The Call of the High Ways | TRAIL TALES
The Pyrenees mountains are crisscrossed with ancient highways; a network of paths painstakingly cut into the high mountains by generations long ago to support a way of life that is, sadly, gone. As the rural populations relocated to urban areas, many old trails lost their purpose, when a trail loses its reason for existing, it very quickly becomes lost itself. We start our story with a network of high trails, unused, all lost, but not forgotten, simply waiting for a new purpose.
Purpose drives use
During the early 20th century, gradual loss of the rural ways of life resulted in massive depopulation of huge areas of Spain as people sought better lives in the growing cities. Little by little areas became deserted, tiny villages were largely abandoned and houses were left to rot.
The villages which survived were communicated by new roads, supported by the type of massive civil engineering projects which fascist dictators excel at. As a result of these changes, so many trails lost their purposes and when a trail loses its reason for existing it very quickly becomes lost itself.
Just a few crazy guys
This is not a story of invention then, rather it is a story of reinvention. Trails which served a historical use lost their purpose as human geography changed, becoming lost themselves, until they found a new use thanks to a small, passionate group of mountain bikers. These pioneers sought out the old high ways, looking for clues on the ground, on old maps or by talking to the older generations.
That search for what is on the other side, for that perfect singletrack which nobody has ever ridden before, drove these riders higher and deeper into the mountains. The reality wasn’t always the same as the dream though, and they found that many trails had fallen so far into disrepair that they were either not rideable or were a long way from being fun. That didn’t stop these 2-wheeled explorers though, and they sought out permission to reopen old trails, and armed with pickaxes, spades and chainsaws they transformed old trails, reopening and reshaping them for mountain biking.
