Remembering the route of the old railroad

Ideal for fam­i­lies on bikes or on foot, the Iron and Coal Route (Ruta del Ferro i del Carbó) pays homage to the in­dus­trial past of Baix Ripollès by fol­low­ing the route of the train that once trans­ported coal from the Ogassa mines to Ripoll, pass­ing by Sant Joan de les Abadesses. That makes it a good op­tion for dis­cov­er­ing more about the his­tory of Ripollès, while at the same time en­joy­ing a flat and fairly easy path that is ac­com­pa­nied through­out by the head­wa­ters of the River Ter. The route also goes through a tun­nel and crosses three bridges, and is sur­rounded by green mead­ows, forests, farm­houses and cot­tages.

The route cov­ers about 12 kilo­me­tres of paved path­way with a low gra­di­ent that makes it suit­able for just about any­one. It leaves Ripoll from the Can Guetes car park where the CAT (Tourist Re­cep­tion Cen­tre) and the Green­way In­ter­pre­ta­tion Cen­ter are lo­cated, and where bi­cy­cles can be rented. The path is con­tin­u­ous with good sign­post­ing as well as warn­ings when it in­ter­sects with a road or when the sur­face be­comes cob­bled. Halfway along, a good place to make a stop is the Pantà de Cal Gat, one of the more di­verse wet areas in Ripollès. You will even­tu­ally reach the Parc de l’Estació, in Sant Joan de les Abadesses, a large open space with a play­ground, foot­ball field, pic­nic ta­bles and the Al­berg Ruta del Ferro hos­tel (which also has bi­cy­cles for hire, among pro­vid­ing other ser­vices, in case you would pre­fer to do the route in re­verse). The hos­tel is also the start­ing point for many other ex­cur­sions, such as those lead­ing to the Gorg de Malat­soca (10 min­utes on foot) or the Taga peak (2,040 m).

If you want to keep going, you can fol­low the path to Ogassa. It is about an­other four kilo­me­tres, al­though it should be noted that this sec­tion is a lit­tle steeper than the oth­ers. The ef­fort is well re­warded, with fine views of the green wooded land­scape of the local area, where the peaks known as the Balcó del Ripollès are also lo­cated. It also of­fers vis­i­tors the chance to visit some of the mines that once helped sup­ply the in­dus­trial de­vel­op­ment of Cat­alo­nia from the end of the 18th to the first half of the 20th cen­turies (con­sult the sched­ules for the dif­fer­ent eras cov­ered on the web­site: web­spobles2.ddgi.​cat/​ogassa).

Al­ter­na­tively, you could take the op­por­tu­nity to go and visit the cen­tre of Sant Joan de les Abadesses, the town’s monastery and the in­ter­pre­ta­tion cen­tre de­voted to the Myth of Count Arnau, or just take a walk through the old town and ad­mire the me­dieval bridge. Vis­its to Ripoll’s Ro­manesque monastery of Santa Maria with its spec­tac­u­lar gate­way and the Ethno­graphic Mu­seum are also rec­om­mended. The lat­ter shows the tra­di­tional way of life of the farm­ers and ranch­ers of the past (con­sult the sched­ules of all sites men­tioned).