This is how I woke up…
The first kilometers were a beautiful stroll through the pine forest in the morning.
I was wondering about the good trails during the last days already. Sometimes I had the feeling I was back on the PCT again. I knew it – I was right! No clue where I took a wrong turn but I ended up close to L.A. today… 🤣
A quick stop in one of the most stylish supermarkets on the trail or ever. I am pretty sure they had a consultant from the Ministeri de Medi Ambiente over 😉. Did my food shopping again and had breakfast: 1 liter of whole milk, a green bell pepper, a croissant, half a baguette, a peach, a banana, a kiwi, a Coke and a Gatorade. Batteries reloaded!
This was also necessary for today. 1.300m straight climb out of Eyne to the Col d’Eyne and then the Pic de Noufonts (2861m).
And what follows now is best described with pictures. Today was a long, long walk just on the frontier ridge between France and Spain on the agenda. I just followed the border over the peaks and saddles for hours. A beautiful hike again with stunning views:
It was also nice to always lose only a couple of hundred meters and to gain them again right away then always going down a thousand and up…
There was also a bonus-ridge I had planned to do at the very end which would have brought me in via the Pic des Bastiments instead of the valley.
It was relatively windy today and especially gusty on the ridges. Also the clouds were turning darker and building up from time to time. So I wasn’t really sure.
I went on a bit further to the turn off point
And when I just had decided to go for it I caught the first rain drop. I guess it was a sign. Two hours on an exposed ridge like this can be a long time and everything can happen to the weather in this time. So I chickened out and went through the valley next to the ridge.
Man, I am getting old, wise and responsible these days… 🙈
And then I met a huge bunch of these guys. Did not expect that to happen anymore!
The weather really did get a bit edgy in the area but at the end I don’t think that only a bit of rain came down. Nevertheless the right call. And there must be reasons to come back for anyways.
Quickly stopped at the Refugio d’Ull de Ter to dry my tent and have a Coke of course. It it was only 6pm so I decided to continue for a bit. Only annoying thing – no water source for the next 22km. There was a stream in about 2km almost at the end of the first climb. So I decided to get water there and to be a bit faster until then. When I arrived at the stream it was dead dry. Luckily I was at a big parking lot of the ski area which apparently had an event today. So I went to the food truck and got me the three liters I needed for now, the night and the next day. Lucky me!
So up again.
More of my friends
France in clouds again.
And a happy hiker with a beautiful spot for the night. 43km again today. Back in business!
Final thing for today – my Camembert melted and ran all over the food bag and out of it. So I had a nice cleaning session of my gear on top.
Good night.
