A Walk in the Woods: Cercedilla and the Guadarramas

Yesterday I promised you all pictures and pictures you shall have!

I mentioned that it has been rainy here, right? And that it looked like it was going to continue to be rainy for the foreseeable future, right? Okay. Well I had been waiting to go for a hike in the Sierra de Guadarramas outside of Madrid for ages now. With my time here coming to an end soon, I couldn’t very well be picky. So I picked the first day that didn’t have rain and took the bus out to Cercedilla.

The sights along the way were rather lovely. Even though the skies were full of clouds, there were moments that suggested that it might not be terrible day after all.

From the bus station to the start of the trails is about a  2 kilometer walk. At least you’re all warmed up and ready to go by the time that you get there. You can also practice taking pictures of the cows which is important because once you’re on the trails, you’ll come across cows that are not contained by a fence. Having just been to a bullfight just a few of days earlier, this unnerved me just a little bit. But we’ll see them later. This, remember, is just the beginning. Just the beginning at 1200 meters. Ay madre mía.

After stopping at the visitor center, map in hand, I headed out on the trails, following the blue trail, to the orange trail, to the yellow trail.

From here on out, I don’t think narration is really required during a hike so for the most part I’ll let the pictures do the talking. When I feel the need to inject some sass, I’ll sprinkle some in. Just a dash!

I would come to regret those sunglasses because I never needed them. Sigh. Anyway, time for my first photo shoot.

Then it was time for a decision:

Two roads diverged in a wood and I…I took the steeper one. Because my mind wants to be a badass. Though my body says ✋?No.

But back to climbing.

Wait where am I going?

Oh, I’m good now.

Hey look! There’s snow in the mountains!

One of the highlights of the orange trail is the Miradores, the scenic vistas. Would you look at that view?!

Maybe I couldn’t see the view, but I could see the watch! Of course there was no sun, so it did me absolutely no good.

Even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to see anything, I decided to venture up a little further. I knew I wouldn’t have the chance again anytime soon so why not?

Here are my cow friends. This is the closest that I dared to get because they have horns.

There was another lookout point along the way up.

I mean, you have to laugh about it. I tried, I really did.

At least I can console myself by saying that this is probably what Hemingway dealt with when he was in the Guadarramas.

I can only assume.

So the hike didn’t end with a glorious vits of the valley below, but it didn’t make it any less worth the journey. There’s a life lesson in there somewhere.