4 July, Tres Valles MTB trail from Cercedilla

I was intending to do a small triathlon, but as I was still recovering from a minor injury that I had from a cycling tour (a small rock smacking into my shin) I was not sure if neither running nor swimming would be a great idea. The movement for cycling does not bother my shin, so decided to head out on a 50 K MTB trail near Cercecilla with a couple of friends. For details of the trail in Google Maps click here or view below map

View Bike Trail 4 July 2009 in a larger map

The trail started in Cercedilla (alt. 1150), we set off in direction Fuenfria, first hitting the viewpoint of Vicente Aleixandre (alt. 1670). By this time we were on the Caretera de la Republica, a road that was intended to connect this part of the valley with Puerto de Navacerrada. Construction started just before the civil war, and well.. the road was never finished. In the second half of the 20th century it was reopened for recreational purposes for hikers and cyclists, but never paved an left in gravel. No cars on this trail as it is all fenced off.


Next stop was Puerto de la Fuenfría (alt. 1796), essentially where Madrid and Castilla y Leon border. By this time we had climbed a little over 600 meters and had warmed up nicely. Puerto de la Fuenfría is also where we retook the Camino de Santiago downhill, but only for a few kilometers. Passing the ruins of Convento de Casarás, we took a sharp right onto a smoothly paved connecting road. This path lead us up to the CL 601 highway. This was a fairly steep downhill, essentially loosing most of the altitude that we had just gained with blood sweat and many tears.


At the CL 601 we turned right and cycled for about a kilometer,to find the continuation of our trail on the left. Passing another barrier, one of the many that keep the cars off the mountain trails in this nature reserve, we started a much more serious climb. The first few kilometers were not that bad, but the last stretch leading up to Puerto de los Cotos (alt. 1830) was very tough. Technically the terrain was challenging, but it was also steep. Below at the CL 601 we were at 1400 meters altitude, and Cotos is at 1830, so we climbed 430 meters in just five kilometers. This really got our hearts pumping and we were glad to have made it up to Cotos.

From Cotos we took the M 604 country road all the way to Puerto de Navacerrada (alt. 1860). At first a slight descent, which of course meant we had to climb a fair bit at the end. At Puerto de Navacerrada we had reached the highest point of the day, so our spirits were up. Now all we needed to do was to find our easy descent back to Cercedilla and we could call it a day. We had a bit of a hard time finding our intended trail down, so when we asked some fellow cyclists they recommended that we follow them.

What a mistake... Although the Schmidt trail (leading from Puerto de Navacerrada to Puerto de Fuenfría) was amazing, it was much more in terms of technical skill and endurance than we had bargained for. It was stunning though, and with hindsight I am glad we did it, but at the time we figured it might have been the wrong choice.

Back at Fuenfría our way back to the car was easy, a long and fast downhill.

This is a trail I would certainly recommend, the most thrilling one I have done in the Madrid area so far and I am sure to want to do it again. Be advised though, you will be looking at 50 kilometers with an aggregated climb of 1125 meters.

Hasta la próxima
Douwe