The saga of Sagra – plus, I just met a hill called Maria

05-07-2013

La Sagra from south-west

La Sagra from north

Sierra de la Sagra is more of a single big mountain than a range of mountains. It stands out and  can be seen from a long way, from many angles.

GOML

In his book JM Hernandez describes a route starting from Los Collados N37.97722 W56718 (1474m) There are two clues to show that you can no longer access Sagra from here. One is the heavily padlocked and barb-wired gate – the other I ignored at first because it was in Spanish and as you can see, in the photo, clearly states the ‘nuevo’ access point is 2.5km down the road. However, 2.5km down the road there is nothing to confirm that the unpaved road is the one you need to take.

My GPS tracks - grey for driving, blue for walking

Indeed, other than signs about not picking flowers much further up the hill there is no information anywhere.

For the sake of other adventurers – turn north off the GR-9100 road at N37.97640 W2.54549 (1405m) on to the unpaved road. There is room for several cars at N37.96684 W2.54040 (1553m) and there is space for a couple of cars at the end of the road at N37.96376 W2.54899 (1635m). From both points there is a clear well used path that traverses uphill. At N37.96222 W2.55379 (1740m) the path meets what looks like could be the eastern branch of the original path as shown in JMH’s book. 

Above the Collado de las Viboras

Turn left here and keep going up through the trees and flowers to meet the ridge at Collado de las Viboras and a welcome breeze at N37.95921 W2.54984 (1840m). Don't forget to turn right here or you will end up in the valley on the other side of the Sierra. The path is obvious throughout the next part of the route with a few scrambly bits.

False summit 1

False summit 2

Beware of false summits which come to you in sheeptrods, but inwardly they are raven’s lairs...

True summit

The view from the rectangular trigpointed top of Pico de la Sagra at N37.95008 W2.56536 is far ranging, pity about the heat haze. Note that this is the sixth most prominent mountain in the Iberian peninsula with a prominence of P1410, another 90m and it would be an Ultra but has to settle for being a Major – I think there should be a category for anything with a prominence of over P1000. It has an absolute height of 2382m. 

La Sagra trigpoint

I filled in the summit logbook and descended by a route akin to the ascent one, if not a carbon copy.

7.33 km 1128 m ascent

Eigg transplant

Maria, I met a hill named Maria

Actually, I met a town, a sierra and a pico, all named Maria – although there is clearly not consensus as to the name of the summit. 

JMH describes the ascent of Maria/Alto de la Burrica/Cerro Poyo as ‘facile’ – this lulled me into expecting a gentle stroll on easy ground and unambiguous navigation. Not quite the case, but there was nothing overly difficult really.

Penan de las Cuculas

Ermita

There is plentiful parking at the Ermita de la verging on the ridiculous at N37.69165 W218031 (1360m). The road continues to the Jardin Botanica at N37.68955 W2.18130 (1395m). If you want ‘facile’ go round the back of the building and follow the unpaved road – with eventual contradictory signs as to whether you can proceed or not. Do as I do and be prepared to argue that you don’t understand Spanish and, anyway, the ‘satnav told me to come this way’. I will explain more about this route later.

I went up the track in front of the Jardin building and fairly soon concluded that this wasn’t the ‘facile’ way. It was mainly the way the tall grasses hit me in the face that put me off – however, being a tough Yorkshireman I kept going. Basically, what you are doing is trying to follow a dry stream bed without getting blocked by the frequent weirs and the vegetation.





Eventually, at around N37.68056 W2.18257 (1660m) you meet a path with an endless series of zigzags that takes you to Cdo de Portalchico at N37.67642 W2.18298. Some of those zigzags are obvious (and tedious) some have been destroyed by people taking shortcuts (because they are tedious).

From this point the path is less obvious. There is a line of cairns. But I know I did not follow them or their logic. Note that all the time, the views are great – shame about the heat haze. And, of course, don’t let the false summits get you. What’s the difference between a summit and a prophet? Some summits are true.

Cerro Poyo trigpoint

Eventually and ‘facilely’  you will find the trigpointed summit at N37.67485 W2.20014 2045m P931 prominence 43 in Iberia.

I knew, ‘facile’ or not, I did not fancy returning down those endless zigzags, there had to be a more direct route  and who cares if it meant that it became more ‘median’. I backtracked to N37.67506 W2.19752 and then made a beeline to meet the legit path at N37.68302 W2.19004 (1690m).






What I should have done is head for N37.68720 W2.19390 because that would have cut out one of the longer zigzags in the path that eventually ends up at the back of the Jardin building. OK, I confess I probably broke the local access code, I  climbed over two or three fences than and I stumbled through odd bits ofvegetation, but at least I did not get as fed up as I did with the long sweeps of zigzagging I met lower down. The route has clearly been devised to ensure that you do not break out into a sweat. But, hey, if you are going to go up or down these slopes in the summer then you are going to sweat anyway. JMH is right the easiest ‘facile’ way is the track that starts at the front of the Jardin and follow the fence, upwards. 

11.20km 1056m ascent.

Overnight in a free motorhome site in Velez Rubio, Almeria province – with free electric hook-up. (823m)

Then lots of driving to end up overnight at another free motorhome site in Segorbe, Castello province – no electricity, but nice palm trees. (324m)

Barbara and Magina

03-07-2013

Whereas the Parque National/Natural Sierra Nevada is a clear honeypot, busy 7/7, there are other parques natural in the region that are very much less frequented.

It felt like I had the Parque Natural de la Sierra Baza to myself. During the long drive in and out of the park on typically unpaved roads I did not see anyone – and no-one drove past whilst I bagged the highest point, Santa Barbara – a Major P1155, the 14^th most prominent mountain on the Iberian peninsula, 2271m high marked with a trigpoint at the unambiguous summit at N37.38052 W2.84203.

I left the motorhome in the shade of some trees on the wide Collado de la Mina at N.37.37493 W2.85077 (1970m). There is a narrow track that heads east. 

Ruin

I turned left at a ruin on an old miner’s road up to a slag heap and the first of many mine workings for iron, copper and mercury abandoned in 1960. Not always a nature park, then. There are a number of unprotected shafts and levels in the hillside – H&S reps would have apoplexy if they were to see them.

Mine level

Mine entrance

Santa Barbara's trigpoint

There is no need for me to describe the route I took up as there are numerous options available. Just walk up until you get to the top – however, be careful you don’t fall into a mineshaft, could be fun if covered with snow. The summit is mercifully free of masts and the view is good, if a little hazy. I descended by a different route – I would have been hard-pressed to identify my ascent route. 

Mine shaft - a chough's ideal home?

Two black choughs with crimson beaks got quite agitated as I approached a mineshaft they were presumably nesting in. One flew off to distract me, the other squawked angrily and disappeared down the shaft. I found a way through the trees directly back to the motorhome

3.88km, 389m ascent

Santa Barbara

Overnight in the centre of the town of Huelma, Jaen Province (967m) next to the town brass band’s practice room. They seemed to be practicing the same tune all evening with no audible improvement – a barking dog added counterpoint.

04-07-2013

Magina teeth

Sierra Magina

The sign indicated no two-wheeled vehicles, but nothing about four-wheeled ones as I turned left off the A324 road from Huelma – a few hundred metres after the Mata Bejid visitor centre. The unpaved road was in a poor state and I dreaded what was to come as it crossed the Sierra Magina to the town of Torres on the other side. I was hoping and wishing it would improve and not get worse when I rounded a bend and found myelf behind a bulldozer levelling the road. I had visions that Pico de Magina was not going to be bagged that day. However, after a kilometre the driver pulled over to one side and I had a ‘conversation’ with two workmen in which I only understood about five word they used. However, I think the gist of what they were saying is that I could carry on up the road – but I would not be able to get back the same way later on. I think I also understood that the road to Torres, the northern ‘salida’ was open – but I wasn’t totally sure. We shook hands and I proceeded. Later on there were signs up saying the ‘camino’ was ‘cerrado’ because of ‘obras’ back to the south – confirming what I had thought. The good news for anyone wanting to get there in the future, the unpaved road will be in good condition for a year or so.

Pico de Magina is yet another Major, P1137, the 18^th most prominent hill on the peninsula, 2167m high and marked by a trigpoint at N37.72598 W3.46412. The original plan was to drive a close as possible and do a quick morning bag with the hope of getting to Sierra Sagra in the afternoon. However, Magina turned out to be more challenging and, importantly, more interesting to be treated as a shabby ‘bag’.

The ‘sendero normal’ I think starts from a point on the main unpaved road at Cortijo de los Prados at approximately N37.72120 W3.49770 (1380m). However, I had driven past this point, as part of my original plan and discovered a side road to the right at N37.73050 W3.48870 (1580m). This road is eventually blocked by a gate and a ‘prohibido’ sign – I turned round to find space off road with tree shelter at N37.73388 W3.47566 (1720m). I walked back to the gate – that had a fence running up the hillside (I will mention this fence again) and carried on to N3773414 W3.47150 where there was a trace of a path through the vegetation. From there I kept finding, and losing, tracks presumably made by Ibex goats until I ended back by the aforementioned fence. It would probably been as easy just to follow the fence up from the gate. I kept with the fence for a while and then ended up doing some interesting weathered limestone scrambling, which I could have easily avoided. I reached an obvious gap on the skyline at N37.72775 W3.46889 (2086m) to find myself on the edge of a wide sinkhole.

View from the gap

Fin

I wandered around a bit looking at interesting features before finding a well used path to the summit – which is probably the least interesting bit of the overall ridge.

There are lots of other tops, a snow-well and scrambly bits to play on. I decided to follow the ridge west as far as the Pena de Jaen (the sadness of Jaen?) which is marked with a boring cross at N3772455 W3.47625 (2135m).

You will see from the above picture why I realised after a short while that there was not an easy way off the end of the ridge back to the motorhome. I made my way back to N37.72515 W47356 (2050m) where I picked a well used groovy path that is presumably a way for pilgrims to the cross. I eventually abandoned this pilgrim’s way ( a case of amazing disgrace, you might say) at N37.72935 W47752 (1840m) so I am not sure where it meets the road. However, finding a way to the amazing disgrace point from anywhere on the road would be simple, vegetation allowing. My variant of the pilgrim’s way ended at N37.73293 W3.47689.

7.67km 731m ascent

Magina from the north

Later, I drove along what the authorities have named the route of the olives. The reason is obvious, the smell of olives is overpowering and the cicada were so loud they drowned out my car audio. I just hope that scientists don’t discover that olives are carcinogenic or anything as the local economy of Jaen would flatline. Cashcrop craziness.

Overnight in the centre of the town Huescar – I like my towns of different hues.

Top of Spain

01-07-2013
White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits

Sierra Nevada 2

Sierra Nevada from south

In the previous evening, when I drove up to the Hoya del Portillo carpark N36.96849 W3.33316 (2146m), I had been disappointed to find that the road barrier had a young man acting as a vigilare. I was certain he would tell me that overnight sleeping in the carpark was not allowed. However, he had no problem with this idea and even gave advice on where I find the maximum shade from the sun the next day. This meant I could make an early start and not waste an hour or so driving from somewhere down below.

From the carpark there are no signs pointing to Mulhacen, although there are several others – the main one being to the Refugio del Poqueira (RP) which is in the right direction so seemed the obvious one to follow. The path heads up through a pine wood and then comes out of the trees on to a broad ridge. Shortly afterwards there is a fingerpost at N36.97767 W3.33071 (2336m) which offers the options left to RP and straight on for the Mirador Puerto Molin. I took the left track which drops slightly into more pine trees and then does a long traverse of the ridge. It crossed a stream/arroyo at N37.00574 W3.31251 (2559m) - a good place to refill water bottles, take purification tablets.

Coweleta

I left the RP track which forked left at N37.01272 W3.31057 (2602m) and then crossed the road to RP at N37.01786 W3.30959 (2636). Up the slope, above me, I could see a large group of about 15 people who presumably had started from the refugio. I made my own way up the slope to reach the upper road at N37.02119 W3.30591 (2762m). I followed the road past a rocky rib that runs east-west over the main ridge – there was a place where rockfalls had blocked the road almost completely. Just past the rocky rib there was easy pathless ground and I headed up to what looked like a collado at N37.03074 W3.30404 (2969m) and then I turned left on to the regular path that rises up the south ridge of Mulhacen II from Mirador de Trevelez. This path is not shown on the Editorial Alpina 1:40000 map. 

Mulhacen II

Mulhacen II

True summit

It eventually climbs up through jumbled rocks and stony ground as the air pressure drops to the trigpoint on Mulhacen II at N37.04424 W3.31207 (3362m) and then continues in a similar vein to the main summit Mulhacen (3479m) P3285, an Ultra, the highest and most prominent point in Andalucia, the highest and most prominent point in mainland Spain, the highest and most prominent point in the Iberian peninsula. 

Mulhacen

Mulhacen

Spot the...

...differences

Shame about the litter

It has a trigpoint and a small shrine that is littered with religious rubbish – why is it considered OK to leave a pile of red used plastic candle jars but not, say, beer cans? However it also has tremendous views across to the Pico de Veleta which, from the south, steals the exhilarating drama – although the view downwards and northwards is quite dramatic on Mulhacen too. (Must remember to try and get to look at it from the north somehow).

View downwards and northwards from summit

Mulhacen and Pico del Veleta

It was windy enough up there that despite the season it was necessary to put on a fleece hat. There was a young Spaniard at the top and after we did the usual camera swap thing he left me to enjoy the summit on my own. As it was quite early in the day I sat and read a few chapters of Iain Bank’s strange novel, The bridge before I set off back. As I reached the top of Mulhacen II I met coming up the group of 15 I had seen earlier above me and had avoided getting embroiled with by cutting the corner. They were mainly English – with those horrible estuarial accents you get from people who live in the south-east of England. Then there were several more parties – presumably from the Caprileira - Mirador de Trevelez bus. On the descent I sort of kept high up above the regular path until I came to the rib of rocks that I had crossed much lower down. This meant I dropped down to the collado where I had earlier joined the regular path and then I followed that path to the spaghetti junction of tracks at N37.01317 W3.30360 (2715m) near Mirador de Trevelez. I followed the road south that traverses Alto del Chorri to N36.99658 W3.31215 where a minor path, not marked on the map, heads up on to the ridge where there is yet another trigpoint at Prado Llano N36.98735 W3.32049 (2582m). 

Prado Llano

The path heads down again to Mirador Puerto Molin and then carries on past the fingerpost and to the Hoya del Portillo carpark where there were quite a few people heading off, presumably for the RP.

Distance 25.75km, 2171m ascent

The smell of the blossom was so strong could even smell it when driving with closed windows - not complaining.

Two little somethings for the weekend

 29-06-2013

Ruins

Because I did not fancy bagging Mulhacen on a crowded weekend day I decided to separate my two attempts by bagging two other Majors, south of the Sierra Nevada.

The first of these is called Morron de Marine (sailor’s nose?). It didn’t look a nose and I am not sure that it would have been the most obvious choice as a navigational aid for sailors on the Mediterranean. It is a Major, 2247m high and with a prominence of P1303 is the eighth most prominent mountain in la peninsula Iberica/mainland Spain.

I didn’t have a map, however I had read somewhere that it was possible to drive up quite close to the summit from a small village called Castala. When you enter the Parcue Nature de Castala at N36.88269 W2.92773 there is a choice of roads – both lead to the same carpark at N36.88450 W2.92183 (747m). There then followed 27 kilometres of rough dusty potholed road. If you are going to use this route, note there is a right turn at N36.89614 W2.92799 (906m) and a left turn at N36.90548 W2.90361. I then made the ‘error’ of turning left at N36.89576 W2.86420 (1852m) and using the trck that seemed to head more directly to the summit. It wasn’t a real error – I had had enough of driving and wanted to go for a walk. If I had carried straight on at the above reference I would have come to the point near some masts at about N36.89282 W2.81492 from where the summit would have been (too) easy. And, anyway, my fuel gauge was registering rather low.

I parked near some trees at N36.89156 W2.84974 and made my own track up towards a collado – helped by the occasional sheep track and along what must have been cultivated terraces many years ago. I then headed up towards the main ridge where I met a track that started at the masts to the east. This took me to the first top where there were various ruins and then to a second top that had a trigpoint on the summit N36.90599 W2.83629 (2231m). It then became clear to me that this was not the true summit which was about 800 metres away.

True summit  in the background

Looking at the photo above of the true summit it has the appearance of a soft grassed English Sussex Down where you could saunter barefooted. However, in reality those clumps of green are more like the picture below and you would be picking thorns and bits of stone out of your bleeding feet for the rest of the evening. I walked in my Scarpa boots across the unforgiving terrain to the summit at N36.90294 W2.82692 and then tried to pick a more direct route back to the start.

Sparse vegetation

It occurred to me that there might be a better road up, than the one I used, to service the masts. My GPS showed there was an unpaved road heading down to Dalias, where there were a choice of petrol stations. So, thinking this might be the shorter way and hence less chance of running out of diesel I took the risk of trying an untried return route. What I did not realise is that there are two unpaved roads that lead to the summit and I was about to go down the old one. It was in a dreadful state and it got worse and worse – there was nowhere I could turn round and anyway I did not have enough fuel to risk having to go all the way back to Castala, where there wasn’t a petrol station showing on my GPS. Several times the motorhome tipped so far over that I thought I was going to end up on the side – I considered taking everything out of the top cupboards to balance the weight better. The front of the engine cover kept catching on embedded rocks and eventually the cover was half prised off. Thankfully, after several kilometres of this nightmare the track met up with the new track to the summit and my fear that I was going to arrive at a locked gate and being on the wrong side turned out to be unfounded. I was still a long way from Dalias, the new road was very dusty and the engine cover was scooping up stones and dust to create a bigger cloud of dust. And, it was too hot to close the windows and I did not want to use up scarce fuel using the air-conditioning. By the time I got to Dalias the inside of the van, the contents and me were covered in a thick layer of dust, that several days later is still not completely removed.

My advice to anyone wanting to get up to the masts by road is start from Dalias N36.83222 W2.87284, with a full fuel tank, close your windows and stick to the main track all the way. Or better, walk – the exercise will do you good. 

Morron de Marine

Overnight at the foot of Sierra de Lujari.

30-06-2013

Sierra de Lujari I

The summit of Sierra de Lujari is another mast dominated summit and therefore has an unpaved mast road all the way. It leaves the A4131 road at N36.84053 W3.36648 (1119m) and there is a small parking area at a junction at N36.83799 W337207 where the mast road is the right turn. Within a few metres of the junction the road is in a bad state – that is as bad as it gets if you want to bag the summit as a drive-up. Me, I had had enough the previous day to risk filling the van with another layer of dust or cutting through the string I had used to temporarily fix the engine cover in place. The compromise solution was to cycle up and down – when I say cycle I mean, to a large extent, push the bike up the hill and then roll down afterwards with my arms aching and the brake pads wearing out as I try to stop my walking career coming to an end by careering over the unbarricaded edge of the road. Route finding is not an issue, there is only one way to go. There is the issue of which top is the true summit – I plump for the one with the trigpoint and the load of butterflies – but visited the others just to be sure.

It landed and stayed for ages

All over rural Spain are these signs indicating that it is private hunting ground – there must be millions of them – even on the mountaintops. Those black and white symbols are also prolific - apparently they mean the same thing..Presumably somewhere there is a hectare of land where the caza is publico - in the natural parks on certain days. Surely it would have been cheaper, easier and less unsightly to have a default rule that hunting is privado unless there is a sign to the contrary. Of course, my preferred solution would be for all hunting to be prohibido – that would mean no signs anywhere and I am sure the animals would prefer it, too.

Overnight in the Hoya del Portillo carpark.

Lujari from the north