09/01/2023 Bikepacking Spain Day 24 : Gurebizikletagilegara

Happy day and lots of trails today! We set off with an ambitious goal to beat the coming rain tonight… ☔️

For my ride title, I looked up “We are cyclists” in Basque. It popped out a single word title (I was expecting 3 words). Here on this sign, you can see that Cyclists is “Txirrindulariak”. I love languages, but don’t have ANY intention of learning this language - unless you’ll let me use Basque in Scrabble. Then we might have a deal. —

Speaking of Basque, we were waiting for a grocery store to open, and I could hear a family of four walking down the alley. They were all speaking to each other in Spanish. When they got close to us, however, the adults changed to (what I assume was) Basque. The kids continued talking to each other in Spanish. I thought, “hey! These adults are playing the secret language game on us.” What were they saying? 🤨

🥒🏃‍♂️

We changed our route from its original plan to take some different trails - and we liked it! We deleted 2500 feet of climbing in the process, but I think the scenery on the new route was as good or maybe better than the original plan. 🏔️

Basque Country has its own version of Santa Claus known as "Olentzero." According to tradition, Olentzero is a plump coal miner who brings gifts to children during the holiday season. Children in Basque Country often leave food and drinks out for Olentzero. 🎅🍪🎁

Down behind Janet, you may see some buildings. There is a free “Refugio” and then a building with solar panels. It might be something like the San Juan huts that you can reserve? We peeked in the window and it looked like it might have a kitchen. But the rustic Refugio is more our speed. It is supposed to rain heavily for 36 hours starting tonight. We considered the implications: there are 8 miles of trail ahead of us (which might be muddy tomorrow)… In total it is 13 miles mostly downhill to a hotel. About 2 hours if it is rocky single track. We could have done it tonight…. Instead we decided to stay on the mountain and possibly have to ride in the rain tomorrow. It’s a dilemma, but we asked ourselves the question: “Did we come here to hang out in hotels or revel in nature?” Hopefully we give you a post tomorrow that is as happy as today’s! 😃

In Basque Country, they have an expression: "Bai ala biak" which means "Yes or both." This is used when someone is asked to make a choice between two options, and they cheekily reply that they want both. Kind of like “Do you live in Spain or País Vasco?” The answer could be “Bai ala biak”. —

Here is our little refuge for the night! 🛖

So far we are enjoying the view of mountains and now a fog bank 🌫️ I’m glad we decided to stay in the Refugio up here! More romantic 🥰 even if it’s raining tomorrow morning 😛

Corrine L.