Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Naveda

Bike Route: Pesquera de Ebro to Polientes, 19 miles, 1700 feet of climb

This should have been an easy day--and it was after the first 5 miles straight up another goat trail. The big plus was that we got to meet a mountain biker who passed us just before we got to the tiny village of Turzo, at the top of the climb. As we left the village, we met up with him again, and he showed us the beautiful old stone house belonging to his grannie--his mother's mother. He lives in Pesquera and regularly checks in on grannie. The other big plus of taking the goat trail was the absolutely gorgeous scenery.

We were quite happy to slide onto a little paved country lane for the next 5 miles, and happier still to move on to the larger paved scenic highway most of the rest of the way to Polientes.

Polientes is a larger town with a good-sized grocery store, a restaurant, a bar/tavern, and a couple hotels. It was surprisingly busy when we pulled in about noon. We headed straight for the restaurant in our hotel and had the daily menu--a fantastic meal. Our room was not at all charming--just a simple dated hotel room--but it was clean.

After our big lunch, we thought supper could be just something to snack on from the supermarket that was supposed to open at 5:00. We also needed groceries for the next night, when we would be at another rural apartment. We walked through town to the store and waited until about 5:30, but no one ever opened the door. So we wandered back to town and walked around. We found a little shop open and were able to get powdered drink mixes, candy, and chips. I guess that was supper.

We were able to get spotty WiFi and cell service, so caught up on emails and messages. Noise from the bar downstairs quieted down in the early evening, and we had a good night's sleep.

 We started on a nice gravel road, but it quickly deteriorated to a very rough and steep single-track. We must have missed unchecking that "Avoid Highways" check box in the mapping software again. 

Once we were on the scenic highway, the riding was easy and we could enjoy the views. One stretch reminded us of Arches National Park, in Utah, where we hiked with Meghan in June.

Tourists filled a good-sized parking lot for access to this waterfall topped by a little village.