Overnight: the night started fine, I actually slept really well until about 2 AM , then the stars were looking nice so I got out and took pictures. The wind was strong, but mostly just making a lot of noise moving the tent around, until a big gust came and pulled up two sets of tent stakes, collapsing half the tent. I didn’t really get back to sleep after that by I can’t say I was really awake either.
We woke up and packed up quickly to get a head start on the day. Because of the timing issue the day before we changed our route for the day after looking though the guide book last night, instead of heading through the big, slow boulder filed, we decided to cut back into Spain and around, mostly because the other path would leave us with either a very short, or very long day (although there would likely be camping somewhere between, but it’s also possible there wouldn’t be).
Stopped at the hut for bathroom and refilling water before heading up Col d’ Arrémoulit (pass), which was a fun scramble even through it was really windy. The way down the other side was a little steep, but just required taking some time.
Back in Spain again! We hiked past several gorgeous mountain lakes and then took a high valley cutoff trail up the next valley which led to Refugio de Respomuso, where we tried to eat lunch, but the wind was so strong it was blowing everything off the table…. Even the half empty peanut butter jar! It was a quick lunch.
From there we headed up col de Fache, which was also quite a climb and still very windy.
Back into France and the wind calmed down some. We hiked down to Refuge Wallon, we didn’t want to stay too near the hut and it was too far to walk to the car, so we hiked a little ways up the trail we took the last time we were in the Pyrenees and found a nice campsite next to a waterfall. Our meal was tofu Thai massaman curry with assorted veggies, quite delicious.
