Day 50 – to a Refugio above Páramo del Sil

I drove southwest for twenty kilometres or so, over a pass on a road full of potholes to the town of Páramo del Sil, which was pretty quiet on an Easter Monday.

In the last 10 days I’ve almost done a complete clockwise circle, back now not far from Ponferrada.

I was keen to get into the hills that lie to the east of the town, as I had read about the Ancares trail run that takes place annually, and a particularly steep stony ascent and descent which is part of it, pictured below..

Also, it is on the La Mirada Circular MTB route which I have been roughly following for a week or so now.

There’s a rough road out of town which I took, very slowly. It enabled me to get to a refuge at 1160 metres altitude on a grassy pasture which no sign of any civilisation anywhere close at all. It was indeed a great spot.

The dog and I took a couple of hikes during the afternoon, getting a bit more height for the views, and spent some time reading and catching up on various administrations in the pleasant spring temperatures.

No one passed at all, until about 7 pm with the sun just ducking behind the mountain, and an older guy, about my age, passed on his mountain bike. The water fountain next to the refuge is not running, so I came to his aid. Fortunately I had filled up the tanks earlier today. We had a chat for a short while, he is over for the holiday weekend from León, to his other house, with his grandchildren.