I have been to the Basque Country a lot of times for trial competitions but only once with the enduro bike. We went last summer with Andreu and Ernest and we loved it so much that we wanted to come back this year too.
This time we stayed in San Sebastian, at Alvaro’s apartment at the seafront of la Zurriola Beach. From there we moved around. We spent two days riding the mount Ulia, also riding down to Pasaia to cross to Pasai Donibae and access mount Jaizkabel and its trails. Another two days around Zaláin and Endara dam, where we followed a track Ernest got from one local rider and the last day, on our way home, we rode one of the trails around Eugi.
MONTE ULIA + JAIZKABEL
Monte Ulia (+243m) is located east of San Sebastián and even though it does not have super flowy trails the views are just amazing. While riding some of the trails you can see the Atlantic ocean and the rugged coast.
The cool thing is that the trails are short but the pedalling to the top is also short, so in an afternoon you can do about 6 o 7 different runs. As it rains a lot in the Basque Country, the vegetation grows really fast and you can often find trails full of it. However, sometimes this makes the adventure even cooler.
The second day we decided to do a longer route, going to the Jaizkabel mount from San Sebastián. So we rode up mount Ulia and rode down about 250 stairs to Pasaia.
There we took a ferry for only 2 minutes and crossed to the other side. Once we cross, the steepest part of the route began. Luckily it was paved and it was easier to pedal. We arrived to an open field where we found horses and sheep, and an amazing view to San Sebastián and the mountains around. We started the first trail and we felt like in a GoPro promotional video, the sun was already low, the horses around and the breathtaking views.
After the open field part, we entered a singletrack that we followed to the end, very fun to ride. Then we went for the longest uphill of the day, 7,5km. It was long, warm and sweaty, we could feel the humidity hitting but at the top the views were worth it and we forgot about the heat. We arrived close to the sunset and everything was painted in warm colors. After that, the moment we’ve been expecting all day, a 5km and 500m downhill to Lezo, linking 3 different trails. We really enjoyed every meter of it. It had almost everything, faster parts, sketchy ones, rock gardens, even some flow turns until we made it to Lezo and we decided to go back to San Sebastián by road because it was already 9:15pm and it was getting darker.
ENDARA DAM AND ZALÁIN
We spent two days riding in this area. The trail to the Endara dam was about 11 minutes
riding down through some serious steep parts. We found very nice terrain with some grip,
however the shadow parts where still wet and it was tricky not to slide. The first part is more
open and with some nice views to the reservoir and in the last part you enter a dense forest with
some super steep parts where you have to trust your braking skills.
EUGI TRAILS
On our way home we stopped in the small town of Eugi, where didn’t have much time but we
decided to stop for a ride. Turned out in 25.52km, 1.106m and 4h of riding! It was the warmest
day and we ran out of water in the middle of the route. The terrain was dry and very slippery but we got out the most of it.
As always, I love to discover new places and new trails around. We were also lucky because it didn’t rain any day, which is really strange in the north, and even if we crashed sometimes we didn’t break anything, just Andreu had a small injurie in the small finger of his right hand, nothing to worry about.
We hope we will be able to travel international for the next adventures… Stay tuned!
MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW US SO YOU WON’T MISS ANY OF OUR NEXT ADVENTURES:
POL TARRÉS – @pol.tarres / poltarres.com
ERNEST ADALID – @ernestadalid / ernestadalid.com
ANDREU MIRÓ – @andreumiro
PICTURES BY
Apperstudio – @apperstudio / apperstudio.com
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