Sunday July 30, 35.9km/22.3mi

Lacs de Barroude (332.2km/2370m) (France) to Camping El Forcallo (368.1km/1680m) (España)

I woke up late just before 7am, and saw the fog had cleared and there was an amazing view of the lakes and surrounding mountains.

And by the time I had finished eating breakfast and packing up, the sun had risen and turned the mountains orange!

It was a pretty amazing sunrise in all directions.

I hiked out alone at 7:45, since Adam and I had slightly different routes today and we would meet up this evening at a campground. It was fun to watch the play of clouds and sunlight on the mountains as I climbed up to a small pass.

On top of the pass, Port de Barroude, I could see some fog behind me on the French side.

And looking ahead into Spain it was pretty clear.

For two hours I descended on long switchbacks into a valley.

I saw a few people hiking up hill and chatted with them for a minute. It’s funny how when I cross the country border, people switch from saying “bonjour” to “buenas días”, regardless of their native language. As I hiked lower, it became less windy and I was able to take off some clothing layers.

At the bottom of the valley, I followed a stream through a pine forest. It felt like being at home.

I passed this strange stone snake-looking thing, I think it’s an ancient aqueduct.

Then for an hour I had a road walk on a bigger road which had some traffic.

It wasn’t a bad walk, as pretty much every car moved over to give the required 1.5m of space. Apparently in the opposite direction, this road leads to a tunnel under the mountain and goes to France.

I took a 20 minute detour to go to the small town of Parzán, and buy some more groceries.

The grocery store was small and only had some of what I needed but it was close enough. It did have an entire section for wine that you could pour yourself, kinda like a bulk candy aisle in the US. Amazing.

I had also grabbed some snacks, and I had lunch at a nearby picnic table next to the store. There was a large group of 10 hikers there who were doing the GR11, which parallels the HRP on the Spain side.

I was still hungry, so I went across the street to a cafe and ordered a chicken burger and fries. Finally I left the little town at 1:30, and began my long slow uphill hike. It was entirely on an old dirt road that was an access road for a dam.

I hiked uphill for a couple hours and finally I saw the power station and dam.

It was an uneventful afternoon, and I listened to several podcasts, and a few more chapters of my audiobook “a promised land”. Looking behind me, at the valley I had just climbed up.

I still had another hour of climbing to do, and now I was above the trees with better views.

All afternoon I was also on the GR11, which the HRP overlaps with in this area.

I got to the top of the pass at 4:30pm, and I had a brand new view to look at for the rest of the day.

I had 10 km further to the campground, and it was completely downhill.

Once I was low enough on the descent, I was back in another pine forest. I like this drier side of the continent.

I saw a couple cool looking old cabins along the way, most of which were unlocked.

It was an easy stroll on a nice downhill wide path, so I made pretty fast time.

I arrived at the campground, Camping El Forcallo, just a couple minutes before 7pm, which is when Adam and I had agreed to meet here.

The view from the campground was pretty epic.

I paid my €10 at the reception office and setup my tent and took a shower. The tent spots are pretty great, and they’re all under trees.

I walked around the campground and didn’t see Adam’s tent, so I made dinner at a nearby picnic table. I had a nice big dinner with the extra food I had bought at the grocery store today, and the campground manager gave me a free beer when I checked in. Perfect. By 9pm I still hadn’t seen Adam so I sent him a message and went to bed.