Rainy, Windy Hike Over Pyrenees (Bob)

 We started the hike out this morning with a little bit of wind in our face. As we got closer to the top, which maxes out at about 1500 meters (480 furlongs), a gale-force headwind grew in intensity as it rained harder and harder. A smaller woman was having a difficult time standing up. We scrambled to put on our rain coats and cover our packs. Wendy’s pack cover was loose on one side so it kept parachuting her backwards until she finally sorted everything out. After walking for miles up the steep slope with rain pelting us in the face, Wendy was talking about how awesome this was. The scenery was gorgeous, and everyone you made eye contact with smiled in return. Wendy is an awesome partner to shared adventures with. I hope it’s not too bold of me to publicly declare my love for her.

After we crossed the summit and plodded along the top of the mountain for a few kilometers, we got to the spot that several people had warned us about. When you get to a certain fork in the road, whatever you do, go left, not right. There’s a nasty descent where you can really hurt yourself. We found a fork in the road, went right instead of left, phew! Then we got to another fork where the Camino signs (yellow shells with arrows) all pointed left and something that looked like a goat trail went right. We went left, dropped into a rocky ravine that was slippery with all the heavy rain, and scrambled down the slope. We mentioned that we’d hate to see what the dangerous sign if we had gone left instead of right. As you may have guessed, Dear Reader, we actually did go left instead of right. We were supposed to take the goat trail.

It was an awesome day.



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