Oña to Trespaderne

I would agree with what a Camino friend said about this stage – not spectacular, but fine. After the last three days, the bar is set pretty high.

https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/ona-to-tr…

I was happy to confirm that the route through the gorge from Oña to Trespaderne has indeed been finished. The one piece left hanging for many months/years??? was a wooden footbridge over the Ebro river. This is part of the never finished railway line that was supposed to go from Santander in the north to Valencia on the Mediterranean. Some small sections apparently became operational, but for the most part, it was never used. Now it’s being repurposed as a walking/cycling route. And today, being Sunday, there were tons of people. And portions of this route were really beautiful, with those reddish tinted cliffs, going way up on either side.

I had hoped to add a big loop at the end that would take me way up high. I started out from the train station and made it up a couple of K to the fortress ruins that date to the 6 th C. Beautiful views, nice place for a rest. At that point, I had tracks to climb up to a peak about 500 m above me. I started up, but the trail was extremely steep and extremely narrow and extremely rocky. After five or 10 minutes, having sampled what it would be like for me going down, I decided to turn around and head back down.

Since it was still early, I decided to keep walking forward on the rail path just to see what was out there. About a half a kilometer further on, I saw another sign pointing up to the fortress. Even though I had already been up there, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to go up from a different angle. This was a much nicer path than the first one, shaded and nicely graded.

When I got up there, I was surprised to see that there was a whole section of the fortress walls that I hadn’t seen on my first ascent, and the views were definitely more spectacular. So even though I didn’t make it up to the peak I was hoping to get to, I was glad to have made the effort to go back up to the fortress. And I had plenty of time to sit and enjoy the views.

The town where I’m staying, Trespaderne, doesn’t have much in the way of charm or interest. The people at the old-style Hostal are very nice, and the restaurant below had a decent meal.

I am looking forward to a good nights sleep tonight. Last night my window was right above an outdoor café. Even with my earplugs, it was too loud for me to sleep till after two. Today, when I arrived at the Hostal, the woman checking me in asked me if I would prefer a rear room that doesn’t look out onto the street and would be quieter. Maybe I looked like I needed some peace and quiet, but in any event, I took her up on her offer!Read more