On Fire! (bikepacking Montañas Vacias)

On Fire! (bikepacking Montañas Vacias)

We are on top, Pico de Javalambre There’s not much going on Now we are going down It’s cold but manageble I said to Luis now because he’s gonna stay in a refugio that is on the other side of this hill It’s a refugio that you have to pay It’s not a free refugio

They are managed so he will eat there sleep, take a shower Fancy, very fancy Would have been nice to take a shower Should have gone there and pay for a shower Seven days no shower Let’s keep on going Let’s try to get to Teruel by Friday Still haven’t had lunch

What time is it? Wow, almost 5 o’clock 20 to 5 Back on paved road, I think. Back on dirt, it wasn’t that long on the pavement. I think now I’m gonna remove my my jacket. What a beautiful road, very beautiful descent. Very nice. Here is much warmer. I’m actually enjoying it.

What the fuck is going on? Who fenced the fucking trail? Still going down but it’s loads of up and down. It’s loads of little hills. Six o’clock. I haven’t had lunch yet. 52 kilometers in. I should eat something. I’m trying to get to a village at the bottom

And there take a little break. Look at this. I’m back to the Via Verde. Via Verde of the Negroes. The one that took me to Teruel. You must have probably seen this already on the video that I published before. Montañas Vacías. Let’s see if the grocery shop is open for once.

I left the village. Success. The grocery was open. I got one bread, one can of beans, a little fucking empanada and some cookies that are not even that good. 6.60 Inflation is getting worse every day in Spain. And there’s never prices on shit. Only the beans had the price on. 1.40 euro.

Another wonderful evening ride. I have 7 or 8 kilometers on this road. Valbona! I think it’s my last village today. Crossing the Rio Valbona, as you can see it’s a big river. Now let’s find some water. Fuente. Where is the Fuente? 8:27 It will be about time to find a place to camp.

I need to go up a little bit because there is a river and a reservoir. 78 kilometers. All good. That’s the reservoir. There is a place I could camp down there but it’s humid and there are some people there. I think there is a picnic area also up there.

Let’s keep on going to drier lands. Also more kilometers tonight, less kilometers tomorrow. The twilight zone. Beautiful. Beautiful Montañas Vacías. Another wonderful sunset on Montañas Vacías. The terrain on the trail is very rocky but this field is quite tough mud. kink of sand. So I will find a place here. A bit level.

Clean from stones. Probably here. I will sleep. Sunset over there. The sun will rise on this side. Anywhere around here is pretty good. The lake is over there. Tortellini and beans tonight. Huge, huge moon. I don’t think it’s going to look very huge to you on the screen but it is big.

It’s one day or two before the full moon. This morning pleasant temperature. Slightly humid at night but not even that much. Much higher temperature than the last two mornings. And I think it’s because we are at lower elevation. Here we are at 900 something. Today another long, long fucking climb.

So from here on it’s going to be about 70 kilometers of climbing. Let’s go another day on Montañas Vacías. Tough, tough day today. My sunglasses are a bit dirty but I think these trees are peaches. Too fucking bad I’m late. Too late for peaches. Today is Thursday.

I need to complete Montañas Vacías by tomorrow. Saturday, Sunday, Monday loads of rain. I don’t want to be stuck at 2000 meters with the rain. I better get up there today. Another charming little village. This one is actually nice, very nice. Very nice church, nice castle.

Of course you don’t get to see much because when I press record on my GoPro it turns on after like 40-50 seconds. First climb of the day, I think I have 15 kilometers to the pass. Already quite up and up there is where we were yesterday. I have another

Six to seven kilometers up to this hill and then it’s going up and down for another 30 I think. This is so peaceful. The tourists are gone from Montañas Vacías. So, so nice. The little cows, they look kinda sad.

I’d be sad as well if I had to stay the whole day on a steep incline. Just give them some level field, no? Mucca, ciao Mucca! The cows are just a little dot now. Little dots. Let’s keep on going. Fuente de la Condesa.

There’s not a lot of coming out, but I think I will stop here for lunch. It’s 1.30pm It took an hour lunch break, it was needed to be honest. I was tired, I ate some bread and sardines, tomato sardines and some sobaos, some dried fruit. It’s getting cloudy very fast,

There was a blue sky and now it’s full of big clouds and yeah. The view, the view! I’m actually enjoying this descent because it’s quite fast. The trail is quite smooth. Yesterday coming down was such a pain. Those are big rocks. Linares de Mora. Let’s keep on going up to 2,000 meters now.

It’s all climbing. This village was a was a fucking wall of Andalusian proportion. It’s done, it’s in the bag. Let’s go, let’s go to 2,000 meters. Fucking Hell.l I better get up before it’s dark. There is a refugio. I will sleep in the refugio tonight. Unless there are some fuckers there.

By the way, my GoPro died, so it’s Go2 all the way now and maybe tonight I’ll have a look at it. Plums, the small ones, they’re quite good though. What a wonderful single track, very very nice. It was a bit challenging at the beginning, and now it’s really fun.

The trail turned into a paved road again. It means I’ll be a bit faster climbing. I might reach the top before it’s dark. Or maybe not. Back on a trail. I think I have 12 km to the top. Very close to the Refugio. A lot, a lot of elevation.

There was a big dark cloud that was bothering me. It started raining a little bit, drizzling, but it’s been pushed away, luckily. I’ll see if it stays dry tonight. Beautiful ride though, what a ride, so peaceful, silence, the only thing I snapped another bolt on

On the frankenstein thing that holds my anything cages so I lost a bit of time there Beautiful ride, peaceful. It’s a bit chilly, the more I’m going up the more it gets chilly, but luckily inside the woods there isn’t wind, so that helps.

There is a refugio here, it doesn’t look like in good conditions, but let’s check it out. Tabarn, and this side is closed, let’s keep on going. Aldinares, I think that’s the ski resort, 1700 and 2000 These chairlifts are old as fuck Okay now we are going down

And then there is the option to go up to the peak for three kilometers or two kilometers and then come back down. I think I’ll give up on that. Let’s have a look but I think I will just start to go down.

Maybe I should just start to wear my clothes because it’s pretty cold here. Beautiful, really beautiful mountains. If I can descend to the refugio and find out if there are people there or not. I feel a bit self-conscious. Day 8, no shower. So that is the situation. I’m here.

They suggest to go up to this peak, it’s about two kilometers, short of two kilometers and then come back down because then the trail continues here. Look it’s cold, it’s the end of the day. I’m tired and my knees start to hurt a little bit. I’m starting to descend and here

There is a refugio if you can see. The refugio is okay but I think I’ll go back and go down. It’s okay, it feels… I don’t know, I prefer to sleep in my tent. Let’s go down then. The sky is on fire. Oh, we’re tired guys.

Cycling the world – Europe: 137 episode
In this latest chapter of my Montañas Vacías bikepacking journey in Spain, the episode kicks off at the summit of Pico Javalambre. Here, I bid farewell to Lluis, my fellow bikepacker. While he opts for the comfort of a managed refugio, I venture onward, descending to the first village for supplies. The quest leads me to another village to stock up on water, then I ride an additional 10Km to find the ideal dry spot for a night’s camp under a nearly full moon. The following day presents two arduous climbs, but I triumph, reaching the second summit before nightfall and descending in hopes of a warmer campsite. This day concludes with one of the most stunning sunsets I’ve ever experienced in Spain, a sky transformed into a canvas of fiery hues.

Montañas Vacías bikepacking route: https://montanasvacias.com

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