Monday, August 9, 2021

Alma de Norte mountainside apartment about 4 miles south of Villaviciosa

Bike Route: Gijon to Alma de Norte, south of Villaviciosa, 22 miles, 3200 feet of climb

This was a tough day! We are using the Ride with GPS app to create bike routes, and we are not quite sure where we went wrong, but our route took us for several miles on a very rough recreational trail winding through beautiful parkland along the ocean--and straight down a cliff to a beach via hundreds of stairs. We backtracked at that point, found a way out through a parking lot to a road, and rerouted ourselves onto a small highway for a few miles. Then we followed the RWGPS route onto a small road winding up a steep mountain. The small road turned into a steep, rocky, rutted two-tire track that we mostly walked. And then it turned into a very steep single track.

All in all, we pushed and carried our bikes almost half the day, finding nowhere to stop and get refreshments, and arrived at our mountainside apartment at almost 8:00 pm, exhausted but SO grateful that we actually made it!

Our host, Cristian, was watching out the window and greeted us warmly--very nice of him, considering we were over an hour later than we had said we would be. The apartment above his garage was wonderful but had no kitchen, and there were no restaurants nearby. We knew that ahead of time and brought groceries with us. It was late by the time we got to sleep, but very quiet in our little retreat.

Early in the day, riding along the rough recreational trail, we had stunning views of the ocean.

We are following the Camino de Santiago and crisscrossing several other pilgrimage trails for much of our route along the northern coast. At one point, a farmer stopped me and tried to help me get back on the Camino. I said, "No Camino, gracias," and waved as I headed off on the trail that RWGPS said went in the direction I wanted to go.

The track wasn't too bad at this point, but it quickly deteriorated into a muddy, steep cow path.

Today we traveled at a snail's pace.