Hiking the Snow Well route from Ibi to Alcoy

I believe I mentioned last Fall that the Diputaci�n (Provincial Government in Alicante aka representation of the National Gvmt) organises hikes on Sundays... They fill up a bus, and since it's subsidised it's quite a bit cheaper than other groups that take you out by bus... which means there's a very high demand to get a spot! In fact, if you don't send in your e-mail requesting a spot for a Sunday hike at precisely 9 a.m. the previous Monday... then forget about it! I tried 3-4 times between last Spring and Fall and only got in once! So when I saw that they were starting up again this past weekend, I set an alarm on my cellphone to go off last Monday at 8h55 to remind me to go into my e-mail draft folder and get ready to send the e-mail (already prepared with the necessary attachments) as soon as the clock struck 9! And 10' later I had an answer confirming I had scored a spot for myself and a friend, YAY! :o)

The group in charge of the Spring hikes is quite a bit more hard core than the one in the Fall. Those were all "easy" to "moderate". The hikes programmed for this next month are all "difficult"! Sadly because of budget cuts (damn never-ending crisis!) only 5 outings have been authorised (i.e. financed), which is a pity because the guides were telling us they had put together a fascinating programme which would have involved crossing the whole Province of Alicante, from north to south, in 20 days of 5-6h hikes! Now there's something I would love to do! But it wasn't meant to be... another year perhaps?

So they just kept 5 hikes from their original list, and last Sunday (Mar 25) was a 16.4 km (10.2mi) hike from the town of Ibi to the town of Alcoy, crossing the mountain that separates the two (which meant a climb of about 554m - 1818ft - followed by a descent of 740m - 2428ft -). We pretty much followed the PR-26 from Ibi to the summit of the Menejador, in the Natural Park of the Font Roja, and then followed the PR-160 down towards Alcoy until we reached the river Polop, which we followed until the V�a Verde de Alcoy and walked along that until we got into town. I wasn't able to find a map online with this exact route charted, so I adapted one (all hail powerpoint!). The purple arrows show the way! ;o)

I'm not a morning person, so getting up (indecently) early to go on all these Sunday hikes hasn't been easy... and it was a lot harder last Sunday because we lost an hour the night before! Oh well, at least when we started out from Ibi at 9h30 we had gorgeous blue skies and warm sunshine. :o)

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When hiking turns into mountain climbing: up the Maigmo, Alicante's "balcony"

I still can't seem to get these hiking posts up within a couple of days of the actual hike! Part of the problem is timing... I get home Sunday evening exhausted, and then Monday I have to start preparing the week's classes and I don't have much time for the blog until Friday comes round... Add to that the many photos to sort through, choose the ones for the Facebook album (and narrate them in Spanish) and try and reduce the selection as much as possible so I can tell the story I want to tell here on the blog. And then edit them... and then write... I've got to try and streamline the process (perhaps taking fewer photos would help!)

So this is last Sunday's hike, March 11th. Our destination: the Maigm�, one of the closest mountains to the city of Alicante (I can see it out my back window, would have added a picture but it's been hidden by clouds for 2 days now!), and part of the mountains that create a climate barrier between the very dry (and brown) coast and the more humid and green interior. It's also the only area in the Province I'd been hiking around before I started doing these hikes last Fall. I've gone several times with a friend and our dogs to an area on the interior face of the Maigm� known as Planisses, nice fields and forests with lots of paths for some good hiking (just don't get lost, not many markings to guide you!). The dogs love it! And it's only about 1/2h from home. :o)

There are quite a few weekend/summer homes in the area. We parked near one and then hit the trails through the pine forest and shrubbery, which I noticed was quite a bit browner than other years I've been in the area (this winter has been the driest in decades!).

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Up the Montcabrer: the ice, snow, mud and thumbs.

I can't quite seem to catch up with these hiking posts! I guess in a way I should be grateful I had a rough night last Saturday and decided at the last minute not to go hiking on Sunday 'cause that way I'm able to post this before another hike (tomorrow) gets added to the waiting list... :p

This is a tale of climbing a mountain. On a gloriously sunny Sunday. With ice and snow. Saved from breaking anything thanks to trekking poles and thyme bushes. But still managed to find myself with my ass covered in mud... and ended up with sprained thumbs! ;o)

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Cold and windy hike along the Sierra Els Plans... a.k.a. my first "3000m" climb!

Ok, so not really a climb up a single 3000 m (9842 ft) peak, but we did make it to three different peaks that were each over 1000 m above sea level and 3*1000 = 3000, right? ;o) Yeah, yeah, I know... not the same! Particularly since we didn't climb up 1000 m each time (the whole hike had an approximate cumulative climb of 900 m - 2952 ft.) But it was our running gag for the day, how we were these fabulous mountain climbers making it up our first 3000m! lol! :D

We (the Centro Excursionista de Alicante) started out at 788 m above sea level from the town of Torremanzanas, whose name is a bit of a cheat since in English it would translate as "Tower of Apples" but there is no tower and there are no apples! It's an erroneous Castilian transliteration of the Valencian/Catalan name La Torre de les Ma�anes (which probably means the Ma�anes -name of some family?- Tower, but if there ever was a tower, it's gone!). The town is kind of surrounded on its northwestern side by the Sierra Els Plans which is part of the climatological frontier between the greener (i.e.*slightly* rainier) interior and the more arid coastal part of the province of Alicante. Our objective was to climb to the highest peak Els Plans (1330m), then walk along the (wide) ridge to the secondary peak called La Xamarra (1224m) then head back down into the valley and up a neighbouring third peak the Montagut (1081m). And for once I've got an altitud/distance profile of the hike to share!

Oh, and as the title of this post implies... it was COLD!!! It was the first day of a Siberian weather front that stayed with us for another 3 weeks (leaving snow in some of the local mountains) and which still hasn't quite decided to leave, a full month later! It was barely above freezing when we started out, it did get warmer throughout the day thanks to the sun, but there was a constant breeze/wind that had me wishing I had brought a pair of thermal pants to wear under my hiking pants! BRRRRR!!! First time in Alicante I've hiked with so many layers...

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Colourful hiking in the Font Roja

I had to get up at a shockingly early 6h30 yesterday morning, for my third hike of the season. What's that? THIRD hike? I only remember you telling us about ONE (Cumbre Reconco), did you invent the second? Nope. Second was a stunning hike along cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean, but have been too busy to write! I wanted to start with this one while it's fresh in my mind and will take a step back in time for hike #2 soon. ;o)

So, back to business. 8 a.m. rendez-vous with the Centro Excursionista de Alicante at the bull ring, wait around for people (including myself, oops!), and then pile in the 12 cars (yikes!) and head inland to the Parque Natural del Carrascal de la Font Roja. About an hour north (inland) from the city of Alicante, it's one of the province's hidden treasures, which doesn't get as much attention as the beaches do. Covering about 2500 acres (of which 1300 are private property), it's got one of the best preserved Mediterranean forests in the region (albeit a relatively young one since a forest fire destroyed most of it in 1840), dominated by the eponimous Carrasca (a.k.a. Quercus rotundifolia), accompanied by other members of the oak family. Its Northeast-Southwest alignment (along a mountain ridge) results in distinct climates on the Northern (shady, quite a bit of rain, rich forest vegetation) and Southern (more sun, much drier, vegetation dominated y shrubs/bushes) slopes.

We got to the park around 9 a.m., and found it to be a very chilly 14�C! Thank heavens for layers! But the early hour, the chilly air and the threatening rain clouds from the night before all combined to give us some gorgeous skies as we started our hike down below the Sanctuary:

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