Pyrénées

Because of the distance from Gabas to Gourette - 8 hours and 50 minutes, we decided to get up at 5:30 a.m. and get off early. The hotel had left us coffee, milk, bread, butter and jam and we were off by 7:04 a.m. We backtracked up to the point where we had entered town the previous evening and passed the gîte seeing Tom and Jane getting ready. The trail followed a road east for a kilometer and then crossed the river on a cement footbridge below a dam. It turned back on the other side of the river and rose through woods turning north up and down along a ridge for about two kilometers. It then turned east and came to Comiche las Alhas which was a narrow trail with a wire hand rail which ran high above a gorge with precipitous cliffs. It continued on for fifteen minutes and then the trail descended to a rushing stream. It then began a gradual climb in woods which quickly turned into a very steep rocky ascent (some of it draille or rocks placed vertically like cobblestones). This was hard going and lasted the better part of an hour. Finally, it crossed under cliffs and switched back to a green promontory looking over the valley. Bon and I dropped our packs, took off our warm outer garments as we were now in full sun. We stayed here for ten minutes or so admiring the pink lilies and munching some raisins and trail mix. Tom and Jane arrived just as we were leaving.

The trail ran along a cliff on our right looking ahead to a green spacious valley with streams. It was a sharp drop from the trail and dramatic. We saw an eagle swooping below us and it circled and came back for another pass. A young Frenchman who we'd seen at the col the day before now followed us. Dark purple Iris along the trail set off the scenery. As we walked further west we could see the entire long green valley with Cabanes du Soussoueau and a herd of sheep. The valley was capped by a large mountain, Palas. Spectacular!

As we passed the valley we went through a meadow passing tall yellow flowers with a hosta-like leaf. We continued high above a rushing stream on our right. Soon we descended to cross this stream which was a challenge due to the earlier rains, but we accomplished it with dry feet. The trail jogged around a hill and here we spotted a large marmot which didn't run down his hole but watched us from a distance at times standing up and peering at me. Now we were high above the rushing stream and the trail was narrow and you had to step carefully to avoid a steep tumble down to the stream. It climbed and crossed a couple of the feeder streams and then made a turn by a clear pond. It circled to a flat area that looked like a pond but was green with yellow flowers. We also saw some of the startlingly blue small Gentian we had seen the day before. The trail went straight up now and it got colder and cloudier. Behind us we could see the top of the Pic du Midi touching the clouds. We were now being closely followed by the young Frenchman and another man. We got up to a point where the snow came down from almost the top of the mountain. As it was protected by a ridge, Bon and I changed into our warm clothing as the two passed us - the latter taking our picture.

After climbing a little further, we realized that we needed to cross a large patch of snow. This we did carefully as a slip would send you sliding down. The snow went on for four or five hundred yards and then we had a steep difficult climb over slippery gravel to the top of the col. The altitude was 2465 meters and we had started in Gabas at roughly 1000 meters! At the col (below the Peak Geouge d'Arre at 2619) we looked down the other side and could see nothing but fog. We had a picnic on rocks and watched Jane and Tom cross the snow and later joined them on prickly grass with a French family of four and the men who had preceded us. It was great to get off our feet as it was now 1:30 p.m.

After a nice break and donating Jane a couple of band aids for a blister on the back of her foot, the four of us started down. The fog had cleared a little and we descended along the trail only to find we had to cross snow again. We passed a small stone cabin and lost the trail but quickly found it again. Then after another snow crossing we lost it again. After relocating it we continued down and now it became a steep and rocky descent with Lac d'Anglas below us. The descent to the lake was particularly steep and then leveled out passing some rusty mining equipment and ruins of stone buildings. The lake was a striking dark blue.

As we began the steep descent from the lake there was a rushing waterfall stream beside us and you could see across a valley to cloud covered hills with a large flock of sheep scattered across a high pasture. The trail descended along this valley for three kilometers or more. It was steep rocky going until the latter part when the trail was became a dirt track along the left side of the valley. Then it descended into Gourette through woods where we passed a few people and a crowd of teenagers with rock climbing ropes ran past us. We admired their energy. As we arrived at the overbuilt ski resort town, a herd of sheep was descending from the other side by the tennis courts – an incongruous scene.

We walked down through the town locating a hotel on the right which looked nice and had a pleasant room with a balcony. I had a nice hot tub to soothe my aches and washed my clothes.

We decided to have dinner in the hotel as everything else looked pretty quiet. We had a large meal; Bon lamb chops and I had trout (delicious) and veal! After dinner we were very sated and tired and turned in.