visible for miles. Many people that we talked to on our trip were happy to see that Franco's remains were being moved. It seems there is very little popular appeal to having this memorial site celebrate Franco in any way.

Our journey ended at Leon Pass,  where we were picked up by a taxi and taken to our hotel in the village of Cercedilla.

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