Donde esta la calle

Many gigantic mountains surround Alicante in the distance just asking to be climbed.  Today, with very little pre-departure beta (information, thank you nick) we set out and conquered one of them.  I woke up at 7 to meet Nick and our friend Margaret at the TRAM station to get moving.  The half hour early morning ride provided us with stunning views of the sunrise along la mar.  I should mention last night we saw a fantastic sunset that painted the sky all sorts of  red so we knew today would have great weather (sailors delight)..

We started the trek in the beach town of El Campello and immediately walked into someones yard type area.  After being told we could not pass, we restarted and followed the roads.  After walking through the town we came across a megahighway at which point we crossed underneath it through a dried out water drainage type system of concrete.  Or something.  Incredibly random and just a little off the beaten trail (we came to our senses and took the bridge over the highway on the way back).  Our only goal was to walk toward the giant mountain in the distance.  We came across this road and followed it up for many miles through the hills.  Once we gained decent elevation we could see we were heading the right direction.  Finally we reached a point in the road where we decided to explore this random dirt path, and thanks to Nick's willingness to venture into the unknown, we came across a trailhead.  All very random that it worked out perfectly.  While climbing uphill Margaret talked about visiting family in Montana at which point Nick jumped on the prospects of Montana living- he pictured it as owning land along a salmon river with a girl from a good family and three boys in the family.  I said that I would probably need a gordita to help keep me warm during the cold winters if I lived there.  Now however, thanks to google image search, I think I might want to take that back.. not quite how I envisioned it.  Finally we made it to a ridge in the mountain and came across a great view.  I grudgingly ate a sloshy banana.  Nick was displeased with my attitude.

We pressed on to climb the next highest peak when the trail just stopped.  For some reason Spaniards don't seem to need to summit every peak (many of Mallorca's peaks didn't have trails to the top as well), they just like taking nice strolling hikes apparently.  We decided to climb up this scree field type area and made it to the top.  Hard work but well worth it blazing our own trail.  We ate lunch and rested at the top before heading back down.  Margaret was quite the trooper getting back to Alicante after taking a spill climbing down the scree field and scraping her leg pretty good.  Wowsers.  Great day, 20 miles according to Google Maps, and two great pintas to polish the day off.

Nick's got the pics.

-Michael