GR7 - Trevelez to Bubion

Sue and Jim decided to go off and ride the previous day’s route in the opposite direction to see if it was any better. I was given the task of following the GR7 from Trevelez to Bubion and taking notes for the route description. Sue had ridden this route a few days previously while I had a day off. Although she got snowed on Sue spoke highly of the riding but also of getting lost a couple of times and doing 10km too many. The day’s weather looked promising with only a handful of dodgy clouds breaking up the blue sky. I was dropped off at the top of the dirt track, to save me the initial climb, and got ready. The trail start was vague and is apparently where Sue got lost previous. As I rounded the side of this cow shed the trail became obvious as it started dropping in a straight line down a wide ridge. It bounced its way through a couple of fields before ducking of rightward into the trees. Here it got even better as it dropped steeply and began switch backing. Once at the bottom I was in the heart of a gully, from which I had to push back out to the top. It was a beast of a push and I couldn’t help thinking it would have been awesome to be riding down it.

After a short traverse on dirt track it was back onto single track, and a brilliant piece of single track it was too. It was reminiscent of a man-made XC trail, undulating across the hillside, with a feel of the Alps, green grass, cows and pine trees. It continued on for what must have been almost 10km traversing the hill, slowly dropping giving the momentum needed to blast up the short sharp climbs. The descent into Busquistar was brilliant, even the dirt track downhill stretch was bouncy and so much fun. This route definitely felt like you were on a journey. I guess it’s the fact that you’re heading from A to B made it feel like a mission in a way. Even at a relatively short 25km it didn’t half tire me out with well over a 1000m of climbing. This definitely had a true cross-country ride feel with endless single track sections, it’s just a shame that a lift is needed to be able to ride it.

Berchules Wanderlust

Today the weather was slightly better. We headed over to a place called Berchules, slightly lower down in the mountains so the snow held off. Today had it’s up and down sides, with over grown trails, getting lost, and us pushing up stuff that looked awesome if only ridden in the opposite direction. Bits of the ride were great, but none of it linked up or rode as smoothly as we would have liked. It was quite a long day all in all with a lot of climbing and more of its fair share of pushing/ hiking. The final descent though more than made up for it. It suddenly, at a flick of a switch felt exposed. With loose gravel switchbacks and traverses across the epic landscape definitely made up for the lacklustre riding earlier on.

Bubion Again

Last night we picked Jim up from Malaga airport. Today the weather has been absolutely grim, with heavy snow coming down on and off all day. Apparently its forecast to snow for the next 4 days too, not quite the Spain that I was expecting. This wasn’t good news for Jim; he is only out here for 4 days. So as not to miss out on a days riding we decided to show him some of the local single-track. Sue took the day off to catch up with work so she offered to give us a couple of uplifts to the top of the hill. We started off at the top of the GR route and criss-crossed our way over the road before climbing up slightly and linking it with the angel’s descent. This was completely different in the wet. Apart from the fact that we were struggling to see anything with snow in our eyes, the rocks had become slippery. With this being as technical as it was it was just a challenge to get down in one piece. Jim soon discovered that flat pedals were definitely a good idea.

Back down in Bubion it was time to grab another lift to the top. We stuck to the GR trail this time heading straight down. I’m getting to know this trail now and it just keeps getting better and better. This was a tad greasier in the wet but this didn’t detract from the fun.

Trevelez Gorge

Today we headed over to a village called Busquistar, below it is Trevelez Gorge. We’d seen a couple of tempting looking trails on the opposite hill whilst out riding above Bubion a few times. The two trails formed perfect zig-zags down an unbelievably steep hill, almost a cliff, down to the bottom of Trevelez Gorge. Sue had ridden these in the past; she had pushed up the right hand path and ridden down the left. We decided to incorporate these into a loop. We rode from just outside Busquistar down to the right hand zig-zags. The trail down to them was awesome in itself, with a mix of big rock slabs, cobbled sections and gravely single-track. It was excellent fun, but before we knew it we had reached the bottom of the gorge, and the only way now was up.

From below we were unable to see the trail beyond the first couple of zig-zags, and it looked near impossible that anything went up the hill-side at all. Once pushing though surprisingly easy going, and because of all the zig-zags the gradient never became unbearable. After no time at all we had gained a fair bit of height, it was strange seeing the trail unfold below in layers. Before long we were at the top and had a quick slog up the road before joining a piece of single track that dropped us down into Notaez. Again the trail head gave nothing away, and if anything looked although the trail would peter out into olive groves. As they say ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, this couldn’t have been further from the truth. The trail started off smooth and then disappeared behind an overhanging bush before getting ultra-technical with washed out rocky steps, cobbled switchbacks and later opening up into fast and flowy stuff before spitting you out in the picturesque, sleepy little village of Notaez.

After a quick search for a venta (café) to no avail we continued out of Noteaz and headed straight down on a trail sunken between meadows. I could feel my back tyre getting soft so I couldn’t appreciate this section to the full. It finished with a steep gravel slope and the trail winding its way between cacti and dropping us down into a dry river bed. After a quick munch and puncture repair stop we headed up the road back towards Notaez again but turning off for a place called Almeijar. Searching for a venta in Almejiar we had no luck again and carried on with the ride. On the map there looked to be a nice dirt track leading back to the top of the hill, saving us from having to ride on the road to the top. We must have ridden for a good 5km up this dirt track, steeply in places, only to reach a farm and the owners telling us there’s no access. So back down to the tarmac road we went with the best part of an hour lost and much of out energy gone too.

There was only one way for it, up the road we went. It was a fair old grind to the top, and I was only too happy to round a corner and discover our turn off was closer than I had pictured in my head. Turning left off the road lead us back to the top of the zig-zags we had pushed up earlier in the day. Armoured up and getting ready, I looked across the gorge only to spot the van was actually higher than we were. My heart sank as I had completely forgotten about the steep ride/ push out. Ah well, forget that for now, there was hundreds of switchback lying ahead. The trail was cobbled for most of the way, switch backing every few metres. The switchbacks were so tight in places so that riding these with a big drop in front definitely sent the pulses racing. I’d been using the technique of endoing the back end up and round on the tighter switchbacks but here it was a different story, not a place you’d want to take a trip over the bars that’s for certain. This trail was epic, not by being overly technical but just down to the exposure on what felt like a cliff side.

Lanjaron Blast

The weather was appalling yesterday, which was a shame since it was Sue P.’s last day. We had a late night last night because of having to drop Sue off at the airport, so it was a pretty lazy day today, time to organise notes and equipment, and to clean and oil bikes.

We left the cottage early evening and drove up to Lanjaron. It was a short sharp climb out of Lanjaron before pedalling over the top until we reached a signpost for a GR trail. The trail started off gently which fooled you into going too fast, with obstacles appearing seemingly out of nowhere. Suddenly the trail dropped steeply away over some awkward rocky slabs with ruts in-between. After this the trail becomes a hard packed gravel surface. It seems that bikes skidding have caused awful erosion here due to the skid marks acting as stream ways when it rains heavily. Although still a good trail, I’ve got to admit to getting a bit frustrated at times with purely trying to stay out of these deep grooves. The sections without ruts were outstanding and really demanding. The trail eventually drops out onto the main road in Orgiva, a few hundred metres down the road from the cottage.

Bubion Blast

Chris, a fellow Bikefax employee, came to pay us a visit today; he moved over to Granada about 2 years ago now and sounds like he’s enjoying life out there. Even though he’s not actually a mountain biker he has been known to have been dragged out on a bike in the past, so we managed to persuade him to come out with us for the day. Since we had two vans for the day we decided it would be rude not to take advantage and have an uplift day. We chose to explore a new piece of singletrack we’d been told about and see if we could link it up with anything. With one van in Bubion we drove up the same track that we climbed on the ‘Bubion Big Descent’ and parked a little further down. We followed a track bearing of at a hairpin of a couple of Km before finding the piece of singletrack.

This trail was great, some nice technical single-track climbing as it undulates across the hillside. After a while it reached a T junction in trails. We headed left and downhill. The trail, in my opinion, was very much like something I’d find back home in North Wales, which is in no way a bad thing, it just being in Spain it went on forever. It was technical and rocky, but opened out and got faster and flowing in places.

To end the ride we checked out a bit of GR we had noticed previously from the road on the way up. The trail criss-crossed the road and dropped straight into the back of Bubion. This is possibly one of my favourite pieces of trail yet. It has a series of steep long straights into fast and flowing corners. Even thought it was technical in places it still rode incredibly fast, even in the wet.

This evening we went over to Granada with Chris and had a lovely meal, as well as a little walk around the city centre itself. Granada is home to an amazingly talented graffiti artist, ‘Son of the Painters’, who decorated the streets with awesome paintings.

Bubion Big Descent

Bubion sits even higher in the mountains and is a quaint village, seemingly clinging to the hillside. This was to be the start point for today’s ride. The plan was to climb up into the national park and drop straight down, on single-track, to a place called Capilerilla. This was to be another largish climb at around 10km at a gentle gradient. We climbed, riding through patches of snow, until we could all feel the altitude on the lungs.

The first section of downhill was fantastic, the wooded single-track had fast, long corners with slight natural berms which were great fun. As we dropped things got slightly rockier and more technical. The section down into Capilerilla dropped through an olive grove on a loose, slatey surface around countless numbers of switchbacks, some with huge natural berms and little drops. Halfway down we came across a biker, turn out he was a guide maintaining the trail. Apparently this trail was one of the most popular in the area and used frequently by the guides, I can see why too. After a short climb back up out of Capilerilla we were looking down on Bubion and trying to figure out just where exactly the trail manages to work its way down the super steep hill side. The views were epic and made more impressive watching on another creep round these zig-zags where it looked impossible.