A 2 week trip on a high route along the spine of the Cantabrian Range. These mountains align east to west, parallel to the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.
Weather
A major topic in this area, I had a reasonably good weather window with high pressure conditions keeping the crests above a long-lasting sea of cloud on the north side. Shifting cloud in the evenings with thick clag rendering very wet conditions and potentially treacherous navigation. One particularly rainy episode and a very windy period that extended for two days made progress difficult and uncomfortable, showing how serious it can get in these mountains considering the exposure of a high route.
Clouds over the crest
It never got uncomfortably warm. It was sometimes on the edge of uncomfortably cold, particularly in wet & windy conditions.
Terrain
Limestone country with low bush (bad for hiking) or grass (good for hiking) and brief dips into the amazingly beautiful, native beech woods. Being a high route, elevation gain/loss was never dramatic but it was often steep. Scrambles possible but not unavoidable, I hardly went through any. The main obstacle was the thick, low bush of the high slopes, always a concern, sometimes a maddening reality.
Our average crest faint trail
This is a tough, hard working route. Trails are often rough and some of the cross-country sections were very difficult and slow. Finding the best way through in some spots is still a work in progress.
The hiking
Days are so long this close to the summer solstice. 12+ hour hiking days were usual. We were not particularly fast neither were we too focused on going any distance other than hiking as far as reasonably possible every day with no set goal for trip end. My full trip turned out 433 km in 15 full-hiking days, roughly 29 km/day.
The camping
Discreet overnighting is straightforward, there’ll be nobody around most of the time. Grassy meadows are often available, if not all over the place. If the crest is too narrow or exposed, it will often be possible to find a way down to level, more sheltered areas. Not much chance to camp in the woods.
Our average meadow
Camping in beautiful, isolated settings was definitely one of the highlights of this trip.
Environment
An interesting mix of humanized landscape and wilderness. The Cantabrian mountains may lack some of this deep-into-the-mountains feeling of bigger ranges but many areas are so sparsely inhabited and off-the-beaten-track that the wilderness feeling is still there. It turned out a very solitary route, 90% of the hikers I met were concentrated in a narrow, few hours window on the last day of my trip.
Walk on the wild side
There’s lots of cattle grazing the summer meadows, mostly cows, sizeable herds with accompanying mastiff dogs, all very friendly. As far as big wildlife goes, deer and goats are a common sight. Wolf and bear inhabit some areas but they’re difficult to see and not a concern for hikers. We never met any.
Final route
This is the final route as I hiked it:1
On this trip, I covered the length of a high route over the unofficial extent of the Cantabrian Ranges. The trip can easily be extended on both ends although the terrain becomes less interesting. West of my starting point, the watershed soon veers north over lesser mountains. East of my finishing spot, the Divide keeps going east, eventually reaching the Pyrenean divide. An Atlantic to Mediterranean route along both Cantabrian and Pyrenean crests could easily be put together for a grand traverse that would take about 2 months to cover at typical thru-hiking pace.
Fellowship
Unusually for me, I shared this route with a partner, my good friend and wilderness champion Nico, aka Jefe in PCT lore. We went together for about half the distance until he needed to leave the trail. Hiking as a duo is a very different experience from going on one’s own and I enjoyed both versions.
As far as the story goes, I’ll sometimes talk about “we”, other times about “I”. As a very welcome addition to the trip report, there’ll be a hiker featured in many of the pictures.
Personal impressions
A tough and rewarding route in a magnificent mountain setting, delivering a great sense of accomplishment. A powerful sense of belonging, of being where I wanted to be, doing what I love.
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