Montseny traverse (27.08.2016)

Great traverse along the Montseny massif that I used to do when I was living in Barcelona. Back then I didn't have a car, so I had to be creative when going alone for trips. This is one of the special trips in which having a car wouldn't make a difference: it works extremely well just with the trains. For this trip I used to take the train to one side of the Montseny massiv, then traverse the massiv, and return by train from the other side. Both trail stations were quite close to the start and end point respectively and the train in both lines are quite frequent.

For this trip, I used to take the train early in the morning from Barcelona to the train station "Sant Marti de Centelles" (line R3). The route follows the well-marked trail GR 5: marked red-white. The traverse goes through the more popular tops in the area. First, it goes up "el Tagamanent", which has a small castle at the top and people usually go there since there is a car road that goes almost to the top. Next, it traverses a long flat section called "Pla de la Calma" (which translates to something like "tranquil plateau") to reach Collformic, another very popular point to start hikes since there is a road, a parking and a small bar. From there, the route goes up to the second top of the day: Matagalls (literary roaster-killer) a super classical Catalonian top. From there it descends to Sant Marçal, where there is a nice restaurant. Next, it follows a nice track for some flat kilometers to then switch to a steep uphill on a nice trail to the third top: Les Agudes, which is connected closely to the last top: Turo de l'Home, being the highest in the region. To finish the traverse there is some fast ~25 kilometers with 1700m of descent. The last 10 kilometers are the most boring part of the trip and that's why I preferred doing it from Aiguafreda to Sant Celoni and not the other way around. It is a bit harder to follow the GR 5 marks, but it is easy to get to the destination even if following a different route. Once I got to Sant Celoni I used to have a big "bocata de tortilla de patatas" (Spanish-omelette sandwitch) with a beer. After that, I would take the train back to Barcelona (line R1 this time).