9/20 to 10/7/2021 – It’s Possible. A simple statement that became the mantra of our bicycle tour along the Montañas Vacias route in Spain. These words seemed to embody the Spanish lifestyle with their casual optimism. These words were exactly what we needed after a couple of years of intense focus in graduate school and over a year of covid uncertainties. We booked tickets to Spain rather impulsively during the summer of 2021 after reading about the route and thinking it seemed like an ideal fit for a fall tandem tour. Little did we know how truly exceptional the tour would fit our idea of bicycle touring.

We set out on a climb from Cuenca to join the route with high hopes and a little bit of jetlag. We biked past a castle and were immediately on a mix of quiet, backcountry pavement and smooth fast dirt roads with villages sprinkled in every 20 km or so. Was this to be the style of this ride? Yes indeed it was… roughly 900 km lay ahead made up primarily of quiet dirt roads, ancient disappearing villages, and friendly smiles.

Montañas Vacias is a route lovingly created by Ernesto Pastor over the course of a few years and driven by his passion for the Spanish lapland. This pocket of Spain has the lowest population densities in all of Europe and is actively depopulating, despite its long heritage as an agricultural hub. Most of these medieval villages are exclusively made up of older people, as the younger generations have migrated to urban centers for opportunities of employment outside of farming and shepherding. Ernesto sees this seemingly forgotten place as something more beautiful and unique, and put every ounce of his heart and soul into artfully crafting the route to show others the mystique of the empty mountains. He also hopes that the route can breathe life into the region, using tourism as another possible piece of the puzzle for sustaining these small villages.

Ernesto takes it upon himself to connect with those riding the MV and made a further impact on our love of the route through thoughtful emails pre-trip and grabbing a coffee with us while we were in Teruel. During this coffee, the conversation rolled comfortably from cycling to rural challenges to discussions of the love of place and felt as though we had been friends for a long while despite just having met. Our conversation ended with an open invite to join the Marchica campout later in our trip…

Making foreign visitors feel right at home isn’t something we’ve often felt on bicycle trips, but Spain delivered that hospitality in spades. Conveniently, our timing worked perfectly to tie into the a la marchica group ride and we rolled into our first bikepacking group campout with a nervous energy matched by the buzzing anticipation of the quickly assembling pack of riders invited to join. Immediately we realized that we were surrounded by the same group of cyclists we’ve known for years locally… just with different names and faces to match those friendly personalities. Over the course of two days with the group, we discussed bicycle trips, geeked about gear (we offered plenty of rides on the La Tourista), laughed about perfect mud, and were heckled while fixing flats just as we would with our friends back in Montana. This campout was laid back and so stinking fun that it instantly became a central highlight of the trip. Ernesto surrounded himself with loving and passionate individuals and, again, we are so appreciative of his generosity in sharing the experience with us. We really hope to see many of those lovely folks again whether it be in Spain or Montana or somewhere in-between!

After the campout, the ride continued to be utterly pleasant with daily delicious baguette – tomato – cheese – cured meat sandwiches, cruisy dirt roads, comfortable campsites (or refugios), and quiet friendly smiles. We weren’t ready for this ride to be over and it’ll be hard to compare others against it in the future. The terrain, style, and, most importantly, people made this route very special to Grete and I. Thank you Ernesto (and please come ride the Divide in Montana)!

Oh and here are the photos to tell the whole story:

* Reposting here after my brief hiatus trying to leverage another site for free… but I burned up the free space in a hot minute so I’m 100% back here and you can expect updates! *