July 28th
Bordes dels Prats Nous-El Serrat
Campsite Elevation: 6610ft/2015m
*No mileage available. The guidebook lists distances on the route by time rather than miles.

I didn’t sleep great and woke up feeling cruddy this morning. Yep, started my period. It’s improved in the last half year in being less pain and just really lethargic. I’ll take that over pain any day! I hoped this timing would fall like this when I booked the hotel a few days ago. Now I get two half days of hiking and some quality R&R right when I need it most. Given that I’m pretty tired as I write this, this post will be a bit shorter than usual. I got going at 7:15am, excited to make it to El Serrat and check into the hotel at noon and just lay down. I had a couple hours of morning uphill to an enjoyable little ridge walk.

Looking back towards where I camped on the way up.

Up to the ridge.

Long morning shadow on the ridge.

Up to Pic del Clot de Cavall.

Ridge walk

Then it was basically a couple more hours of downhill. It started off rocky, then some nice grass, some dirt and gravel in a forest, and then just glorious pine needle forest walking. I even got a bunch of radio stations and it still surprises me that so many play current top 100 hits from the US. I was entertained. It was for sure a headphones kind of day.

The trail drops into the village or Llorts, which is the most modern village I’ve been in it seems. Then it’s basically road walking to the ski village of El Serrat. On the way, I couldn’t resist stopping at a spot in Llorts for an egg sandwich and a chocolate milk. I’ve yet to get a real great chocolate milk out here. This time, they didn’t even premix it for me. Just gave me the milk and told me to add in the powder myself.

I made it to El Serrat, a block of a few hotels, right at noon and checked in. They had ice creams and I couldn’t resist getting one. Nailed it!

The Pradet hotel on the left. Great deal!

Nailed it!

Laundry was efficiently done in the shower and I once again managed to slam my forehead into a pole when carelessly hanging my clothes to dry on a railing. Just after the last one just stopped hurting, I did it again. This one even left a small bruise. Really Erin, again!?

Long story short, I was able to hitch to the very busy village of La Massana just 15mins away and buy a real pot to replace the one I left in a refuge for now. I can’t believe the guidebook doesn’t mention this place. It has all the stores people would need and the best grocery store I’ve seen all trail. Real easy to get to by bus or hitching. So glad I got a temporary pot. I even took the handle off to save weight. I’m going to wait to see if Why Not and Jim find it when they get there in a few more days before I worry about replacing it with a real backpacking pot. I am pretty proud of my communication skills out here in Spanish. I’ve been able to fully communicate and have conversations. It’s pretty cool! Here’s the awesome woman Consol naudi who even drove past her village to drop me off in La Massana. THANK YOU!!!

Thank you Consol naudi!

I got back to the hotel and Klaas had arrived. He got a photo of me with my shiny new pot and we had dinner together. We are probably ending at the same place tomorrow night as well. I got all my meals included in the stay and it’s so convenient. I get to choose from about three different things for each portion of the meal. Best part is that one of the desserts is chocolate mousse. I had it twice today!

Dinner with Klaas.

This is not a zero as some of you may have misunderstood. It’s two half days of hiking and 24hrs in town (with two long showers!). I hiked until noon today and will start hiking around noon tomorrow. So excited to sleep in tomorrow!