Sunday July 23, 28.1km/17.5mi

Lescun Village (177.8km/950m) (France) to Pla d’Espélunguère (205.9km/1460m) (France)

After a long breakfast at the gîte, we finally left town at 8am. It was a little bit of a maze to weave through all the narrow streets and buildings.

It was a beautiful day for hiking, I was hopeful we finally left the fog behind.

It was a long steady climb up to the ridgeline, and we saw quite a few people hiking along the way.

This area is part of the extensive Pyrenees National Park in France so it is quite popular. Halfway up the climb there was a nice water source, so Adam stopped to refill his bottles. I don’t drink as much water so I didn’t need any.

Once we were up on the ridgeline it was just an amazing walk all afternoon.

At the first col, we could see down into Spain, since it sits on the border.

Yup, just insanely beautiful hiking through the high Pyrenees.

Even way up here, there were some “semi-wild” horses.

And there were some sheep too, which were being herded by these lovely dogs.

I had noticed the rock in this area had changed character and now it looked like a bunch of conglomerate.

The hiking today was bliss.

Around lunchtime, I started looking for the hut that we were expected to pass. This was a small farm in a little valley below us.

Finally at 2pm we arrived at the Refuge d’Arlet. It was a nice place to sit down and have a break.

The nearby Lac d’Arlet added to this amazing mountain setting, although the water was too cold to swim.

After lunch we got to enjoy another hour of blissful sunny ridgetop hiking.

Towards the end of the day, the trail left the ridge and started to drop down into a valley.

We descended down through some meadows….

…. And then a forest.

When we got to the bottom of the valley, we set up camp. It was well protected from thunderstorms and wind and it seemed like the perfect little spot. The name was a little hard to pronounce though….Pla d’Espélunguère.

We had a pretty amazing view to the West, and the sun setting behind the big mountains.

It was a pretty amazing first day in the High Pyrenees region!