We left about a half hour behind Clemens today at 6:30. I think we’re settling back in to our earlier starts. We knew we had about 4 hours and a decent amount of climbing until we got to an area with a stream. We were supposedly entering the “high Pyrenees” but I was skeptical. I will say, as much as I hate the current guidebooks for this route, their time estimates are very helpful.
The climb was slow going and arduous at first. The path was very narrow and rocky. It made the footing extra tricky. Thankfully we were in the shade and in some sort of valley so the air was cool. It wasn’t too steep, and overall I welcomed the change from the prior days’ heat. Suddenly we emerged from a forest into a valley of limestone and pine trees. I didn’t really know what was coming, but I was very pleasantly surprised.
Spurred on by exciting new scenery and cooler temperatures, we made our way up for close to another 2 hours, before finally topping out our climb for the day. We had seen our first real wildlife on our way up: some type of deer-looking things and marmots. I swear one of the deer hissed at me. I didn’t know they could do that. Also, there was a notable lack of animal poop! There were tons of wildflowers of all variety of colors sprouting around us. Things were really looking up.
From the top we had a steep descent and there was supposed to be a river somewhere, not far, below us. I couldn’t see it yet, so we continued on, a little disappointed but still hopeful. At one point we found ourselves off our planned trajectory, which seemed odd but we decided to continue down the worn path and meet up with our planned track later. As we got closer to the nearest valley, I heard the sound of running water. I ran the last 50 meters or so until I reached it. I was so excited. It wasn’t as big as I had hoped. I wouldn’t be swimming. But it looked pristine! We were in a grassy valley beneath towering limestone cliffs, with not a single cow pie or clanging bell to be found. I took off my shoes and socks and immediately washed my legs in the cold water. Zoë arrived and noticed Clemens sitting in the shade of a tree just up the river. We joined him in the shade and laid down in the grass.
I cannot understate how glorious this spot was. The temperature was finally perfect. We stayed in the shade for over two hours. Clemens left to go to town. The Canadians arrived just as we were leaving. As much as I wanted to stay there all day, I’m glad we decided to walk the 3 hours down into town.
As we were descending to the town of Lescun, the clouds rolled in and the humidity skyrocketed. We went from being quite comfortable to uncomfortably hot in less than a minute. I hurried down the descent, trying to get down the steep, rocky portion before the rain started. The further we got, the signs of impending thunderstorms continued to mount. Thunder could be heard in the distance. Then small sprinkles started. We saw a flash of lightning and hoped we could make it to town before it really started raining.
Just as the rain reached the threshold where we needed to don rain gear, a sheepdog appeared in the road in front of us. What the hell. His sheep were behind a fence. We put on our ponchos as the dog looked confusedly at us. We then skirted the dog by going through a grass field and hopping down a small cliff.
We reached town and saw Clemens sitting in the shelter of an outdoor, patio umbrella. We joined him and then made a brief stop in the shop to get more food. Disappointed by what we found, we bought 2 days worth of food to get us to the next town, hoping it would be better there. They were restocking mostly bare shelves as we were shopping so we frequently grabbed items from the crates, before they even hit the shelves.
Back outside, we waited out the storm with Clemens under the umbrella. When it stopped, we were joined by Simon, another HRP hiker from Germany. We chatted as we walked to the campground. It turns out Simon had also hiked SOBO on the PCT last year and he started just 3 weeks after us.
At the campground, we were able to make use of showers, a laundry machine, and a communal kitchen. We knew we’d have kitchen access so we bought some bacon lardons to add to our pasta along with some cherry tomatoes. The complimentary WiFi I couldn’t get to work.
We chatted for several hours, through dinner. Simon bought people drinks, but since Zoe and I declined, that meant one for Clemens and two for him.
My sleeping bag ripped this morning, but I patched it with duct tape. The sleeping bag ripped because our tent zippers are failing and I have yet to do the required field surgery to fix them. My sleeping pad baffles are coming undone and I can’t seem to find the same replacement in Europe. And because I was too casual about the weather, my sleeping bag ended up wet, so it was quite cold when I got into bed. That being said, today’s meadow was all time.