Snow and 800 cyclists

Today I walked from Montes de Valdueza to Las Médulas and then another 8 or 9 km to Puente de Domingo Florez. Wikiloc tells me it was 35 KM and about 900 m elevation gain.

It had been raining all night, but Pilar had told me that the entire distance was on a “pista forestal” (Forest track). That meant no jagged rocks, no extremely steep elevation, all dirt, and no rivers to ford. As I went from one side of a mountain to another, the weather kept changing. At one high point, it was snowing. About halfway there, I ran into three guys setting up a refreshment stand. They told me I was about to encounter 800 cyclists, all of them completing a 101 km circuit from Ponferrada. There were about 200 walkers, but I was unlikely to see them given that they would be much further behind.

When I started down from that point, it turned into a pea soup fog, with an occasional few minutes of rain. But when I got to Las Medulas, it wasn’t raining, and the view was as spectacular as ever.

I was going to spend the night there, in a little rural hotel, where I have been several times. But when I got there, the grounds were covered with campers and tents and caravans. I decided that even if there were rooms available, it was going to be a late night party. I decided to continue on nine more kilometers. That will make tomorrow a very short day so that’s nice.Read more