Route 21
Route published by Pedro Pablo Uriarte ”24 circular walking routes around Gorliz”
*Map of the route: Pending*
DETAILS OF THE ROUTE:
Total time: 2 hours.
Distance: 7,7 km
Cumulative elevation gain: 226m
Difficulty: Moderate
In this case we are going to make a relatively short route of less than eight kilometers (exactly 7.7 km) and few climbs (226 m of positive slope), which includes three interesting and original sections, two of them by very little known, rugged and almost untraveled trails, and the third, fully urbanized and with numerous single-family homes. This last area, called Guzurmendi, is not too busy for gorliztarras who do not live there, as it is quite far away, mainly because the two parts of the street or road Ametzaga bidea have not been connected in the recent urbanization of the area of Guzurmendi. We will discuss this later.
Let’s start. As usual, we are located in Ibarreta plaza. From there we start the march and we will return there about two hours later (walking calmly) to close the circle. From Ibarreta plaza we access Itsasbide kalea, the main street of the town that gently ascends to the parish of the Immaculate Conception. Once we have passed it, we reach the Armintza traffic circle in a few hundred meters.
Just in front, if we go up the right sidewalk, next to the traffic circle where the BI-3151 road to Armintza starts, we see a small street squeezed between the walls of two houses that starts on a slope with stairs on the right. We enter Zapakondi bidea, and along this street, which later becomes a track and then a small path, going straight ahead, we will reach the Orabille-Andraka road at the crossroads of Berreaga. This is the interesting first section of the route that as we say is very little traveled, as the vegetation on the sides are closing it, as unfortunately is happening with many roads and trails for lack of maintenance.
First we go along an uphill street between chalets passing before the concrete structure of another villa that has long been left in skeleton. We overcome it and the small street Zapakondi bidea becomes a wide road with broken stone and cement paths prepared to circulate the off-road vehicles that access here to some area of pastures or orchards located above. The track, or rather wide road, is escorted by lush vegetation on both sides.
Soon, the wide path forks into three: a track to the left that goes down a little; another also to the left that after a few dozen meters ends at a metal fence of a farm that is seen a little further on; and a path with oak leaves that continues straight ahead and gets under the oaks and that is where we have to take. That is to say, we choose the path, in this case path, which seems less.
The path is increasingly closed by the brambles and bushes on the sides, but it is quite well sensed and we continue forward without worrying about the annoying brambles. We will see that from the path itself, a little further on, there are a couple of entrances to neighboring pastures. We ignore them and continue on our path. We cross our way through two small gates to prevent cattle from passing through, which we will leave as they were, that is, closed.
After a while the path widens before reaching the side fence of a farmhouse. The dogs will hear us and bark a little. We continue ahead and we arrive at a clear track that leaves us immediately on the road Orabille-Andraka very close to the detour in Berreaga towards Urizar. We are in the border with the municipality of Lemoiz and we have only walked two short kilometers.
As soon as we reach the road we turn right and walk along it for a while. First we will pass before the dependencies of the restaurant and rural house Larrakoetxea and we surpass the metallic fence of its wide and wooded garden. We continue forward until we almost reach the top of the change of level, to the left of which is the entrance to the equestrian center and Goikomendi Equestrian Club. About two hundred meters before we reach a eucalyptus grove and almost there we see a path on our right flanked by two small posts that goes down under the trees. We take this path. We have taken this same path on other routes, for example on route 8.
The road is wide and well trodden by bicycles, motorcycles and hikers, judging by the tracks we see in the muddiest areas. The atmosphere smells of eucalyptus and after a couple of wide curves inside the eucalyptus grove we reach a junction that we already know from other routes. Arriving at the junction we refrain from going forward and down towards Saratxaga, as in route 8, so we take the track on the left that goes slightly downhill towards the road to Mungia BI-2120, which we reach in a few minutes. Previously we will see how on our right, on the track that we take, there is an entrance road to a farm with several dogs barking as we pass. It is curious and very frequent that owners of farms or pastures far from the village mount more or less large huts of tools in which they leave enclosed dogs of surveillance or hunting, so much inside the shed or loose by the fields. Sometimes passing alone in these areas is quite intimidating.
Be careful when crossing the road, which is a very busy road. We have to cross just in front of where we arrived to access the beginning of the road BI-4114 called Boteola bidea, which starts right there. And here, before starting to walk along this small road downhill, we look carefully on the right side, among the vegetation, to discover a path hidden among the vegetation that reaches right there. We are in the second interesting and wild stretch very little traveled that we have commented at the beginning of the route.
At this point I have to say that this section that we start now, but walked backwards, is a substitute for the dangerous section that by the road of Mungia BI-2120 in the route 18: “Approximate circuit by the boundaries of the municipality of Gorliz” goes up from the traffic circle of Munguia to take the deviation by Boteola bidea.
Well, we enter the path between the undergrowth that covers it almost completely, located, I repeat, just at the entrance of Boteola bidea to our right. Soon after entering it, the path looks better. We have now a little while of ascent, although it is not too long, flanked by lush vegetation that hinders us a little in the ascent. The terrain is clayey and quite trodden by the tires of mountain bikes. Beware of slipping if we do it upside down and it has rained a little.
In a while we reach a clearer area but we do not deviate from the path. Soon we are in an even clearer area, a kind of clearing in the sparse eucalyptus forest. The road continues to our right as we descend. The general road is felt by the noise of nearby traffic. Now the road is no longer lost. It is a more visible path, sometimes a little muddy, always among lush vegetation, little or no traffic, yes. In a while we arrive at two widenings of the road, one before and another after, closed with metallic doors to our left that give access to some txabolas and some zones of pastures with barking guard dogs (that surely will be their task). We are already on a clear track, or at least a wider road with tracks for cars, which in a gentle descent soon reaches the large traffic circle on the road to Mungia.
We cross the traffic circle to the other side, very carefully due to the heavy traffic, to access in a while the Guzurmendi neighborhood belonging to the municipality of Gorliz. To do this we get into Arenebarri bidea until we reach the height of the old fellate and there turn right and then again to the right by Mastieta bidea that soon becomes Guzurmendi bidea. We go uphill until the highest part, where there are some antennas and we start to descend little by little. The road, perfectly urbanized, leaves on the right a small wooded park with benches. We get into a small street that is still Guzurmendi bidea, and from now on we will follow this street that gives a wide curve to end in Areatza kalea.
But at this point I want to make a complaint if I may be allowed the license. I do not understand how after the recent urbanization of the whole area of Guzurmendi mountain, which must have cost a lot of money, it is not possible to access, not even walking, to the lower part of Ametzaga bidea (street or dead end road that from the main road BI-3154 and starting in front of the old slaughterhouse, reaches here, up to a couple of farmhouses and there it dies, a few meters from the other part of Ametzaga bidea). That is, having the possibility of communicating through here the area of Guzurmendi with the core of Gorliz in a very simple way by joining the two parts of Ametzaga bidea (it is a few meters), you have to go all the way back down to Areatza kalea and then to the PIE. You can’t even walk past it, at least that’s what some neighbors told me.
Arrived at Areatza kalea we turn right to reach the PIE and, from the traffic circle of the beach, we go up a few meters by Itsasbide to immediately, in front of the parking lot and next to a post of the OTA starts a path to our left that goes towards the pines in the background. For a change we take that way. Soon we arrive at the green fence that surrounds the enclosure of what many years ago was the home of the medical director of the old Maritime Sanatorium of Gorliz. Walking next to the fence and through sandy ground we reach a cement electric pole. We turn right and following the path we reach the second traffic circle of Itsasbide as we go up. From here to Iberreta square where we left about two hours ago there are only a couple of hundred meters.
We have closed this simple and short route that with a lot of tranquility we have done in two hours, with some very interesting parts, different, and above all very little known. We encourage you to follow it.
