Friday August 11, 26.1km/16.2mi

Refugi de Cabana Sorda (573.9km/2295m) (Andorra) to Refuge des Bésines (600.0km/2105m) (France)

I was awake at 7:30 and noticed my tent was dry, even though I was camped next to the lake. I’m liking this dryer climate as I get closer to the Mediterranean. I got water from the lake, which was very still.

I had a nice downhill hike for an hour, and it was another sunny day.

After another hour of uphill hiking, I was at the lake Estany Primer de Juclar.

It was a hot day so I stopped into the Refugi de Juclar for a cold drink.

It was empty inside, and the place had a nice relaxed vibe, so I hung out for awhile, and browsed their small library.

I always love seeing these signs.

Apparently there is a bunch of rock climbing in the area, and I found a pile of hand drawn maps.

I lost track of the time, and I left almost an hour later. I passed by the rest of the lake.

It was a long lake.

After the lake I climbed up to the pass Col de l’Albe, where I left Andorra and re-entered France.

I could see a whole new set of lakes! Étang Haut de l’Albe:

I descended the pass through a ridiculous talus field that seemed to go on forever.

Once I had passed that lake, I came to the second lake with more talus.

I had a late lunch at the second lake, and it was so quiet and peaceful with no people and no wind. After lunch I departed the valley of lakes & talus, and climbed up a very short pass on some nice smooth rock.

The top of the pass was wide and grassy.

Another valley, another lake. The Étang de Pédourès appears to be a man-made lake with its dam at the far end.

I tried to take a swim in that lake, but the mud at the shore was so deep it didn’t seem worth it. At least I got to wash off my legs and cool off a little. I descended all the way down the valley to a little village, l’Hospitalet-près-l’Andorre.

Along the way I passed under a massive water pipeline, and then hiked down through a nice forest.

The village was tiny, and only had a couple of small hotel/restaurants and a small general store.

I bought a cold lemonade at one of the cafes, and used their Wi-Fi for a little while. After the hot sun had sunk a little lower behind the hill, I returned to the trail. It was a nice gradual climb on a wide path.

About an hour after I left the village, the trail had a short section that was paved concrete, which seemed very odd.

From there it was a nice flat walk all the way to the lake Étang des Bésines.

The light of the setting sun made the lake look really yellow.

I arrived at the Refuge des Bésines at 8pm, which was a nice modern hut with probably 40 people staying there.

I chose to camp nearby, in the trees and away from the chaos of the building.

They had a cool little sign that showed how far it was to either end of the GR10 trail, which parallels the route I am taking. Only 170km to Banyuls!

I made dinner at one of the many picnic tables scattered around the place, and was in bed and reading my book by 9:30.

Thursday August 10, 15.5km/9.6mi

El Serrat Hotel (558.4km/1580m) (Andorra) to Refugi de Cabana Sorda (573.9km/2295m) (Andorra)

I woke up late on purpose at 8am, and went upstairs to the restaurant where there was a breakfast buffet.

It was a very solid breakfast, with lots of fruit, ham, and various croissants and breads. I went back up to my room and listened to music while packing up. Eventually at noon I hiked out and it was very warm.

I was next to a different creek today, hiking uphill. After about 30 minutes I came to a little park with some artwork.

And there was also a garden nearby.

I have some friends who named their daughter Aster, and I took a few minutes to look for the rare Pyrenean Aster. I talked to the guy in charge of the garden, who only spoke Catalan and Spanish, and he told me it was this flower.

He then proceeded to have a long conversation with me about his hike through the Pyrenees a few years ago. Neat! It was a hot day, so I added one of these electrolytes supplements to my water bottle. I have a bunch from when I was at my sister and brother-in-law’s house last month. Delicious.

I passed by the Refugi de Sorteny, where I met a nice family from Valencia, Spain.

We had a fun conversation…. about my hike thru the Pyrenees, about work, and it turns out the dad works for an American company, Ford cars. Eventually it was time to go, so I filled my water bottle and continued up the hill.

These little lizards were everywhere.

Uphill most of the afternoon.

Near the top of the climb, I hiked through a herd of horses that seemed to not care in the least that I was there.

The pass ahead looked pretty steep.

After some very steep hiking on a rough trail I arrived at the top of the pass, Collada dels Meners.

One of my favorite moments of this trail is when I get a whole new set of views from the top of a pass.

The descent was pretty easy…

… And pretty soon I was passing by a cabin, Cabana Cóms de Jan.

It was pretty nice inside, where I found a French guy who was very enthusiastic to talk to anyone.

He is hiking the HRP in the reverse direction as me (many French people do this as the French guide is written in reverse). We exchanged a lot of useful information and then I realized 30 minutes had passed and I had better get going. I had to climb over one more minor pass, where there was a little bit of fog for some strange reason.

As soon as I dropped down the other side of the pass, the fog went away.

It was another easy descent down pretty well worn trails.

As I descended lower I could see the Estany de Cabana Sorda, the lake that I was aiming to camp at.

I crossed the outlet of the lake on a dam, and I could feel the splash of the water from the waves.

It was pretty windy outside, so I made dinner indoors in the nearby cabin.

While my dinner was cooking, I went and setup my tent in a protected area behind some rocks. I came back and enjoyed dinner with the company of a nice couple from the Netherlands, who was out hiking on a four-day trip through the Pyrenees. By 9:30pm it was getting dark, so I excused myself and went to bed. A very social day!

Wednesday August 9, 5.4km/3.4mi

Estany Primer (553.1km/2250m) (Andorra) to El Serrat Hotel (558.4km/1580m) (Andorra) +0.1km to hotel

When I woke up, the other HRP hiker was already packing up to leave. I quickly did the same, and hiked down the valley toward the village of El Serrat.

When I passed by one of the trail junctions, I noticed that the signs here in Andorra have the HRP on them.

I walked along a stream, and when I passed under the ski resort road, I had to walk through this narrow tunnel.

It was a relaxing 2 hours of hiking, mostly next to the rushing stream.

By 10am I was in el Serrat, a little Mountain village with houses, hotels, and a couple restaurants.

I had to walk along the road for a minute.

It was too early to check into the hotel, but I dropped my bag off with the front desk.

Since I didn’t have a working phone in Andorra, the only way I could get information was to ask in Spanish. It took a bit of effort, but eventually I figured out the bus schedule, prices, and bus stops. I walked a couple minutes to the closest bus stop, and waited for the bus that comes every 30 minutes. I rode 15 minutes down to the town of Ordino, which had a couple groceries stores and many more restaurants.

Their tourism game is strong, and they had information boards everywhere and even free Wi-Fi.

Going to a grocery store while hungry is always a bad idea, so I went and had lunch first. Half a roast chicken!

When I finished lunch, I walked around the little town and saw the historic buildings and sites. Apparently in the 1800s it used to be a mining town for iron.

I went to the supermarket, which was one of the best ones I’ve seen on this entire trail. They had tortillas, tuna, hot sauce, breakfast bars, and even M&Ms.

I rode the bus back up to the hotel and checked in at 3:30, and it was a surprisingly nice room for the price.

I love that most of the bathrooms here have a dual purpose radiator and towel warmer in the bathrooms.

I had a minor hassle of dealing with my credit card company, Capital one. They decided to suddenly cancel my card (found a fraudulent charge)… I told them to wait until I was back home in a few weeks, but they wouldn’t listen. It seemed like a classic combination of poor customer service, and employees who are not allowed to think for themselves. I figured out a workaround to the problem using GooglePay and PayPal…technology to the rescue. I made some dinner in the microwave, and relaxed and watched some TV.

Check-out tomorrow is at noon, so I should have a full morning of relaxing before I hike again.

Tuesday August 8, 19.6km/12.2mi

Refugi de Baborte (533.5km/2392m) (España) to Estany Primer (553.1km/2250m) (Andorra)

I woke up to the feel of footsteps near my tent, which was strange because I wasn’t camped near the path. I could hear the voices of the Spanish kids, they were looking for a shortcut to the lake. I packed up and headed down to the lake myself, which was still shrouded in darkness.

The waters were almost perfectly calm.

Once I was past the lake, I could see the valley where I would be descending.

There was a tiny little cabin along the way. I looked inside, and it had a giant tarp spread across a stone floor, and big enough to sleep four people.

It was already starting to get warm in the Sun, so I was glad to have a forested walk for much of the morning.

Pretty soon I took a left turn, and started a gradual climb uphill following a creek.

After I climbed high enough, the forest faded away and I was in a wide open meadow. I could hear the cows far down below.

This area is called the Pla de Boet.

By now the day was getting pretty hot, and I was coming steeply up toward the pass, Port de Boet.

It was a pretty sweaty climb.

I got to the pass at about noon, and had a nice long lunch break next to the cairn.

After spending almost an hour enjoying the breeze up there, I decided it was time to continue. I passed by another strange little stone cabin, this one appeared to have people living in it. I filled my water bottle from the nearby spigot and didn’t linger.

A little further down the hill, I was surprised by another alpine lake, the beautiful Étang de la Soucarrane.

At the pass I had crossed over into France from Spain, but didn’t realize it. So when a little girl at the lake asked me what time it was (in French of course) I responded in Spanish. She understood me just fine, and responded with a “thank you very much”. Impressive…. She was like 7 years old and knew 3 languages. I continued my descent into the next valley, where I could see a river and road coming up to meet me.

I love seeing switchbacked trails and roads from above, they look so fun. I would be joining that road at the farthest right switchback.

After hiking along that nice road for a couple kilometers, I turned off and climbed steeply up toward the next pass.

Just like the previous pass, there was no shade and it was quite hot and steep. Another sweaty climb.

When I arrived at the pass Port De Rat, I had crossed over into a new country, Andorra!

And I could see their ski resort on the other side of the pass.

I hiked down some steep switchbacks for a little while and then I arrived at the ski resort. For some reason the lift was running.

I was surprised to see they actually had a pretty extensive ski trail network, given the limited terrain around here.

I passed by a restaurant and also a takeout food place, and it was too tempting to not stop and buy something.

Yup, ice cream, kettle chips, and a cold drink always hit the spot.

I lingered at the takeout food place for almost an hour, enjoying the shade and using their Wi-Fi. Since Andorra isn’t part of the EU, my phone does not work here, and will only work on Wi-Fi. As I passed thru the carpark, I was reminded that I was definitely in Andorra.

As I was leaving the ski resort, I noticed this funny sign.

I left the busy area and hiked up to a lake, which to my disappointment was also very busy and crowded.

Estany del Mig de Tristaina was a beautiful lake though.

It was 6pm and I was looking for a spot to camp, but there were way too many people milling around. So I hiked a few more minutes onto the next lake, Estany Primer.

There were only a couple groups at this lake, and also a French guy who was also hiking the HRP. His name is Johan, and he is hiking in the opposite direction as me. We talked for awhile in an odd mixture of English and French, and then I went to setup my tent.

I made dinner and sat next to the lake, watching the fish jump for the bugs. It was a pretty peaceful spot once the other groups of dayhikers left. It was a little early, so I had plenty of time to listen to my audiobook, and make a plan for my day in town tomorrow.

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.

Sunday August 6, 18.2km/11.3mi

Along River Barranc de Comamala (495.5km/1740m) (España) to Lake Estany Inferior de Guerosso (513.7km/2150m) (España)

We departed our nice little camp spot at 8am, and continued our uphill climb to the next pass. Once we got a little higher, I could see across a meadow to a bunch of waterfalls.

As it turned out, the trail would go right next to the waterfall.

As usual I heard cowbells and saw a few cows grazing way up here in the grass. What I did not expect to see was a pile of bones from a cow skeleton.

The only thing left of the cow was the bones and its plastic ear tag. Rest in peace, cow #4620.

When we got to the top of the pass Coll de la Cornella, I had just forgotten about the cow skeleton, when I saw somebody had placed the cow skull on top of the cairn! Ha!

Looking down at what we had just hiked up:

And looking ahead toward the next valley and set of lakes:

We left the pass on some very steep scree, quickly passed by the two tiny lakes and went up to another small pass called Coll de Curios.

I loved the name, haha. Interestingly, from that pass we didn’t descend but continued to climb up to another pass. And of course passed more tarns along the way.

Adam coming up behind me, to the pass Coll de Calberante.

From this pass, it was all downhill for awhile.

We hiked by all three lakes, and stopped at a little hut at the end of the 3rd Lake to have lunch.

I love hiking on the granite slickrock, it’s so much fun to walk on smooth rock, like a slanted sidewalk.

When we weren’t walking on rock, there was a pretty easy trail to follow.

Our lunch spot at a little hut.

I got to the hut first, and could see Adam coming across the bridge just a few minutes away.

This was an unmanned hut, and much smaller than the huge ones in the high Pyrenees. It had bunks for 9 people, and a nice little table to eat lunch at.

When we left the hut after lunch, we saw two women napping on a boulder in the stream below us. Pretty good life.

We spent most of the rest of the afternoon descending into the next valley, which was filled with little lakes.

And more of the fun slickrock to walk on.

After a couple of hours of easy downhill walking, we joined a dirt road for a little while.

The two women had caught up to us, it turns out they are also hiking the HRP. They are a mother and daughter from New Zealand, and are loving the trail now that it is sunny most days. When we got to the little village of Noarre, we parted ways.

It was a tiny little village with no services whatsoever and not even any roads.

With no reason to stop, we kept walking and pretty soon left the village. The next climb had started, at first it was very easy but after an hour it became quite steep.

When we got to the Lake Estany Inferior de Guerosso, it was almost 6pm. I decided to stop and camp here, but Adam kept going as he is on a tighter schedule to finish the trail. We said our goodbyes, and he continued up the climb. He was a fun hiking partner, and we had a good system of keeping each others’ navigation accurate. I found a spot in the trees for my tent, which was nice and sheltered from the wind.

The view of the lake nearby was a nice bonus.

I made a big dinner, and watched the sunset over the lake. Good day!

Saturday August 5, 24.0km/14.9mi

Plan de Beret Cabane (471.5km/1890m) (España) to Along River Barranc de Comamala (495.5km/1740m) (España)

As expected the morning dawned sunny and very cold. We walked in shade for the first couple of hours, and in many places the grass was crunchy with frost.

After climbing uphill for awhile I warmed up, and once we got high enough the Sun found us too. We hiked by lake Estany de Baciver, which had this lone dead tree. It reminded me of the lonely tree in Wanaka, New Zealand.

Further uphill we hiked by some small lakes where the path faded out.

Our next task was to climb the mountain Tuc de Marimanya. There was no trail, so we went straight uphill on a talus slope.

It was quite steep and took a little while, but once we were on top the views were totally worth it.

And looking ahead to the ridge we would be walking soon.

The summit!

It was very windy and we quickly left the summit, and started walking the ridge.

When I wasn’t paying close attention to my footsteps, I was able to sneak a look at all the views from the ridge.

As soon as we descended off the ridge the wind had stopped.

Soon after we stopped for lunch in the middle of a talus field.

In the last town I had bought extra cheese and even found some tortillas, so I was able to finally have a proper lunch again. Most of the grocery stores on this trail have been very lacking in normal hiking foods. After lunch we had an hour of traversing some talus….

….and steep grass.

We climbed up to a short pass, and were able to get a view of the rest of our afternoon hiking.

It was an easy downhill hike, and we had a trail to follow again!

Near the bottom of the descent, we came across a farm that was keeping some bees.

We kept descending into the valley, and toward the town of Alós d’Isil.

We were quite a bit lower in elevation now so it was pretty hot, and nice to have the shade of the forest.

As we got closer to town the trail became wider and more established….

…. until it eventually just became a street.

I knew there was a refuge to stay in this town, but it was too early to stop for the day. What I didn’t know was that they had cold drinks, so Adam and I stopped and got a beer and some chips. Life is good.

We had an hour of relaxing and chatting about all the interesting experiences so far on this trail. And of course the usual
random questions like, what two Olympic sports would you combine? (High diving and shot put, of course). It was a nice walk out of town.

We had a roadwalk for about half an hour, and then started a climb up to the next pass.

We got about halfway up the climb and decided to camp at a spot in the trees, in case it becomes windy tonight.

We didn’t cover much distance today, but hiked a ton of talus, and had a good time taking alot of breaks.

Friday August 4, 6.0km/3.7mi

Salardu Village (465.5km/1270m) (España) to Plan de Beret Cabane (471.5km/1890m) (España)

We knew it would be rainy most of the day so we woke up late and made a big breakfast.

Check-out time wasn’t until noon, so there was also a second breakfast. We packed up our stuff and cleared out of our room, and they allowed us to hang out in the common room for the afternoon. We still had to do our resupply shopping, so at 5pm we walked over to the grocery store when they reopened. Most shops in Spain respect the Siesta and close from 2 to 5 pm. After some grocery shopping and grabbing a quick meal at the cafe next door, we walked out of town. Goodbye, hostel.

It was mostly an easy uphill walk on an old dirt road.

The rain had stopped at 6pm, but the clouds still hung around. After hiking uphill for an hour, we could see all the way down into town.

After walking a little further, we could even see up the valley that we had spent all yesterday afternoon hiking down.

After 2 hours of walking we came across this little cabin at a ski resort, and decided to camp there for the night.

Usually I prefer to sleep in my tent, but it was expected to be very cold that night. Like 1°C cold. It had two bunks, and was the perfect place to escape from the wind. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny but cold.

Thursday August 3, 28.5km/17.7mi

Lac Tort de Rius (437.0km/2320m) (España) to Salardu Village (465.5km/1270m) (España)

After a night of terrible sleep because of strong winds, we were hiking at 7am. We had about 28km to travel today to get to a town tonight, where we had reservations at a hostel. The sunrise on the mountaintops always brings up my mood.

We hiked along the long Lac Tort de Rius for 30 minutes, there were some clouds but I couldn’t tell if they were arriving or departing.

We climbed a small pass, from where I had a perfect view of our lake.

From the pass, I could see the fog covering the next valley. It appeared to be quickly burning off, which was a relief.

As we hiked down into the valley and the lake, the fog receded before us. Perfect timing!

The shifting fog and clouds made some amazing views, and some of my favorite photos of this hike so far.

Down at the lake, it was still slightly foggy, giving the distant island a shroud.

We hiked along the Lac de Mar for an hour, with the fog moving and shifting. At one point it almost became sunny! I was even a little hot.

As soon as we left the lake and descended further into the valley, the fog engulfed us. It was cold and very damp.

The descent continued to Lac de la Restanca, where there was a hut.

I went inside to warm up, and since they had hot beverages, I bought a hot cocoa.

Adam came in a few minutes later, and he bought a garlic soup, it looked really good. Now that we were thoroughly warmed up, it was time to head back into the fog. At least it seemed to be thinning.

It was a cold damp climb up to a small pass, where there was a tiny lake.

We started seeing dozens of other people, I think this area is popular since there are several huts nearby. After climbing another small pass, we left the fog and entered bright sunshine!

All of a sudden, I was hot, and stripped off like 3 layers. It was quite a treat to be able to see so far, after a morning of mostly fog.

I just love how brilliantly blue some of the lakes in the Spanish Pyrenees are.

We had another small climb up to a pass, and upon leaving that valley, we re-entered the fog.

The rest of the day was a gradual descent to the village of Salardu, mostly thru thick fog.

Now that we weren’t hiking uphill anymore, and in the fog, I was cold again.

We passed another lake and hut, this one was called Estany Major de Colomers. The names here are entertaining.

We departed the GR11 here, which crossed the dam.

Our route continued to follow the stream, down a nice little trail with boardwalks over the swampy parts.

For some reason, this little stream flowed out from a manmade cave.

In an hour we were at a paved road, which led us for an hour and a half into town.

It was 6pm, so we checked in to Aran Hostel, which had a very nice kitchen.

Figuring it would be cheaper to go food shopping for dinner and breakfast, I bought a bunch of vegetables, yogurts, eggs, and healthy stuff.

As it turned out, it definitely wasn’t cheaper than eating out for those 2 meals, but it was nice to not have to walk around town in the cold damp weather. While I was making dinner, I snacked on ice cream, Fritos, and cucumbers. The stoves were induction, so cooking dinner was pretty fast.

Adam made his food, and we sat at a table and split a bottle of €3 red wine, it all felt so civilized! Haha. After dinner I had a shower and fell asleep easily, since I hadn’t gotten much sleep the previous night in the windstorm.

Wednesday August 2, 22.2km/13.8mi

La Besurta Trailhead (414.8km/2000m) (España) to Lac Tort de Rius (437.0km/2320m) (España)

We slept in a little bit and got hiking at 7:30am, through a green valley full of cows. It was cool to watch the sunrise turn the tops of the mountains pink.

We followed a little stream which had a very unique feature, in that it disappeared into a cave and flowed underground. Bizarre.

We hiked gradually uphill all morning, in the shade of the mountains around us.

Eventually the trail steepened and headed up toward the next pass.

There were little tarns everywhere along the way.

The top part of the climb was fantastic and one of my favorite parts of the day. We hiked up granite slickrock and it was really fun, it reminded me of the Hayduke trail that I had just hiked.

The official trail goes through a pass, but we decided to hike the peak right next to it, since it was only 80 m higher. The summit of Tuc de Mulleres (3010m) was unsurprisingly rocky.

At the top we found a Spanish man there with his dog.

One of my favorite parts of being on a summit is looking around me and seeing the world laid out like a map.

Looking to the West:

Adam standing by the summit cairn.

We easily descended the summit and down to the pass. At the pass there was a tricky steep spot that required some careful downclimbing.

We spent much of the rest of the day descending through a valley, past some alpine lakes and waterfalls.

Near the bottom of the climb we encountered one tiny steep section where somebody had thoughtfully mounted a steel cable as a handrail.

I could tell we were close to the bottom of the descent when everything was green again.

The stream we had been following all afternoon was now quite large and roaring.

Since it was a lower elevation we were able to hike through a nice pine forest.

It soon changed back into an open meadow and we soon arrived at the Hospital de Vielha, which is just a collection of old buildings.

We spent an hour there snacking and drying out our tents, and using the phone reception to make plans for accommodation for the next town. Finally we continued on and started the next climb.

This part of the HRP is on the GR11 so the trail was easy to follow.

At the top of that climb was a huge alpine lake, Lac de Rius.

We walked along it for 40 minutes, it was massive.

At 6:30 we decided to stop for the evening at the next alpine lake, Lac Tort de Rius. It was quite windy up here so it took some time to find a spot that was sheltered by some boulders. Hopefully the wind doesn’t get worse!