rob

I’ve spent a few weekends hiking, and the hikes are incredible. On the last hike we saw the Yelmo at La Pedriza. It’s located in the Guadaramma Mountains just outside of Madrid and seemed like rock climber haven. The gigantic rock formations burst from level ground in all directions. It’s a granite mass that makes for an excellent adult playground. I was jumping over the rocks, pulling my self up on to boulders, and descending between small cracks. All smiles and laughter until… Javi (purple shirt) and I decided to go take some quick pictures a few formations from the group. We were having fun gliding over the smaller hills and maybe spent about 15 minutes exploring. When we returned, no one was there. The only thing around was Javi’s pack he had left. It was a group of about 60, so I wasn’t worried they would miss us, I just thought we could run and catch up to them with out a problem. We headed down the mountain as fast as we could certain we would find them soon. Then I get a text from another friend, Rob, asking us where we are. I sent him our location, and he said they were headed down a different way. We plan to meet at the bottom where we had gotten lunch earlier that day. Javi and I make it down in about 45 minutes. We grab a beer and wait. An hour passes by. We talk about music and the illuminati. Another hour passes by. We watch Spanish boys hit each other, and by this time three hours have passed since we had reached the bottom. We don’t have cell phone service, and the bus driver can’t get in contact with the group either. How can 50 + people not be seen coming from a barely covered mountain? At about 9 PM, a car comes by and one of the guides gets out, and without a word, he goes on to the bus. We follow suite. We start driving back to Madrid, and I’m thinking have they already gone back on a different bus? Had they been looking for us this entire time? Seems unlikely as we said we had reached the bottom, but for over 20 minutes we rode on this bus. Finally, we make sense of it. The rest of the group had gotten lost. For over three hours they had been walking in the complete wrong direction. They had walked so far, they were in another town. Not sure how that happened, because you can see the bottom of the mountain from the top with a clear path. But, nevertheless, the path was averted and over 50 people were lost in the woods. All were sunburnt, hungry and some upset. It was a bizarre vibe, but the hike was still great, and I ended up getting to know someone a bit better. Hiking in Madrid is still one of the best things I’ve stumbled upon, and I’m sure future hikes will be just as adventurous sans getting lost.