Sunday promised to be a great day. The weather was warm and not a cloud was in the sky. I was headed to a little pueblo called La Alberca south of Salamanca to hit up some trails and hike around. I had maps and information about the trails that passed right through Alberca headed in various directions to other Spanish cities and pueblos. This was a solo trip so I was very excited to explore the trails that I wanted to and at my own pace.
My bus got to La Alberca (1050 meters high) about 10:45 but I had to wait until 11 for the information office to open and get some parting advice for my hike. My main goal for the day was to hike up to a monastery that is at the top of a 1723m mountain called "La Peña de Francia" (The rock of France, which you can barely see at the top of the first picture) that´s 8 km (4.96 mi) away from La Alberca. It´s one of the tallest peaks in the Sierra de Francia mountain range. My friend had hiked up it on Saturday and said that it took her 3.5 hours to get up and 2.5 hours to come down. I knew that I had a little over 8 hours to hike before the bus would be back, so I was anxious to get started.
By 11:15 I was on my way up a rocky dry trail, thinking I was heading to "La Peña de Francia". I noticed that some of the trees were marked with painted lines, marking the path for hikers. Soon, though, I came to a fork. I looked around for markings and saw an "X" marked on a tree to the left. "That must be it!" I thought. WRONG! Soon the path turned into a bunch of weeds and rocks that made it clear I was not on the more groomed path that I should´ve been on. I took out my map, and after a more thorough look, I saw the key for the tree markings: X means "Wrong Way", while 2 parallel lines means "Path Continues Here". Well, that explained a lot. Way to go, Sharon, getting lost in the first half hour!
So I returned to where I had taken the wrong turn, and continued on my way. I was really enjoying just being out in nature, listening to the breeze and the critters. I really did not see many other hikers until I had been hiking for about 40 minutes and made it to a look-out called "El Portillo" at 1250m about 3 km away (1.8 mi) from La Alberca. The view was "maravillosa" but after looking at the "You are Here" sign, I realized that I was not on the path leading to La Peña de Francia. I was definitely going in the opposite direction...oh man!
I booked it back to La Alberca where I would need to pick up the right path to get to La Peña. I found the right path after asking for verification at the information office. For a second time that day I left La Alberca. It was 1:15 so my time was now cut down to 6 hours to summit and return to catch the bus. I was off!
This path was a lot better marked than the previous path had been. It was a nice wide gravel/dirt path, going in and out of forest and the country side. After about 45 minutes the nice gentle path took a major up-turn. It was very tough from this point on because most of it was in the direct sunlight, I could see the monastery way, way up that looked unattainable, and I didn´t feel like I was making any progress. The terrain got very rocky, and multiple times I caught my toes on some rocks and stumbled forward- never falling- but had too many close calls for my liking.
After 2 hours and 5 minutes, I made it to the top of La Peña! I was so happy and relieved to have made it and to find a bit of shade where I could rest for a couple of minutes. The view was absolutely amazing! Mountains and countryside were all that I could see. I couldn´t even see the tops of the houses in La Alberca!
The way down was a lot easier mentally but by that time (4:15) my legs were pretty dead. I just kept telling myself that I could do it, and as soon as I got back to La Alberca I was going to find some nice shade to sit in until my bus came at 7:20. I got back to town at 6:10 and was moving on adrenaline. I did it!
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