Reaching the Summit

As Jack mentioned, we set off for a hike on Monday morning.  Our plan was to leave from Trevelez, a village about 45 minutes from Tara's house, and camp out in an area called Las Siete Lagunas (The Seven Lakes).  Then, we would wake up the next morning and summit Mulhacen, the tallest peak on the Iberian peninsula (which means Spain and Portugal, for geography laymen), and descend back to Trevelez.  To put it plainly, things didn't go according to plan.
All was well for the first hour or so, as we followed the path out of Trevelez, until it basically dissipated. We were at a loss, but we decided to carry on, for we felt pretty confident about the location of Mulhacen relative to where we were.  We knew it was due west, so we headed across the mountain face, while also making our way up where possible.  We walked for hours, going through several different kinds of terrain. There was a length of lush grassland, in which we made our way up along a little stream.  We encountered a bunch of cows in this area, with whom Jack had some lengthy conversations.  Further on, or it might have been before to be honest, we had to scramble up some rocky areas.  This was pretty tough, the rocks were often not as secure as they seemed.  As we got higher, we reached the cloud line, which obstructed our view greatly; this would prove to be one of our greatest obstacles throughout the journey.  Finally, we found ourselves in another grassy area where we could see a ridge above us.  We decided to reach this ridge, hopefully have a look around, and make camp for the night.
We reached the lip of the ridge and saw in front of us a good stretch of flat, stony ground, with scrubby bushes scattered along it.  It was very beautiful, all around us were huge, fluffy, pink clouds. Even more exciting, we discovered a track, which in this area means a dirt road for cars, so that told us we weren't in the absolute middle of nowhere.  And the most exciting, we could see (what we thought was) Mulhacen!  We weren't fully sure, and there was still significant cloud coverage.  It seemed the only thing to do was make camp and hope the clouds cleared out in the morning.  Our spirits were significantly dampened by a malfunctioning fuel canister for our gas cooker; eating cold baked beans has a way of making you feel like happiness is a long, long way away.  Too tired to read, or do much talking, we went to bed as the temperature plummeted.  I went outside the tent in the middle of the night to take care of something, and dew had frozen on our packs.
We woke up the next morning, and during the middle of our breakfast of yogurt and cookies, we saw a hiker going along the track.  We ran over to him and asked him if the peak in the distance was Mulhacen.  We talked for a while in Spanish (actually he did most of the talking), and he said something about the summit and turning left.  We packed up and went along the track as he had.  There was a bigger path up to the summit, but we chose a smaller path that seemed to be more direct, if a little bit tougher going.  At this height, all vegetation had disappeared, so it was a lot clambering over rocks.  We went on for 2 and a half hours, thinking we had reached the peak about 3 times, only to see a higher point in the distance.  Finally, at about 1 o'clock, we reached Mulhacen.  The view was spectacular, although the cloud coverage was still decent.  We could see quite far in the surrounding valleys, and the clouds themselves were also beautiful.  We ate our sandwiches and had nice little siesta.  The satisfaction of reaching the peak, after all of our adventures, was enormous.
Our descent led to a few more problems.  We decided to take the bigger, more circuitous route, back to the track.  We had seen a sign for a path to Trevelez along the track, so that was our intermediate destination.  Just below the summit, we passed right by a huge patch of snow that had lasted from the previous winter.  We threw a couple of snowballs at each other; for me, these kinds of moments were invaluable along the hike, as they eased some of the stress of being lost and cold for a good amount of the journey.  We carried on, but we hadn't been on this path before, so everything was unfamiliar.  This, combined with the thick fog that settled around us, led to a good deal of uneasiness for me and Jack.  Right as we were losing confidence in our present course, we saw a familiar sign post that signaled the reemergence of the track.  We happily followed it to the Trevelez trail.
The descent to Trevelez was troubled only by increasing fatigue and hunger.  As we got closer to the town, the trail became weirder and weirder.  At one point, it led directly into a barbed-wire gate, which we crawled under.  We were walking through what was either somebody's garden, or the area between two gardens.  In any event, we snagged some rather tasty blackberries.  After that, we reached a road that weaved back and forth before leading into Trevelez, where we arrived at 6:15.  We inquired several people about buses to Berchulles, one town up from Cadiar, where Tara could meet us in her car.  Some people said that there were no more buses and others said that there was one at 7:30.  We put our trust in optimism and settled into the little bus stop.  Jack ran to the Supermercado and picked up sandwich meat, bread and cheese.  We devoured these hastily thrown together sandwiches and waited, exhausted, for the bus.  It delivered us to Tara, who was extremely kind in picking us up and taking us back to her house, where we basically fell out of her car.
Overall, the hike was a lot of fun, despite moments of stress.  I can often become very pessimistic when things go wrong, such as losing the path, and I have a tendency to expect the worse.  There were times when extreme thoughts past through my mind, but I was able to keep my cool for the most part.  As I said to Jack as we neared Trevelez, I was happy with the way it all played out in the end.  I think it was a good experience for me to have, almost therapeutic, to deal with the stress of being a bit lost and having to trust my (and Jack's) intuition completely.
It was back to the almond harvest today and for the next few.  We'll check back in soon.  Much love to everybody, and thank you if you managed to read all of this.  I'm impressed.
luke