Tuesday August 15, 27.6km/17.2mi

Refuge de Pla Guilhem (678.0km/2275m) (France) to Maison Forestière de l’Estanyo (705.6km/1480m) (France)

I was awake at 6:30 with everyone else, and it was a nice easy morning to pack up since there was no tent to put away. As I was packing up, I got to watch the sunrise over the ridge.

I love morning hiking, it’s the best time of day.

For the first hour, I hiked downhill into a valley and a refuge. At first it was on a steep trail…

…. And then it was on an old dirt road.

The Refuge de Mariailles was a pretty big building and seemed like it would fit a lot of people.

I think because it was near a road and parking lot, it felt like a more civilized refuge. It even had a bunch of these cute little signs all over the place.

I refilled my water and charged up my phone a little bit and then headed out. There was a long climb up to a peak, Pic du Canigou (2784m). The first half of the climb was mostly in a nice shaded forest.

I passed an old cabin and pretty soon afterwards I was in an open meadow again.

Looking back on what I had just hiked up:

Pretty soon the climb got steeper, and I started to climb on switchbacks through a talus field.

Surprisingly, there was a little water fountain at one of these switchbacks. Ha!

The very last part of the climb was up a super steep chimney, which was basically a 3rd class scramble.

It was a lot of fun for me, but I think a lot of people don’t like the heights or exposure, and move very slowly through the area.

Of course the safest way to move through there is to move quickly, since it minimizes the chances that rock fall will hit you. I scrambled through there in a few minutes and enjoyed every moment. Looking back down the chimney:

And with that I was on top of the Pic du Canigou, an iconic peak in the Eastern Pyrenees.

It even had a little navigation table on the summit.

The trail up the other side of the peak is far easier, and there were a lot of people on top from that direction.

I ate my lunch, and enjoyed the views and perfect temperatures on the summit.

I also got to enjoy this random dog cuddling up next to me where I sat.

I spent almost an hour on top, and then I descended down the other side of the mountain on some very nice switchbacks.

Each switchback had a post which was labeled with the elevation. I think this would annoy me if I was heading uphill, and was constantly reminded of how slow my progress was.

An hour later I was at the bottom of the descent and another refuge. This one had a little pond nearby.

I had just descended almost 1,000m, so it was much warmer down here and I bought a cold drink at the refuge. After the refuge I continued to descend a little, on a cool trail that was cut into the side of a hill.

My guidebook had mentioned there would be some wreckage from an old plane crash in 1961, but I was surprised to find it literally in the middle of the trail.

Yup, still going downhill, and still getting warmer.

It felt pretty warm down at this elevation, but fortunately I had entered a nice shady forest.

Just before 6pm I came to a little cabin called the Maison Forestière de l’Estanyo.

It was pretty nice inside, and I think it slept six or eight people.

Just a few minutes after I started to unpack, a nice couple from Poland showed up and setup in the top bunk. It was pretty dark inside the cabin, so we all ate outside at one of the picnic tables. They spoke Polish and English (and even Russian), and it was easy to communicate with them. I have some ancestors who came from Poland, so we looked at a map to see where those little towns were. Apparently those regions of the country are still known for being agricultural areas that many people immigrate away from. Since they are hiking the opposite direction as me, we also exchanged information on water sources and campsites that were coming up. Another fun social evening!