What to do · Leitariegos and the Laciana Valley
The Birch Wood and Devesa of Caboalles
Information
- Price
- Free
- Duration
- 2 h
- Season
- Best in October and November
- Who it's for
- Families and walkers
The devesa (wooded pasture) of Caboalles is the best-known forest in Laciana, according to Villablino town council: yews, hollies, oaks and birches, with wild boar, foxes and roe deer. In autumn the birch wood turns yellow and ochre, and the walk, with no big climbs, suits families. It is one of the best plans in the valley when there is no snow on the pass.
The forest
The Laciana valley is a Biosphere Reserve and has more than 3,500 hectares of forest, which Turismo de Castilla y León describes as one of the best-preserved mixed forests in the Cantabrian Mountains. There are oaks, beeches, ash trees, hazels, willows, birches, hollies and yews. Above the forest are the bilberries, the high-mountain pastures and the brañas, the cattle's summer pastures.
The birch is the tree that gives colour to this walk. According to the article the La Bolera rural hotel devotes to it, centuries-old birches mix with oaks and rowans, and along the way you hear the river. In the hills live chamois, roe deer and birds of prey; with luck you will see their tracks.
The route
The Junta lists the Caboalles mixed forest route in the Biosphere Reserve: linear, 9.4 km, about two and a half hours on foot or an hour and three quarters by bike. You do not need to do all of it: you can walk a stretch and come back the same way. For the starting point and the state of the path, ask at the Villablino tourist office, on Plaza Sierra Pambley.
When to go and what to take
The best time is autumn, especially October and early November, when the forest turns golden. Wear mountain footwear, because fallen leaves and damp make it slippery, and layers: it is cold in the morning and mild at midday. It is capercaillie country, a protected and very scarce species: do not leave the paths, do not take a dog off the lead and do not make noise.
How to combine it
Caboalles de Arriba is also where the Laciana Greenway, the old mining railway from Villablino, ends, and where the Capercaillie Centre is, which explains the forest and its fauna; go with a telephone booking. For eating or sleeping in the valley, the La Bolera rural hotel, in Robles de Laciana, has a restaurant and hires bikes, and La Campanona, in Villager, is beside the Greenway.
As a family
