Route description
Difficulty: medium.
Length: 12 km (round trip).
Elevation gain: 460 metres.
A lovely route that starts from the upper part of Torre de Arcas. We set off along the path that runs between an old spring and a concrete-block building. We soon reach the hermitage of San Bernardo, which we leave on our right. On the left, in about 1,000 m we reach the N-232 road (at its km 89.5), which we cross carefully to enter wooded terrain.
The vegetation becomes increasingly abundant, and changes with altitude. In this area holm oaks abound, soon giving way to pine forest. The ascent, always along a track, gradually gets steeper. When Torre de Arcas is some 4 km away, a PR trail marker indicates the path that leads to Monroyo, on the left, and the one that continues towards the Sierra de la Cogulla and the Fuente de la Mançana, on the right.
On the third stretch of the route, the presence of the black pine tells us we are passing the 1,000 m mark. We keep climbing, and soon find the turn-off that, to the left, leads to the Fuente de la Mançana. The spring, located next to a small shed, is presided over by a large walnut tree and by the biggest pine in the municipality of Monroyo, with a circumference of 2.55 m, called precisely «lo pi de la font de la Mançana».
From the spring we return to the main track to tackle the final climb, which will put our fitness to the test. At the summit of the Sierra de la Cogulla, the bird's-eye view from the Punta de la Camiseta undoubtedly makes up for all the effort. We will take in beautiful panoramas of the regions of Matarraña (Teruel) and Els Ports (Castellón), on whose border the emblematic peak stands.
