Flies & Mastiff

Today’s route was one for the books. Overall, we climbed 4400’ in only 21 miles in a whopping 7 hours, many of which were full hike-a-bike due to the extremely steep and rocky terrain. However, the views were fantastic, Patagonia-like, and we are now showered and relaxed, awaiting a home-cooked meal in an off-grid mountain hut on Gorbea Mountain, surrounded by (you guessed it) sheep, cows, and horses, all donning jingle bell collars.

We started out on protected bike lanes, easily exiting Vitoria, fueled by chocolate croissants and pizza. At one point, a highway appeared in the distance and the route veered onto a faint herd path which required crossing a cattle gate and ducking under an electric fence. We then entered the small town of Zárate, where we filled up on water from he town fountain (temp was approaching 90 degrees) and made sandwiches to lighten the load for the approaching climb. As soon as we started pedaling again, hundreds of tiny gnats appeared in a dark cyclone around our heads – like what you’d see in a cartoon – making it difficult to see. If you swatted them, they’d immediately returned like magnets. Luckily I had a buff handy, and wrapped it around my nose, ears, mouth, snug up to the bottom of my eyelids – this was necessary to ensure I could breathe with my mouth open and not swallow extra protein. Finally a short flat section appeared, so I pedaled hard to outrun those suckers, but within a few pedal strokes, my tires were swallowed by a huge mud pit and my body sunk down 6” into the earth, flies now even happier to have a temporary statue to prey on 😭

At a certain elevation, the flies finally disappeared 🙏 and we continued a big push to the bald summit with a 360 degree view. On the hike-a-bike grassy descent, we approached a hiker who were trying to communicate something about the trail. At this point out brains had turned to mush and lost most ability to speak or understand Spanish. A few minutes later, we approached another hiker who was very adamant about a certain part of the trail, pointing to somewhere and repeating “Perro para ovejas” and “mastín” – we finally put the pieces together and determined that there was a giant mastiff guarding the sheep from wolves, and the bikes may be a trigger for it to chase us. The hiker kindly walked us around the main route to avoid the mastiff – who was then nowhere to be seen – and we biked safely down to the hut, weaving back and forth across the grass to lessen the grade.

While I was typing this, the mastiff appeared, along with the sheep owner and sheep herding dog (video below).

Tomorrow is our final bike day and our legs are thankful for that!