The whole route is hiked on a good path.
Trail head for San Pascual.
Route towards the chapel Ermita de San Pascul.
Turn right at this path junction.
| San Pascual from Orito San Pascual |
| Estimated net time | 1½-2 hours | ||
| Difficulty |
No difficulties. The whole route is hiked on a good path. |
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| Drinking water | No access to running water. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (May 2010). | ||
| Parking | Room for several cars at trail head. | ||
| Start height | 308 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 280 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 4.4 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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Assume your starting point is Alicante. Get onto motorway A31, signed for Madrid, and drive approximately 15 km from the A70/A31 junction west of Alicante city centre. Turn right when you see signs for Orito and road CV-831. Immediately after leaving A31 you get to a STOP-sign when you meet road CV-831, and you should turn right here. Drive another 700 metres and turn right again. Drive another 500 metres, to a round-about. Take the second exit in this round-about, noting that this is the third exit if counting the road that only enters the round-about. Your exit is the more narrow of the two candidates, and requires you to do a little more than 180° of the round-about. Drive 900 metres along this road and then fork left, following signs for "Cueva de San Pascual". Then turn right 340 metres later, and park on the right hand side of the road after another 60 metres.
Walk along the road towards the ridge ahead of you. The chapel up on the ridge is your first target. Note that it is possible to drive up to this chapel from further south on the ridge. The road soon turns into a gravel road, and then turns right onto a path leading up to the chapel. When you get to the chapel stay left (west) of the chapel on a path. Follow this path north-east along the ridge. When you get to a signed path junction turn right. A little later you get to a path fork by an old wooden bench. The left leg of the fork leads downhill and the right leg is blocked a little by some stones. The easiest route is to follow the right leg, which will take you along the ridge and then all the way to the summit, which is marked by a concrete cairn.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
This Wednesday during our Alicante week started off with tennis in the morning, then this short hike, before more tennis and football. The hike was supposed to be done in little time, but thanks to me missing some motorway exits (again) the driving turned into a longish journey, with a total of three misses. Since misses on motorways tends to send you a long way to the next motorway junction time is easily lost ...
The hike itself was very nice, with a nice chapel (Ermita de San Pascual) along
the route, and nice views from the ridge. The only other people I saw were some
people who had driven up to the chapel.
Photos 12.05.2010