Haro- Espinosa de Montanes- Noja

Although not a detailed account of the towns I passed through and saw, this is an accurate representation of the places I have spent time in and have seen despite many many kilometers on the road. It is my many km that prevented me from stopping and looking around the towns I did pass. However, they were in fact fairly unimpressive. Mostly small with just a single bar, and I can´t stop for ALL of them. In fact, I biked 183 km in two days to complete what I consider the first leg of this great journey. We´ll dub it the ¨Leg of Solitude.¨The two day big ride included one day of my first century km and then one day of a 4,500 foot mountain pass to drop toward the ocean.

Before I detail that, I must relate that I set up informal camp along a river named the Trueba just outside Espinosa the night after my first century and fished the river until past 10 pm at night as it was still late. And, after being rejuecting by many trout for bad presentations and bad approach, I hooked and released the best trout of my year thus far. As the pink sunset faded over the looming mountain of my future, and the srawming mayflies bounced up and down over the stream, the nose of a 16 inch streambred brown trout poked above the pìnk reflection in the water and drew me into its world. I caught his little brother, too. It was a perfect evening which I celebrated with several delicious Principe cookies and hard hard sleep.

The story continues....

Although I don´t like to brag, what I saw the next morning was in my honest opinion, the most beautiful set of mountains I have ever seen. They reside on the north-facing rim of the Cantabria region. They are tall, majestic, bright green. I was reminded of New Zealand, or other much more exotic locales. They beat the Tetons, they beat the Apps, they beat the Bitterroot, they even beat the Olympics. Sorry, guys. I rode down, down, down through ragged cliffs, amongst dancing goat herds, and, of course, a beautiful stream where I caught two inebriating brown trout which danced out of the brightly colored round stones and into my memory.

Now, though, I´m in CA!!!!! Palm trees, sea breeze, cold blue water, and surfers. No, I´m not in California but Cantabria- or CA for short.... In fact, we even have a marine layer thickening up in the evening as we speak. I am working on evening out my dreadful tan- two brown arms and a white body. I am reading and taking in redwine-aqua con gas combos intraveinously and watching the foci matches that come on relgiously at 20:45 every night. Tonight my favorite team takes the field- Holland! I think they will win it all. They are precise and fast and outplay every team, but they always choke...

After a day of total relaxation, I´ll make sure my legs still work tomorrow and do some sight seeing of lighthouses, and nearby towns. The cliffs and the oceanside here is really outstanding. Then, Monday, the Leg of Solitude comes to an end- thankfully- when Brian arrives!!!!