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In February of 2010, I traveled to Spain to participate in a dissertation exam at the University of Alcalá.
While there, one of the faculty colleagues invited me to a weekend trekking of the Sierra Subbética, a mountain range in South Andalucía.
The participants were a group of about forty people from Madrid, including some middle aged women, most of them well seasoned in the sport.
The trip was supposed to take three hours and cover about 16 km of mountainous terrain.
Well into the trekking experience, our leader realized that he did not know the terrain well enough.
So he decided to scout ahead of the pack, leaving his second-in-command in charge.
After waiting for about an hour, the group realized that something had gone wrong.
To make matters worse, it was the middle of the winter,
it was raining heavily, and the clayey soil was soggy, so some of us were suffering.
Some in the group wanted to advance; others feared getting lost, so advised staying put. No decision had been made,
and time was running out. Soon darkness would fall and it would be next to
impossible for us to find our way out of that mountain.
Given the circumstances, despair was beginning to set in, when all of a sudden, we had a stroke of luck! Another party,
headed by an experienced guide, was trekking on the same route, so we joined
them. About a mile later, we found our leader, who was waiting for us at a point, wondering where we were.
Our party arrived at Zuheros, Andalucía, three hours later than originally expected.
So, the moral of the story is: Either know the route well, or trek during the summer.
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