The last thing I want to do is mislead anyone especially when it involves personal safety so thank you to MickMac and Kathar1na for extending this conversation.
My goal is to provide good, objective information and I'm sure MickMac and Kathar1na have the same motivations. Pictures can help with objectivity but only up to a certain point. I did not photograph the short steep section because it was unremarkable to me. I did photograph the steep rocky sections past Alto del Perdon and into Zubiri just because they were remarkable to me regarding the potential danger of a fall on those steep, dry but slippery trails due to the “roller” rocks. I think MickMac and Kathar1na could contribute additional value to the conversation if they could share/speculate their opinions on the degree of difficulty or danger navigating this trail in dry conditions. Would it be better to walk on the edge of the highway instead if you arrived at this steep dirt trail in dry or wet conditions?
Everyone has their own opinion based on their own health, age, fitness, experience, fatigue etc…so any one person’s opinion (including mine of course) on any subject regarding the Camino is always very subjective.
Perhaps the biggest variable in this situation is trail condition, wet and slippery or dry. I remember the first part of the descent being quite steep but the footing was good (all 3 of us 60ish walkers had poles and wore hiking boots with aggressive soles) and the trail was absent of the (biggest threats to me) angular embedded rocks and the loose round “roller” rocks that I was familiar with on my way down from Alto del Perdon. I was very alert and cautious on those rocky sections of El Pedon and would not have been able to “skip” down the toughest sections without falling and injuring myself. So if Kathar1na thought the descents of Alto del Perdon and Zubiri and Cruz de Ferro were easy compared to this short steep section, then one should pay attention to her observations since her experience is more recent than mine and she has calibrated the difficulty by comparing it to other sections we all know and have experienced. The current trail conditions due to wetness and mud and perhaps major erosion are unfamiliar to me. My experience and memories were exactly the opposite of hers on all trail sections just mentioned...keeping in mind this Leon dirt trail was dry when I did it and muddy when she did it so conflicting opinions regarding difficulty should be expected.
I have navigated short but VERY steep and slippery muddy sections and short but steep icy and slippery sections of glaciers that no one could walk down without special equipment. Instead I had to glissade, (squat down and slide on my feet) for as long as I could balance that way but eventually I always ended up on my butt for the last part of the ride. In the mud it really was “fun but messy” and free of injuries when rocks and sticks in the mud were not present. With this technique, it is not possible to fall down because you are down when you start. If there are no rocks, trees, boulders or other hikers to slide into, there is really very little to no chance of injury during a short distance glissade.
For future Camino hikers perhaps the take away from this thread is to give some special consideration to how YOU will handle this section if you arrive there on a rainy day. If you get to the precipice and decide it is too risky, you then need to evaluate the risk of going back to the footbridge and walking the shoulder on the highway for .75 miles or 1.25 km. Personally I think both alternatives are pretty safe based on what I have seen “driving on my computer” the highway route in Google Earth and having done the dirt trail albeit in ideal conditions. But I lean toward the option where I personally have the most control of the situation and the option where I have the least likelihood of major injury if something goes wrong. For me, I’ll take my risks on the dirt or mud trail any day (unless the trail I walked in June 2018 is significantly different now). If this talk is scaring anyone or you are losing sleep thinking about how you will handle it, just get a cab from the footbridge into Leon if it’s a wet rainy day.
I modified one of the screen shots from my earlier post to show the route (blue dashes – 20 minute walk downhill max) walking on the right (with traffic) shoulder of the highway. There are also a few screen shots from Google Earth (because pictures are worth a 1000 words) showing the width of the shoulder on the road at the start, in the middle and near the exit. Walk past the first exit which is a looping circular affair but take the second opportunity to exit on the straight off ramp and you intersect the Camino detour route.
** seriously - Per Kathar1na in a new post below, the whole reason for the Camino detour is major road construction going on in this area. The current construction could eliminate the possibility of walking on the shoulder of the road N-601. The first 2 on-road view images below from Google earth are dated 2012 and the last one 2017 so things might look a lot different now. Do your own research and get up to date info on this area when making your plans.
humorously - if that steep dirt path continues to degrade there may be a business opportunity awaiting. Set up a few fixed ropes with harnesses and belay Pilgrims down the cliff...at 1 Euro a pop. During the busy season you might be making a thousand euro per day. For 5 euro plus a little infrastructure (attaching a cable to one of those antennae towers) take the zip line to the bottom of the hill.