Pedraforca

Not knowing anyone, not knowing where to go, and not having a car make for an interesting dilema when you want to get out and hike/camp etc. So I did what many people knew to a city did,a nd went to Meetup.com, where I conveniently found a Barcelona Hiking group.

Not knowing what to expect, I signed up to go on a 2 day hike to a mountain called Pedraforca in northern Spain. The plan was to hike 50+ km (or ~30 miles) in 2

days of fun. Not knowing what kind of hiking s

hape I'd be in, I again said "sure, why not".

Of the 14 people that came, there were 2 Americans, a Brit, a Scot, German, Czech, Austrian, and 7 Catalans, so a pretty good mix. There were varying levels of Spanish, fortunately, i was not the worst. Like many situations we have run into, people here were ju

st as eager to practice their English with me as I was Spanish with them.

The first day we climbed up to the top, and back down, then walked around the side of the mountain, climbed up and back down again. The 2nd time down, we lost the trail, and ended up trying to fight through the forest and brush. That was an... adventure. I still have the scratches and bruises to prove it on my arms and legs. It was still a blast. We ended up only walking 14 km, but with 3000 m of elevation change, so it was a very tough day. The second day was not quite so strenuous, though the walk was longer. We walked from one area through beautiful countryside with more landscape views, it was very pretty, but the hike was not very hard. All in all, we ended up doing 40km over the 2 days.

I was worried about being couped up with a group of strangers for 2 days, but everyone was very welcoming and I had a good time hanging out with all of them. I think I'll be back for some more mountain hikes. It's a great way to see the country without having to do all the planning!