Park next to this old building.
Turn left onto concrete path almost immediately after start of
hike.
| Montgo from Jesus Pobre Montgo |
| Estimated net time | 4-5 hours |
| Difficulty | No difficulties. |
| Drinking water | No access to drinking water. |
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (May 2009). |
| Parking | Room for several cars at trail head. |
| Start height | 142 metres |
| Vertical metres | 705 metres for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 11.7 km |
| GPS-file | X |
| Map |
|
| Route photo |
Park next to this old building.
Turn left onto concrete path almost immediately after start of
hike.
|
From Alicante take motorway A-70 north towards Valencia. Exit at junction 62, signed for "Ondara" and "Denia". Start measuring from where you exit from the motorway. Pay motorway fee and drive straight ahead in the direction of Denia. After 6.3 km you get to a round-about, and turn right. 300 metres later you turn right. When you get to a fork 800 metres later you keep left, and turn left 400 metres later, following signs for "Xabia" and "Jesus Pobre". After 4.3 km you will see a small road going off to the left, and you drive up this road for 400 metres to an old concrete building. Park here.
Start walking by continuing up the road and then turn left onto a road made of concrete and slate. This road, and later path, will take you to the west end of the Montgo ridge, from where it does a 180° right turn and continues east and south-east to the summit. In general you should follow signs for "Cim" (meaning "summit"). However, there are also two other junctions you need to be aware of. The first is signed by yellow paint on rock, and here you should turn right. In the second junction you also turn right, but this time there is red paint on the rock. At this junction you will see the name "Montgo" painted on the rock. Note that the cross you see early on when on the ridge is not the summit; the summit is further south-east.
The descent is easiest done by following the ascent route.
The decision to visit Montgo this Friday, the second last day of our Costa Blanca holiday, was made late the night before. I'm not sure what triggered the decision, but probably it was the fact that we had been in the same area on the Thursday, and the fact that Montgo is a very prominent mountain given its moderate height.
I set off from Gran Vista at 06:35, and by 08:10 I was ready to start my hike. The drive to trail head had been relatively straight on target, with a small de-tour past the last exit. But when I started my hike I wasn't confident at all that this was the correct trail head, and not before the path turned east at the west end of the ridge did I feel comfortable that this route would take me to the summit.
The whole week had been pretty bad in terms of haze, but today it was also low clouds and partly foggy, making the views from the summit very limited. I would think that on a clear day the views from Montgo are likely to be first class, both towards the mountains inland and the fine Mediterranean coast.
After the hike I started the drive back to Alicante, but for some reason (well, the obvious reason was lack of concentration ...) I managed to miss an exit, and had to navigate myself back and forth through Denia before finding my way back to the motorway ...