Hiking

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The last couple of days (Thursday and Friday) we have been hiking in the mountains around Sotres. We hiked a circular hike around the Pica de Andara. This should have been about 7 mile hike but we could not follow the directions and ended up walking about 10 miles. It wasn't a very interesting hike mostly along roadways. There was a couple of interesting sections where we walked over a saddle between 2 mountains. We missed the connector trail to Sotres and ended up at the main parking lot which left us with about a 2 mile additional hike Neither of us was interested in walking the road for 2miles so we thumbed a ride back into Sotres with a car full of 20 yr olds. We told them we were from the USA and they were not impressed. When we told them we were from Kentucky, they all smiled because everyone here is familiar with KFC.

On Friday, we hike a very interesting hike to the Vega de Urriellu. This hike covered about 12 miles from Sotres with a climb of about 2500 ft. In other words, it was up hill both ways. A section of the hike was exposed to a significant drop and definitely got your heart rate racing. Along the way, there were 2 refuges that service hikers particularly in bad weather. About 2 miles up the trail was the Refugio de Terenosa which is small but provides water, cold drinks, coffee and small snacks for hikers. There was also the Refugio de Urriellu that is a privately owned camp that provides sleeping quarters, water, sodas, beer and other drinks as well as a hostel for sleeping and food preparations. This is a significant operation. It is supplied via mule train of which we were witness to along our hike.

We went through several small villages including Invermales del texu, and Rel de la Terenosa. We could see Bulnes off in the distance. After our walk back into town, we stopped at our favorite watering hole for a couple of beers. There was a band in the bar consisting of a drummer, bag pipes and concertina. Everyone was having a good time and it reminded me of what a town such as this might have been like on Friday night 100 to 150 years ago.

Both Kathy and I are worn out from our hiking the last 4 days and are looking forward to a possible "Zero" tomorrow since it might rain. If it doesn't, we will be on the trail!

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Photos

Mountain in the Clouds
A scene from our hike. Kathy and I were just finishing up our hike to Picas Urriellu when the clouds began to roll in.

Refugio de Terenosa
Very pretty place. We didn't stop in but there were several hikers taking advantage of the hospitality.

Mule Train
Mule train supplying Refugio de Urriellu. Very exciting opportunity.

Refugio de Urriellu
This refuge supported a kitchen, dining room, sleeping rooms and more. Kathy and I were thrown out but we have no idea why.

Trail around the basin.
Very narrow trail leading to the saddle ot Pica Urriellu. My heart was pitter pattering.

Picas Urriellu
Looks alot like Half Dome in Yosemite. The top is just under 2000 meters. If you look closely, you might see the refuge just at its foot

Narrow trail
Just another day on the trail.

Comments

[Susan & Paul]

Tired Already!
We're both lovin the blog, pictures and adventure!! Just reading about all your exercise (FUN) keeps us (out of breath!) from all YOUR hiking and (straight up) trail climbing (we're trying not to fall out of our seats!) that we're worn out already!!! Hope to meet you both back home for a cool one!!! So happy to see your adventure is working out perfectly!!

[WalkerIAM]

Too Bad
Kathy fell down today on the hike and bumbed her knee. We are hoping that icing it will bring a quick recovery. So word to the wise...be careful and don't fall out of your seat.