MTB route through the BASQUE Mountains and the PYRENEES of Navarra

What is BASOAK MAGIC LINE?

To begin with, and to get our bearings, we must place ourselves in the PYRENEES, the mountain range located between Spain and France and which separates the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe.
The westernmost geography of the PYRENEES and the foothills where they become either the Basque Mountains or the Atlantic Ocean are the territory in which a series of modern singletracks and old paths "twist" together, giving rise to our BASOAK MAGIC LINE

Emerging from the collision between the Iberian and European tectonic plates, the relative geological youth of the PYRENEES chain is altered near the Atlantic Ocean by a sequence of mountains whose age corresponds to a much earlier geological time. This characteristic gives rise to a hilly geography - simply more eroded by the elements - and currently covered by an almost uninterrupted sequence of forest and meadow, which generates what we could summarise as an ideal "ecosystem" for mountain biking.

The route, which in its most complete and demanding version can reach 700 kilometres, follows an arc from west to east that begins in the low areas of the Cuenca de Pamplona or Tierra Estella and ends in the Roncal Valley already fully in the PYRENEES.
In between, a long series of mountain ranges, valleys and regions will have been left behind. Their toponymic sound will help to leave an impression in the memory despite the difficulty of the Basque language in which almost all of them are named; Urbasa, Aralar, Basaburua, Baztan, Quinto Real, Roncesvalles, Selva de Irati, Roncal... just to name a few...

The PIRINEOS PUNTO BIKE proposal to pedal the route is broadly speaking, a Self Guided Pack which includes the Half Board Accommodations, the Tracks of the route, Documentation with the different alternatives of route for each stage, a URL with info about Services on the route, and Luggage Transport from hotel to hotel.

Speaking about bike style and in order to understand "where the shots go" in the BASOAK MTB UNIVERSE, we can say that overall these are stages with a considerable level of physical demand and moderate technical demands. We could summarise this by saying that we are not looking for enduro but we are pursuing "singletrack", the more "flow" the better. In some of the stages this is achieved better and in others worse.


Pretty much summarized, this is what it is. If you decide to come... Welcome to
BASOAK MAGIC LINE
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We know that the LINES on the map above are confusing. It is necessary to know that BASOAK MAGIC LINE is not a single line, in fact part of its MAGIC lies in the possibilities we have designed to adapt it to different situations; such as different sporting levels of the participants or
the most common of all; the impossibility of booking a hotel at any of the points on the route, a fact that we will have to solve by modifying the itinerary since the hotels at each point are very scarce.
Anyway, take into account that there is no itinerary that we can say is better than another. It is really difficult for us to decide which line to follow since whenever you have to choose, you lose something.

So, decide the number of stages, let us know if you have any specific preferences for stage end points so we can try to include them, choose the starting point, which can be either Pamplona as ​​Irurtzun, Estella or Zudaire, and the rest will appear as if by MAGIC.

The dotted circles on the map above are circular stages that sometimes allow some of the members of the group to take a day of break while others continue the activity. If you think they might be useful for you, please let us know and we will try to include some of these circular stages in the final route track.
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The antiquity of the Navarrese Pyrenees with respect to the rest of the mountain range is the cause of those soft and hilly forms -simply more eroded by the elements- that give way to the "potential" of BASOAK MAGIC LINE