Monday August 7, 19.8km/12.3mi

Lake Estany Inferior de Guerosso (513.7km/2150m) (España) to Refugi de Baborte (533.5km/2392m) (España)

I left camp really late, and it was already starting to get warm on my uphill hike. There were so many little tarns along the way.

I climbed another 100m, and there was another little lake. Definitely no need to carry a lot of water today.

Near the top of the pass, I saw something I had not seen in awhile….horses with bells.

This pass did not have much of a view ahead, but I did see a bunch of talus in my future.

As I descended a little further, I came around the corner and could see the huge lake Estany de Certascan.

I walked along the lake for quite a while, I was surprised how much bigger it was than it first appeared.

Just before 11am I arrived at the Refugi de Certascan, and decided to stop in for a bit.

I charged my phone and headlamp, and while I was sitting there the staff offered me some day-old cake. A nice snack!

The staff had some music playing while they were working, and it was mostly American music. When a song by Rick Astley came on, I helped them learn all the words…it was really fun. I left the hut and continued my descent into the next valley.

As I continued down, I could see that the lake I had passed earlier was pouring over a long series of waterfalls.

I hiked around a ridgeline and came around the corner to see another alpine lake, Estany Romedo de Dalt.

It even had a few tiny islands!

Pretty soon there was another smaller lake that I had to hike/scramble around as well.

Lake Estany Romedo de Baix.

I crossed the dam, where there was a family picnicking nearby.

After the dam the trail basically disappeared, which was surprising. It had been such a nice trail all morning.

It was cool to follow the river down the valley as it cascaded over a bunch of cliffs. Waterfall #1:

But that novelty soon wore off, as I had to constantly look for tiny cairns to find the trail, which sometimes descended down very steep slabs of rock.

Finally after an hour and a half, I was done with that ridiculous section, and rejoined a normal trail at a bridge.

For pretty much the rest of the day I was on an uphill climb to a pass, Coll de Sellente. It was a very enjoyable hike through a mature pine forest on a switchbacked trail.

I enjoyed every minute of hiking uphill in the shade, and there was usually water flowing somewhere nearby.

Getting closer.

Eventually I climbed high enough that I was above the trees, so I lost my shade but gained some views.

As I finished climbing some switchbacks, I looked behind me and I could actually see all the way into the valley I had descended earlier, including the waterfall #1.

Near the top of the pass I could see some animals grazing, and at first I assumed they were cows.

Nope. Horses!

From the top of the pass, Baborte Lake and the refuge were not far away.

After just a few minutes of switchbacks down a talus field and thru a meadow, I had arrived at the refuge.

It had a pretty sweet view.

I met a couple of Austrian guys in the refuge, we chatted for a little while. They told me there was also a family of 5 staying in the refuge, which added up to 7 people in a 9-bunk building. I don’t like to feel that crowded, so I setup my tent behind the refuge.

I made my dinner and brought it over to the building, and had a nice social dinner with the Austrian guys. Around 9pm the family arrived back from their dayhike, and I retreated back to my tent and went to bed.