CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
539 km from Puente la Reina de Jaca to Puente la Reina de Jaca, about 9 h 59 of riding. It goes by way of Hayedos de Navarra - Aztaparreta, Hayedos de Navarra - Lizardoia, Chemin de la Côte and back through Hayedos de Navarra - Lizardoia. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
There is a Cueva de los Moros in half the valleys of Spain. Every unexplained cave, ruin or rock shelter used to be credited to the Moors, and this one, in the hills of the western Aragonese Pyrenees between the valleys of Hecho and Ansó, is a rock shelter with ancient traces. You should approach it as an excuse to spend time in two of the most beautiful and least spoiled valleys of the Pyrenees, rather than as a monument.
Read the complete Cueva de los moros. write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva de los moros. is where the day begins. Next is Hayedos de Navarra - Aztaparreta.
Aztaparreta is a beech forest that has been left alone. High in the Pyrenees of Navarre, at the head of the Roncal valley, in the karst massif of Larra-Belagua on the border with France, this forest has never been logged, and its trees, some of them centuries old, grow, die and decay naturally. It is one of the components of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, a World Heritage Site that brings together beech forests from across the continent, from the Carpathians to the Pyrenees. Walking through it is like entering a cathedral, with tall grey trunks, a green canopy high above, and a thick carpet of moss and fallen leaves.
Read the complete Hayedos de Navarra - Aztaparreta write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hayedos de Navarra - Aztaparreta comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hayedos de Navarra - Lizardoia.
The Irati forest, straddling the border between Navarre and the French Basque Country, is one of the largest beech and fir forests in Europe, and Lizardoia is its wildest heart. This is a strictly protected reserve of primeval beech forest, where the trees have been left to grow, age and fall without human intervention, and it was inscribed in 2017 among Europe's ancient beech forests. Walking in the forest, you are surrounded by massive grey trunks, moss, ferns and the silence of a cathedral, broken only by birdsong and the rustle of leaves. Woodpeckers, including the rare white-backed woodpecker, live here, along with deer, wild boar and, in the high pastures, griffon vultures soaring overhead.
Read the complete Hayedos de Navarra - Lizardoia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 101 km into the recorded legs you reach Hayedos de Navarra - Lizardoia. Next is Chemin de la Côte.
Irun is where the coastal Way of St James, the Camino del Norte, crosses from France into Spain, and pilgrims have been walking over the Bidasoa here for centuries. The river is the border, and in the middle of it sits the Isle of Pheasants, a scrap of land that has been governed jointly by both countries since the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, changing hands every six months. It is a peculiar, rather charming thing to stand on the bank and look at.
Read the complete Chemin de la Côte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chemin de la Côte, about halfway. Next is back through Hayedos de Navarra - Lizardoia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hayedos de Navarra - Lizardoia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hayedos de Navarra - Lizardoia sits at 217 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hayedos de Navarra - Aztaparreta.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hayedos de Navarra - Aztaparreta write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hayedos de Navarra - Aztaparreta comes up about 505 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cueva de los moros., 54 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva de los moros. write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva de los moros. closes the day.
Cueva de los moros. → Hayedos de Navarra - Aztaparreta is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hayedos de Navarra - Aztaparreta → Hayedos de Navarra - Lizardoia is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hayedos de Navarra - Lizardoia → Chemin de la Côte is 169 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Chemin de la Côte → back through Hayedos de Navarra - Lizardoia is 169 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Hayedos de Navarra - Lizardoia → back through Hayedos de Navarra - Aztaparreta is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hayedos de Navarra - Aztaparreta → Cueva de los moros. is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.