Tres Valles, blood, sweat and tears (with a touch of snow)

Today we cycled the Tres Valles tour around the Manzanares National Park. The tour starts in Cercedilla, with a first climb up to Puerta de la Fuenfría. This basically takes you past an old roman road and eventually a trail that curves along some stunning views of Navacerrada and Manzanares.



As we got closer to the top the amount of snow started to increase quite a bit, although all packed together into a thick layer of ice. Much easier to cut through compared to the snow we had two weeks ago in Pedriza.



As we reached the top of Fuenfría, we had noticed that this was going to be a tough trail. Once we decided to cross the Madrid / Segovia border though, by descending on the other side of the mountain, we had basically decided to go for it. Once you go far enough it does not matter if you go on or turn back as the distance and ascend will be the same. So we descended into Segovia, took a right turn towards the CL 601 after passing the ruins, and retook the camino on the other side of the highway.

At the end of the smoothly paved trail, we quickly found the ascend to Cotos to be far from ideal for cycling. Snow, ice, puddles softly frozen over and very deep trench-like and frozen tire tracks, made it all very challenging. Not to mention the fact that it was all incredibly steep. The last bit we had to dismount and walk, after which we took a warm cup of coffee at a nearby ski-hut.



From Cotos we made our way to Puerto de Navacerrada, a place that as you can see in above video is a ski resort. Minus 4 Celsius temperatures, and people walking around with ski and snowboard gear, made it all a bit strange to be here on our bicycles. We did not fancy the Schmidt trail, so took the 601 highway down towards Navacerrada and turned right to Cercedilla. The downside of this route was that we had another climb to get back to the car. All in all we cycled over 50 kilometers with a aggregate climb of nearly 1.5 Km. Needless to say we were kind of nackered at the end of this and were extremely pleased to be able to defrost our feet. Despite the protective gear they felt like blocks of ice. To give you an idea how cold it was at the top, my camelback tube froze up constantly, such that the water I drank came with crushed ice. Frans´s water bottle froze completely.

You may think, where is the fun in all this? I promise you though, it was awesome and am sure we´ll head into the mountains again soon.

Hasta la próxima
Douwe

Pedriza with snow, cold and muddy but amazing

OK, so we did it... Frans, Edwin and I headed out to Manzanares el Real last Sunday and climbed Pedriza, in itself nothing special. But this time there was still a considerable amount of snow at the top of the trail.



As you can see in below videos the natural park of Cuenca Alta del Manzanares is absolutely stunnig, also with low hanging clouds and rain. We passed a few amazing ice walls created by the many water falls that are active this time of year.



Just as well we undertook this pretty tough trail, as we have set the first week of May as the week that we will complete the "Camino del Norte". The wet and sludgy trail, mixed with snow and ice made the climb exceptionally tough on our ageing legs.All in all a pretty good work-out.



We descended the same side of the mountain which had climbed. There was simply too much snow at the very top, which we nearly made by about a kilometer, and we did not fancy walking the last little stretch. Our feet were already near amputation state as it was, so we figured we'd head back down.

Next up most likely the three-valleys trail...

Hasta la próxima
Douwe

OK, it´s winter... we don´t care

Snow, and lots of it.. even in the mountains surrounding Madrid... OK, would we rather head out there in short sleeves and with semi descent weather? Absolutely! But, we have decided to ignore the weather and are planning for a winterwonderland adventure this coming Sunday. Without a doubt the downhills will be slippery, spectacular and not without some interesting crashes.

At 9 AM on Sunday we are planning to start our ascend of Pedriza, one of the MTB trails near Madrid, that is sure to be covered in snow. As this is all very wintery, we needed to kind of bribe ourselves..so, the tour will be celebrated (if completed) with a typical Swiss cheese fondue in one of those smelly cheese places in Navacerrada. Just to kind of round off the winter sport experience. Al this hoping that all snow will disappear quickly and that warm weather will return to this part of the world. I mean, we need to get ready for the Camino after all.

More on this MTB snow extravaganza over the weekend

Hasta la próxima
Douwe