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ITINERÀNNIA, NETWORK OF TRAILS
ENG
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“Itinerànnia” is a network of trails, with over 2,500 kilometres between the neighbouring regions of “Ripollès”, “Garrotxa” and “Alt Empordà”. A network of hiking trails is like a road map, but with footpaths, allowing the hiker to get from any one point to another. It retrieves the old historic roads between the villages to reach many small places. The network offers many different hikes depending on the time or difficulty and your interests over nature, architecture or culture. Each route that we propose is just a little taste of an extensive network of trails that you can walk to discover the Ripollès, Garrotxa and Alt Emprdà counties.
RIPOLLÈS
THE SIGNS All the trails of the network are marked regularly over the paths with horizontal painted yellow signs.
PATH'S MARKS (3 x 10 cm)
TURN LEFT/RIGHT
WRONG PATH
The marks are placed approximately every 300 metres painted on tree's bark, stones or using and other medium already deployed in the area. In the cross roads you will find signposts indicating the nearest four villages in each direction with time information. (a maximum of 6 hours) If the same village or town appears more than once on different signs of the same signpost, you will need to read the description below the town. If there is no description below the place name then you are looking at the shortest route to the town or village. If the indication says “Per...” (I.e via) it means that this is a longer alternative route to get to the same place. Each signpost has a small plaque that shows the name of the place where it is located, the altitude and the UTM coordinates. You will find information boards with a map of the county's trails in every village or city integrating the network.
+INFO: www.itinerannia.net www.elripolles.com In the Ripollès county you will find 18 touch screens located in different towns containing tourist information. Aquesta actuació està subvencionada pel Servei d’Ocupació de Catalunya en el marc del Projecte “Treball a les 4 Comarques” i cofinançada pel Fons Social Europeu.
WALKING ALONG THE PUIG D'ESTELA MOUNTAIN RANGE IN VALLFOGONA Medium
4h.
15
WALKING ALONG THE PUIG D'ESTELA MOUNTAIN RANGE IN VALLFOGONA
The route begins at the R3 sign Vallfogona del Ripollès located in a crossroads at the entrance of the village. It is advisable to visit the old medieval town of Vallfogona with its narrow streets. The route heads north towards Sant Joan de les Abadesses. After crossing the main road you must follow a path that will lead you to the farmhouse of “Can Costa”. The path passes by the house and enters into a pine and oak forest constantly climbing uphill to the north. As the forest starts to open up you will pass by the Orri spring. A little further up you will arrive at the R5 sign Collet de les Fonts de l'Orri. ITINERÀNNIA NETWORK ROUTE ROAD-TRAIL RIVER TOURIST SERVICES (see website) VERTICAL SIGNPOSTS OF THE NETWORK
Head east towards Riudaura first following a wide track and then a little path going gently uphill to the “Coll de la Creu de Can Sibat”. From this important pass between Vallfogona del Ripollès and Sant Joan de les Abadesses you can enjoy splendid views over the mountains of the area. From this point follow the watershed climbing up to different wooded peaks. You will arrive at the “Coll de Comaformosa” or “Cal Pollastre” according to the maps, where you will find a track that crosses the pass. Take this track to the left and a few meters ahead leave it for a little path that will take you along the ridge. Soon afterwards the path widens and you will pass by a pond, just where you can see a track. Follow it towards the east while going round the hill of “Puig Alegre” through the shady side amid a beech forest to arrive at the “Collet d'en Roca” or “Ramada” pass. It is a crossroads, from where if you have spare time, you can climb up to the summit of Puig Estela (1,361m) following the yellow and white marks. Alternatively you can go down directly through the track on your right that through a beech forest will take you to “Coll de Canes”. If you decide to climb up to Puig Estela, allow twenty minutes to reach the summit and ten minutes of sharp descend through the forest until you find again the track that leads down to “Coll de Canes”. The summit of Puig Estela is a natural viewpoint to the mountains in the southern Garrotxa, with Puigsacalm and Santa Magdalena standing above them.
SPECIFIC INFORMATION
altitude (m)
Time: 4h. Total distance: 13,875 km Highest altitude: 1.300m above sea level (Coll d’en Roca o de la Ramada) Lowest altitude: 945m above sea level (Vallfogona del Ripollès) Accumulative slope ascent: 430 m Accumulative slope descent: 430 m Difficulty: Medium 1300 1200 1100 1000 900
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The track rapidly descends to Coll de Canes where you will see the G14 sign. Head west towards Vallfogona parallel to the road. This track was the old road that linked Ripoll with Olot passing by Vallfogona and Riudaura. Follow the track passing by different farmhouses: “El Pinós”, “Els Plans”, “L'Esperó”...among others.
JUST TO PERSUADE YOU: The route runs largely along the ridge of the Puig d'Estela mountain range, north of Vallfogona del Ripollès. Throughout the route and amid beautiful beech forests you will enjoy with views over Mt. Taga and Serra Cavallera mountain range and also over the valley of Vallfogona with the Milany range and Santa Maria de Cambrils as a backdrop.
The last steps of this route go by the road until arriving at the first set of houses of Vallfogona. At this point, the path goes left passing next to the old rectory and the church of “Sant Julià”. A few meters further down you will arrive at the R4 sign La Salut. To finish you must follow Puig Estela street until the entrance of the village, right where this circular route started.
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Distance (m)
Contents, illustrations and photographs are property of CEA Alt Ter (www.alt-ter.org)