Bestard Rando Vent, Cañada Real Soriana (Bikepacking)

19 December 2021

Bestard Rando Vent by Juanjo Alonso «Kapi»

I’ve been looking for my destiny all my life. When I finished going around the world by bicycle in the early nineties I understood that there is no use going around the planet a hundred times looking for answers if we do not take them, it is about finding solutions to daily concerns and discovering our own goals and challenges. The challenge is within each one. Now “looking for my destiny” is an excuse to keep putting paths and horizons ahead and not stop. I’m not really looking for anything, I just find emotions and meaning in life. And mountain sports are the best territory to make life an interesting place. Going up and down mountains walking, skiing, climbing, cycling or travelling through forests and streams has been my personal and professional world for decades and this has given me the opportunity to see the evolution of the material, optimizing many times pieces of equipment in different activities.

Mountain sports are the best territory to make life an interesting place

In this sense, I want to talk about the Bestard Rando Vent, designed by the Mallorcan manufacturer for long-distance soft hiking activities but they are authentic all-terrain, from adventure trips, urban use and outings through the mountains. And it is also the model that I use when I travel by bicycle or do mountain biking and bikepacking routes, I change the automatic pedals of the bike for a specific platform model for trail and enduro, which has metal skewers, and the Vibram sole of the Bestard Rando Vent is firm and efficient for pedalling on all types of roads. And at the same time it is comfortable for stops, walking through towns and during the walks that always arise during mountain bike trips, in my case I usually carry or push the bike in some places and I need efficient and versatile footwear. And the Gore-Tex membrane and split leather upper make the Bestard Rando Vent a fantastic all-rounder. In other mountain bike adventures at higher altitudes and snowy territory I use the Crossover model, which I will talk about in another moment.

Cañada Real Soriana Occidental in bikepacking

The last bicycle trip with the Bestard Rando Vent has been the Cañada Soriana Occidental Nature Trail. The recovery of the old transhumant glens and the cattle trails for hiking, mountain biking and other active leisure uses has opened up an endless world of options to design interesting cycling and bikepacking routes throughout the Spanish geographies. The Cañada Real Soriana Occidental is one of the ancient Mesteños roads that best preserves the heritage of the pastoral culture of transhumance. The complete original route has about 700 kilometres between Aldehuela de Calatañazor, in Soria, a place considered the beginning of the royal gorge, and Valverde de Leganés, in the Extremadura province of Badajoz, passing through the mountain regions of Segovia, Ávila, Salamanca and Cáceres. The Council of the Mesta was created by Alfonso X the Wise in 1273, granting notable privileges and powers to ranchers over farmers and peasants. The wool trade and the activities derived from transhumant livestock farming marked the economic, social and cultural impulse of Castilla y León for several centuries in the middle ages. The Mesta imposed rights and obligations on the inhabitants of the regions that used the royal glens and pastoral lines, reaching its peak in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The industrial changes and the situations caused by the constant political and military conflicts caused the decline of the authority of La Mesta and the organization disappeared in 1836, leaving a valuable network of cattle trails that have continued in use by transhumant shepherds until today. Teaching on the ground the inheritance of an essential culture to understand the natural, ethnographic and manners heritage that surrounds the passage of the old cattle trails.

: Inicio del Camino Natural en la estación de El Espinar

: Cañada Real en el Espinar

: Cañada Real en Revenga

The network of “natural roads” has recovered the section of the Cañada Real Soriana Occidental in the province of Segovia, between the cattle meadows of El Espinar and the red lands of Ayllón, a well-preserved route in the width of the canyon, the original bridges, the fountains of the resting places, the remains of the old stall and shearing buildings, the layout of some towns that were decisive in the passage of the large herds of merino and other elements of the Mesteño culture. The livestock route is also known as the Cañada de la Vera de la Sierra because it follows the northern slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama, the Montes Carpetanos, Somosierra and the Sierra de Ayllón, between the ridges of the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park and the peasant plains of the Segovian plateau. The complete distance of the natural path is 150 kilometres with pavements, landscapes and very varied terrain, in some places there are steep and stony paths that may force you to get off the bike but they are short and do not involve notable complications with appropriate footwear such as the Bestard Rando Vent. El Espinar has a Cercanías train station from Madrid and facilitates the logistical organization of the trip to access the starting point by bicycle, which has an information panel on the itinerary and the Km 0 post. The town of Ayllón is the end of the Nature Trail It has a regular daily bus line with the city of Segovia. Autumn is a good season to travel this section of the Cañada Real Soriana Occidental in two entertaining cycling days, in light bikepacking style, with the possibility of finding food and hospitality services in several towns along the way.