I didn’t get a great sleep last night because the wind kept flapping our tent during the night. Also, there was lightning somewhere far off again, where we could see the flashes in the sky but never hear the thunder. So it was crucial I kept my eyes covered. We got an early start and did some great work hiking in the morning. We saw our first glacier. I think it was actually the second one our guidebook mentioned but perhaps the first one is already gone. I could see this one being gone in another 10 years. After the glacier we would use the GR-10 trail, the trail that runs in the Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean entirely on the French side of the border, all the way to the town of Gavernie. This trail is much better maintained than our typical trail, so we made much quicker work when we transitioned. I actually felt like I was good at hiking again. ...

Well, we tried something new today. We went peak bagging. For some reason our guidebook seems to suggest or offer up certain peak bagging opportunities. Anyway, we decided to try one of them by climbing Grande Fache from our Rifugio campsite. Since this would be an out and back day, we left most of our stuff behind in Zoë’s backpack inside the Rifugio. I think we were somewhat determined to beat the time estimate of 6.5 hours for this out and back journey. We climbed up to a pass in a valley we hadn’t seen before. We thought this peak would afford us views of the valley we missed by taking the route we chose for the last 2 days. Apparently the route we took was not common amongst HRP hikers. Most folks went through this other valley, past Grand Fache. ...

We slept next to a river, with no animals or other people nearby. In theory, it had all the ingredients for a perfect night’s sleep. Unfortunately, I kept waking up, concerned a fox was going to visit us in the night and steal something from me. On paper, today’s hike was one climb up and down. It was supposed to take us 5 hours to climb up and another 3 to get down. I think it took us about 3.5 to go up. On the other side of Col de Cambalés, we had a large snow field to navigate. Thankfully it was at a pretty low angle, so sliding and slipping across the snow ended up being much faster than hopping across rocks. Our descent took us by lakes, one of which we selected for our lunch spot. It was quite windy at lunch and we shared our lake with about 5 sheep. I had my customary dip in the lake and then we read books for another hour in the grass. ...

Wow, what a hard day. We woke up but entertained what I like to call forbidden sleep, which is the best sleep of the night. It’s the sleep you get after your alarm goes off, you’re too tired, so you decide to sleep a bit more even though it is forbidden by your original plan when you set that alarm. In our case, waking up later just means more hours hiking in the hotter part of the day, but starting feeling rested is also important. ...

Our campsite halfway up a ski slope ended out working pretty well for us. Unfortunately for Simon, his food bag was burgled in the night by a fox. It stole his loaf of bread and got into his oats. I didn’t really know what I was protecting my food from by sleeping with it inside the tent inside a Nylofume pack liner, but I guess now I do. I always assume there are at least mice everywhere. ...

Last night we chatted with several Australian women, two of whom are hiking the Hexatrek which is a 3,000km hike across France. We woke up early in order to make it into town at an early hour, to maximize our time needed for resupply. We were some of the first people out of camp at 6:30, but most people were awake. We climbed past shepherds getting their flocks organized for the day. Last night Simon told us some interesting information about shepherds as he has a friend working as one in Switzerland. There are two kinds of dogs: a white sheepdog who lives amongst the flock and protects the flock. Then there is a shepherd’s dog, which is a smaller dog like a border collie, that runs in specific directions based on whistle commands from the shepherd. Apparently the shepherds can very accurately steer the border collie with different whistle sounds and patterns. Finally, the shepherd is often hired for the summer by the sheep owner and in Switzerland, the shepherd gets one helicopter drop of supplies at the start of summer and they have to make do with that. They may be able to supplement with town foods but they are typically living full time in the mountains for the season. ...

We slept in today. It was gloriously quiet this morning, despite the campground being quite crowded. Who knew that sleeping away from animals with cowbells would be so peaceful? We weren’t even sure we were going to leave today. We were so tired yesterday, but sleeping in really helped us both. Clemens was staying another day so there was yet another reason to stay. Ultimately we decided we felt good enough to at least try for a half day. ...

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. ...

Such a hard day. We knew it was going to be long and possibly quite dry, but living it is a whole, different experience. We camped in a pasture, but what isn’t a pasture here? Everything seems to be in use by sheep, cows, and horses. We managed to lay our ground sheet in a patch mostly devoid of poop, but there was poop everywhere. We expected to have to walk 7 hours until we got to water, so I filled up everything I had, 4 liters, from a container probably meant for pasture animals. Zoë took two. ...

We met a girl from Morocco before we left camp. She showed up after hiking for at least an hour. It turns out, that was probably a good idea. By the time we left at 8:30, it was already hot. I started the day by wetting my shirt to get the benefits of evaporative cooling. We walked along our stream for a bit and then popped back up to the road. This reminds me, that even though we were close to a paved road, we were at a recommended campsite according to the guidebook. So who knows about the proximity to a road rule for camping. ...