Riding in Spain: Eremua Trail center in Navarra

Eremua is only about 20 minutes from Pamplona by car, in the Esteribar Valley area, with well marked and signposted multi-level routes among beech groves and impressive forests. Like many other BTT centers in Spain, it started with the desire of few local riders to make their region known and make the best use of its historical-cultural wealth and the spectacular nature that surrounds them. By restoring old trails that link mountain villages, charcoal burners and hunting areas, the local trail builder association has managed to develop an impressive network of trails for mountain bikers, hikers and runners.


Eremua mountain biking trails




Being the gateway to the Navarrese Pyrenees, it may not have impressive elevations, but that is precisely why these mountains are perfect for having affordable trails at all levels. The information office, reception and reception center of Eremua is located in the town of Zubiri with cleaning boxes for bikes and changing rooms with showers available for € 2. There are several hostels and rural houses in the surroundings where to stay. In particular, I was at the Gau Txori hostel in Zubiri itself, very quiet and with a restaurant that is always lively, as it is the usual place to spend the night for pilgrims who make the Camino de Santiago. In Eugi I ate a couple of times on a cozy restaurant Quinto Real and at the Etxeberri hostel. In all the places the local gastronomy will not disappoint you with good quality and service.




The cultural and historical wealth of the region also plays an important role for Eremua and they collaborate to mark hiking routes that visit sites such as the old Eugi Arms Factory from the 19th century. In Santiago there is a wealth of important historical trails and roads that the Eremua association is working on to recover, signpost and add them to the network they already have.



Most of the routes have Eugi as trail head, a small village 5min by car from Zubiri. On both sides of the Eugi reservoir there are trails that will make you think twice before going back home. The best known trails are perhaps King Goitean (or King Cobra), Narfar Whistler and a spectacular climbing trail, Sugea, which means snake in Spanish. Is usually used to link to most of the descents in the Burdindogi forest area. All the trails can be found in Trailforks of course, a tool that the local association also keeps up to date for possible incidents and maintenance tasks on the trails.




In the 4 days I was able to do a combination of several of the routes they have available on their website. I was also lucky to have several locals as guides on several of the outings (thanks Beñat and Eneko!) They are also part of the team of volunteers who are in charge of keeping the trails clean and opening new ones. A large part of the trails are perfect flowy trails, that is, they are not extremely technical trails or with a large obstacles. There are also these types of trails for the adrenaline seekers, but they are not among the official trail center and you will have to be careful on them. Access roads are shared with hikers, be careful and respect so that they respect us.The well-known Nafarroa Xtrem trail running race is held in this area so runners will feel at home on the trails in the area.






As recommendation I would advice to do King Cobra and Nafar Whistler trails, you can do them both in the same route, with a total difference of about 1200m in about 24km. It doesn't seem like much but I guarantee that you will be more than satisfied and wanting to try the local gastronomy in the various places in Eugi and Zubiri that are also all part of the local network of establishments that collaborate with Eremua. To promote local consumption and visibility to visitors, cyclist and walkers in the reception center in Zubiri you can buy a voucher of € 5 or € 10 that you can use when you consume less than € 40 or more than € 40 respectively.







You can collaborate with Eremua by donating through Paypal on their profile on Trailforks. Every euro they receive I guarantee will be well invested in improving trails so that each visitor can enjoy it to the fullest.


You can follow Eremua Trail center on their social media profiles.
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Trailforks regions mentioned: Eremua